Gospel: Mark 3:22-30

 

In the Gospel of Saint Mark there is a progressive sequence. By the measure in which the Good News advances and people accept it, in the same measure it grows resistance on the part of the religious authority. 

 

The scribes said that Beelzebul was in Him and that it was through the prince of devils that He drove out the devils. They had come from Jerusalem, about 120 kilometers away. They wanted to defend tradition against the new ideas that Jesus taught to the people. They thought that His teaching was against good doctrine. The response given by Jesus had three parts.

 

Jesus uses the comparison of the divided family and the divided kingdom to denounce the absurdity of the slander. The doctors of Jerusalem slandered because they did not know how to explain the benefits worked by Jesus on behalf of the people. They were afraid to lose their power.

 

Jesus compares the devil to a strong man. Nobody, unless he is a strong person, will be able to take away the house from a strong man to rob it. Jesus is the strongest of all. He succeeds in driving out the devils. The Prophet Isaiah had already used the same comparison to describe the coming of the Messiah.

 

All sins are forgiven, except the sin against the Holy Spirit. It is to say that the spirit which impels Jesus to cast out or drive out the devil, comes precisely from the devil! Can the one who covers his eyes guess? He cannot! The one who closes his mouth, can he eat? He cannot. The one who does not close the umbrella of slander, can he receive the rain of pardon? He cannot!