“Allowing Our Houses to Be Plundered”

(Mark 3:20-35) 

Then Jesus went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.  When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.  And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.”  And he called them to him and spoke to them in parables.  “How can Satan cast out Satan?  If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.  And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.  And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come.  But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin”–for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.  A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”  And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”  And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

            Wow!  The Gospel story you heard is just packed with dialogue, with drama and with meaning.  I think there are at least 3 sermons that could be preached from this text, and you very well may be left with questions and wonderings when I’m finished.  I would be glad to continue the conversation with you, if you wish.  But for now, I have a few things I want to talk with you about.

            One of those things that interested me when I listened closely to the passage this week is Jesus’ purpose when he says—”a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

            He intended that saying to apply to Satan….  Now, it seems that the folks around Jesus had been wondering if he was crazy, if he was possessed by Satan, if he was out of his mind—even his family was suspecting that.  They had come out on that day to try to restrain him.

            Well, the scribes picked up on this vibe and decided they could discount everything Jesus was saying and doing by accusing him of being possessed by Satan.

            Rather than answer that charge directly, Jesus, in impeccable rabbinic style, poses a question instead.  “How can Satan cast out Satan?  A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

            …Abraham Lincoln very effectively used this exact expression that Jesus had used to refer to Satan, and Lincoln flipped it into a positive, wholistic plea for the unity of the American state.  So interesting….  It shows the different ways that scripture can be used and interpreted.  Lincoln didn’t misuse it.  He just took those powerful words in a different direction. 

            …Anyway, back to Jesus and Satan—Jesus’ logic destroys the scribes’ accusation that he is in cahoots with Satan.  “How can Satan cast out Satan, for a house divided against itself cannot stand?”

            Then Jesus attacks the common view of Satan with his next image: “No one can enter a strong person’s house and steal the goods, unless the strong one is bound; then, indeed, the house may be plundered.”

            First, think of the strong person’s house as God’s house (please hear that this is in stark contrast to the way that we are using the “strong man” language these days.  It has been being used to refer to authoritarian dictators—not what Jesus was talking about).  Again, think of the strong person’s house as God’s house.  In order for God’s house to be plundered by Satan, it must be possible for God to be bound.  Now, friends, this would fly in the face of most of our understanding about the nature of God.

            In fact, for me, by definition, God cannot be bound.  No one or no thing has that kind of power.  This is important to remember in trying to unpack this lesson because we sometimes allow ourselves to be bound or our houses to be plundered.  We allow that, I think, because, perhaps, we don’t really believe that God’s power supercedes that of anything else.

            We are often afraid to trust God; we’re not really sure that God will manage things the way we think they ought to be managed.  We’re not really sure it’s safe to turn things over to God.

            Our fear and distrust bind us—they tie our hands behind our backs so that we invite our house to be plundered.  We give over the power by acknowledging Satan, by doubting God’s all-powerfulness.  In doing so, we have empowered thoughts and fears about Satan in our heads and in our actions.

            Let’s admit it: it IS hard to hand over situations in our lives to God….  But when we have done all that we can and all that’s appropriate for us to do, it really is time to give it over to God.

            Now, this is hard because we want to retain control so badly that we are actually bound by our own self-centeredness and pride.  We think to ourselves, “I can do this by myself—not a problem.”

            The result often feels like we’ve been plundered.  We feel crazy and out of control.

            Having our houses—our selves—plundered by anger, resentment or anxiety may be a feeling you’ve experienced.  When we are consumed by one or all of these feelings, they create a bad time for us.

            There seems to be no way out of it.  We feel helpless to let go of those feelings because we have allowed our self-centeredness and our pride to bind us, to tie our hands behind our back so that we really do feel helpless.

            Until we can loose the bonds that are tying us, we will continue to be ruled by our anger, resentment and self-pity.

            …My favorite trick, defense mechanism, if you will, used to be to crawl up in a corner and pout (I’ve mostly gotten over this because it hardly ever worked on anyone but my mother!).  In the past, though, if someone close to me said something or did something I didn’t like, I would just sit in my anger and self-pity, thinking, “If he or she really cared about me and my feelings they would pay attention to my pouting and change their behavior to suit me.”  What I was doing was simply tying my own hands and being miserable.

            It’s possible to loose the bonds in a situation like that.  Mature people with good communication skills would tell the other person about they are feeling and what they needed them to do, let go of it and hand it over to God.  This gives us a chance to experience the peace that can come to us from letting go and trusting God.

            What we might describe as Satan in our lives may be our allowing other people’s feelings and behavior to rule our own emotions and reactions.  We allow ourselves to be taken over. 

Now, understand that there are people who are living in abusive situations for whom another person truly has taken over their lives and, in order to survive, they have had to constantly monitor that other person’s words and behaviors.  For most of us, though, who are not in those extreme circumstances, we have the ability and power to break free of allowing another person’s feelings and behavior to control us. 

            We have all known people whom we would describe as sour or negative or always cynical, someone who looks for the worst in every situation, someone who is pessimistic.  They have turned in upon themselves and prohibited God from entering and being in relationship with them.  They have given themselves and their own power over to what might be termed Satan.

            Allowing our houses to be plundered or robbed is often a choice that we make consciously or unconsciously.  As a choice we make, it is something that we can change.

            One way is to take the plunge and trust God in all things.  Satan only has power over our minds, our decisions and our speaking when we allow ourselves to exist in a world in which God does not have the power.

            Existing in God’s house means that we need not be afraid of being spiritually plundered.

            Another way to turn away from the fear of being plundered is to hear and believe that we are strong and good.  We don’t need to defensively hang onto some sort of false pride.  The thing is, we are God’s creatures, and God has seen what God has made and has called us good. 

            There is healthy strength there, and this is different from being self-centered.  It’s knowing that no one can enter a strong person’s house because the strong person refuses to be bound spiritually by anger, self-pity, insecurity, resentment or anxiety—those things we might refer to as Satan.

            Certainly we will experience these feelings, but we don’t need to be bound by them, and our house—our lives—don’t need to be plundered.

            Our own spiritual houses are all part of the house of God and no one can enter God’s house and plunder the goods because God cannot be bound.

            Knowing this is our assurance.  It is the source of our ability to live serene, peaceful lives, whether there is chaos around us or not.  We aren’t scared of no Satan.  We choose God, and that is God’s wish for us all.  Amen.