And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, He has Beelzebub, and, By the prince of the demons he casts out demons.
Teachers of the law came down from Jerusalem with their verdict on Jesus. They could not deny the power at work in Him, so they traced it to hell.
Mark is careful to say where these men came from. Their standing was the point of the attack.
If the enemy could not stop the Lord through His friends, he would do his utmost to have Him condemned in the eyes of the people. For this purpose he chose his tools from the teaching class — the scribes, and scribes from Jerusalem. We all know the effect that the judgment of men with a reputation has on ignorant people. It carries weight. The people were now pointed to such a class, and they gave their verdict: the work was Satanic.
"Beelzebub" was not a casual insult. It is a title, and the scribes explain their own meaning in the second half of the sentence.
The meaning of this word is much disputed. Some link it with Baal-zebub, "lord of the fly," in the Old Testament, but others believe it to be a term of contempt meaning "lord of dung." The Jews, who blasphemously charged the Lord with casting out demons by Beelzebul (as it should be spelled), call him "the prince of the demons." That shows plainly what they meant: the head of those demons was enabling the Lord to cast them out. The Lord shows the folly of thinking that the same evil one who was building up a kingdom would at the same time be the means of pulling it down.
They had to place the power somewhere, and self-interest closed one of the options.
The enemy filled and guided them. They knew well that this was no case of a madman, but a real power that cast out demons. Out of malice they put it down to Satan, in their effort to explain, weaken, and defame what they could not deny. They admitted the energy that dealt with Satan, in mercy to man. But if they admitted it was from God, their religious importance, their occupation, their income, was gone.
This was not only slander. Under the law it was a charge with a fixed sentence.
The scribes from Jerusalem could not accuse Jesus of failing the tests God laid down long ago for anyone claiming to be a prophet. So they charge Him with working together with evil spirits. Such a charge, if established, would have made the Lord liable to the death sentence of the law. For the LORD had commanded through Moses, "A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones" (Lev. 20:27).
Their charge did more than insult a man. It touched the Spirit who worked through Him.
This terrible charge seals their doom. And yet with what perfect calm and grace the Lord meets this wickedness... The Lord shows that their charge was not only ignorant folly but deliberate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Here was One stronger than the strong man, taking his goods from him, showing that He had bound the strong man. The Lord Jesus exercised all this power in the power of the Holy Spirit. So to credit His power to the devil was to call the Holy Spirit a demon. This was a sin that could not be pardoned. It was the end of all hope for Israel, as far as their own responsibility went.
The men who made this charge were the trained interpreters of Scripture. Either reading of their motive condemns them.
Which should we condemn more: their spiritual incompetence or their desperate wickedness? If they really could not tell the hand of God from the hand of Satan, they were utterly unfit to teach God's people. Or perhaps they saw God's power and deliberately assigned it to hell, just because it did not work through official channels. If so, the wickedness of it is almost too awful to think about. No evil is worse than religious evil.
- Power admitted. No one disputed that demons were leaving; the fight was never over the facts but over the source of the power.
- Power renamed. The scribes gave the power another name — Beelzebub, prince of the demons. To own it as God's would have cost them their position and income.
- Power slandered. Calling the work Satanic turned mercy into a capital crime. The law sentenced a medium to death by stoning.
- Power was the Spirit's. Jesus cast out demons by the Holy Spirit. To call that power the devil's was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — a sin that could not be pardoned.
- Power refused. The charge sealed the doom of the men who made it and ended Israel's hope. Religious position is no protection against mistaking God's hand for Satan's.
And having called them to [him], he said to them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?
The scribes had just explained away the Lord's power over demons. They said He used the power of the prince of the demons. He does not ignore the slander, and He does not strike back. He calls His accusers over and asks them one question that ruins their case.
Two verdicts land on Jesus at once. His own family says He is out of His mind. The leaders say He works with Satan. Both verdicts show what man makes of God's goodness.
Man can see nothing in the activity of divine goodness but madness and the work of the devil. But surely Satan does not cast out Satan: it is this that is real folly.
The same voice that had just called the twelve disciples on the mountain now calls His enemies.
In the mountain the Lord had just called to Himself the Twelve, to associate them with Himself in blessing. Now He calls His enemies to Him to pronounce their doom. Solemn thought! The One who calls in grace, will call in judgment.
How He answers matters too. He does not trade blows with them.
The Servant of the Lord did not argue with men who attacked Him so dishonestly. He taught them gently, meekly, patiently. He called them to Him and showed them two things. First, their charge was absurd, and He used plain, forceful word-pictures to show it. Second, their charge was deeply wicked and dangerous to themselves.
The word here does not mean a long story. It covers a shorter, sharper kind of speech, aimed at men whose word carried weight with the crowd.
The Lord showed that these learned scribes lacked even ordinary wisdom. Their high standing made their opinions weigh heavily with the people. He set this out in "parables," that is, in short, pointed word-pictures put in the form of questions.
The charge collapses on the character of the one it names. Beelzebub is a name for the prince of the demons. Rescuing people is not the work of a destroyer.
The prince of the demons is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), and his purpose is to rob and kill and destroy. So how could Beelzebub be behind the merciful, kind rescues from demon power they had just watched? The prince of darkness could not be the agent of such works of light.
The Lord then points to something everyone already knows. Kingdoms and homes fall apart when they turn on themselves.
Such a policy would mean Satan destroying himself. All worldly experience proves that division and infighting in a community lead to break-up. Everyone knows that unity is strength. A kingdom or a household divided against itself cannot survive. And if Satan had risen up against himself, as the words of the scribes implied, he could not continue. He must destroy himself.
Their problem was not lack of evidence. It was the price of admitting what they saw.
The enemy filled and guided them. They knew well that this was no case of a madman, but of a real power that cast out demons. Their malice put this down to Satan. They wanted to explain away, weaken and blacken what they could not deny. They admitted the power that dealt with Satan in mercy to man. But to admit it came from God would cost them their religious importance, their work and their income.
The Lord does not stop at showing the charge is absurd. He gives the real explanation, in a picture of a house being robbed.
Every person held by a demon showed the power Satan had over people. Every such miracle of Jesus showed that His power was greater than the Evil One's. As the Lord said, no one can enter a strong man's house and take his goods unless he first ties up the strong man; then he can plunder the house. This the Lord had already done. He had resisted the temptations of the strong and crafty one in the wilderness. He had also set free a great many people held by demons.
- Charge — the scribes could not deny the power, so they renamed it. Owning it as God's work would have cost them their position, their work and their income.
- Call — He called His accusers to Him, just as He had called the twelve. The One who calls in grace also calls in judgment.
- Question — "parables" here means short, pointed word-pictures put as questions. He met slander with meekness, not argument.
- Division — a kingdom or home at war with itself cannot stand. A Satan who cast out Satan would be destroying himself.
- Conqueror — only one explanation is left. Someone stronger has already tied up the strong man, and every rescue proves it.