Luke 11:14-36.
I.
Jesus
is in Judea, on his way to Jerusalem.
He heals a man who has a demon that was making him mute. The demon had taken away his voice; Jesus
casts out the demon and the man’s voice returns. This amazes the crowds.
First
of all, it is always the power of evil loose in the world that takes away
people’s voices. And, when people
who have no voice are suddenly able to be heard, it is not something that is
universally celebrated. Because a
society often includes people who depend on certain others remaining voiceless.
Democracy
by definition means that everyone has a voice in the decisions affecting their
lives. Jesus clearly believes that
people should have voices; God created us able to communicate and say our piece. When that is taken away, either by
illness, demonic possession, or political action, a system rejects God’s
will. Because usually the people
who insist that we shut-up, are people who are doing something they don’t want
anyone to hear about. They impose
“gag-orders,” or they disrupt communications, media, and journalism. They demand that we “keep our mouths
shut about” whatever is going on.
Most of the time the people who demand our silence have something to
hide.
So
when Jesus’ heals a mute person, it upsets the established order. If everyone is given a voice, the
prevailing principalities and powers simply cannot stand. So they dream up an accusation against
Jesus, saying that he is not doing miracles, but dark magic. His power to heal, they say, comes from
Beelzebub, which is a name for Satan.
Whenever
the voiceless, the excluded, the rejected, the oppressed, are given a voice, it
drives tyrants mad. They know that
if the voiceless are given a voice their whole profitable racket could fall
apart. Their power is based on the
silent compliance of their victims.
And since they have identified in their minds their own status and power
with goodness itself, any threat to that must be evil. Ergo, Jesus, who is giving people a
voice, not to mention healing the lame, the blind, the deaf, the lepers, and
even raising the dead, has to be evil too. “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons!”
they hysterically cry.
To
which Jesus replies, in effect, “I am freeing
people from Satan’s grip! If Satan
is giving me the power to do this then he’d better get his act to together
because it means his dominion is falling apart! Satan is all about keeping people enslaved. How can
Satan be giving me the power to set them free? And if you guys are complaining about people being set free,
whose side does that put you on?”
II.
Jesus
goes on: “You don’t claim that any other
Jewish exorcists are working for the devil, do you? Of course not.
So what’s so threatening about me?
“Well,
I am proclaiming the Kingdom of God, that’s what! If people are set free but not given a
new way to live, they’re only being set up to be enslaved again. The demon that got cast out just comes
back to the clean and empty house, with
its friends, and the situation is made much worse than before.
“But
I am giving people a new way to live in freedom. When I free people
they stay free because I knit them
together in a community, and that’s what is making you so angry. I am giving people an alternative to
being exploited and dominated by you.
“I
am gathering people together in unity and solidarity. Anyone working on that task with me, even if they’re not
part of my group, is my ally and friend.
You, however, are scattering them so they are more easily
conquered, silenced, crippled, blinded, and made to stay in ‘their place.’ Those who are gathering are with me. You scatterers are not.
“My
works show that I am Satan’s biggest enemy! How can I be Satan’s tool? I have Satan on the run! That’s because God is stronger
than he is. Deal with it.”
It
must have left his opponents sputtering in frustration. What Jesus is doing in healing people
is undeniably good. The people
know this. What, is it better to
stay sick and in bondage than to accept free health care from Jesus because he
is supposedly ‘of the devil’?
Seriously?
But
what Jesus is doing is also very bad for the powerful, the wealthy, and the
privileged. Healthy, strong,
vocal, visionary, united people cannot be dominated. They don’t put up with low wages and no benefits, high taxes
and interest rates, and having no voice in their lives.
In
response to this eloquent tirade, a woman is inspired to break out of her own
silence and raises her voice: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the
breasts that nursed you!” She
blesses Jesus’ mother for bringing such a great preacher and healer into the
world.
But
maybe Jesus smiles and gently corrects her. “Don’t lose sight of what is important by venerating my
mother, or even me. The ones who
are blessed in this world are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. My mother’s virtue is that she obeyed God’s Word when it came to her
before I was born. My virtue is
that I am obeying God’s Word by bringing healing and liberation into people
lives, which was God’s purpose from the beginning. Obey God’s Word.
Do what God commands you.
Live as free people in wholeness and blessing.”
III.
“Don’t
demand signs and proof!” Jesus is
speaking louder now because the crowds are increasing. “The proof that God is working is not
something for you to observe… it is something for you to be. The prophet Jonah
was not an entertainer. His words
demanded a response. And even the people of Nineveh, who
were about as evil as anyone with their injustice, oppression, violence, and
conquests, even they came to see
things differently and change their ways.
And the Queen of Sheba even made the trip all the way from Ethiopia to
Jerusalem to listen to the Word of God from Solomon. And what’s going on right now is bigger than Jonah and Solomon!”
Jesus
pointedly uses the examples of foreigners
who heard God’s Word and obeyed it.
By doing so he says that it is not our nationality or even our religion
that God’s cares about. God looks
at our actions. Do we hear? Do we change our way of thinking or repent? Do we obey?
He
identifies the problem with his own generation of Jewish believers; he says
they are too eager to keep the good news of God’s love for the world to
themselves. It’s like he says, “We
Jews have this Light from God!” We
have God’s Word! Since we have
this light we have to share it so as
to banish the darkness of others.
God does not want us hiding the light in our basement, with our personal
and family treasures, our memorabilia.
Light is meant to shine! God doesn’t want the family Bible gathering
dust in a cabinet or even under the coffee table. Open it so its light, its Wisdom may shine into your home
and even out the windows into the street!
That’s what Jonah did. He
didn’t want to. But he did. And that’s what the Ninevites and the
Queen of Sheba heard.”
Jesus
goes on to say that: “The eye is the lamp of the body. That means our eyes kind of shine
within us, illumining our whole body.
If our eyes are healthy, our bodies are full of light. If we are taking in from creation the
light of God that shines in and through all that God has made, that is, if we
are seeing reality, then our whole body is safe and secure. Then we may proceed through the world and
act in the world with confidence because we are seeing what is really out there. But if our eyes are defective or
diseased, we don’t see the truth, we don’t see God’s light, we don’t see what
is really out there, and we can’t make informed decisions. We end up going astray and crashing
into things. We end up crashing
into each other.”
Think
about whether we can really see or not.
We all imagine we can see clearly.
But are we crashing into each other? Are we living in violence and injustice? Are we paralyzed by fear and motivated
by anger? Are we acting like
people who have been and remain scattered? Are our works in the world all about offense and
defense? Protecting what is ours
and trying to get what belongs to someone else? If that’s the way we live, Jesus suggests we can’t really
see at all. We are living in a
horrible fantasy of our own invention.
We are living in darkness.
IV.
But if we see clearly what is truly there, if that true light enters our
eyes and illumines our bodies, then
we become ourselves one with the light and able therefore to shine on
others. We become emissaries,
witnesses, bearers, and reflectors of the Truth. We illuminate the world for others by our good and loving
actions, which are in accord with God’s will. We light the way in the darkness so others can see what is
really there. And in this way they
may also catch the light, have their eyes healed so they can see and do the
truth themselves.
And
the gatherings of Jesus’ disciples are supposed to be places where individual
lights gather to become even greater lights.
Satan
is called the Prince of Darkness for a reason. The Evil One thrives and feeds on our blindness. He wants us kept in the dark. He wouldn’t even still have any power except that we give him power by deliberately cultivating
darkness in our hearts. Our fear,
our anger, our shame are what keep us scattered, voiceless, blind, immobile,
and defiled… all because our eyes are conditioned not to see the truth, but
to see instead only the projections
of our own egos.
So
Jesus says, “If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in
darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its
rays.” “Let your light so shine
before others,” he says more famously in Matthew, “that they may see your good
works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” But the meaning is pretty much the same. If we see God’s light in the
world we will shine God’s light into the world. The light shines through us by our actions, the good works we do with and
for others.
To
see God’s light is to be God’s light. To see God’s Presence is to be God’s
Presence. To see God’s salvation
is to be God’s salvation. To see
or discern Christ’s body is to be Christ’s body. We are what we see. We are what we perceive. And if we attune our senses to receive God’s saving, healing, redeeming, blessing, and liberating
Presence, we become that same
blessing to others.
Jesus
Christ is God’s saving Presence, he is God’s Word, he is God’s light shining in
the darkness. Just to see him is to experience the fullness of
God’s light pouring into us and shine with it so that through and reflecting off
us that light can also touch others.
V.
How
are we serving as light in the world?
How are we showing the saving Presence of the living God? How are we proclaiming and shining with
the good news of God’s love for the world? How are we revealing God’s goodness and blessing, mercy and
healing, in everything God has made?
Are
we giving voice to people who have long been silenced? That was the healing that Jesus does
here that causes the leaders to erupt with such accusatory fury. Do we also want all voices to be
heard? Or are there some we find
inconvenient, too challenging, and even offensive?
Are
we willing to listen to the Word like the Queen of Sheba and change our whole
way of thinking and acting because of it, like the Ninevites?
Are
we willing to let the light enter us and change us, even if it means giving up
everything we have ever been taught to depend on? Even if it means giving up our fear, and putting aside our
anger, and disregarding our shame?
Do
we have the strength and the fortitude to gather and unify, when so much of
society wants to scatter and divide?
For
in Jesus Christ, liberation does not mean doing whatever you want. That is
actually Satan’s gig, and it is how we got into this mess in the first
place. True liberation, real
freedom, is being a slave to God and a servant of the Truth. To be truly free is to be shaped and
molded into conformity with the light of God.
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