Mark 3:20-35
I’ll
share some good news with you right away.
This will be a short sermon. I’ll
share some really, really good news with you.
Good overcomes evil. I’m going to
expand on that, just a little bit, but that’s the heart of the message for this
morning.
Jesus said,
“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.” [Mark 3:24-26]
In case you haven’t noticed, evil is always out for
itself, and is (in the long run) incapable of working for another’s well-being
or even of working with anyone else.
Self-seeking is the heart of evil, as self-giving is the heart of
good. Goodness draws people together and
teaches not only loyalty to those whom we love but also forgiveness for those
who hurt us and to pray for those who wish us ill. Evil is out to get even, and then to get
ahead, which always means turning on itself.
“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.” [Mark 3:24-26]
One of our adult Sunday School
classes has spent the past several months reading C.S. Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters, which examines the
way that evil works, and in the end fails.
In the preface to that book, the author explains,
“The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens
of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint.
It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved,
seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted
offices by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven
cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.
Hence, naturally enough, my symbol for Hell is something like the
bureaucracy of a police state or the offices of a thoroughly nasty business
concern.”[1]
Let me repeat,
“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.” [Mark 3:24-26]
When some people in Jesus’ day
accused him of being in league with evil spirits, he talked about that being an
unforgiveable sin, making good into evil and evil into good. It isn’t that God doesn’t want to forgive,
it’s that human beings block the process on our end, because who can repent of
a sin that they refuse to see as a sin? But
when evil turns on itself, as it always does, its true nature appears and, in
one of those great paradoxes that we call grace, that points out the
opportunity to repent and be forgiven.
It’s kind of funny, too, that
Jesus compares himself to a thief, stealing souls back from the devil.
“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.” [Mark 3:27]
That’s what he has done, though. Jesus reclaims God’s people from darkness and
carries them out into the light. That’s
why we can ask questions like, “Do you reject the spiritual forces of
wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?” and
“Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice,
and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?”[2] That’s why people can answer, “We do.” It’s done not on our own power, but on his,
shared with us by the Holy Spirit.
A kingdom divided against itself
cannot stand. A kingdom held together by
Christ cannot fall.
[1]
C.S. Lewis, Original Preface to The
Screwtape Letters https://archive.org/stream/OriginalPrefaceToTheScrewtapeLetters/Original%20Preface%20to%20the%20Screwtape%20Letters#page/n3/mode/2up
[2]
“Baptismal Covenant I”, The United
Methodist Hymnal.
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