In the New Interpreter’s Bible commentator R. Alan Culpeper calls our gospel reading a kaleidoscope of images. It seems like a haphazard collection of teachings that tumble around together. And yet, this is not a haphazard collection of images. It is a profound expression of God’s grace, and more specifically, zeros in on the very specific effect it has on a person’s life. We’re going to end with that with a quote from Victor Hugo’s book, Les Misérables. But I want to start with literal kaleidoscopes.
(pass out kaleidoscopes to the congregation)
I’m sure you’ve played with these things before. Light shining through some tumbling translucent shapes, and then bounced around by mirrors creates never ending patterns of color. They are beautiful and fun. And that is the approach I hope you can take as you listen to our gospel reading. You’re welcome to look through your kaleidoscope as you listen to these words from scripture.
(reading of Luke 11:14-36)
Let’s look at the pieces tumbling around. First up is Jesus healing a man who couldn’t speak. Like all medical conditions, this was attributed to demon possession. Many in the crowd were amazed. Remember that we are on Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. The crowds will keep growing larger the further on we read. So the crowd is amazed for the most part. But some say, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons.” Beelzebul means “Baal, the Prince.” It is an old reference to a Philistine god. In the first century it was used synonymously with Satan.
Others in the crowd, despite just seeing Jesus perform a miracle, keep demanding a sign from heaven from him. Apparently that would prove whose side he is working on.
Jesus replies, “If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?” If Jesus were Satan’s ally then the exorcisms would be a mutiny. Neither kingdom nor house can withstand such internal conflict.
So, if Jesus’ work really is by the power of God, then he is signaling that the kingdom of God is indeed among them. When Jesus says, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons,” he is drawing on Exodus 8:19. There the Egyptian magicians are explaining the power of Moses to bring about the many plagues. Jesus’ point is that if his opponents understood even as much as the Egyptian magicians they would see that the kingdom had come.
Next we move on to the image of the strong man. You cannot defeat a strong man unless you are even stronger. Thus, strong as Satan may be, God is stronger. God will break down the fortress of evil.
In rapid fire succession comes the image of the return of the unclean spirit. Jesus says that when an unclean spirit has gone out of a person it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any it returns to the person from which it came. And seeing it available it moves in; along with more!
That image may escape us. But let’s consider it from the point of view of alcoholism. An alcoholic is often far more than someone who drinks too much. Often, but not always, the alcohol addiction is a symptom of something else. Perhaps an alcoholic stops drinking, but the underlying issue is still there. You probably know that there is AA, which can help alcoholics deal with their addiction. There is also Al Alon, which can help the family members of an alcoholic deal with the over-arching issues. Perhaps they are actually part of the problem. Or perhaps they are unable to help without more knowledge. Perhaps they are unknowingly being enablers.
The point is, quite often if you take away the alcohol – the demon – then you may not have accomplished anything. If a person gives up all their bad and destructive habits, but doesn’t fill themselves with something constructive, then something else will just come into play.
Or, maybe think of it this way. If you want to lose weight go ahead and eat less. And you’ll probably sit around all day starving and give in to every temptation. But add exercise and constructive work to do and you may actually lose some weight.
Following Jesus is not just emptying yourself of everything sinful and bad. It is also embracing the new truth that Jesus provides. That takes us to the next short piece.
A woman in the crowd says, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!” Ah, these words are music to any mother’s ears. Their child doesn’t get the credit for their accomplishments. They do. But Jesus counters with the constructive filling that his followers who are on a path to faith embrace. “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!”
It's such a simple statement. We want Jesus to elaborate more. How do we do this? What does it look like? What is this word we are to obey? Are we not already trying to be good people? These are all good questions. But they will not be answered here. We continue in the jumble of images from the kaleidoscope.
The crowds keep increasing. Jesus says, “This generation is an evil generation; it asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” What does that mean? All by itself it could mean any number of things. But Jesus immediately gives it an interpretive direction. He cites the Queen of the South’s visit to Solomon. According to 1 Kings 10 the Queen of Sheba, journeyed from her kingdom in southwest Arabia to test reports that she had heard about Solomon’s wisdom. After meeting him she was convinced that only God could have given Solomon such wisdom.
Now we can see where Jesus is heading with this one. The foreign queen could recognize the work of God in Solomon. The people to whom Jonah preached, the foreign people of Nineveh, repented and changed their ways at the words of Jonah. Yet this present generation was experiencing Jesus, someone far more powerful than Solomon or Jonah, and yet they are not repenting. They are staying stuck in their evil.
What is this evil? Just like what is the word of God and those who do it, we are not given an answer. At least we aren’t given an answer here. We’ll start to get answers in chapter 12. But until then the focus is on their stubbornness to accept the inbreaking kingdom of God.
The final kaleidoscope piece is the eye being the lamp of the body. This makes absolutely no sense to us. We know that the eye does not create light. It takes in light from its surroundings and turns it into sight. But in those days that’s not how the eye was understood to work. Indeed yes, the world did provide light, but they also believed that the eye emitted light and that sight was possible when light from within met with light from without. Perhaps that seems like pre-scientific foolishness to us, but yet I’m sure you’ve met people whose eyes twinkle with energy and delight. Other people’s eyes seem dull. In a spiritual sense, if the eye is clear, pure, and healthy, then it gives sight. It suggests purity and spiritual health. When the eye is clear and one can see it is as if the whole body is filled with light. 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.” (Vs. 36)
Let’s go back to a part I skipped. This is a kaleidoscope after all! This is a good place to pull it all together. Jesus said, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Vs. 23) That is a contrast to 9:50 which we read a few weeks ago. There Jesus said, “Whoever is not against you is for you.” There he is talking about welcoming the support of anyone who would join in. Now, however, as he is on this journey to Jerusalem, is no time for indecision. It is a time of crisis.
That take us to where this whole kaleidoscope of teachings is taking us. Here is where we will end with the words of Victor Hugo in his book Les Miserables. Earlier in the book Jean Valjean, the ex-convict, steals the bishop’s silver. When the police catch him and take him back the bishop verifies Valjean’s story that the silver was a gift to him and adds that he meant to send the silver candlesticks as well. Most criminal minds would consider this to be absurd. They would take the extra silver, live carelessly until the money is gone, and then return to crime. But, in this case the sheer grace of the bishop’s act sets off a furious struggle within him. Here’s the struggle in the author’s own words:
“Faced with all these things, he reeled like a drunk… Did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed through the decisive hour of his destiny, that there was no longer a middle course for him, that if, thereafter, he were not the best of men, he would be the worst, that he must now, so to speak, climb higher than the bishop or fall lower than the convict; that, if he wanted to become good, he must become an angel; that, if he wanted to remain evil, he must become a monster?... One thing was certain, though he did not suspect it, that he was no longer the same man, that all was changed in him, that it was no longer in his power to prevent the bishop from having talked to him and having touched him.”
That is driving out a demon and filling the void with love. Though no one is perfect, all sin, that is the power and intention of God’s grace. That is what Jesus was calling for in those who were encountering him.
Maybe it comes in a traumatic event. Maybe it comes slowly and gradually. But God’s grace does come. And may we be driven by that grace to amazing life with God.
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