Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come.

There is a popular story about a queen who was so vain that she had to be the most beautiful in her kingdom at all times. She had a magical mirror that she would speak to and ask, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” And she was always the fairest, until one day, after she had grown older, the mirror picked out the young Snow White. The remainder of the story involves the queen trying to kill Snow White out of jealousy.

When life is lived by comparison, you are always setup to be “less than” someone else in one area or another. We are inevitably disappointed and defeated. This was how the evil queen lived and this is how the Pharisees lived too.

They could not understand how Jesus was so popular, so powerful, and so wise. In comparison to them and their legalistic righteousness, they were (in their minds) superior. Yet Jesus tore away all of the traditions they held onto and got the real issue, the heart condition.

Jesus sacrificed a lot for the people who needed him. He went without food, to heal. He risked reputation with his family and the leaders in the area, to heal. Nothing deflected him from the work God had laid out for him to do. Unlike the accuser's lives which had a divided loyalty between God and their self-interests, Jesus was undivided in his loyalty to God and his plans, purposes, and call on his life.

Jesus defended himself not by listing accolades or pieous actions, he simply states that he cannot be a tool of the Devil, because he is against the Devil and he drives out demons. A house divided against itself will not stand. So, in deduction, if he is not a tool of the Devil, the only other powerful being of significant spiritual stature he could be aligned with — is God.

Lord, thank you for this lesson here of what not to be. I should not be jealous, power-hungry, or self-righteous like the Pharisees and teachers of the law. Teach me to love deeply and to serve well!