I cringe whenever I see a billboard that says Abraham Lincoln said this. It was Jesus who said this. And he meant something by it.
Jesus was driving out demons and some in the crowd didn’t like it. They had to find means of accusation.
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. But some of them said, “By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”
As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”
He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”
They accused him of driving out demons by a prince of demons. Jesus asked them plainly, if that’s how you drive out demons, that what are your people doing who are driving out demons? By what power?
Jesus tells them the only way a demon can be driven out is by a more powerful force than the demon itself. And that force is Jesus.
It is a war. A spiritual war. There are two sides. Jesus says you are either for me or against me, but there can’t be both. A house divided itself will not stand.
Then Jesus gives a supplemental truth. Just because a demon is driven out does not mean that the problem is resolved. That’s actually quite shocking. One would think it would be sufficient.
But Jesus knows spiritual warfare. It’s only a matter of time before the demons come back. It doesn’t matter if things like good and everything is put in order, if there is no spiritual force that is stronger dwelling in that place, then the demons will come back 7 times as many. And the person will be worse off than before.
One must be filled with a superior force of the kingdom of God. And that is the Holy Spirit. Deliverance is not a game. A person must be changed and filled with the Presence of God.
When Jesus taught these things, a woman cried out how blessed Christ’s mother must be to have a Son who taught and was powerful in word and deed like Jesus.
Jesus responded, blessed are the ones who hear and obey the Word.
Sorry Catholics but I think of you. With all the “blessed Marys” perhaps there should be a stopping of this and saying, “greater are those who are blessed who hear and obey the words of God.”
He didn’t say his mother wasn’t blessed. But he put the blessing in its right place,
How does this all connect to the deliverance of the demons he just performed?
Likely he was calling out the crowds to hear and obey the Word. To in many ways keep their “house” full of the presence of God so that they, too, do not open the path to demons.