Taking Sides

 

Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.” Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.


“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” I think it might be a good idea to reflect upon just this verse today because its ramifications are eternal. Jesus is asking us to take sides. All of us would know what this means because as we have journeyed through life, we have sometimes had to do that.  Caught in the middle of an argument between two people we know, we sometimes have to support one over the other, and because that is a hard choice, we might be tempted to stay neutral.


With Jesus neutrality is not an option. If you’re not with him, you’re with the devil. I know that many of us like to dance with both. The devil is a great dancer and we quite enjoy the way he swings us around the floor, until he drops us like a dirty rag. Then, of course, we go to Jesus who picks us up. However, our memories are short, and it isn’t long before we are jiving with the devil again. Is that not true? 


And then there is the matter of convenience. We go to Jesus when we are in some need; otherwise he is largely forgotten. Imagine I call you my friend. I meet you every now and then, but you soon realize that the only times I come to you is when I need something. Otherwise I am never to be seen or heard from. How long before you start distancing yourself from me? Now Jesus isn’t the sort of person to tell us to stay away, but I don’t think he can be very happy with mercenary, self-serving people. What do you think?


And then there is the matter of compromise. There is something very unappealing about people who straddle the fence, and I don’t think God is very fond of them either. “I wish you were either hot or cold,” he says. “But because you are neither, I’m gonna spit you out of the mouth.” You’ll find that in Revelation 3. But there is an inherent danger in compromise that we don’t seem to realize. How does one compromise between food and poison. Mix them together and you are dead. 


Jesus says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but he comes that we might have life, and life in abundance. That’s John 10:10. But we don’t have to take his word for it. All we need to do is look at our lives and see the truth of it. So this decision is really a no-brainer; we know which is the better side. It is also the winning side. Paul writes: “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, (Jesus) made a public spectacle of (the forces of darkness), triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). We saw that in today’s reading too.


So, pick a side now. Jesus is waiting.

 


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