FAULTY REASONING

Luke 11:14-20 (NRSV) - 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. 15 But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." 16 Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. 17 But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. 18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? --for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

         He was casting out a demon
         that was mute.
         Some who saw him do it
         started to dispute
         his authority,
         declaring that he cast out
         the demons
         by the devil.
         “Could it last,”
         Jesus asked them,
         “if the devil’s kingdom
         were set against itself?”
         Did it never occur
         to those scoffers
         that their reasoning
         was wrong,
         and that it was God
in Jesus
all along?