Tuesday, June 5, 2012

DOING GOOD?

 

Scripture: Mark 3:22-25--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.

The religious leaders, upon seeing Jesus cast out demons, declare that Jesus was himself “possessed by Beelzubul! By the prince of demons, he is driving out demons!” Jesus responds to this slanderous accusation by asserting , “...if the house is divided against itself, the house cannot stand.” The Bible calls his response a parable, I call it simple logic, it simply is not logical for:

Evil to do good

On behalf of evil

For the sake of evil.

Whether parable, or formal logic, Jesus is defending his miraculous work to a group of people who could not see that he was, in fact, doing good. They saw him doing good and immediately thought it was something sinister, something profane, something evil. I like to think that if I saw Jesus performing miracles, I would see the God in him. I would be one of the disciples that he names only a couple of verses prior. But how many countless times have I played the part of the religious leader than the disciple, how many times have I audaciously called the work of God the work of the devil? How many times do I slant my eyes to someone who is seemingly doing good, for me or for humankind, and wonder what manipulative and malicious intent lies behind the kind gesture?

Why is it that our first instinct and inclination is to mistrust goodness and call it the work of Beelzebul? Perhaps it is because we experience so much evil in the world:

-Pastors/priests molesting young impressionable boys and girls.

-non-profits pocketing the money given to feed and clothe millions of poverty-stricken children.

-Politicians proclaiming to be standing for the people and yet making “special-interest” policy that is detrimental to the personal and communal good of the public.

In a world full of corruption, who could really blame the religious leaders for not being able to see good works and recognize them as simply that- good works. Who could blame them for not being able to see God and recognizing Him as simply that- God. Who could blame them for not being able to practice simple logic?

This verse should convict us to fall on our knees to ask God to remove the scales from our eyes so that we may finally be able to see how God is actually at work in this broken world, to ask God to help us perform simple logic:

God does Good

On behalf of Good

For the sake of Good.

Prayer:  Holy one, may our hearts, may our minds, may our souls rest completely on you.  For truly you are good and you are the creator of every good and perfect gift.  Amen.

The Reverend Tiffany Thomas