We continue our discourse with verses 25 and 26:
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?
Saint John Chrysostom here explains when Jesus begins to expose the Pharisees, and even more importantly, the manner in which He does so: “The Pharisees had previously accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. Yet He did not rebuke them at that time, granting them the opportunity to recognize His power through greater miracles and His greatness through His teaching. However, since they did not cease repeating the same accusations against Him, Jesus finally exposes them. First, He demonstrates His divinity by revealing their secret thoughts; second, by easily casting out demons. No matter how shameful their accusation was—for envy, as I have said, does not concern itself with truth but only seeks to say anything at all—Christ nevertheless does not disregard it but defends Himself with the gentleness that is proper to Him. In this way He teaches us to act with meekness towards our enemies; even if they accuse us of something for which we know we are not guilty, even if their accusations have no foundation—we should not become troubled or lose the peace of our spirit, but defend ourselves before them with patience. Thus the Saviour acted towards the Pharisees, most clearly showing that they were lying. A man possessed by a demon would not demonstrate such great meekness nor know the secret thoughts of others. The Pharisees, partly because their opinion was so shameless and partly out of fear of the people, did not dare to express their accusations openly but held them only in their minds. The Saviour, wishing to show them that He knew even their thoughts, did not mention their accusation nor expose their malice, but refuted their arguments, leaving their own conscience to convict them of falsehood. Jesus had only one concern—to benefit those who had sinned, not to expose their sins. Had Jesus wished to continue defending Himself, to shame the Pharisees and subject them to the harshest punishment, He could have done so very easily. Yet leaving all this aside, He sought only to destroy in them the love of quarrels, to teach them meekness, and thus make them more capable of correction. How does Christ defend Himself before them? He does not cite the words of Scripture, because the Pharisees did not pay attention to Scripture and would have distorted its meaning; instead, He uses general arguments… Therefore, if I—says Jesus—having a demon within me, cast out other demons by his power, then there must be discord and conflict among them, and they would rise against one another; if they rise against one another, their strength has collapsed and fallen. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. If he is divided, he has lost his strength and fallen; and if he has fallen, how can he cast out another? Do you see how absurd and irrational their accusation is, and what contradiction it contains?” Thus we see that it is indeed possible to respond to accusations, but it is very important how this is done.
Saint Chromatius of Aquileia writes that these words also refer to events from the history of the Jewish people, while at the same time teaching that our true trust is only in God, and that we are safe only in the house of the Son of God—the Orthodox Church. He writes: “The Lord indicates that a kingdom, city, or house divided against itself cannot stand. This may be understood as the kingdom ruled by the Jewish people under Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon, which fell into ruin even before its division; and also the fact that the Jews were deprived of the city of Jerusalem, against which Samaria stood as an enemy, and that they lost the house of the temple while golden calves and houses of idols were set up in opposition to it. Therefore Jesus shows them that they should rather strive for a kingdom that cannot be divided—that is, the heavenly and eternal kingdom, the spiritual city of Jerusalem which remains always firm and unshakable; they should strive for the true house of God which no hostile power has ever been able, nor will ever be able, to overcome, because this house is secure, being protected by the Son of God.”
The next three verses read:
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.
Saint John Chrysostom again shows the manner in which the Lord Jesus Christ converses with His opponents and how He employs ordinary human logic in His arguments: “See with what gentleness Jesus speaks even here. He did not say: My disciples or My apostles, but your sons, in order to give the Pharisees an opportunity, if they wished, to reason nobly like His disciples. But if they remained ungrateful as before and did not abandon their shamelessness, this would deprive them of any justification. The meaning of Christ’s words is as follows: by whose power do the apostles cast out demons? The apostles had already cast out demons, having received authority from the Saviour, yet the Pharisees did not accuse them. They had armed themselves not against the deed, but against the person. Therefore Christ, wishing to show that envy alone was the cause of their accusations, points also to the apostles. If I—says Jesus—as you claim cast out demons by the power of Beelzebul, then all the more those who received authority from Me. Yet you say nothing of the kind about them. Why do you accuse Me, who gave them such authority, while freeing them from accusations? But even this will not spare you from punishment; rather, it will subject you to greater condemnation. Therefore the Saviour added: Therefore they shall be your judges. If My disciples, who are of the same race as you and have the same upbringing, believe in Me and obey Me, then it is evident that they will condemn those who act and speak the opposite. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. What does kingdom mean? My coming. See how Jesus again draws them to Himself, heals them, and strives to lead them to the knowledge of Himself; He shows them that they remain opposed to their own good and salvation. You Pharisees—says Jesus—ought to rejoice and be glad because I have come to grant those great and ineffable blessings of which the prophets spoke, to rejoice because the time of your prosperity has come; yet you act in the opposite way and not only do not accept the blessings but slander and invent false accusations against Him who offers them… Observe how Christ rejects the slander that the Pharisees sought to raise against Him. They wished to prove that Jesus did not cast out demons by His own authority; but He, on the contrary, proves that He has not only cast out demons but has also first bound their ruler by His authority and overcome him by His own power. This is confirmed in practice. If the devil is the ruler and the demons are subject to him, how can they be cast out unless the devil himself has first been conquered and subdued? In these words we may also see a prophecy. Not only are demons the vessels of the devil, but so too are people who perform his works. Therefore it is evident that this passage speaks not only of Jesus casting out demons but also of His dispersing the entire darkness of error on earth, destroying all the snares of the devil and rendering them powerless. Jesus did not say steal but plunder, showing that He has authority to do so. Jesus calls Satan strong not because he is such by nature—no! Rather, He refers to the great power he once had over us because of our negligence.”
Finally, blessed Jerome explains the meaning of the finger of God mentioned by the Apostle Luke in this passage: “In the Gospel according to Luke the passage reads: But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Lk. 11:20). This is the finger confessed even by the Egyptian magicians who performed wonders before Moses and Aaron when they said: This is the finger of God (Ex. 8:19). It is the finger by which the stone tablets were written on Mount Sinai (Deut. 9). Therefore, although the hand of God is the Son and the finger of God is the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one. Let not the inequality of the members mentioned here—hand and finger—be a stumbling block to you; rather, let the unity of the body instruct you.”
Verse 30 reads:
He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
Saint John Chrysostom writes about the irreconcilable enmity that exists between Christ and the devil: “What is My intention? asks Christ. To lead people to God, to teach them virtue, and to proclaim the Kingdom. And what do Satan and the demons desire? The opposite… Why does Jesus say: He who is not with Me is against Me? … All this Jesus says to demonstrate His great and irreconcilable hostility towards the devil. If elsewhere Jesus says: He who is not against you is for you (Lk. 9:50), this does not contradict what is written here. Here Jesus indicates who their enemy is, while there He shows who their ally is, for it is also written: In Your name they cast out demons (Mt. 7:22). I believe that Jesus here also has the Jews in mind, placing them together with the devil. For they too were against Him and they scattered what He gathered.”
Saint Chromatius of Aquileia draws attention to another meaning of these words. He writes that Christ’s opponents are also all opponents of His Church: “Having said this, the Lord appears to rebuke the Pharisees, who did not wish to unite themselves with Christ and therefore became enemies and adversaries of the Lord. Yet Jesus also speaks here of all heretics and schismatics who, either through distorted teaching or through persistence in schism, gather impious assemblies against the Church—that is, against the Lord—those who attempt to divide and defile the undefiled body of the Church and the unity of peace and faith. They do not remember the words of Solomon: He who removes stones will be hurt by them; he who splits wood will be endangered by it (Eccl. 10:9), which show that those who sow division in the Church expose themselves to the danger of eternal death.”
Saint Luke of Crimea explains in great detail how these words apply to us and to our spiritual life: “What does it mean to be with You? What does it mean not to scatter but to gather with You? To be with You means to be close to You, to be among those whom You have called Your friends; it means to think as You thought, to desire what You desired… You desired that we gather and not scatter. When do we scatter? When we act like the foolish rich man who directed all the strength of his soul and his entire life only towards gathering as many earthly goods as possible. Why? So that his soul might be taken from him that very night and his wealth pass to someone else. When a person gathers wealth, often by impure means, does he not scatter? He scatters what is more precious than anything else—the only true treasure of the soul—he scatters everything good that exists in his soul… What does it mean to be with Christ? To be with Him means to be one with Him, to be His friend and close to Him; it means to acquire the mind of Christ and to desire and strive only for what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded. All our thoughts and desires must be directed towards what the Lord teaches; all our thoughts must be focused not on earthly things but on eternal life; all our actions must correspond to what the Lord Jesus teaches in His holy commandments… To gather with Christ means to gather what is pleasing to Him. If we gather all the goods of this life and the wealth available to us only for ourselves—so that we may spend it only on ourselves and our families, live comfortably and luxuriously, and leave inheritance to our children—if we live in this way, that will be scattering. For the person who does not become rich in God, who does not gather with God, only scatters; and at the Last Judgment, in eternal life, he will appear as a poor man who possesses nothing, who has scattered everything and gathered nothing for Jesus Christ.”
Finally, Seraphim of Sarov explains a profound truth that, unfortunately, is unclear to many today. Because of this lack of clarity there is confusion regarding the teaching that good can truly be good only when it is done in God, and not when it arises merely from fallen human nature. Saint Seraphim says: “Only the good done for Christ’s sake brings us the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Everything that is not done for Christ—even if it appears good—does not bring us a reward in the future life, nor does it grant us the grace of God in this life. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ said: He who does not gather with Me scatters.” Another Russian saint, John of Kronstadt explains another very important law of spiritual life with the following words: “He who does not gather with Me scatters. It is necessary that we move forward in the spiritual life, that we ascend higher and higher, increasing ever more the quantity of good deeds. If we remain at the same point of moral perfection, on the same step of the spiritual ladder of Christian progress, it is the same as going backwards; if we do not gather, then we scatter.”
Adapted for the contemporary reader on the basis of patristic interpretations by: Stanoje Stanković
