The Finger of God
The Finger Of God: A Meditation On Luke 11:20
“But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”
In this passage, Jesus cast a demon out of a man whose malady was that he was unable to speak. When the man did speak, Luke wrote that “the crowds were amazed.” But there were enemies of Jesus present. Some of them claimed that Jesus exorcised demons by the power of Beelzebub, the prince of demons (in other words, the devil). Others demanded from him a sign from heaven. Notice that nobody was denying that Jesus had indeed cast out a demon, so presumably people in both groups considered the healing of the mute man to be insufficient proof of Jesus’ bona fides. Perhaps they all believed that Jesus had been empowered by Satan.
But that argument proved too much, as Jesus pointed out. Apparently there were other exorcists who were allied with Jesus’ enemies. Accordingly, Jesus asked, “Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your exorcists cast them out?” This is an example of a tu quoque (“you also”) argument, well recognized in ancient and contemporary rhetoric; it in effect turns the argument back on the accuser.
In other words—so Jesus was asking—if exorcisms occur by the power of Satan, then does that not also indict the exorcists endorsed by Jesus’ enemies? The scribes and Pharisees would hardly want to reply, “Sure, they too are empowered by Beelzebub;” they would doubtless want to say, “They work by the power of the Lord God.” But that would obviously lead to the question of what the difference is, why Jesus’ work was not also done via the power of God. That would be difficult for the scribes and Pharisees to answer.
But then Jesus gave a second argument which showed that his exorcisms could not possibly be motivated and empowered by the devil. He said, “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?” In other words, it cannot be true that Jesus’ power came from the devil. Why not? Because Jesus’ ministry was doing damage, and would eventually do irreparable damage, to the devil’s cause. If his critics were correct—so Jesus was saying—then evil would be defeating itself.
The background to Jesus’ argument was his seminal belief that the kingdom of God had come and that he, Jesus, was its initiator. A great historical change had occurred; with the arrival of Jesus everything had changed. The devil was about to be decisively defeated. That is why Jesus could say, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” Jesus was implicitly referring to Exodus 8, where despite their secret arts, Pharaoh’s magicians were unable to reproduce Moses’ plague of gnats; frustrated, they cried out, “This is the finger of God!”
So it appears that there are only two choices. Nobody wanted to deny that Jesus had just healed the mute man. Either he did it by the power of Beelzebub or he did it by the finger of God. Which was it? There is no neutrality here.
Jesus then told a small allegorical tale about a strong and well-armed man in a castle who trusts in his strength but is overcome by an attacker who is even stronger. His armor proves useless and all his property is taken. In this story we see why everything has changed. The strong man in his castle is clearly Beelzebub. And the even stronger attacker is Jesus himself. In other words, history has changed because Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection, is in the process of defeating all the forces of death and evil.
Jesus’ victory is decisive, but as we all know, the devil fights on. In the world we still see suffering, sickness, poverty, violence, war, and injustice. But they have been defeated and their future demise is certain. The devil’s grip on the world has been broken.
Our text concludes with a pithy comment from Jesus, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” But notice that in Mark 9:40, Jesus also says, “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Accordingly, what we have here is what we call in logic a perfect disjunction: he who is not with me is against me and he who is not against me is with me. Which is to say: every single human being is either on Jesus’ bandwagon or is against it. Again: there is no neutrality.
In our day it seems that lots of people want to be on the fence about Jesus. “I like him,” they say; “he was a great moral teacher, but I’m not sure about this ‘Son of God’ business.” Or, “Jesus was one of the great figures in human history, maybe the greatest, but I have a hard time buying the idea that he was raised from the dead.” But if Jesus is correct, there is no such neutral position. Supposedly neutral people are against the cause of Jesus, just like Beelzebub, just like the scribes and Pharisees, just like Caiaphas, just like Judas Iscariot.
We are exploring Jesus’ statement, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” Notice the last two words here, “to you.” Jesus was saying—both to his followers who were with him on that day and to us—that the kingdom of God is for us. It is not a far-off event in world politics, like a certain kingdom falling or a certain battle ending, that will have no effect on us. The kingdom of God is the rule of God in this world and in our lives. For you and me, the arrival of the kingdom of God has changed everything.
— Stephen T. Davis is The Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, emeritus, at Claremont McKenna College. He writes in areas such as the philosophy of religion, analytic theology, and Christian thought. He is the author of some eighty academic articles and the author, editor, or coauthor of some seventeen books, including Encountering Evil (Westminster John Knox Press, 2000), Christian Philosophical Theology (Oxford, 2006), Rational Faith: A Philosopher’s Defense of Christianity (InterVarsity, 2016), and (with Eric T. Yang), An Introduction to Christian Philosophical Theology: Faith Seeking Understanding (Zondervan, 2020).
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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