Choosing Sides

Gospel: Luke 11: 14-23

"He who is not with me is against me."  Cultural warriors and partisans of every age will seize upon this line of Jesus, take it out of context, and apply it to their cottage industry, cause, political agenda, regime, or institution of every stripe.  The irony of that phenomenon is that the full context of Jesus's statement convicts anyone who seeks to use the phrase in this partisan way.  

Jesus expel a demon from a man, then uses the event to teach a deeper lesson.  Imagine a man fully equipped with all his weaponry set to defend himself and household.  His reliance is upon his weapons and his strength.  But there is always someone stronger than us in the spiritual realm.  Reliance on our own possessions and self will only lead to possession once again by a much more powerful demon than the last one, for this new demon is our very self - our ego, power, reliance on possessions.  

It is only the person who has reliance on God alone who can withstand the demons in their life.  For if the household of our soul is filled with God alone there is no room for demons of any kind.  But if we seek to use Jesus as a partisan weapon for our political and ecclesiastical power, we are already possessed by a demon.  If we are with Jesus, we are relying on God alone as he did.  If we are not, then our reliance is on self and possessions, and our attachments are to power and ego.