A House Divided

From our text for this week's sermon:

Matthew 12:22-28
22 Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw. 23 And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” 24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” 25 Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26 And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? 27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Interestingly, I was reminded just this past Sunday afternoon of Abraham Lincoln's appropriation of this text (Matthew 12:25) in his discussion of the issue of slavery in the United States. Here's the opening of his speech to the Illinois Republican State Convention in Springfield on June 16, 1858, the same year (and on the same issue) as the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. It's now known as his "A House Divided" speech.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South.

Of course, Abraham Lincoln and Jesus are speaking about two different things, but Lincoln is not guilty of twisting the Scriptures. He's just using the same proverbial statement to make a similar point in a different context.

But would a majority of politicians get the reference to Jesus' words today? Would most professing, Bible-believing church-attending Christians?