Mark 3:22-27 “And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.’ So Jesus called them and spoke 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. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.’”

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus had just cast a demon out when the teachers of the law made their accusation. They couldn’t deny the miracle. That was plain for everyone to see. Because they didn’t want people to put their trust in Jesus, they needed to come up with some other explanation for why the demon left. Saying that Jesus was possessed, saying that he was in cahoots with the Devil, was the best that they could do.

Jesus, on the other hand, made it crystal clear why their accusations didn’t make any sense, why anyone who knew him would know better. What Jesus was doing here was not an isolated incident. It was not a single case where Satan told one of his demons to take a hike and let go of a person. When you read the gospels, you see that Jesus was casting out demons right and left. They were fleeing from him by the hundreds, maybe even the thousands. Satan was being forced to release his hold on these souls.

If this were Satan casting out these demons, then he was certainly divided against himself. He would be fighting against the very thing he loves to do. He lives to take control of souls. One way he does it, especially in Jesus’ day, is by possessing people. That is how he fights back at God. If he were simply going to let those souls go, he may as well give up the battle.

On the contrary, Jesus was giving the people then, and now, every reason to trust him with their souls. “In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.” Satan is a strong man. Generally, that is good for us to remember. It reminds us that he is no one for you and me to fool around with. 

But sometimes he tries to use that information to his advantage. Most of the time it is not part of his strategy to make himself look weaker than he is. He wants us to know that he is strong. In fact, he wants us to think he is so strong that there is no way that we can escape his grasp.

There is a grain of truth in this. One on one we can’t stand up to him. He wants us to believe there is no way we could ever resist this temptation. He wants us to believe that it is impossible for us to escape being condemned along with him and everyone else. He keeps stirring up our guilty feelings and promises he won’t let this sin slip past the Lord’s attention.

But we know Satan well enough to know better, because we know Jesus well enough to know better.  Jesus has tied Satan up. Satan might be stronger than we are, but Jesus is stronger than he is. That was painfully clear at the time of Jesus’ temptation when Jesus resisted every temptation in the wilderness and Satan went away defeated. 

That is most clear at the cross, where Jesus took all our sins upon himself so that Satan had nothing left to use to condemn us, and at the empty tomb, where Jesus’ resurrection shows we are free from death forever.  Throughout Jesus’ ministry he showed that he was the one who could tie Satan up and overpower him as the little demons went whimpering away wherever he confronted them.

If you want to be free from Satan’s power, if you want to go to heaven, and I believe you do, then here Jesus is making it as clear as he can that he is the one to trust.