In Matthew 12:22-30, we read of the account of Jesus healing a demon oppressed man who had been mute and blind. We are not told any specifics as to whether the demon oppression had caused such physiological incapacities, for all we know Jesus may have cast out the demon and then healed the man his speech and sight, or the man could have been healed as a result of his spiritual deliverance, but what matters in this text is that Jesus healed the whole man. As a result of witnessing this healing, the crowds wondered whether Jesus was truly the Son of David (Matt. 12:23). Jesus had healed the sick, He had cast out demons, He had done mighty signs and wonders, all of which validated His claim to be the promised seed, the Messiah, the Christ. The people were witnessing fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Matt. 12:17-21; Isa. 42:1-4; 61:1), and yet they doubted because Jesus did not fit their expected profile of the Messiah. They had expected an earthly warrior who would establish an earthly kingdom and rule according to earthly customs, restoring the golden years of Jerusalem not seen since the beginning of the rule of King Solomon (1 Kings 10:23-27). And yet, Jesus did not fit that mould. The kingdom that Christ had come to establish was greater than any earthly kingdom, but it was spiritual in nature, not yet to take tangible form until His second advent. The people did not understand this, they had misunderstood the prophets of Old, and their doubts naturally surfaced in verbal expression because Jesus did not meet the expected appearance of an earthly king, nor had He been widely accepted by the people given that the religious authorities had made headway in slandering His name.
Well, while there were those in Jesus’ midst who doubted, there can be no doubt that there were those who believed. And just as there were those who believed, there were those who chose not to believe. For the Pharisees, Jesus could not be the Son of David, He could not be the promised seed, He could not be the Messiah. Jesus would have had to have met the militant and political expectations of the Jewish people, He would have had to have embraced rabbinical tradition, and vindicated the Jewish religious authorities. He did no such thing, however. But could they question Jesus’ power and authority? If they had done so, in the midst of such a public sign, they would have been ridiculed to shame. So instead, they called into question the source of His power.
In all of created reality there can only be two sources of power that can do and manifest beyond what man can do and manifest: (1) God, and (2) Satan. As a result, they accused Jesus of employing the power of the prince of demons, Beelzebub (Matt. 12:27). But as they would soon come to learn, the Pharisees were reckless in their assessment. According to Matthew’s account, this slander was not said aloud – this had surely been mentioned behind closed doors or on other occasions, but in this particular event, the Pharisees were thinking this to themselves. This is why the text says that Jesus discerned their thoughts (Matt. 12:25), and like pulling away a curtain, Jesus revealed what the Pharisees were thinking. And the crowd would not have been entirely clueless to this, surely this was an accusation made against Jesus before – the Pharisees tended to cause the people to murmur. Why else would there later be a mob to crucify Jesus if the Pharisees had not succeeded to turn some people against Him?
How did Jesus respond to such an accusation? In the first instance, Jesus explains that it makes no sense for an agent of Satan to be pitted against another agent of Satan. Satan is evil on all accounts, but He is not totally irrational. Any kingdom divided falls apart. It was the beginning of the end, for example, when the Roman Empire split in two, the Empire of the West and the Empire of the East.[1] So no, Jesus could not be an agent of Satan and do the sort of things that Jesus had done. Furthermore, the Pharisees had their own exorcists (e.g., Acts 19:13), could they then too be accused of the same? Would they dare say that they too employed the power of the prince of demons? The Jewish exorcists would have condemned the Pharisees for such an accusation. To cast out a demon could only be possible by the power of God. But while the exorcists would have certainly condemned the assessment of the Pharisees, they were not successful as Jesus had been, otherwise the delivering ministry of Jesus would not have been perceived as extraordinary. Jesus did not just cast out demons with a word, He struck fear into demons (e.g., Mark 5:7-17). Jesus had authority and power like no other. And the fact that Jesus was casting out demons meant something, it meant that the kingdom of God had come. What did Jesus mean by this?
Jesus asked how someone could enter the strong man’s house to plunder his goods without first binding the strong man (Matt. 12:29). The “strong man” is Satan, the strong man’s “house” is the world, and what Jesus is saying is that He has come through the front door of Satan’s house to take back what is rightfully His. Jesus was essentially saying that He is stronger than the strong man, so strong that He can bind the strong man and leave Him powerless, and He in fact has bound the strong man (Rev. 20:1-3), and He is now retaking what is rightfully His. The Kingdom of God has, in other words, invaded Satan’s kingdom, and Satan’s kingdom has been resisting, because it is only a matter of time until the kingdom of Satan is left with nothing. That is rather strong, positive language used here by Jesus. He has not come sneaking through the back door, nor has He crept stealthily through an open window slit. He has boldly walked through the front door. He has bound Satan. And He is plundering Satan’s kingdom. And He will plunder and plunder until there is nothing left to plunder. This is postmillennial in its expression; this is positive, uplifting, and victory-winning gospel language. We might be tempted to think that this world is going to hell in a hand basket, but that is only because of the news we read. If we were to have the eyes of the Spirit, if we could see what the Lord is doing through His church as the gospel is proclaimed and applied, not just locally but all over the world, we would see Jesus plundering the strong man’s house. Believers in Christ are just one of the many things Jesus has plundered from the kingdom of Satan, we have been returned to our rightful master – those of the past who were called, those being called today, and those to be called before the second advent of the Christ. The Lord’s elect is evidence of the fact that Jesus has bound the strong man. But the elect is not the only prize, it is not the only inheritance of the Son, creation is too (Eph. 1:11; Col. 3:24; Heb. 9:15; 1 Pet. 1:4; Rev. 21:5). And given the relation between man and creation, then culture is too.[2]
All things considered, the claim Jesus made then is just as valid today, He has bound the strong man, He is plundering the strong man’s house, and when He returns, He will return as the victor, and the church will have borne witness of this over the long course of its history. And all those who have denied that Christ will have won the way He has won will be left silent, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10). Let us not be like the people who questioned Jesus’ power (Matt. 12:23), let us not grieve the Spirit by thinking that He is not powerful enough to effect such an overwhelming victory (Zech. 4:1), and let us embrace the Jesus that was prophesied in the Old and revealed in the New, not only as a suffering servant (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12), but as a divine warrior bringing all things subject to Himself, so that having subjected everything to Himself, He may subject it all to the Father, who is all in all (1 Cor. 15:27-28).
[1] See “Fall of Rome”, History Extra. Accessed November 11, 2023, https://www.historyextra.com/period/roman/fall-of-rome-how-why-when-roman-empire-collapse-romulus-augustulus/.
[2] Culture is the inevitable result of man’s interaction with creation.