A Mote for a Mote

“But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

The strong man takes possession of the world. I’ve been thinking of the monastic vow of poverty, recently, and it has become illumined in respect to the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

Being poor in spirit is walking with humility; those of us who, graciously, are stronger knowing they are not in control. There is a vulnerability and a dependence on God. A vow of poverty externally manifests as not seeking riches during our pilgrimage here on earth. Beyond the surface expression, the inward reality of a the vow creates space for the spirit to minister unto us and through us, as we move out of the way—no longer identifying with our passions. 

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

The strong man’s house, or a tower, is where we find his goods. Christ speaks about the devil here, locking men away in their towers; there they are all blind and dumb. Blind to the kingdom; dumb to the works of God. The δαιμονίζομαι of a man, demonized to the point of madness. It is the Word of God that enters into the strong man’s house and binds the devil in order to take the goods of his house, spoil becomes plunder. The goods of the tower were captives of the devil. 

Christ has demonstrated that He is not under the thralldom of the devil like those of us in the world desperately holding on to our tower’s good. We cling to living under the servitude of the devil, because in this state we feel as if we are God–living in a false feeling of control, where we are mouth pieces of the devil, the slanderer and divider—διάβολος, pronounced diabolos.

It is Christ who sets us free from captivity. He is the Light that provides sight to the blind; He is the Truth that provides wisdom to the dumb. 

This confrontation with the Pharisees begins with Christ being brought a man “possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.” The healing is inherent to the ministry of Christ, which is why the healing of this man, possessed by a devil, is almost secondary to the fullness of Truth happening above his newfound sight. 

This encounter is a healing from Christ unto us. There is a reveal of the Pharisees inner character, “when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.” 

Mouth pieces of the devil. It is why, we as sinners, must be vigilant of our own perspectives, because we act as Pharisees everyday and don’t know it.

It is a state of blindness that we live in, blind to the world, blind to Other, blind to experiences outside of our own towers.

This blindness is a possession and is taken for granted in our modern society as we have lived under the tutelage of the blind leading the blind for so long that none can see and this blindness is a “normal” state of being, so much so that to tell someone there is another way of seeing is simply too catastrophic to their reality.

It is rejected outright, without investigation.

Christ’s healing takes form in His remonstration of the Pharisees, and as disciples of Him it is an advocation of our own self-examination—μετανοώ.

Repent; go beyond what we cling to, banish what we walk with and reorient the way in which we see the world, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.”

How do we allow this light to shine brightly?

Poverty.

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

“Hypocrite” is ὑποκριτής in Greek. It means two things: assumption of a portrayal, one who adopts a position of superiority to cast their judgment and it also means interpreter and dissembler. An interpreter is one who conceptualizes and overanalyzes. Combined, this is calling people out for assuming the role of one who breaks things down. 

This is like when we say we are playing devil’s advocate—a hypocrite is one who mimics the role of divider, because when we interpret things, we are attaching ourselves to them. We are projecting our own wants and desires onto them, thereby taking possession of them. 

When we possess something, it possesses us. 

Heavy stuff.

This is all done in the name of objectivity—a false front. The mote in one’s eye is one’s own assumptions, possessions, wants, and drives: what we are clinging to, what we are with that is obscuring our perception of reality and our connection to God. 

The mote keeps us locked in a way of thinking, filtering out our own predetermined beliefs, assumptions, and opinions. It is a lens that conjures a reality separate from Other, damming our ability to properly engage with the world. The mote creates a need to project our own reality onto Other: person, place, or thing, because when we project, we permit judgment. 

When we are in that state of division, we are worried about what we have, our possessions and we enter into the role of hypocrite: The Pharisees had reason to shape the reality of the world to conform to their positions. They had wealth and power that a kingdom of God would nullify. Christ’s preaching that the Kingdom is within was taking power away from the Pharisees so they’re method of attack was to deny the existence and reality of that Kingdom by claiming that the works of the Khristós were the works of Beelzebub. 

Scripture points out that Christ saw their thinking when he asked them how he could do such works to cast out demons through demons. 

He saw their thoughts. He knew their thoughts. The Pharisees were, in an archonic sense—black magicians, working to conform reality to what they wanted it to look like while Christ saw reality as it was; He saw the Kingdom and as the good shepherd He willed for us to know it, too. He called their blasphemy the greatest of all blasphemies because in their effort to deny the Kingdom of God that is what they did to themselves.

They insulated themselves from the Kingdom. They did not insulate themselves out of ignorance, because they saw the works of the Kingdom expressed through the Son and still they denied, they rejected, and tried to disavow the Father’s Works.

And by denying the Father and the Son, they denied it to the people who they had power over. 

This is their blasphemy. This is unforgivable, because how can God forgive those who would deny His forgiveness? Those who would deny His power? His Love?

When we deny ourselves Love we give in to Hate making us turn in on ourselves and away from the Most High.

“He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” We dissipate into our own sin. We allow our mind to become divided, led by our passions and consumerism—led over there then over here, then yonder, every step vanishing more and more into outer darkness.

I isolated myself from Other by living with hatred, living with fear; walking with what divides us. It leads to our own destruction, always. That is what the enemy wants, and what I believe we cling to, as well.

We are afraid of being with God.

It is easier to be with hatred. It is easier to be with fear. It is easier to give up our own power than recognize it as our birthright as children of God. Frankly, it’s a lot easier to hold on to what poisons us than being truly free. When we are bound in the strong man’s house, we are accustomed to our burdens, so much so that we cannot fathom a different way of being.

When we put on an impoverished mind, a repentance practice, and step into a world outside our towers we are able to hear Truth speak:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Si comprehendis, non est Deus