If it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then know that the kingdom of God has come upon you. After some short teaching spell, Jesus re-embarked on his healing mission. On this particular day, it was a mute person who benefitted from Jesus’ healing power. However, not everybody who witnessed the healing was impressed. As if what Jesus had just done was not enough to prove that he was legit, some in the crowd pressed him for a sign. Others accused him of colluding with Beelzebub, the prince of demons, to perform his signs. It was a reaction that must have angered Jesus. How could they be so cruel to Jesus and to those he had been healing? Rather than engage them in a debate, Jesus took the opportunity to instruct them about what he had just done. If, as they were alleging, demons could be driven out through the power of Beelzebub, wasn’t that a good thing? Wasn’t that a sign that the demons were turning against each another and as such marking the end of their reign? But just to set the record straight, Jesus revealed by whose power he was driving out demons: God. His driving out demons was to be seen in the context of the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. There was no place for unclean spirits in the kingdom that Jesus was preaching. Those opposed to him were therefore to be on their guard not to make a home for the unclean spirits who had been cast out (for then their words will come to haunt them).
Jesus was driving out demons, not to compete with anybody, but rather as part of his mission. His ministry was all about restoring wholeness. The presence of unclean spirits in any society is a sign of the absence of God. Members of such a society are as such susceptible to every kind of illness under the sun (unclean spirits were understood in Jesus’ society to be the causes of sicknesses). An ill individual was not considered whole by any means. And so, in order to restore wholeness, Jesus had to do away with the very causes of illnesses. This is why in the Gospel according to Luke, the very first sign that Jesus works after “unveiling” his blueprint (cf. Luke 4:18-19) is the healing of a demoniac (cf. Luke 4:31-37). Casting out of unclean spirits was as such very much on top of the list of things that he had to do. The kingdom of God which he had come to inaugurate was incompatible with the presence of demons. If some in the crowd were looking for signs, they needed to look no further. For the kingdom was already in their midst.