Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, February 19, 2013 Read – Luke 11:14-26 We noticed earlier that Luke broke off his use of Mark as a source at the very point where Mark tells the story of the accusation by the religious leaders that Jesus is doing his mighty works through the power of Beelzebul (Luke 6:16 and Mark 3:19). Mark had combined the rejection of Jesus by the religious leaders with the comment that Jesus own family had come to take him home because they thought Jesus was out of his mind (Mark 3:21). Apparently that had been too much of Luke – he totally omits it! Now, Luke picks up Mark’s story about the accusation of Jesus that he heals by the power of Beelzebul, dropping out any mention of Jesus’ family, and inserts it into his gospel. It is much safer to tell that story at this point – totally disassociated from the family of Jesus. The context of Mark’s story has been provided with a story of the healing of a mute man. Matthew shares the same context as Luke which leads to the speculation that the story about Beelzebul was shared by both Mark and “Q” – something which is unusual. But because we do not have a copy of “Q” to compare, perhaps there are more things in common between Mark and “Q” than we think. At any rate the context of Luke’s story is the healing of a mute man. And the point of the story is very similar to the point Mark had made – the religious leaders are wrong in their accusation of Jesus. Luke does add one more very distinctive piece to the story – that addition is the phrase “by the finger of God” (Luke 11:20). The phrase recalls the words of the magicians in Egypt when they are no longer able to repeat the plagues of Moses (Exodus 8:19). Once again following “Q” (Matthew 12:43-45) Luke tells of the unclean spirit who returns to his former host after wandering over waterless wastes and makes the situation even worse than before. The connection to the rejection of the religious leaders is what is important for Luke.