Lincoln Said It. Jesus Said It First.

Pop quiz. Who said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand"?

If you said Abraham Lincoln, you're in good company. Most folks would. It's carved into our history books. On June 16, 1858, in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln accepted his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate and gave what we now call the "House Divided" speech. He was talking about a nation split over slavery, and he said the country could not stay half slave and half free.

But Lincoln didn't make that line up, and plenty of folks in his audience would have recognized it. He was quoting Jesus.

The accusation

Turn with me to Mark chapter 3. Jesus is healing people and casting out demons, and the crowds are so big he can't even eat. Some religious experts come all the way down from Jerusalem to investigate. They can't deny that something supernatural is going on, so they settle on an explanation:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul," and "by the prince of demons he casts out the demons." (Mark 3:22)

Think about that. They watched people get set free, and their conclusion was "He's working for the devil."

Jesus' answer

Jesus doesn't get rattled. He calls them over and reasons with them. It's almost funny how simple he makes it:

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. (Mark 3:24-25)

In other words, use your head, fellas. If Satan were casting out Satan, he'd be tearing down his own operation. No army fires on its own troops on purpose. No business sabotages its own store. What you're seeing isn't Satan fighting Satan. It's Somebody stronger walking into Satan's house.

And that's exactly what Jesus says next:

But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house. (Mark 3:27)

The strong man is Satan. The goods are people, the very people Jesus has been setting free all chapter long. And Jesus is the One who binds the strong man. Can I get an amen on that?

How the phrase traveled

Matthew and Luke record this moment too, and in the old King James the words became part of everyday English. When Lincoln stood up in 1858, he could count on a Bible-reading audience recognizing the source. Today we use "a house divided" for all kinds of things: a family torn up over an inheritance, a church split over carpet color, a political party, a nation, or a home where one spouse roots for the Gators and the other for the Seminoles.

All of those uses are true enough. Division destroys. But don't miss Jesus' original point. He wasn't giving a lecture on teamwork. He was telling us whose side he's on. He's not working with the darkness. He came to tear it down.

Two takeaways

First, Jesus has the power to bind what binds you. Whatever has a grip on you, whether it's the habit you can't shake, the darkness you can't explain, or the sin you keep running back to, Jesus is stronger than the strong man. He came to plunder that house and carry you out of it.

Second, God's people shouldn't be a house divided. The reason Lincoln's line hits home is that we've all seen it. We've seen what division does to homes, churches, and communities. Want your home to stand? Make peace. Want your church to stand? Make peace. Jesus prayed for his followers,

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:21)

Did you catch that? Our unity is part of our witness. And it isn't unity we work up on our own. Jesus himself "has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14). At the cross he did what we couldn't: he made enemies into family.

So is there a wall up in your house this week? A cold war at the dinner table? A grudge in the pew? Bring it to the One who binds strong men and breaks down walls.