There is a sentence, found in Luke 11.20 and Matthew 12.28, worth adding to the list of cool phrases:  “The kingdom of God has come upon you.”  It has the ring of a great Tolkien-like adventure.

The background story is familiar to many.  Jesus has been traveling Galilee, healing the sick and casting out demons.  After healing a mute man (who is also blind in the Matthew version) by casting out a demon, doubters dismissed the event as sorcery: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

Jesus pushes back with the famous line, echoed in an 1856 speech by Abraham Lincoln, that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.  If Jesus’ power is from Satan, and he is casting out Satan’s minions, then Satan’s house will be weakened.  He asks the doubters, “If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons (probably associates) cast out demons? “ And then he forces them to face the key question of Jesus’ true identify:

“But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Like Jesus’ audacious claims to fulfill the scriptures (Luke 4.21), to forgive sins (Mark 2.5), to be the Son of God (Luke 22.70), this phrase sounded like blasphemy to many.  But, IF he is God, then he is simply teaching the truth, and doubters then and now  need to understand and listen to what Jesus  has to say.