Today's Gospel in Art: It is through the 'Finger of God' I cast out devils

Mukurob Rock Formation - 'The Finger of God', by Stephen Volz, Colour slide © University of Wisconsin-Madison Library

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 8th October 2021 - Luke 11:15-26

When Jesus had cast out a devil, some of the people said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he casts out devils.' Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven; but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin, and a household divided against itself collapses. So too with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? - since you assert that it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils. Now if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils, through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges then. But if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you. So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are undisturbed; but when someone stronger than he is attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.

'He who is not with me is against me; and he who does not gather with me scatters.

'When an unclean spirit goes out of a man it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it says, "I will go back to the home I came from." But on arrival, finding it swept and tidied, it then goes off and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, so that the man ends up by being worse than he was before.'

Reflection on the Natural Sculpture

This photograph here depicts a landmark that no longer exists: Mukurob or else better known as the 'Finger of God'. This landmark collapsed on the 7th of December 1988 and is no more. It isn't a work of art by an artist, but it was a work of art sculpted by nature herself. Near Asab in Namibia, this sandstone rock formation in the Namib Desert used to draw many tourists.

So what does today's Gospel sentence 'but if it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils' mean? The 'finger of God' is mentioned in two passages in the Hebrew Bible. Firstly when the magicians of Pharaoh conceded defeat before Moses (Exodus 8:19) and a second time when the two stone tablets were inscribed with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18). It is this same 'finger of God' that Jesus mentions for casting out devils. He thus states that he is the Moses who heralds the New Covenant-based Kingdom of God.

I do think that the image of the finger of God Is powerful. It is the same finger that etched the stone tablets. The finger of God is the delicate, tender, precise finger that can also etch our own souls through the working of the Holy Spirit. Just as the wind has carved out the stone nature sculpture that we see in our illustration, so can the continuous working of the Holy Spirit carve out our own souls for the glory of God.

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/953
Christian Art - www.christian.art/