The phrase “a house divided against itself cannot stand” comes from an incident recounted in both Matthew 12 and Luke 11. When the religious authorities see that Jesus cast out a demon from a man that prevented him from being able to speak, their response was this power could not have come from God, but from “Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.”
It’s a response that’s familiar to people who are not “supposed” to have a spiritual gift, who are not “supposed” to be able to have a healing impact on people.
Drag queens are right now in that category. When they use their gifts of entertainment to read to a child and lift their spirits, the reaction from today’s religious authorities is similar to the reaction of the Pharisees to Jesus: “That can’t be of God.”
Jesus’s response is that evil can’t use good to advance evil, for good will ultimately cause evil to collapse. It’s true that everyday life and everyday people are complicated; our actions are often a mix of good and less-than-good motivations. But when we are too quick to dismiss the good and instead focus on real or imagined negative motivations, we miss opportunities to see God’s love and goodness moving through the world around us. We miss opportunities to drive out the demons that plague our lives and our surroundings. We miss seeing people who have been marginalized brought to the center of God’s power to transform.
“Whoever is not with me is against me,” Jesus says. Or, put another way, whoever is not against Jesus is with Jesus. And what determines which side you are on? Loving God, neighbor, and self. Whenever we see that love heal and liberate another person, we should see God at work and rejoice—regardless of who happens to be the conduit for that love.