16. Other people wanted to test Jesus. They asked him to give them a sign from heaven.
17. But Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said to them, “Every kingdom that is divided and fights against itself will be destroyed. And a family that fights against itself will break apart.
18. So if Satan is fighting against himself, then how will his kingdom last? You say that I use the power of Beelzebul to force out demons.
19. But if I use the power of Beelzebul to force out demons, then by what power do your people force out demons? So your own people prove that you are wrong.
20. But if I use the power of God to force out demons, the kingdom of God has come to you!
21. “When a strong man with many weapons guards his own house, then the things in his house are safe.
22. But suppose a stronger man comes and defeats him. The stronger man will take away the weapons that the first man trusted to keep his house safe. Then the stronger man will do what he wants with the first man’s things.
23. “If anyone is not with me, he is against me. He who does not work with me is working against me.
24. “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it travels through dry places, looking for a place to rest. But that spirit finds no place to rest. So it says, ‘I will go back to the home I left.’
25. When the spirit comes back to that person, it finds that home swept clean and made neat.
26. Then the evil spirit goes out and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. Then all the evil spirits go into that person and live there. And he has even more trouble than he had before.”
27. When Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out. She said to Jesus, “Your mother is blessed because she gave birth to you and nursed you.”
28. But Jesus said, “Those who hear the teaching of God and obey it—they are the ones who are truly blessed.”
29. The crowd grew larger. Jesus said, “The people who live today are evil. They ask for a miracle as a sign from God. But they will have no sign—only the sign of Jonah.
30. Jonah was a sign for those people who lived in Nineveh. In the same way the Son of Man will be a sign for the people of this time.