The Forgivable, Unforgivable Sin - Mark 3: 20-35

He said his name was Ernesto, but everyone called him Ernie. Actually, the name he said everyone called him, I can’t repeat in polite company. He said I could call him Ernie. Ernie was about my size, a little over 6 feet tall. He had black hair that fell past his shoulders, tattoos up both forearms that looked like he could straighten out horseshoes by hand. Physically, he looked like he could be a middle linebacker for the Texans, a bouncer at the toughest bar in town, a motorcycle gang rider, an oilfield roughneck, and either an undercover cop or the guy the undercover cop was trying to bust. His voice was such a low rumble that it had to come from between his ankles and his knees. While it was a soft voice, he spoke so powerfully that whatever words passed by his mustache and goatee, you knew it was important. In a word, he was tough looking dude.

And, he sat in my office crying like a child who woke up at midnight, terrified of the dark. His job had kept him out of church for several weeks, so he had been listening to the radio and a preacher who preached about Jesus’ words, “Whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Even as he was telling me this story, Ernesto’s voice cracked and he had to stop for a moment. Finally, he got to the crux of his burdened conscience: “…and I am afraid I have done sinned against the Holy Spirit and I am going to hell.” He hung his massive head in his massive hands, and his massive shoulders shook with the massive pain and fear he was experiencing.

Any time Jesus speaks words of punishment, it leaves us with an uneasy feeling. But, usually, there is a word of hope for a child of God to cling to. For example, when the woman comes to Jesus and begs Him to show mercy and He dismisses her as a dog, she turns in hope, “But even a dog gets the crumbs that fall from the table.” There is usually a word to cling to, but when He speaks so clearly of eternal damnation, it is absolutely terrifying. And, Ernesto was terrified.

Jesus isn’t speaking into a vacuum. This is early in His ministry. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has healed many, He has preached and taught, He has called the disciples to follow Him. Meanwhile, the crowds grow as Jesus’ popularity starts to rise. They begin to follow after Him, pursuing Him so vehemently that even when He goes home, He can’t even eat. His family thinks He is delusional. The reason is unclear in Mark’s reading: perhaps they think He is shirking responsibilities as first-born son; perhaps they are displeased that he has become an itinerant rabbi; perhaps they have heard He is being labeled as Messiah and doesn’t seem to be denying that idea; perhaps there is jealousy, the idea he’s getting too big for his britches. But, the family isn’t the only ones doubting Him. The scribes go so far as to label Him, not God’s anointed but instead as Satan’s instrument.

It’s an old game – if you want to get rid of someone, discredit them. In today’s culture, it’s called “cancelling” someone – literally, you shame them into social non-existence so that they have the value of a cancelled stamp. Twist their own words. Take a sound-byte out of context and you can make anyone say almost anything you want to. It doesn’t even have to be openly said – just a whisper of inuendo with enough of a hint of righteous indignation, and the rumor mill will do the rest. The old adage “where there’s smoke, there must be fire” comes true again.  There’s nothing new under the sun. The devil tried to do it with God for Eve – did God really say? He was discrediting the Word of God. The scribes to it to Jesus. They wanted to get rid of this Man who is preaching and teaching in God’s name and growing in popularity, and they accuse that Man of being filled with demons instead of the Holy Spirit.

You have probably heard this before, “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand,” and “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” It’s funny…it’s often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, quoted in his 1858 speech accepting the nomination as Senator for Illinois. Lincoln was speaking of how slavery was dividing the nation. The words belong to Jesus. Jesus isn’t espousing political unity, or social programming, or whatever hot topic was on the tongues of people in Jerusalem. He was speaking of Himself and the false accusation of the scribes. 

The argument is simple: if Jesus is possessed by Beelzebul, then how is it possible that He is also driving the demons out? He uses two small parables: if you are going to break into the house of a very strong homeowner, you had better tie him up first so you can steal and plunder.  

It’s both a statement in present tense as well as future tense. Jesus is not of Beelzebul, but from God, and He has come to put satan in his place. More than that, Jesus will enter into satan’s place and proclaim victory. He is speaking of His own death and resurrection. Jesus is referring to His descent into hell. Jesus doesn’t knock on the devil’s door and beg for mercy. Jesus blows down satan’s door, strides into the devil’s own throne room, and declares that the battle is over and Jesus is the victor over sin, death and the grave. Satan no longer will have the final word of guilt and shame against the child of God. Jesus will take the world’s shame into Himself; He will absorb the world’s guilt. He will carry it to the cross and die the sinner’s death. He is God’s Son, the perfect Lamb of God. Christ’s death will be once-for-all, He will be the substitutionary, vicarious atonement, a perfect payment for all of mankind’s sins. Sacrifices, completed; prophesies, fulfilled; promises, satisfied. Although Jesus is still several years from the cross, His ministry is demonstrating His divine power. He heals the sick, making creation whole. He drives out unclean spirits, showing that satan’s days are numbered. He faces and resists temptation, perfectly fulfilling the Law of God. He is, already, the Savior of the World, sent by God for the forgiveness of the world.

So, if that is true, that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and that in Him there is full and free forgiveness of sins, why does He say that whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin?

You heard this last week, and you probably know John 3:16 by heart, “For God so loved the world that He sent His only-begotten Son, that whosover believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus is the Savior of the world because of God’s great love for His fallen creation. His death is the perfect payment for our sins. This is the gift. And the gift is received by faith. Faith receives the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection. But, man cannot receive the Gospel by himself. So, God provides the very thing needed: faith. Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, faith is completely, solely an act of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God works through Water and Word to create and sustain faith. You hear people speak of how they have decided to follow Jesus, or they have invited Jesus into their heart. Impossible.

Here’s an analogy that I use – wives, this is for you. Your husband wakes up, coughing, running a fever, aching. In a word, he’s miserable. You tell him that he’s sick. Of course, he insists he’s just fine. Finally, around lunch time, he goes to the doctor who then tells your dear, sweet hubby he is, in fact, sick and he needs to go home, take these meds, and rest. He comes home and you innocently ask, “What did the doctor say?” As if it’s a sudden revelation, he says, he’s sick. When did your hubby get sick? Was it when he got home? At the doctor’s office? When he woke up that morning? No. In reality, he’s been sick for a day or two – he just didn’t realize it. That’s an example from the negative. Turn the analogy: when we realize we have faith, it’s not because we have suddenly decided to follow Jesus. Faith isn’t because I suddenly woke up and said, “Yes! It’s true!” It’s because the Spirit of God has been at work in our hearts in ways we could never perceive, slowly planting the Gospel seed, nurturing it, growing it until we are able to say, “Yes, I believe.” Faith is the Spirit’s work in our lives.

So, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, is simply this: to deny Jesus is the Savior and disallow the Spirit’s work in us. It’s one of the great paradoxes of Christianity. On the one hand, the Word of God is irresistible. It does exactly that which God would have it do. It creates faith, it sustains life, it gives salvation and forgiveness of sins all by the power of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, it is also conversely resistable. The old adam, the sinful nature, is able to resist the working of the Spirit in the heart. Like the three monkeys, if the sinful nature refuses to hear it, to see it, to receive the Word of God, it is denying the Holy Spirit. In short, blaspheming the Spirit is the outright refusal to believe in Jesus as Savior.

The Jewish leaders, the Scribes, they were guilty of this terrible sin. They were in danger of the eternal fires of hell because they would not, could not, believe that this Jesus of Nazareth was also Messiah for whom they so long waited. He didn’t fit the mold; He didn’t meet their expectations. It couldn’t be Him!  Jesus’ family was also in danger. It was easier to mock their own than believe He could be of God.

A moment ago, I said we are used to having a nugget of hope when Jesus speaks of eternal damnation. There is a kernel of hope, here, as well. Repentance is confessing one’s sins and turning away from them. Even when a soul sins against the Holy Spirit, the Word continues to be preached and read and the Spirit continues to work against that hardened heart. When that Word penetrates into the cracks and crevices, the Law does it’s work and leads that soul to recognize how far they have fallen, how great of a sinner they are, and how desperately they need Jesus. They want to leave the old life behind and to follow the Savior, instead. It may only be a kernel of faith, but that small faith is placed in the greatness of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. That is the power of the Holy Spirit. And, for that soul, there is forgiveness – even of this seemingly unforgivable sin.

I told Ernesto that he had not, in fact, committed this unforgivable sin. The beautiful irony is this: only a person who has faith would worry about it! An unbeliever wouldn’t care if they had sinned against God. Ernesto was firmly, and faithfully, in the arms of Jesus, a baptized child of God.  

So, what I told Ernesto in my office, and what I say to all of you. If you have ever wondered, like him, if you have ever committed the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the answer is that yes, your old, sinful self did exactly that. But God, rich in mercy, has made you His through water and word, filling you with His Spirit, enabling you to believe in Jesus as the Savior, forgiving you of all your sins. In Christ, by grace through faith, your sins – including any doubt you may ever have - are not held against you.  To Ernesto and to you I say this: As a called and ordained servant of Christ, I forgive you all your sins – including that of doubt – in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Depart in peace, your sins have been forgiven. Amen.