Unforgivable?

Mark 3:22-30

Have you ever been singing a popular song only to discover that you’re belting out the wrong lyrics? Misunderstanding lyrics is a common mistake that can take on a life of its own. Taylor Swift single “Blank Space” is a good example. Some Swifties think one line in the song says “all the lonely Starbucks lovers.” What it actually says is “got a long list of ex-lovers.” Funny thing is, Taylor Swift’s OWN MOM thought the Starbucks line was correct.[i]

There are lots of other songs that have lines that are commonly sung wrong. To Elvis’ Suspicious Minds, People sing “We’re caught in a trout” instead of “We’re caught in a trap.”

The line “I just died in your arms tonight, It must have been something you said,” is often sung as “I just died in your barn tonight, mustard no mayonnaise instead.”

Message In a Bottle by The Police has a line that says “A year has passed since I wrote my note,” but people often sing “A year has passed since I broke my nose.”

The Bee Gees’ lyric “more than a woman, more than a woman to me” is often misunderstood as “Bald-headed woman, bald-headed woman to me.”

The line “Papa don’t preach” from Madonna’s song by the same name is often sung as “Poppadom peach.”

The Monkees’ song “I’m a Believer” has a line that says “Then I saw her face, now I’m a believer” that is often understood as “Then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her.”

And Selena Gomez’s line “I’m 14 carat” in her song “Good for you” … “I’m farting carrots.”

Yes, sometimes misunderstandings can be humorous. Sometimes, not so much. Like the couple who argued for days when the wife came home from a weekend away with friends and to a freshly painted living room, compliments of her husband. She was furious. He thought it was because she didn’t like the color he chose. She actually loved the color and genuinely appreciated his effort and gift, and was finally able to verbalize that. She was upset about the fact that he made the decision to paint the living room without her. She was upset about being left out of the process. He was upset because his surprise gift was being rejected. It was an object lesson in misunderstanding. Fortunately, with a little help, they were able to work through it together. There are few things more annoying and frustrating than being misunderstood. Turn with me to Mark 3:22-30.

The scribes were highly educated Jewish legal and theological experts. And they come down from Jerusalem to Capernaum to evaluate the impact of Jesus’ ministry on the village of Capernaum. Actually, from our perspective Capernaum is “up” from Jerusalem, because it’s north of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is several thousand feet higher than Capernaum, up in the mountains, so from that perspective, they came down to Capernaum.

They’ve already decided that Jesus is a problem. Jesus and his disciples haven’t been abiding by their rules, and they’ve gone from curious to annoyed to furious. And they’ve gone from indirectly attacking Jesus – asking questions and trying to get him to do something wrong so they could pounce – to leveling direct accusations against him. They cannot deny his power. They’ve seen him heal, even on the Sabbath. They’ve seen him drive out demons. And they cannot deny his wisdom. They’ve been silenced by his replies to their comments and questions.

They no longer question his power and wisdom. Now they question the source of it. And they offer two accusations: 1. That Jesus is demon possessed. And 2. That Jesus casts out demons by colluding with the prince of demons. He’s possessed himself, and he’s working with the prince of demons to accomplish his great miracles. They absolutely refuse to admit that his power and wisdom come from God, but they also can’t deny that he has both power and wisdom. So they’re left with only one option – the work of Jesus is the work of the devil himself.

The religious leaders were more interested in holding on to tradition than the work that God was doing right in front of them. Yes, God had absolutely spoken to them through Moses and the Old Testament law, but over the centuries, usually with good intentions, they had made additions along the way. Not new laws, per se. But ways to make sure people didn’t even come close to breaking the law, and ways to judge whether someone was keeping the law or not. When rules replace a relationship with God, legalism is always the result. Instead of teaching people to focus more on their own relationship with God and their own faithfulness to God’s law than on others, they created a system in which everyone was evaluating everyone else’s degree of faithfulness.

And their traditions led to the religious leaders having a lot of power and influence, because they were the educated ones who could read and write and who had the authority in the eyes of the people to define what faithfulness looked like. And Jesus was calling all of that into question. They had the word of God, the law of God, right in front of them, and they misunderstood. And over the centuries their misunderstanding became deeper and more significant. By the time Jesus showed up, their rules and traditions had become entrenched, and the people chafed under the burden of all of the religious dos and don’ts.

Still, the religious leaders had their authority. And Jesus never once questioned their authority. But when the people compared the teaching of Jesus with the teaching of the scribes, they were constantly left in wonder. Almost from the beginning, Mark tells us that “they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22). In Jesus, they saw REAL authority, they experienced REAL authority. And by comparison, the teaching of the scribes came up wanting. It came up wanting because the teaching and actions of Jesus were ushering in the Kingdom of God, while their teaching and actions were trying to maintain tradition and the status quo.

So they misunderstood Jesus, and that led them to demonize him. Look at V. 22. Beelzebul was one of the gods of the Philistines in the Old Testament. So not only are they accusing Jesus of being connected with demons, they are accusing him of being connected with one of the false gods of one of Israel’s biggest enemies before Babylon. They’re accusing Jesus of being connected to the worst of the worst of the powers of darkness.

They demonize Jesus, because that is what we do when we don’t understand. The history of the church – the people of God in the world – is filled with this group accusing that group of unfaithfulness and blasphemy. First it was the split between Rome and Constantinople – what is now the Catholic church and the Eastern Orthodox. And then the Protestant Reformation led to some good, healthy changes, but also represents another split in the church. And now we as Protestants think we have the corner on grace. In spite of the face that we have, since the time Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the castle church in Wittenberg, the protestant church has splintered in a million different directions, and continues to do so. We may not demonize Jesus, but we sure do demonize one another.

A recent article in Men’s Health spotlighted the unlikely friendship of Colin Allred and Van Taylor. Colin Allred and Van Taylor have a lot in common. They’re both freshman lawmakers in the US House of Representatives. They’re both from Texas. They’re both used to being part of a team: Allred spent four seasons in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans; Taylor was in the Marines for nine years.

But there’s one major difference: Allred is a Democrat and Taylor a Republican. At a time when our government is intensely polarized, you’d have every reason to believe these two aren’t friends and don’t get along. But they are, and they do.

Men’s Health asked how they managed to remain friends. Here is some of their advice:

Allred: You could spend all your time focused on where you disagree with someone. You could have a good argument every day if you wanted to, but you wouldn’t get much done. And anytime you don’t have a relationship with somebody, it’s gonna be easier to demonize them.

Taylor: You want to focus on what you can work on together. You have to accept the arguments on the other side as valid when they are. At least understand what they are so that you are able to converse. Because if you don’t know anything about what the other side is talking about, you’re not going to be able to understand their perspective.

Taylor: No two people agree with each other all the time. If you don’t believe me, ask your significant other.

Allred: And there are important differences! And that’s what our elections are about. That’s democracy. That’s healthy. What isn’t healthy is when you assume that the person who disagrees with you is also a bad person. Because if you can’t disagree without thinking someone else is bad or evil, then you start pulling apart the seams of our country, and we have to be very careful about that.[ii]

Now, everything in Scripture points to Jesus, so lets look at how Jesus handles it when the scribes from Jerusalem misunderstand, and then demonize him. Look at Vv. 23-26. Jesus stomps off in a huff. No. He starts yelling and screaming at them. No. He tries to shame them with an irrefutable Facebook post. No. He tells a story.

He points out the error in their logic, but he doesn’t shame them. He points out the obvious, and then he tells a story. “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” But the first thing he does is center his purpose in confronting and defeating Satan. “How can Satan cast out Satan?” This has nothing to do with some demonic prince. Jesus’ life and ministry was a direct confrontation with Satan, the king of demons.

And Jesus is very clear. Satan is still strong. Look at V. 27. Satan is the strong man. Jesus is the stronger one. He enters the strong man’s house. His territory. This fallen, sinful world. And he overpowers the strong man. Jesus has bound the strong man, and is plundering his house. But he isn’t strutting his stuff. He isn’t yelling and screaming. He isn’t trying to shame them. He is speaking the truth gently, through a story, a parable. He is inviting the scribes, and the other people around them, to think with him. Jesus is trying to win them over, not win over them. Today, we’re more interested in winning over people, in winning the argument, than we are in winning people over to Christ. We think we can shame people, or outshout them, and still win them to Christ, and we can’t. Jesus doesn’t yell and scream. He doesn’t try to shame them. He tries to win them over.

But he does offer a warning, again, indirectly. He doesn’t accuse anyone of anything here. He simply makes a statement. Look at Vv. 28-30. The first thing Jesus says is positive. There is no sin that a human can commit that God will not forgive, up to and including blasphemy. Blasphemy is a defiant attitude of hostility toward God. St. Paul, prior to coming to Christ, was a blasphemer. He spoke against Christ, did NOT believe that Jesus was the messiah, and openly spoke of wanting to kill those who followed Christ.

In fact, he was there when Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to death, giving his approval. He wasn’t a good man. He was a blasphemer. But he repented. He gave his life to Christ. He received and accepted God’s forgiveness. And his life was forever changed. He was, himself, martyred for his faith in Christ. As pastor Erwin Lutzer says, “There is more grace in God’s heart than there is sin in your past.”[iii]

But then Jesus offers this warning. “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Millions of Christians have spent tons of time worrying that they have somehow, unknowingly, committed this sin. Like God is trying to trap them in it or something. God isn’t like that. He isn’t trying to fool, or trick, or trap us so that he doesn’t have to forgive us. Malicious human beings are like that. God is not.

Remember the context. First, Jesus is speaking directly to the religious leaders. Those who had direct access to the word of God and supposedly knew how to interpret it. Secondly, he is offering a warning, not accusing anyone of anything, including those who were accusing him of demonic activity.

These religious leaders had heard him teach with their own ears. They had seen him heal and cast out demons with their own eyes. They could not deny any of that. They had seen it, as had the people flocking to see Jesus. They weren’t denying the existence of Jesus, or of God, as atheists do. Many atheists have come to faith in Christ. They weren’t denying his power either. They couldn’t. They and everyone around them had seen it firsthand. They were attributing it to a work of the devil. And Mark tells us that “they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” There is repetition. They didn’t just say it once. It was over and over again. And there is callousness there. It’s a fixed attitude. If you’re even worried that you have somehow accidentally committed this sin, you haven’t.

We also need to understand that Jesus often used hyperbole, overstatement, to make a point. He’s certainly pointing out that they’re on a dangerous path toward unremitting unbelief, of heading to their graves without ever responding to what Jesus had done right in front of their eyes. In John 6:37, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” There is absolutely no repentant heart that Jesus will turn away. Not ever. God’s forgiveness is unrelenting and unforgiving. Jesus is warning the religious leaders to not be so hardened that they cannot see what God is doing in front of them and refusing to repent. Because dying apart from Christ is ultimately what leads to eternal death. Not dying before you can say “I’m sorry.” Dying without turning your heart over to Christ. That’s what Jesus is warning them about. And they are on that path. They’re alive. There is still time to repent. But with each repetition of their blasphemous statement, “Jesus is evil,” they take a step closer to that ultimate fate.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is the defining moment in history. And your knowledge of his life, death, and resurrection for YOU is the defining moment of your life. What are you going to do with it? Jesus tried to win people over, not win over them. What’s your approach? Let us pray.

[i] Staff, “Even Taylor Swift’s Mom Got That ‘Blank Space’ Lyric Wrong — Here’s Why,” Yahoo Life (5-26-15)

[ii] Editors “The Right (and Left) Way to Disagree,” Men’s Health Magazine, (January-February, 2020), pp. 61-62.

[iii] Pastor Erwin Lutzer