Perspective: Unforgivable

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Unforgivable

Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Matthew 12:32 (NRSV)

Here you are down on your knees again
Trying to find air to breathe again
And only surrender will help you now
I love you, please see and believe again

From "Again" by Flyleaf

Until I graduated from High School, I attended Christian schools exclusively, so every school day I had to attend either chapel or Bible class.  One day, in my tenth grade Bible class, the teacher asked us if we knew what the "unforgivable sin" was.  At least one of the students answered, "Adultery."  That student was incorrect, but, considering the values of the school and the church to which it was attached, one could see how he would reach such a conclusion.  In the Bible, we read of adulterers and murderers who find forgiveness for their transgressions.

Is there any transgression that is truly unforgivable?

In the Gospel of Matthew we read a story in which Jesus seems to suggest that His accusers have crossed a line from which there might be no turning back.

One day Jesus is brought a man who has been suffering from blindness and muteness, both of which have been attributed to a demon.  Jesus miraculously heals the man, and the people around them respond in different ways.  Some people are amazed by the healing, and they start to wonder if Jesus might be the Messiah.  Some of the religious leaders, who have been routinely critical of Jesus, scoff at the miracle, suggesting that Jesus casts out demons using demonic power.  Jesus pokes holes in His accusers' logic, reasoning that demons cannot accomplish anything if they are turned against each other and calling into question how His detractors' own exorcists are able to cast out demons.¹

Jesus then makes a rather disturbing statement.  He says,
I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.  Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.²

So what exactly is Jesus saying?

Before Jesus began His public ministry, He went to the Jordan River to be baptized.  As He was coming up out of the water, the heavens were torn open; the Spirit of God took the form of a dove and landed upon Jesus; and a Voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."³  The Son of God, at His baptism, received both the blessing of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Throughout the Gospel story, when Jesus heals people or casts demons out of people, He is doing so by the power of the very Spirit of God.

When some of the religious leaders suggest that Jesus is using demonic power to cast out demons, they are not simply insulting Him.  They are suggesting that what is clearly an act of God is actually an act of the devil.  This, Jesus seems to be saying, is unforgivable.

Is it possible that Jesus' accusers could see the error of their ways, change their minds, and seek forgiveness?

Maybe.  Maybe not.

Perhaps the fatal error of Jesus' accusers was not saying what they said but rather the arrogance and hardheartedness that led them to say what they said.  Jesus goes on to say that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."⁴  Scholar William Barclay suggests, regarding Jesus' accusers,
They had for so long been blind and deaf to the guidance of God's hand and the promptings of God's Spirit, they had insisted on their own way for so long, that they had come to a stage when they could not recognize God's truth and goodness when they saw them.  They were able to look on incarnate goodness and call it incarnate evil; they were able to look on the Son of God and call him the ally of the devil.⁵

The religious leaders who accuse Jesus of being in league with demons are dead wrong, so they desperately need to repent and change their attitude toward Jesus.  Unfortunately, they are so certain of their own rightness, they are currently incapable of changing their minds.

On the cesspool formerly known as Twitter, I regularly see people who claim to be Christians malign kind and compassionate pastors because they happen to disagree with them on certain issues.  Some accusers go so far as to call these pastors demonic, not unlike Jesus' own accusers.  Apparently, some people think that they understand God's will so well that anyone who disagrees with them must be working for Satan.  Last I checked, love, kindness, and gentleness are fruits of the Holy Spirit⁶ and not works of the devil.

Jesus began His ministry by announcing, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."⁷  If God is at work in our midst, then we need to be willing to change our minds, our hearts, and our lives.  If we have become absolutely certain that we have figured God out, then we have become incapable of repentance, and we have excluded ourselves from what God is doing in the world.


Notes:

1. Matthew 12:22-30
2. Matthew 12:31-32 (NRSV)
3. Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
4. Matthew 12:34 (NRSV)
5. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume Two.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 51
6. Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)

The Blind and Mute Man Possessed by Devils was painted by James Tissot in the late 1800s.