Avoiding the Unpardonable Sin If you pay attention to the new, you may often hear the term “policy wonk.” A wonk is a slang term used for someone who takes an obsessive interest in minor details of a particular subject; it is often used as a criticism of someone immersed in useless detail and completely out of touch with the real world. Some argue that the term is an acronym based on the word KNOW spelled backward, With Out Normal Knowledge. Basically, a nerd. A wonk could be anyone who is so focused on the minutiae of a subject that he or she completely misses the big picture, and is thus left behind. While study of God’s word is critical to your spiritual health, it is equally important to guard against becoming a theological nerd. Knowing every aspect of scripture by chapter and verse does not mean you understand how to apply it to your life, nor does it ensure you can see God’s work in action in your daily lives. Celebrate What God Is Doing In the New Testament, the Pharisees are often depicted as theological wonks, more interested in the letter of the law, than the spirit of God’s Will. In today’s reading, the Pharisees witness a miracle performed by Jesus. Then they brought Him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.” But the everyday people saw God’s work in Jesus and celebrated His power flowing through this man. “Could this be the Son of David?” Could this be the Messiah, the Deliverer for whom the Jews had been waiting for generations? It did not take a scriptural scholar to recognize God’s works. Indeed, the theology wonks refused to witness this miracle. While Jesus does not physically walk the earth today, we can still witness the miracles of God’s work in our everyday lives. God’s power is infinite and his ways are often mysterious to us, until we open our hearts to receiving His love and our eyes and minds to seeing His will. While we are all guilty of sin and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), God’s love is infinite, and He offers salvation to all those who call on Him (Romans 10:13). We have God’s assurance that there is hope: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23) This assurance should give us all hope and joy in the darkest of times on earth. Even if we feel the whole world is fighting against us, we have God’s assurance that even though we fail to meet His perfect standard of perfection, we can spend eternity in His Glory in the presence of Christ Jesus! If we are all guilty of sin and can never meet God’s standard, how can we earn this salvation? We cannot EARN it; we RECEIVE it through God’s Grace. By following the Four Step Method of Salvation, we can be assured salvation in Christ Jesus. The four steps are: We should celebrate the works of God in our lives, whether they be spectacular, or mundane. Even during your times of trial, God’s love works for us; we are saved through His grace. Every success, every trial, and every lesson comes to us through Him. Participate in God’s Work In the battle between God and Satan, there is no neutrality. We cannot stand idly by while God performs His work, and Satan tries to temp us to stray from God’s work. He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. (v. 30) When it comes to God, you MUST choose. To quote the rock band Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Christ makes this clear in this passage. You can either choose to follow Jesus or oppose Jesus. Following Jesus demands action. We cannot truly receive God’s love and salvation without first repenting from our lives of sin. Repentance means to turn away from sin and live in a Godly manner. It is not enough to say you believe in God and Jesus, nor is it enough to memorize a few verses of the Bible. Knowledge does not make you a Christian, and it does not ensure salvation. You must not only turn away from sin, but also turn TOWARD a Godly life of service. You must participate in God’s work. On 17 March 1988, Pope John Paul II issued a document titled, “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah.” In this letter, Pope John Paul II confirms the horror of the Holocaust (The Shoah), and expressed his deep regret for the cost of hatred by a neo-pagan cult under the guise of Christianity, Nazi Germany. Many Catholic bishops, priests, religious and laity have been honored for this reason by the State of Israel. Nevertheless, As Pope John Paul II has recognized, alongside such courageous men and women, the spiritual resistance and concrete action of other Christians was not that which might have been expected from Christ's followers. We cannot know how many Christians in countries occupied or ruled by the Nazi powers or their allies were horrified at the disappearance of their Jewish neighbors and yet were not strong enough to raise their voices in protest. For Christians, this heavy burden of conscience of their brothers and sisters during the Second World War must be a call to penitence. We deeply regret the errors and failures of those sons and daughters of the Church. During the Holocaust, not all Christians acted in a Christian manner, because they did nothing to oppose those doing Satan’s work. A number of Christian leaders and lay people, both Catholic and Protestant, were guilty of idly standing by while Satan did his bidding. It is not necessary for us all to turn away from all worldly possessions and dedicate ourselves to a life of poverty and mission work in foreign lands; we are not all blessed with this gift. However, we must take ACTION to put God’s love to work in our daily lives. It is not enough to CONFESS that Jesus is Lord, and BELIEVE he died for our sins. In order to RECEIVE salvation through Christ, we must REPENT from sin; we must not only turn away from sin, but turn our lives around, and start living for God. We must be willing to serve and submit to God’s authority over us all. We must participate in God’s work! A Stern Warning: The Unpardonable Sin In this reading, the Pharisees’ jealousy and strict interpretation of scripture blinded them to the miracle Jesus performed by God’s grace and power. Jesus encountered a man who was blind and mute, apparently because of his demonic possession. Jesus was doing God’s work by healing the sick and casting out the demons attacking this man. The Pharisees only saw what they wanted to see: they saw the work of Satan. Is it possible the Pharisees truly believed that Jesus was doing the work of Satan? Not according to the Apostle John: Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3:1-2) The Pharisees KNEW that Jesus was a man of God. Why, then, would they proclaim that Jesus was doing the work of Satan, casting out demons by Beelzebub? These men were not interested in God’s will; they were interested in status quo, in preserving their own worldly power. Jesus gives a stern warning to the Pharisees against the only unpardonable sin in the Bible. And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age, or in the age to come. (vv. 31-32) What does it mean to blaspheme against the Spirit? In essence, it is attributing the works of the Holy Spirit to Satan. Some theologians argue that it is not possible to blaspheme against the Spirit today because we cannot directly witness Jesus doing God’s work. I, however, believe that it is possible to blaspheme against the Spirit by hardening our hearts against God so much that we no longer able to recognize God’s work. Blasphemy against the Spirit is not merely ignorance of God’s will, it is a WILLFUL ignorance. By hardening our hearts against God, we refuse to receive Jesus in our hearts. Without receiving Jesus, we cannot receive salvation. How can we identify someone who has committed this sin? We can’t. Jesus knew the thoughts of the Pharisees (v. 25), but we do not have this gift. Because we will never know the thoughts of others, we can never know whether someone has completely hardened his or her heart to God. This is good, because it discourages us from judging others. As far as we know, no one is beyond redemption; therefore, we must never quit trying to do God’s work. We must never give up on others. Ours is not to judge, but to serve. But rest assured that Judgment Day will come some day, and as Jesus said, “For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” (v. 37). While we will never measure up to God’s standards of perfection, we can achieve salvation, as long as we do not commit the only unpardonable sin: hardening our hearts against God. Amen.
Matthew 12:22-37
A policy wonk is a government worker who is so enthralled with the details and procedures of government, that no real action is taken. U.S. Presidents since Harry S. Truman have been famous for their distrust of the “striped pants boys at Foggy Bottom,” referring to the analysts at the Department of State, who often miss the entire forest for the trees, so concerned with the detail, they fail to understand the whole situation.
The Pharisees were jealous of the power of this traveling rabbi; they ultimately conspired to have him killed. The New Testament is rife with episodes of the Pharisees testing Jesus, trying to trap him into admitting sedition or breaking the Laws of Moses (Matthew 15: 1-10, Matthew 22:15-22, Mark 2: 23-27, etc.). Here, they actually attribute His power to the works of Beelzebub, to Satan himself!