Mark 3:28-30
‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
These few verses have occasioned more consternation, and even fear, among faithful Christians than almost any others in the Bible. They are also among the most challenging to interpret, as few biblical scholars are confident that they know exactly what Jesus means here. (And this may, naturally, have contributed to some of the anxiety!) For this reason, I think it’s worth taking a brief break from our journey through Mark’s story of Jesus to reflect briefly on these vexing verses.
Perhaps the thing we should say upfront is that the reason these verses feel rather threatening is because they seem to name one sin – blaspheming the Holy Spirit – that cannot be forgiven. It seems, that is, that there is a possibility that there is something we can do that may put us beyond the pale of God’s grace. We therefore – and I think understandably – may want to know exactly what this sin is. So, two things on this count:
1) It seems that this sin revolves around rejecting God’s good work in Christ as the work of the devil. Failing to recognize God’s messiah, rejecting the new revelation of God in Christ, refusing to acknowledge the work of the Spirit of God to renew and redeem creation – these are what most scholars think Jesus is naming here. But that doesn’t mean it’s a one-time slip of the lip or anger in the heart. There’s a sense of an on-going rigidity or constant setting-one’s-face-against God’s activity that seems to be implied. Indeed, the sin Jesus seems to name is an on-going, even permanent refusal to be open to the movement of the Spirit.
2) Which leads to the second important thing to say: You can’t sin in this way by accident. In fact, what Jesus is talking about is less something you do – an action or word – and more of a complete way of being – living in utter rejection of God. So if you’re at all worried about committing this sin, I can assure you that you haven’t.
Finally, we can never underestimate the degree to which these passages were originally intended for a specific audience. Mark, that is, may have told this part of his story about Jesus in order to address a particular concern or question of his community and may not have imagined that 2000 years later we’d be sitting here wondering and worrying about these particular verses. Some verses are harder to interpret than others precisely because they are rooted in the questions and context of a particular community. So while we do well always to be concerned with the meaning of Jesus’ sayings, our salvation doesn’t rest on getting them exactly right but on God’s grace alone.
And with that in mind, let’s return to our regularly scheduled trip through Mark’s story of Jesus.
Prayer: Dear God, remind us that there is nothing in all creation that can separate us from your love in and through Christ Jesus our Lord, and use us to share this good news with other. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
thanks
Well put – both reassuring and challenging.