Mark 3:20-35

"Jesus is crazy," that's what the people were saying. And any normal person in Jesus' day would have said the same thing. Jesus' behavior proves that. He was associating with sinners, and publicans, And eating with tax collectors, These undesirables even incited him to break the Sabbath. All of this started suddenly. One day Jesus wandered off into the desert. When he got back, half starved, he insisted that the Kingdom of God would come any minuet. Before anyone could talk sense to him he started wandering around going from Synagogue to Synagogue telling the people to repent and believe the good news, because God's very own Kingdom was coming. As a result Jesus was exposing himself to lepers and demon possessed people. They sought him out. They would come bringing their diseases to him. And the demons would verbally accost him. No person in their right mind would allow that to happen to them.

Some of these "normal" people who thought Jesus was crazy were genuinely concerned about Jesus. His mother and brothers and sisters heard what was going on. The crowds were so bad that Jesus was not even able to eat a decent meal. From their viewpoint he had obviously snapped. So they sought to take him home and let him rest in a sheltered environment.

While some of these "normal people" cared for Jesus, some of them didn't. The scribes and other religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat. All his talk about the coming kingdom might incite the people to riot. Or it could cause the Romans to crack down on the people. So they decided to use what the people were saying against Jesus. They Said, "Yes, Jesus is obviously crazy. He's beside himself. In fact he might even be possessed by Beelzebub the prince of all the demons. I'll bet that is why he is able to cast out demons so good."

Now Jesus was not blind to what was happening. He heard the rumor just like everyone else. So he addressed the crowd. And what he said was very logical. It was no the ranting of a mad man. What Jesus said was the carefully constructed logic of one in full command of his faculties. It was so logical that showed how illogical the scribes were to suggest that he was possessed.

He began with a simple proposition: "How can Satan cast out Satan?" Think about it. If an army is shooting its own soldiers that nation is falling apart. If Satan is casting out demons, then the powers of evil will fall, and soon. No one can steal from a powerful man without first tying him up, then they can steal his goods. If Satan's demons are being cast out, Then someone must have tied Satan up or he would stop them. Only the power of God can bind the devil.

Jesus' logic was irrefutable. He had put the scribes in their place. He even showed that, if he has the power to cast out demons, then that power came from God. But that wasn't all Jesus said to them. As soon as he finished refuting their argument he addressed the spiritual disease that incited them to say what they said. Jesus said, "I am telling you the truth. God will forgive any sin you can commit; even blasphemy. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin. For you have said, 'He has an unclean spirit.'"

I feel I need to pause here for a moment and talk about what Jesus has said here. This "unforgivable sin" talk is disturbing to us. It's disturbing because it seems to be contrary to everything we are taught about Jesus and about our heavenly Father. Just the verse before Jesus says that any sin can be forgiven, even blasphemy, presumably against God. Why should Blasphemy against one person of the trinity be more serious than blasphemy against the entire Godhead. Refusing to forgive someone for this sin does not seem like the act of a God who would sacrifice his only begotten for our salvation.

To understand this saying we have to keep it in its context. When Jesus says, "sin against the Holy Spirit," he is referring to the spiritual state of the scribes. They said, "Jesus is possessed by a demon." They were so evil, they were completely blind to the presence of God in their midst. The job of the Spirit in an unsaved person is to show them that there is good and evil and that they are evil. In other words it convicts them of their sinfulness. It also shows them that Jesus is Good and the opposite of what they are. Wesley called this spiritual gift of conviction prevenient grace. It is a gracious gift for God to show us our sinful condition. And it prepares the way for us to receive the gift of salvation. If one never accepts the council of the spirit; namely the council that we are evil and Jesus is good, one can never be lead to repentance and hence salvation. The scribes had not yet accepted that divine guidance. If they had they would have known that Jesus was good and they were bad. And the fact that they said that Jesus was evil proves that they had not yet. Oh yes at that point when Jesus was talking to them they could be saved. All they had to do was accept the spirit's guidance that they were evil and repent of that. But if they died without ever accepting the truth they would have committed a sin that they could not have been forgiven of.

The unforgivable sin is not a single act. It is not committing a sin after salvation, we all do that. It is not simply saying something that might be insulting to the Holy Spirit. It is the habit of constantly ignoring the truth that we are sinners and Christ is perfect. It is the habit of constantly ignoring the guidance of the spirit that would lead us to salvation.

You know there are always people who say, "Jesus has an unclean spirit." Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was written only 30 to 40 years after Jesus ascended. The church was still small and on the fringe of the main line religions. Most people thought Christianity was just another cult. And that Christians were just a bunch of lunatics.

It is easy to imagine how they heard this story. In it people say the same thing about Jesus that they were saying about their church. And Jesus skillfully and logically showed how illogical those people were who said that Christians are crazy. After all hadn't Jesus cleaned up their lives. He had cast out the sin that had possessed their lives. How can that be evil. How can the order that he gave to them be crazy.

But that is not all. Sometimes these early Christians would even be disowned by their families because they became Christians. Their own family members would say they had taken leave of their senses. And some families probably even went after their loved ones to bring them back to sanity. I am sure it was comforting for them to know that the same thing happened to Jesus their Lord. And for those who had lost their families to rejection or martyrdom, it was probably good to know they were not alone. Jesus had claimed them as his brothers and sisters and parents.

You know there are still some people who think Jesus was crazy. And the powers of evil proclaim, "You Christians are crazy." They say "People are innately good, but you crazy Christians say we are sinful." They say "Just look at what human beings can accomplish." They say "There is not good or evil, everything is what we decide it is." And they say, "Jesus was nothing more than an apocalyptic madman who ran around saying the world was coming to an end." "You Christians aren't just crazy to follow him, you are possessed!"

But we know where they are headed. Because we know that humans are sinful and Christ is good. And we know that we are helpless without God.

They are right about one thing, we are possessed. But if evil is bound by our crazy activity, then what possesses us is not evil. We are not possessed by Beelzebub or any other demon. We are possessed by the Holy Spirit of God which binds Satan and plunders evil's house.