INSTANT REPLAY – The Practice of Posting Last Week’s Sermon Manuscript
“UNFORGIVABLE” – July 12, 2015 – Shawnee Church of the Nazarene
Author: Jason T. Rowinski
Calendar: Ordinary Time
Sermon Series: “The HARD SAYINGS of JESUS”
Sermon Text: Mark 3.20-35
Homiletical Method: Paul Scott Wilson’s “4 Pages of a Sermon”
Note: (1) The small variances between manuscript & live sermon is because I preach from a one page outline. Consequently, I don’t say everything exactly the same. For my personality, it’s just as important to be physically engaged and relational in my preaching disposition. (2) The images you see here are the visual media I use with the text on screen as I preach, similar to a Ted Talk.
Mark 3.20-35 – Jesus Accused by His Family and by Teachers of the Law
20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter,29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.”
31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
INTRODUCTION – “UNFORGIVABLE”
Two fears haunted me as an adolescent. I remember being afraid that I’d miss the rapture. Once I came home after a Sunday night church after-glow (that’s what we used to call the fun stuff the teens did after church – in retrospect, I’m not so sure it was the greatest choice of vocabulary). The lights were out. My mom and sisters weren’t home. I couldn’t reach anyone by phone (well, anyone who I knew to be a Christian – it didn’t matter that the my non-Christian neighbors were home). I was mortified that I’d missed the rapture, perhaps feeling especially guilty of some illicit hand-holding I’d engaged in with a young lady in the youth group as said afterglow.
As I got older – and my sinful attitudes and actions became a little more serious, I worried about committing the unpardonable sin. This stuck with me throughout high school and into college. Upon committing a willful transgression against a known law of God, I’d feel deeply convicted. I’d go to the altar & repent. Sometimes, I’d commit the same sin again – then I’d repent. This cycle repeated itself. I began to worry that I simply presumed upon God’s grace and eventually, I’d go to the altar and Jesus would look at me, shake his head disapprovingly and say “Seriously? Again? No more forgiveness for you.”
The common denominator of these two fears is the idea that somehow, someway – I was unforgivable. Unforgivable. That’s a heavy word. I suspect we can all relate to feeling unforgivable.
The Christian faith proclaims that God’s forgiveness is always available to anyone who asks.
Yet this text here (also in Matthew & Luke) appears to say plainly that there is a sin that is, in fact, unforgivable. We hear this and worry: “I hope he doesn’t mean me! Did I do this?” We gave it a special name that lives in church lore: THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. The challenge for us is to press past our insecurities about being unforgivable to understand this HARD SAYING of JESUS.
CONFLICT and TROUBLE in the TEXT
What sin could be so bad that Jesus considers it unforgivable? Jesus is known best for being in the forgiveness business. His life demonstrates it was one of his most favorite things – dolling it out liberally like the end of the Oprah Winfrey show: “Today everyone in the audience gets FORGIVENESS! You get forgiveness! You get forgiveness. You get forgiveness!” When we hear these words of Jesus “Everything will be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” it catches us off guard.
Verse 20 sets the scene for this saying – Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. You’ve got to feel bad for Jesus. He’s been out and about healing people, casting out demons, eating with sinners, appointing disciples. He finally decides to take a break by doing what we expect him to do after a hard days work – he goes to someone’s house (possibly Andrew & Simon’s home) for dinner.
Imagine Jesus, coming in, kicking off his sandals, grabbing a glass of water (maybe turning it into wine), sitting down around the table listening to guys talk about how amazing it was when the leper stretched out his withered hand and it was restored.
Just as the fresh bread comes out from the oven, there’s a banging at the front door. The host gets up from the table to answer it and is completely unprepared as the crowd pushes past and fills up the living room. Of course, the typical crowd was there – having followed Jesus around Galilee for days. Jesus’ family is there. Sometimes it’s awkward when your family shows up and you’re hanging out with the guys, but this is especially uncomfortable. His cousin, let’s call him Frank, says: “Jesus, we’ve heard about what you’re doing. You’re the talk of the whole town, healing people, casting out demons, doing work on the Sabbath. It’s got everyone worried, Jesus. Your mom can’t sleep. We’ve come to take you home. You’re not well. Translation: you’re crazy! The Jewish leaders from Jerusalem are there. It’s gone from embarrassing to dangerous for Jesus. The bigwigs from Jerusalem left the city because Jesus was causing a raucous. Leaders tend to leave centers of power for two reasons. First – to campaign by appearing to connect with “the little people.” Second – to fix problems. Jesus is a problem.
It’s only the third chapter of Mark. All Jesus has done so far is announce the coming kingdom of God, call some disciples, cast out a few demons, and heal some sick people. Why isn’t Jesus their hero? Why aren’t they trying to get next to him for a photo op? One of those disciples was a tax collector. Jesus chose to heal people and cast out demons on the Sabbath, he didn’t have any trouble touching unclean, unholy lepers. The Jerusalem leaders accuse Jesus of being possessed by a demon, Beelzebul – previously an old Canaanite god whose name means “Lord of the Flies” – who now comes to be synonymous with Satan. Translation: “Jesus associates with dirty people and does dirty things because he’s working for the Devil himself.” It’s tough to have a relaxing meal at home with friends when your family shows up thinking your crazy and the leaders of your nation show up accusing you of demon possession.
CONFLICT & TROUBLE in OUR WORLD
Jesus responds. To the charge of being crazy, Jesus reorients everyone – including his family – of his governing priority: “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” His priority is God’s will – not his Jewish heritage and not even his family connections. Nothing supersedes his allegiance to God and his mission.
Like Jesus family, it’s easy to misunderstand him. We all have ideas about who Jesus is and what he means. Gustavo mentioned a few last week. There’s often some truth in each of these, but what can happen is that we often desire a version of Jesus that fits our needs. For example, we want a Jesus like this figurine: a buddy who is with us and blesses the activity in our lives (Jesus playing soccer with child) – but like Jesus’ family we get uncomfortable when he he messes with our comfort zone. However, to follow Jesus means to commit to all of God’s will.
To the charge of being demon possessed he responds first that the accusation is illogical. Jesus calls them over and tells some parables (to drive it home): “Think about it: If two crooks broke into the Federal Reserve and stole 100 million dollars of gold, does it make sense that one of the crooks would call the FBI tip hotline and report his partner just to collect a $100,000 reward? No. Crooks don’t stop each other. Only the LAW stops the crooks and restores what was stolen.” Jesus takes it a step further and says this kind of accusation is unforgivable. They accuse the work of the Holy Sprit as being from an unclean spirit. They call good evil and accuse Jesus of being the Devil. The irony of the situation is that the ones who know the Torah the best are the ones who commit the most heinous sin by their attitude toward and condemnation of Jesus.
We can be so deceived as to call what is good evil and what is evil good. It happens more often than we’d like to admit. Not to long ago an imperial wizard in the Klu Klux Klan, Franck Acona (hopefully not the one that owns the Olathe Honda dealership) claimed that the Klu Klux Klan was not a hate group, but a “Christian organization.” Adding that “It’s not hateful to want to keep the white race white, and maintain white supremacy in America.” Pay not attention to the fact that they claim Jesus was white and not a Jew and pay no attention to the church burnings and the lynchings. I don’t think “Christian organization” means what Acona thinks it means. If the KKK is a Christian organization, I declare myself a 6’9” NBA point guard!
According to Jesus, it’s this kind of thinking that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit – which according to Jesus is unforgivable. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
GRACE & GOOD NEWS in the TEXT
So it seems at first there is a single sin we can commit, a line we can cross, where we go from misunderstanding or misappropriating Jesus that is unforgivable. Of course, everyone wants to know: What is that sin? What’s the one thing I can do that will keep me out of heaven? What is so bad that even JESUS won’t forgive? Taking the Lord’s name in Vain? Drunkenness? Suicide? Pedophilia? Inquiring minds want to know, we’ve always wanted to know!
Jesus doesn’t spend much time defining this sin or even accusing the Jewish leaders of committing it. He simply makes it clear that the unforgivable sin is recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit and attributing it to the work of the Devil. Jesus never denies the possibility of forgiveness. GOOD NEWS: God’s forgiveness is always available to anyone who asks.
The Greek reads literally: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he does not have forgiveness and is guilty of an eternal sin.”
Do you see the difference? The verb forgive is not used. In v.30 which follows the verb tense is imperfect, which implies an ongoing action.
The UNPARDONABLE SIN isn’t a single, solitary act. It is to stand oneself against forgiveness habitually. All sins can be forgiven. But if someone denounces the work of the Holy Spirit, such a person cuts themselves off from the source of their own salvation. Once you declare that the spring of fresh water is polluted you will never drink from it. Such hardheartedness is the result of ones own continual rejection of the grace offered to us.
Forgiveness is more than just one act of salvation. Forgiveness is the way of the Kingdom. We don’t experience major failures without having made a series of small mistakes in the wrong direction along the way. Likewise, we don’t learn how to walk in forgiveness and mature in Christ unless we make choices along the way to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The spiritual-political leaders of Jerusalem denied the Kingdom forgiveness evidenced in Jesus’ ministry – eating with casting out demons, touching lepers, making tax-collectors disciples, and healing on the Sabbath. Their habit of hardheartedness denied the forgiveness available to them. The Good News remains: God’s forgiveness is always available to anyone who asks.
GRACE & GOOD NEWS for our WORLD
The one sure thing about this UNPARDONABLE SIN is that if you are worried about having committed it, that worry is a sign you have not. That worry though, points to something deeper within us that needs healing. Most of us felt unforgivable at one time or another.
Why do we feel unforgivable? Most of us are conscious of our own sins – we know every evil thought, every unethical action, every imperfect attitude, every broken relationship. And if our own conscious is not enough, we’re often reminded by others that we aren’t good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, wealthy enough, etc. – so much so that we believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with ourselves and that we are unworthy of forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is always available to anyone who asks! We’re forgiven! Accepted! Loved!
Knowing that we are free from bondage makes it possible for us to walk in our forgiveness – doing God’s will and continuing Jesus’ mission. Scholar David Loose says: “Maybe the question isn’t why is Jesus getting so much flack?” but instead should be, “Why aren’t we getting more? Why, that is, aren’t we pushing the boundaries of what’s socially and religiously acceptable in order to reach more folks with the always surprising, often upsetting, unimaginably gracious, and ridiculously inclusive love of Jesus?” The more we walk in Kingdom forgiveness, the less we feel unforgivable.
CONCLUSION (INVITE THE BAND UP)
The idea of being unforgivable is natural to us and our world. It’s the way things go around here. We’re used to being judged. We’re used judging others. We judge ourselves. God’s forgiveness is always available for anyone who asks.
Even people like John Newton – an 18th century slave trader who committed horrible crimes against humanity. In 1748 had a near death experience on a ship crossing the ocean. This began his conversion to Christ. He became a minister, opposed the slave trade, and penned these words to perhaps the most famous Christian hymn of all time: Amazing Grace. Near the end of his life, he summed up the truth of God’s forgiveness like this: “Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
Today we sing that song as we move to prayer. Perhaps you’ve never asked God for forgiveness or ever entered into life with Christ. That opportunity is available to you today. Come and receive life.
If you’re feeling unforgivable, I assure you that you are not unpardonable.
Perhaps you need to forgive someone else and need God to help you do that – the altar is open for you. Perhaps you are still AMAZED by God’s forgiving grace and you simply want to say “THANK YOU!” Join me at the altars as we pray. AMEN.