Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 3:
"28Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."
"The Unpardonable Sin" - that is the title above this section in my Bible. All sins can be forgiven, but never this. To what is Jesus referring? And why is it so?
When Jesus spoke these words a delegation of lawyers and scribes had just been sent from the religious elite in Jerusalem to inquire into Jesus' ministry and see if it was orthodox. Their judgement was quick and condemning. "This man Jesus is from Beelzebul," they said. "He is an agent of Satan."
So Jesus, who has been proclaiming the forgiveness to all who came to him, says that these cannot receive forgiveness. For they are guilty of an eternal sin - meaning a sin that goes on generation after generation and will not be let go of, but is clung to tooth and nail. And that sin is the sin of blasphemy - the sin of calling something good evil.
In the early days of the church they called the inclusion of Gentiles evil. In the 19th century they called emancipation of Negro slaves evil. During the early part of the 20th century they called suffrage for women evil. Under Apartheid they called the mixing of races evil. These were all evils to be fought, they said - so they fought them with righteous indignation.
But it turned out these things weren't evil - they were good. They were all movements of the Holy Spirit toward greater inclusion.
And it makes me wonder, what other movements of the Holy Spirit are we calling evil which are in fact really good?
I want to know, because to find out all along I was fighting on the wrong side against such a movement from the Holy Spirit really would be, well, unpardonable to me.
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