Who’s actually in cahoots with the Devil?

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012819.cfm
Hebrews 9:15, 24-28
Mark 3:22-30

In Mark chapter 3, verses 22 through 30, Jesus nails a coffin lid down tight on a ridiculous charge against him — that he is in cahoots with the devil. Jesus uses two theological dictums. First, he is not working for Satan but against him; and second, blasphemy against the holiness of the Spirit of God will result in a sin that cannot be forgiven. Here’s the gist — if one believes that the holiness of God’s Spirit is unholy rather than holy, even when faced with evidence to the contrary, then that person cannot be redeemed. This bit of consequential theology deserves our attention.

Both of the subsequent arguments against the scribes by Jesus establish irrefutable evidence that Jesus understood the very real presence of the devil and his demons. These are clearly Jesus’ words. Not that the devil deserves his due, but that in our retrospect view, our ability to see the full “counsel of God” in all of scripture and revelation throughout the history of our Church, that the Father God and his Son, Jesus, operate as a three-some. And, that the devil and his demons operate in opposition to the full Trinity. The Holy Spirit testifies who Jesus is, and lives within Jesus. The Father, pleased with his Son, can be seen through Jesus. Our visibility into God and him into us is not only possible, but is the desire of God.

These eight verses shine beacons on many of the tenets of the theology of Christianity. Not lost at the end of these verses is the doctrine that, “all sins and blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.” With one huge caveat, of course. “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of everlasting sin.” 

Jesus teaches so much about doctrine here, including redemption, trinity, principalities, sin and forgiveness, possession and exorcism, and the order of life after this life. It’s nothing short of remarkable.

Jesus applies searing logic against the vacuous claim he was possessed by the devil when he drove out demons. The lawyers of the Pharisees, the scribes, relay their bosses charges against Jesus and attempt to foment propaganda to crush Jesus’ ministry. They specifically dispute Jesus’ profession that he was the Messiah, which in and of itself argues evidence that Jesus did claim to be the Messiah. This point alone is worth the entire set of verses!

The juiciest theology, though, comes from the loop in logic proposed by the legal team sent from the Pharisees. For the scribes to suggest Jesus was sent by Satan as a henchman to destroy the very demons in Satan’s charge represents an odd form of devil suicide by exorcism. For what purpose would Satan assassinate his own devils? It’s absurd for the scribes to associate Jesus’ healing with demonic intention.

Not only do the Pharisees protest Jesus’ actions as unholy, they insult Jesus further by calling him a follower of Beelzebul, at best a euphemism for Satan, and at its worst suggesting Jesus is an implant from the false gods of Jewish enemies. The historical use of this name, a Greek slang perhaps, further adds fuel to the hot coals of protest which Jesus pours right back onto the heads of the scribes. Their intention to incite the followers of Jesus against him results in their condemnation. So far, for two thousand years we’ve heard their unforgivable blasphemy, and been offered an unforgettable reminder that God demands clarity, especially regarding his holiness.

In addition, to both assert and then protest that Jesus’ actions affirm an unholy alliance with Beelzebul (which Jesus properly names as Satan) insists that Jesus has no holy right to exorcism. Jesus is called unholy for doing a thing which only holiness can exhort; which means that exorcism itself would be unholy. Wow. These scribes twist their own evil purpose, defaming the holiness of Jesus as some strange evidence Jesus was sent by Satan, not God. The scribes are not secular legal fellas speaking outside of their domain. They assert Jesus’ actions as unholy from positions of religious authority. They act as representatives of the very God that Jesus reveals. 

Jesus doesn’t just pick a bone with these guys, he swears against them. The high crime attributed to Jesus actually lives in their hearts. They are working in cahoots with the devil. Their charge is preposterous. 

And, deadly.  

To declare Jesus a partner of the devil reverberates backward and forward. The Father and the Holy Spirit testified to Jesus’ divinity as God incarnated at his baptism. That’s only one of the incidents of testimony by the Father and the Holy Spirit, all referenced back to Old Testament prophecies. Going forward the unholiness ascribed to Jesus means that Jesus cannot forgive their sin of blasphemy and stand as a character reference to their witness to him. Their witness proclaims the opposite of who Jesus is, and they are doomed.

Jesus explains that he cannot forgive them, not because they do not believe in him but because they do not accept the witness of the Holy Spirit. Worse, they blaspheme against the Spirit of God. The exorcisms performed by Jesus flow from the Holy Spirit of God within him. Jesus is not just a man, but is sent to do the will of the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. He subjects himself to his Father and the Holy Spirit testifies that Jesus is the Son of God. 

We are not expected to know these things on our own. We are urged to ask God to show us it is true. To deny God will answer us is not unforgivable. We can even speak against Jesus’ divinity and blaspheme that he is not the Christ. Until, that is, the Holy Spirit testifies in our presence or through a witness who has been called to reveal the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can object, and doubt, question everything about the trinity and the other doctrines that Jesus presents. 

God’s love can be doubted, even as we suggest that love as the essence of what promises us eternal life. We can ask with a pure heart. Can God be a holy God? Can God reveal himself to us? Does God have the ability to join us in this life as one of us? These are difficult things to answer for another person. Only God can communicate these things to us in order for them to be true. That’s all done through God’s grace. Our Christian faith teaches us that God will grace us with faith, that we must freely choose. We will all be offered evidence of God’s holiness, presence, and communication, the framework of God’s love. 

We begin this path of communication by subjecting ourselves to God’s voice, in however that comes to us. We submit to the notion or idea, and then we wait. If we refuse to submit then we sever communication. Incredibly, even this woeful bit of stubbornness does not seal our doom.

If we haven’t yet experienced such a communication from God, or have chosen not to believe due to skepticism or some other thing that holds us back, we are simply ignorant. Jesus does not call us doomed for ignorance. But there is one thing that we must attest to when we are challenged with it, even if we do not believe these other things. This one thing must be believed or we will bring deadly harm to our spiritual selves. 

Again, we should submit with the premise that God’s Holy Spirit can indeed be holy, and that the Spirit of God can testify to us the things that God wants us to know. If we say this cannot be, that a true God cannot testify to us, and therefore we don’t believe that God is holy, we still can be forgiven. That’s amazing. 

God may not be able to get through to us, because of all kinds of reasons — our history, our culture, our religious training, or our formed conscience. These may all have brought us to the position also to believe that God might be evil. Even this does not condemn us!

The step that condemns us goes beyond this inability to hear God, or even to be unable to trust God. The path of no return is quite different from a belief system of skepticism, ignorance, or some other faith formation. As we said, these things do not condemn us. In the face of some overwhelming grace these parts of us can be reformed. We can yet be redeemed

We are condemned only when we profess that God does exist, admitting that we have even experienced him, and then claim God is evil. We seal our condemnation when we declare that the Spirit of God, and the realm of God’s spirituality, is evil. An evil, nefarious, pervasive Spirit of God shuts the door upon God being able to forgive us. By definition.

This is where we cross an unredeemable chasm. When we go so far as to say that when the Holy Spirit shows up it is actually not a holy spirit at all we claim two irreversible directions for our soul. We are readily admitting there is a realm of spirituality, even pointing it out. And then we claim it is evil and cannot save us.

I know this rebellion and this stubbornness. I know this tendency to reject divine authority. As for the scribes and their ilk, there, but for the grace of God, would go I.