The Unpardonable Sin-What is it? by Fr Nelson Lobo OFM Cap

 

WONDERING GURU

10^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 9, 2024-Year B

Genesis 3:9-15; Ps 130:1-8; 2 Cor 4:13-5:1; Mark 3:20-35

 

Today the church keeps the Memoria of St. Ephrem of Syria, a deacon, hermit, and Doctor of the Church who made important contributions to the spirituality and theology of the Christian East during the 4th century.

REFLECTION- The Unpardonable Sin

After appointing the twelve apostles, He and His disciples go to a house where a multitude gathers again. In the discussion that follows, Jesus warns against the unpardonable sin. In this story the strong man is Satan. The house is Satan’s kingdom on earth. His possessions are the victims that he holds in bondage. Beelzebul literally means “lord of the house.”

Scholars Speak

•“To blaspheme is to speak evil of, to offer intentional indignity to God or to sacred things” (Schubert 50).

•“Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit forever removes a man beyond the sphere where forgiveness is possible” (Lane 145).

•“It refers to Satan as somewhat of a king of the underworld, the head of a demoniac mafia. Beelzebul was the godfather who sat back in his big chair and gave orders to the rest of the little demons” (Schubert 49).

•“They were accusing Jesus of being demonized and claimed that the demon which controlled him was the one that ruled over the evil spirits” (Hughes 1:91).

•“They could not deny that He cast out demons, but they would not accept the conclusion that Jesus was empowered by God” (Black 84).

•“They may be venomously attempting to undermine Jesus by branding him as the devil’s spawn” (Garland 132).

Jesus responded with two parabolic sayings: Scholars give their opinion on the sayings of Jesus. In the first saying…

•“all develop the same basic theme, that since strength depends on unity, an attack on any part of Satan’s domain is a sign not of collusion with him but of threat to his power” (France 171).

•“Jesus said that if there is internal dissension in a kingdom, the kingdom cannot last” (Schubert 49). In other words, “if it was by the power of Satan that He had cast out the demon, then Satan was actually fighting against Himself!” (Wiersbe 1:122). “But internal revolution is not the only way to topple a regime; an alternative method is invasion…” (Hooker 116).

•In the second parabolic saying, Jesus said “the defeat of the demons showed that Jesus was not in league with Satan. It showed that Satan’s defenses had been breached, a stronger power had arrived, and the conquest of Satan had begun” (Schubert 50).

•Overall, “Jesus explains that his ability to cast out demons by the Spirit of God is evidence that the Kingdom of God has come” (Mt. 12:28; Lk 11:20) (Black 84).

What is this sin?

§  “Anyone who is worried about having committed the sin against the Holy Spirit has not yet committed it, for anxiety of having done so is evidence of the potential for repentance. There is no record in Scripture of anyone asking forgiveness of God and being denied it!” (Edwards 124).

§  “The blasphemy Jesus was talking about results from a stubbornness of heart on the part of those who do the blaspheming” (Schubert 51).

§   “It is the ongoing, continual rejection of the witness of the Holy Spirit to the Divinity and Saviourhood of Christ” (Hughes 1:92).

§   “Any sin that is committed with such arrogance and hardness of heart that its perpetrator cannot and will not confess it is beyond pardon — not because of the action itself but on account of the sinner’s insolence” (R. Shelly).

§   “For such, there can be no forgiveness, for they have refused the only way of forgiveness that God has provided, they have slammed the door” (Cole 142).

Simply put it means, the sin for which we cannot be forgiven is the sin for which we will not ask forgiveness. We Christians we don’t have this problem because we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and we constantly invoke the power of the Holy Spirit and when we fail we seek the sacrament of reconciliation.

 

“You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God”.   -C. S. Lewis