The text for this morning’s message comes to us from the Gospel of Mark, the third chapter:
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And Jesus called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.Thus far the text.
“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Imagine you are on your deathbed. The pastor comes to visit you. He asks how you are feeling. He inquires of the doctors’ news. He asks if your family has come to see you yet. He then tells you of Jesus. He tells you of the forgiveness found in Him. He proclaims to you that all your sins are forgiven.
But you just roll your eyes. You may even tear up as you say, “No, Pastor. Not all my sins. Not this one. I can’t confess it. It’s too big. I can never be forgiven THAT sin.”
It’s not an uncommon occurrence. I know it’s happened to Pastor. It’s even happened to me. The person we’re speaking seems to truly believe that their sin can’t be forgiven. It’s too big. Jesus would never forgive that sin. Jesus would be disgusted if He knew we did that. Jesus would hate us, turn away from us, send us to Hell. After all, after we sinned so badly, we deserve to go to Hell. It’s true, we say, Jesus can’t save us. Jesus can’t forgive us. Jesus can’t forgive you. Or at least, that’s what we tell ourselves.
But Jesus, in the Gospel lesson today, Jesus says that ALL sins will be forgiven. All blasphemies will be forgotten. There’s no qualification there. All sins, all blasphemies.
Yes, Vicar, you say. You look up at me with big eyes, tears stinging them. Yes, all sins, but not the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve done even worse. Oh, okay. That’s a very serious sin. Let’s explore a little bit of sin, shall we?
There once was a girl named Norma. She grew up a Jehovah’s Witness. While we wouldn’t say that the theology found in the Jehovah’s Witnesses is right or Christian by nature, we can certainly say that Norma grew up with a heavy dose of law and morality. She grew up knowing what was right and what was wrong. Her parents, though, they couldn’t hold themselves to the standard. Her father abandoned her, her mother was a severe and violent alcoholic.
She got married at the age of 16, got pregnant, had the baby, got pregnant, gave the child up for adoption, got a divorce after her husband beat her, and moved back in with her mother. She then flirted with the idea of homosexuality, and when she told her mother she was a lesbian, her mother kicked her out and took her daughter away from her. Norma was now a very troubled woman. She got pregnant out of wedlock. She was told that if she claimed she was raped she could get an abortion.
Abortion wasn’t really legal when Norma got pregnant, only in the cases of rape. However, she couldn’t convince the abortion clinic that she was truly raped because there was no police evidence. She wasn’t able to get the abortion. But she really, really wanted one and she wanted to continue to have them if she ever got pregnant again. So, she found a couple of lawyers to argue her case. It even went to the Supreme Court. Ultimately, the decision from her court case, where she went under the pseudonym Jane Roe, led to the abortion-on-demand industry where over 50 million children in America alone have been aborted from their mothers' wombs and killed, under the legal ruling of Roe v. Wade.
Norma was fine with this. She was glad women didn’t have to be pregnant when they didn’t want to be. She was happy they didn’t have to suffer through having a baby they didn’t want like she was forced to do. Until one day, she was sitting in an office, and, well, she says this:
I was sitting in [a doctor’s office] when I noticed a fetal development poster. The progression was so obvious, the eyes were so sweet. It hurt my heart, just looking at them. I ran outside and finally, it dawned on me. 'Norma', I said to myself, 'They're right'. I had worked with pregnant women for years. I had been through three pregnancies and deliveries myself. I should have known. Yet something in that poster made me lose my breath. I kept seeing the picture of that tiny, 10-week-old embryo, and I said to myself, that's a baby! It's as if blinders just fell off my eyes and I suddenly understood the truth — that's a baby!It became painfully clear to Norma that everything she had done, everything that she had contributed to, all the millions of babies that had been aborted, even her homosexuality, they were on her. She was sinful. She was unclean. She needed something. She had heard about Jesus. She had heard that He was forgiving. She sought after this forgiveness and received it. She was baptized into the Christian faith in 1995, 23 years after Roe v. Wade had passed into law. She found forgiveness. And have no doubt, when the Lord takes Norma home to be with Him, Norma will be in heaven with Jesus.
Are your sins worse than Norma’s? Are they worse than her homosexuality? Are they worse than her intended abortions? Are they worse than the murders of 50 million innocent children? If Norma’s sins can be forgiven, can’t yours? “Well, Vicar. Maybe. But she didn’t do what I did. What I’ve done is worse. What I’ve done is what Jesus says can’t be forgiven. I’ve done the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. She didn’t do that.” Oh, okay. Well, how about another story?
There once was a boy named Theodore, Ted. He was a good looking boy. All his life, everyone said he was so very charming and charismatic. Everyone loved him. He was a good boy. One day, he and his brother were walking through a dump. He loved going there. You could always find great stuff. But one day, they were walking along and something caught his eye. It was a naked woman on the cover of a magazine. That was the start.
The boy found a pornographic magazine that excited him in ways that he couldn’t explain. He needed more. He found more. He did things that were wrong with the magazines, and soon he found that the excitement he originally discovered passed away. He needed something more. As he grew older, he started seeking out sexual relationships with women. His need for excitement got worse and worse. He started doing sexually deviant things. He got worse and worse. Eventually, sex didn’t excite him the same way anymore. So, he set up scenarios where he would kidnap, rape, and kill women. He committed somewhere between 30 and a hundred murders. The true number was never known. One little sin turned this little boy into one of the worst serial killers of our time. He’s better known now by the name Ted Bundy.
Is your sin worse than Ted’s? Is it? Because I tell you the truth, Ted Bundy is forgiven. While in prison, someone preached the Gospel to Ted. He heard the truth that Jesus Christ died for sinners, that they would repent and find forgiveness in the Lord. His heart was turned from evil lust to repentant faith. He asked for forgiveness and he found it. Even as they were preparing the electric chair for him, he confessed that he was confident he would be seeing Jesus that very night. He was sorry for what he did to all those women. He asked Jesus for help in overcoming his lust, for him to apologize to his victim’s families. He received that forgiveness from Christ. He received salvation.
When many hear this story, their first reaction is to say, if Ted Bundy is in heaven, I don't want to go there. Is it a vile thing that he received forgiveness and that he is waiting in heaven for the glorious return of our Lord? Of course not! Because if the story of Ted teaches us anything, it is that our Lord has forgiven all sin, even the sin we can’t even think of doing because of its vile nature. The story of Norma teaches us that even having on your conscience the souls of 50 million babies isn’t enough to keep Jesus away. And both their stories teach us that when we sin, and we sin often and grievously, it's never just a sin against a person. It's a sin against God Himself. And only He, only His forgiveness, matters.
“But, Vicar,” you say, “you don’t know what I’ve done. Ted and Norma, they’re not me. They’re not me at all. And they haven’t committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I live in fear that I’ve done that!” We’ll get to you in a minute. Let’s talk about someone else real quick.
There once was a man who was, by all accounts, holy and upright. He never seemed to do anything wrong. He always said the right thing. He had throngs of people follow Him. But for as many people that followed after Him, He had powerful enemies among the people, even among His own family. And, one day, this man was accused of being possessed by the devil. He was accused of having an unclean spirit. He was accused of engaging in sorcery in order to deceive people. This man, of course, was Jesus. He never did anything wrong. He never said anything wrong. He never thought anything wrong. Everything He said, did, and thought was perfect. It was true. He never lied.
And one day, this Jesus said that all sins would be forgiven the sons of men. If it was said by Jesus, and it was, then it must be true! Abortion, murder, rape, these are sins and they would be forgiven. Homosexuality, sex outside of marriage, kidnapping, these are sins and they would be forgiven. Spousal abuse, alcoholism, addiction to pornography, these are sins and they would be forgiven. Anger, malice, hatred, these are sins and they would be forgiven. Cheating, lying, stealing, these are sins and they would be forgiven. Gossip, slander, back-stabbing, these are sins and they would be forgiven. All sins would be forgiven. Except one, Jesus says: the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. What does this mean?
Think of what Jesus has just said. He was accused of being in league with Satan in order to show signs of driving out demons. But Jesus says, not so! In fact, Satan would never drive out demons because that’s his business, he’s in the business of possessing people and ruining their lives. If Jesus drives demons, or even sins, out of a person’s life, He can’t be siding with the devil. Jesus must, by definition, be working against Satan.
Jesus explains it this way: no one can plunder a strong man’s house unless he first binds up the strong man, tying him up so that he can’t interfere. Jesus is the plunderer and the strong man is Satan. Jesus binds up Satan so that He can plunder Satan’s goods. YOU are Satan’s goods! Jesus wants to steal YOU away! And He has certainly done this! He has stolen you away from sin, death, and the devil and He did this on the cross.
It doesn’t look like Jesus is tying anyone up when He is hanging, bound and nailed, to the cross of Calvary. In fact, it looks like Satan has bound up Jesus to steal everything away from HIM! But what Satan didn’t realize, what he didn’t see, was that Jesus’ power was loosed in His crucifixion. Jesus was taking all sin to Himself. Jesus was taking all the power of the devil away from Satan and was crucifying it. If Satan’s power is gone, dead, what more can he do to you to steal you away from Jesus? Satan has no more power!
Unless. Unless you commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and continue in it. What is this blasphemy? Imagine you are a little child. You awaken from your sleep, hear a noise downstairs, and you go and investigate. There you find your parent tied up while a robber steals everything from your family. So you untie your parent so they can stop the robber.
If Jesus’ story is true, if Jesus is the plunderer and Satan is your parent, then you, little child, you have just unleashed Satan. You have chosen Satan over your Savior. You have loosed Satan and demanded that Jesus gives back everything He stole from you. What is Jesus stealing? Your sin, which you hang on to. Your guilt, which you wallow in. Your pain, which you relish. Your torment, which you focus on. Jesus wants to take away from you your sin, your guilt, your pain, your torment, your hell. And you, little child, have just released Satan who kills the robber and gives it all back to you. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
What does this look like? I don’t need you Jesus! I don’t need your salvation! I’m perfectly happy surfing my computer for porn. I’m perfectly satisfied with the abortions I’ve had. I’m thrilled every time I have an affair, every time I have sex outside of marriage, every time I shoot up with drugs, every time I get back at my boss, every time I yell at my children, every time I give my husband what for, every time I sin.
Dear brothers and sisters, friends, you are called to repentance in Jesus Christ! You should feel sorry for your sins! You should feel embarrassed, guilty, sinful. You should! But the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit says, I don’t! I like it!
Jesus died for you! He died to take all that sin of yours and to crucify it! And when you don’t repent, when you keep on sinning, when you aren’t heartily sorry for all that you’ve done, you keep it from the cross! You take it off the cross! No, Jesus, you can’t have THIS sin! This one is mine! This one I don’t want to be forgiven for! This one is all mine!
The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the blasphemy that keeps your sin on yourself, and it is a sin that says, I reject Christ.
Dear friends, if we come to you, when you’re on your deathbed, and you say, Jesus can’t forgive me for this one, I tell you the truth: He has! The sin that you feel, the guilt you are weighed down by, that is you ALREADY saying, I AM SORRY FOR THIS! I, in my heart of hearts, know that it was wrong. I know that it was sinful. I know that it serves to separate me from the love of God. And it has!
But the end is not there, my friends. Oh, no! Because no Christian may commit the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. It's not possible. Just like Norma and Ted, you know what repentance is. You know that you’re sinful. You know that you are in need of the forgiveness Jesus freely offers you! He died on the cross for you! To forgive your sins! To make you one with Him. Let Jesus bind up Satan in your life. He has done this in baptism! He has taken your sin and drowned it! He has bound up Satan in those waters, burying him under leagues and depths. Let Jesus bind up your sin, your guilt, your shame. For He has done this already! Let Jesus plunder and rob the evil that exists in your heart for you. Let Jesus steal it away. He has already done so on the cross! Let Him keep what He has chosen to steal! Do not swim back up to the surface of the waters of baptism in your Old Adam. Let that old man, that sinful man, die. Remember you are baptized into Christ’s death and raised up into His resurrection.
You will sin in this life, my friends. You are always sinful in this life. But, do not remain in your sin. Repent! Repent and grasp onto this repentance! Turn away from your sins! You have already done so today, it was the first thing we did this in the service, and you have heard the words of Christ: I forgive you! Your sins, all your sins, even the ones you think Jesus never would, never could, forgive, ALL your sins are forgiven, by the power of Christ in the repentance He grants you IN the Holy Spirit. Your sins are forgiven, in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Now may the peace that passes all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
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