10-OT-B

Mark 3:20–35 ESV-CE

Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.” 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 he 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. “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.” And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

3:28–30. Jesus has just worked a miracle but the scribes refuse to recognize it “for they had said ‘He has an unclean spirit’ ” (v. 30). They do not want to admit that God is the author of the miracle. In this attitude lies the special gravity of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—attributing to the prince of evil, to Satan, the good works performed by God himself. Anyone acting in this way will become like the sick person who has so lost confidence in the doctor that he rejects him as if an enemy and regards as poison the medicine that can save his life. That is why our Lord says that he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven: not because God cannot forgive all sins, but because that person, in his blindness towards God, rejects Jesus Christ, his teaching and his miracles, and despises the graces of the Holy Spirit as if they were designed to trap him (cf. St Pius V, Catechism, 2, 5, 19; St Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, 2–2, 14, 3). Cf. the note on Mt 12:31–32.11 Saint Mark’s Gospel (p. 69). (2005). Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers.

Living Tradition

The Sin against the Holy Spirit

In his encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Pope John Paul II explained that the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit “does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross.” It is “the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil—in any sin at all—and who thus rejects Redemption.” The Catechism adds: “There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss” (1864).1

1 Healy, M. (2008). The Gospel of Mark (p. 77). Baker Academic.

3:28–29 Finally, Jesus addresses the scribes’ first charge, that he is “possessed by Beelzebul,” not with a parable but with a somber warning. Amen means “truly” or “so be it” in Hebrew, and is used at the end of prayers to express agreement (see Neh 8:6). Jesus’ custom of saying “Amen” to preface a solemn affirmation is a completely new usage. Its closest parallel is the divine oath, “As I live, says the Lord …,” often used to introduce God’s most solemn warnings (Num 14:28; Isa 49:18; Ezek 5:11). Here the affirmation is, first and foremost, that all sins are forgivable, even all blasphemies, which are most serious since they are committed against God himself. To blaspheme is to insult or abuse the name of God. However, whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness. What does it mean to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit? In the context of this passage it is to harden one’s heart so completely that one defiantly refuses to recognize the action of God and even attributes to evil the good works done by Jesus in the power of the Spirit (Mark 1:10; see Isa 5:20). It is therefore to close the door to the Holy Spirit’s inner work of conversion. The point is not that there is any exception to God’s mercy. Rather, the point is that persons who persist in such willful blindness refuse to repent and thus choose to close themselves to the forgiveness that God offers through Jesus.

3:30 Mark explicitly connects this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit with the scribes’ accusation. Jesus is not declaring that the scribes have committed the everlasting sin, but is warning them of the grave peril they are in, unless they open their hearts to the Spirit and repent.1

1 Healy, M. (2008). The Gospel of Mark (p. 77). Baker Academic.