Are You Sure About The Blasphemy of The Holy Spirit?

1.  Do Not Demonize What You Do Not Understand.

So, allow me to tell you what you’re thinking.   After hearing this passage, you’re probably thinking, “Oh, please, please tell me.  Please tell me what it means to commit “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.   And don’t mess around.  Tell me exactly what this ‘blasphemy’ is because I need to know where I stand.”   And if that’s not what you’re thinking, well, then, may God bless you.

Once upon time, I was seventeen years old and driving down a series of back streets in my suburban neighborhood.   And, in order to get to where I was going more quickly, I turned on this road that I ordinarily would use.   This road had been marked with a strange sign that read as follows:   “Do Not Enter Between The Hours of 4 p.m. And 6 p.m.”   Well, you see, my problem was not only that I was in a hurry, but my Plymouth Duster did not have a clock that worked.  Nor did I wear a wrist watch.   So, I had no way of knowing the exact time.    Was it between the unforgivable hours of 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.?   And would any self-respecting police officer really issue me a ticket when I could not truly judge the time of day?   What is time, anyway?   Isn’t it just this arbitrary measure of the earth’s rotation around the sun?  Let me tell you.  All of these questions and many more raced through my mind, as I then saw what I did not want to see.    A police officer, wearing mirror sun glasses and a stern expression, stood in the middle of the road, and would not let me pass.   I stopped and played it cool:  “What’s the problem?”   “The problem is you just went down a one-way street in the wrong direction.”  I responded, “It’s only one way between the hours of 4 and 6 and I don’t have a watch.   What time is it?”  He said, “It’s three minutes after 4 o’clock.  Can I see your license and registration, please?”

You see, my argument is that if we’re going to be held responsible for breaking the rules, someone should make those rules clear ahead of time.

And so it is with the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  If the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is truly the only unforgivable sin, I’d appreciate it if Jesus would equip me with everything that I need not to do it.   So here goes:   according to Matthew 12, the whole issue is raised when the Pharisees take it upon themselves to demonize Jesus.   Jesus heals a person who is blind and mute, and in stead of being grateful, these religious experts drive the wrong way down the road.

Do Not Demonize What You Do Not Understand. That’s the message because in fact what you and I often do not understand is the truth that the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us.   So, don’t be so eager to join someone’s holy crusade.  Don’t be too quick to label what another person says or does as outright evil because we never really know.

“If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out?   Therefore they will be your judges.   But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”

“It all started when I found a copy of Faust at a used bookstore.”   This is the way Gordon Atkinson blogs about being evil.   Actually Gordon Atkinson is not any more or any less evil that any other pastor from San Antonio, Texas.  But two weeks after he picked up the used book and tossed it in the back seat of his car, a young woman spotted the symbol on the cover and shrieked.  Christy had been staying with the Atkinsons, doing some odd chores and occasionally watching the kids.  She had joined the church after claiming that she had escaped from a satanic cult, an organization in which Christy’s own father had actually taken part in some of the dark rituals.   Anyway, all that was behind her—until she caught a glimpse of the Alchemy symbol on the cover of Faust.

“She stared at me for a few seconds and then I saw something I hope never to see again.  I watched her feelings for me turn from love to hatred in a matter of seconds.  I saw the whole transformation in her face.  It began with a blank look of bewilderment, then her eyes narrowed with suspicion.  She shook her head a few times in denial, as though she didn’t want to believe the worst.  Finally, her jaw set and anger flashed in her eyes…  ‘You’re one of them,’ she said, backing away.’”(RealLivePreacher.com, p. 89)

2.  The Holy Spirit Has The Reputation of the Kingdom of God to Consider.

Now, if you’ve ever been demonized yourself, you know how unflattering the experience may be.    But what’s especially disheartening and especially deflating is the damage that can be done to a person’s reputation.

In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, for example, John Proctor declares that he will not sign the document that admits that he has consorted with the devil.   He’s ready to.  He actually mulls it over.   All he has to do is scribble his signature and the holy magistrate of the puritan town will let him live.   But after starting to sign, he does something that people don’t quite understand.   John Proctor grabs the parchment statement and crumples it up.  He then says, “You have my soul; leave me my name.”

You see, something about this moment makes me want to stand up and cheer.  And maybe you want to stand up and cheer too.  But what we’re cheering for is not simply the integrity of an individual who died in the 1690’s.   It’s not just the ornery attitude of Rosa Parks, who refused to surrender her seat on the bus, which resonates with us.  It’s not simply that Gandhi and Mother Teresa are great people who we might like to emulate.  What we experience in them, I think, is the future calling to us.   We celebrate and cheer, therefore, for those extraordinary times in the past and in the present when a person behaves as if evil’s hold will not last—when thy will is done on earth as it is in heaven.   And that, my friends, is the work of the Holy Spirit.   The Holy Spirit, of course, has the reputation of the kingdom of God to consider.   And let’s emphasize this point.  If you and I are under the impression that God ought to protect our own individual reputations, ask yourself why God allowed the reputation of Jesus of Nazareth to be trashed the way it was in the crucifixion.   And the answer is—God is more interested in protecting the reputation of the new heavens and the new earth that he is about to create.

3.  If You’re Worried About “The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit,” You Probably Have Nothing to Worry About.

In Ohio, we met a man who became the feature story on something called News of the Weird.   And, as a result of the negative publicity, the man’s reputation would be shot.   His relationship with his wife and his son would be shaken.   And primarily the news had to do with the fact that this man was arrested for lewd behavior in a public restroom and that he happened to be the mayor of the town and that he sang in the choir.  Anyway, I remember a phone call that I received from another prominent official, asking me to renounce the mayor and publically condemn his actions.   I replied that I couldn’t do that because he had come to me and asked God’s forgiveness and the forgiveness of our entire church.   That, of course, didn’t make any difference to the person who complained to me.  He said that I ought to think about the reputation of my church.  And I thought about it, and the conversation grew silent.  He was right.  Our church would suffer because of its association with this perverted and hypocritical public official.   But, you see, after crying with this broken human being, after praying and pouring through the scriptures with him, I could do nothing else but support his contrition.   The reputation of the Kingdom of God superseded all other concerns.

“Therefore, I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”

So, let’s be clear about that.   At Latah Valley, I’d like us to be clear about that.   And I’d like us to be sure about the following phrase, which we repeat week after week:  In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.   But after gathering around that news, are you still worried about the inadvertent blasphemy of the Holy Spirit?   Are you still so conscientious as to fear that you may speak against the Holy Spirit without intending to?   Well, if that’s you, listen up:  if you are at all worried about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, you probably have nothing to worry about.   But, all the same, let me offer you this cautionary tale.

A little girl is drawing a picture in school.  The teacher leans over her and asks, “What are you drawing?”

“God,” says the girl.

The teacher laughs.  “No one knows what God looks like dear.”

“They will when I get finished with this drawing.”

Don’t be too sure, says the Holy Spirit.   Don’t be too sure.

Amen.