Lunatic, Liar, or Lord?
One of the chief questions the Gospels address, and which Christians (and, really, all people) must answer is: Who is Jesus?
And depending on how one answers that question, we can either find today’s Gospel reading terrifying or comforting. We can either see in it the promise of forgiveness, and victory over our great enemy… or else we find ourselves outside of forgiveness, and forever captive to the evil one.
Jesus’ brothers and his own mother were there saying he was a lunatic. He’s out of his mind. He should be home acting respectable, taking up the family business like his father, the carpenter. Not out here traipsing all over the towns and villages preaching and gathering this goofy band of followers. He’s embarrassing himself, and us! Let’s go talk some sense into him. Let’s bring him home.
But then you have Jesus’ enemies, the teachers of the law. They had made the 6 day journey from Jerusalem to see what all this fuss was about with Jesus. And they had their own opinion. He’s got a demon. And he’s casting out demons by the power of the devil. The use the name “Beelzebul”, that is, “Father of lies”, which the devil surely is. And they spread this lie of their own to anyone who would listen.
Of course today, people have their answers, too.
For many, Jesus isn’t a lunatic or a liar, he’s just not worth thinking about much at all. If they do think of Jesus, they have a very shallow idea of him. A nice guy. A big smile. Someone who loves everyone, and never says anything too difficult or challenging. A Jesus who will pretty much leave me alone to do what I want, and maybe will be there if I really get in a pinch and need a favor. But that’s not the Jesus of the Gospels, who preaches the kingdom with powerful law, and comforting gospel, the Jesus who fulfills all righteousness and lays down his life for his friends.
Or, a Jesus who is a moral model, a lawgiver to follow by example. But then you also have to contend with the fact that we don’t follow even the easiest examples of loving our neighbor, let alone dying for them.
Maybe even we get Jesus wrong from time to time. Maybe we make him in our own image, a Jesus who fits our ideas, our desires, our emotional needs or our intellectual conceptions. But let’s do away with any other Jesus that the real Jesus. The one who is Lord.
Jesus answers his enemies first. And he does so gently. He calls them and offers them a refutation. He shows the flaw in their argument. How can Satan cast out Satan? That doesn’t make any sense. He wouldn’t fight against himself. His kingdom would fall. His house wouldn’t stand. No, the power Jesus brings against is power over and against Satan. And he makes a beautiful comparison.
No one can break into a strong man’s house and plunder his goods until he has first overcome the strong man, tied him up. And Jesus has done just that.
Satan is the strong man. Not to be trifled with, the devil is a fierce enemy, an old evil foe who seeks to work us woe. He has deep guile and great might. He’s too much for any human to stand up to. He’s been leading us into temptation since the first days in the garden. And he never lets up. He is, as Jesus says, very strong.
But Jesus is stronger.
Jesus overcomes the power of the devil time and time again. He casts out demons with his authoritative word.
He defeats the Devil’s temptations in the wilderness, not once, not twice, but three times. Three strikes and you’re out, devil.
But best of all, Jesus defeats the Serpent by crushing his head at the cross – completely stripping him of all his power to accuse, emptying death of its sting, and the law of its terror for us. By dying, Jesus wins. Checkmate. And the strong man, the devil, comes undone.
What a way to overpower your enemy, but in weakness, shame, and bitter death! What a way to save the lives of all but by losing his own life for us.
Of course, Jesus could not be bound by death’s strong bands, and Satan’s supposed victory over Christ at the cross turned out to be quite the opposite. Death could not hold the stronger man, either. Jesus burst the bonds of death and rose victorious. Death has no power over him, and he will never die again. God has given him all authority and will put all enemies under his feet, that includes you, Satan.
Which brings us to the third element of this mini-parable, the plunder. The goods. The stuff that belonged to the strong man, but has been robbed by the stronger man. That’s you and me. Jesus steals and snatches us away from the devil’s foul grasp, but no one can snatch us out of his hand. Jesus frees us from the slavery to sin, and never can it weigh us down again. Jesus crushes the devil’s hopes and dreams of our eternal anguish at his side. It’s not to be. We belong to Christ now. The Devil is the eternal loser.
Now. Jesus comments on two kinds of blasphemy. The blasphemy against him, and the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Let’s take each of these in turn.
“Truly I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter.” Since blasphemy is a sin, particularly making a mockery of God, Jesus means that even sins against him, as God, will be forgiven. This is a great comfort to us all. But what about that other kind?
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit! We often call this the “unforgivable sin”, and we are wise to hear his warning about it. “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” This is a terrifying suggestion! And pastors have often heard dear Christians who are afraid they may have, or might someday commit this unforgivable sin. But listen to how one of our Lutheran dogmaticians explains it:
"The sin against the Holy Ghost is committed when, after the Holy Ghost has convinced a person in his heart of the divine truth, that person nevertheless not only rejects the truth he is convinced of, but also blasphemes it. Hollaz thus describes this sin: “The sin against the Holy Ghost is the malicious denial of the divine truth which a person has clearly understood and approved in his conscience, a hostile assault on it, horrible blaspheming, and an obstinate rejection of all the means of grace, which lasts to the end.” (Examen, “De Pecc. Act.,” qu. 38.)64 The sin against the Holy Ghost is committed not against the person, but against the office of the Holy Ghost; it is the willful and determined suppression of the inner conviction wrought by the Holy Ghost."
Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, 1, 571ff
In other words, friends, if you are worried that you’ve committed the unforgivable sin, that is evidence you haven’t. If you fear you can’t be forgiven, that shows that you’re not too far gone. Only those who despise Christ’s forgiveness and the Spirit’s work, and do it stubbornly to the end, will not be forgiven. Or in yet other words, the only unforgivable sin is despising Christ’s forgiveness. You can’t have his forgiveness if you reject his forgiveness.
We tie up this reading with Jesus’ statement that anyone who hears him, receives him, and does the will of the Father, that is, believes in him, is his true family. He doesn’t deny Mary and his brothers, even though they called him insane. But he shows that faith and forgiveness transcend even the blood ties of family. The freedom from the strong man that we have in his name, as he plunders us from Satan and makes us his true treasured possession. And as all sins, even our blasphemies, are forgiven us in his name. That’s how strong he is. Not a lunatic, nor a liar, but our Lord, our savior Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God in his name. Amen.
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