In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus states,
Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
This statement gives a lot of Christians anxiety. And unfortunately, other Christians wield it as a scriptural weapon against people with whom they disagree. I use the word “unfortunately” because it is these Christians who are most likely blaspheming against the Spirit.
So, what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
This passage begins at Matthew 12:22. Some people brought Jesus a man who was possessed by a demon. The man was “blind and mute.” Jesus cured the man “so that the one who had been mute could speak and see.”
You might expect that everyone would be overjoyed that Jesus cured the man. But unfortunately, some of the religious elite didn’t like the fact that Jesus was curing people. They complained, “It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.”
The religious leaders in this passage wanted a religion that they could control. They want to be the keepers of the religious rules. They wanted to decide who was worthy and who was unworthy. They wanted to decide who was included and who was excluded. They wanted to decide who was a sinner and who was holy.
But Jesus refused to play by their rules.
Jesus broke the rules.
The religious leaders knew that they were holy because they knew that this man who was possessed by a demon was unholy. Unfortunately, many religious people today operate the same way – by comparing themselves to others in a manner that makes them feel superior. We are all prone to this type of comparison. We do it unconsciously, but it could be that religion makes us especially susceptible to this comparison trap.
Jesus responded to those who opposed him by saying,
Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 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.
We typically think of Satan as the “tempter” or the “adversary,” but in the original Hebrew, the word satan means the accuser. We see this at the beginning of the book of Job where Satan’s role is to travel the earth looking for people to accuse of sinning.
Those who opposed Jesus acted like the Satan character in Job. They were obsessed with finding people to accuse of sin. They even accused Jesus of working with “the ruler of demons” in order to cast out a demon.
Jesus responded to their accusation by stating, “…if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.”
This passage helps us understand the difference between Satan and the Holy Spirit. If Satan is the accuser that leads people to be marginalized, the Holy Spirit is the healer that leads to people being included.
So what is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
According to Jesus, the Holy Spirit seeks to heal, forgive, and include everyone in God’s Realm. In another passage, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is like the wind. She cannot be contained or controlled. She forgives and She heals and She includes those that the religious leaders have marginalized.
But the religious leaders in the Gospels, and many religious leaders today, refuse to believe in the radical nature of the Holy Spirit. When religious folks think that they are the gatekeepers of the Spirit’s work, they reveal that they are the ones who are possessed by Beelzebub. They are the ones blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.
The tragedy is that by wanting to control the Spirit’s healing and forgiveness, these religious people not only blaspheme against the Holy Spirit but cut themselves off from the healing and forgiveness that we all need from the Spirit.
And so Jesus warns them with these harsh words, “…whoever speaks against this Holy Spirit will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.”
I know this passage might still be causing some of us anxiety. Please know that if you worry that you might have committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, you haven’t. People who have sinned against the Holy Spirit are not self-aware enough to worry that they might have committed this sin. They are so consumed with using religion as a weapon against others that they are blind to their own sin. They use religion as a weapon in the name of God, but as they do so, they blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.
But there is still hope. Jesus says that they “will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come.” Which brings up the questions, what is “this age?” And what is “the age to come”?
For Jesus and his people, there were many different ages. “This age” that Jesus lived in was the age of the Temple in Jerusalem, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70 CE. We are now living in the “age that is to come.”
There will be another age and possibly other ages to come after that. Will those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit be forgiven in future ages to come? I think the forgiveness of the Holy Spirit will reach everyone.
But for Jesus, the point is to live in the age of love, forgiveness, and inclusion now. That is how we open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit in this age and in the age to come.
