3rd Sunday after Pentecost 2024
Text: Mark 3:20-35
A few weeks ago we celebrated the Day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit came down into the disciples who were gathered praying, and made that gathering the Church. The Holy Spirit is the life, the heartbeat of the Church. Without the Holy Spirit the Body of Christ would not have life. Without the Holy Spirit the Church would just be another gathering of people, like the rotary or a neighborhood association. So, we must not neglect to pray to receive the Holy Spirit regularly, for it to refresh us, to help us see the world with the eyes of Christ. If we pray for it, if we have felt its presence in us and among us, we will be able to distinguish it from other spirits.
Prior to our lesson for today, Jesus and the disciples had been traveling through Galilee. He had been debating the Pharisees in the synagogues and he had been healing people on the Sabbath. So many people were following him that the crowds were pressing in on him, and there came a time when he and a few disciples had to get away high up a mountain. There Jesus appointed the disciples to be apostles and from there he would send them out to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God, and to cast out demons.
Now we come to our lesson for this morning. It is one of the most unusual stories of Jesus’ life.
Jesus went home again, and the crowds were continuing to grow. There were naysayers and people who wondered what kind of power he was using to cast out demons. A few people went to his family to report that the crowd was beginning to say that Jesus had lost his mind and that he was possessed by a demon, Beelzebub. His family being worried wanted to bring him home to protect him from the crowds.
But Jesus was met by the scribes, and he knew their objections. He asked, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom 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 his end has come.” Jesus does not say straightforwardly, “I do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit, which comes from God.” His adversaries would not have believed him anyway.
Then comes the most puzzling statement from Jesus. “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.” We might wonder “Who is the strong man?” “Why would his house need to be plundered?” “Who is the plunderer?”
It would be easy to miss that this is a statement about exorcism, the casting out of demons. The strong man is Satan and apparently, he had hold of many of the souls of the people throughout this region in Galilee. Jesus has come to bind Satan, and not just for the moment, but eventually forever. The plundering of Satan’s house is bringing out from his dominion all the people that Satan controls. If people are not guided by the Holy Spirit, they will be guided, beguiled by Satan.
The primary weapon Satan uses is deception. His lies bring all the evil into the world. We see and experience these lies as pride, arrogance, lust, selfishness, envy, anger, and resentment.
Jesus has come to bind Satan, to save the souls of those who do not know they are perishing. And this makes Jesus look so strange to those who are possessed by Satan’s power. It is more comfortable for them to cling to what is familiar, even if what is familiar is a lie.
This past week we recognized the 80th anniversary of D-Day. The German soldiers who died that day had believed in Hitler’s lies that they were superior to other nations and people. After the embarrassment of losing World War I and the resentment of being forced into a box by the Treaty of Versailles many Germans found it more comfortable to believe in the Big Lie than to admit their leaders had been wrong to start World War I. This was the work of Satan.
Jesus knows that people have been confused by Satan. He also knows the Holy Spirit is coming to them, that they will have a way to recognize what is good and true. They will have a choice to believe in the lies of Satan or to be guided by the Holy Spirit, and he clearly lays the choice before them, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty.”
There is a sin that is unforgivable. How can this be?
It is the Holy Spirit that makes forgiveness possible. It is the Holy Spirit that helps people to see their own sin. Jesus, the Son of God, is standing before them, healing people and casting out demons, and the officials and many of the people still cannot see that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is cleaning the strong man’s house to make it his father’s home. Yet they still cling to the power of Satan and remain cynical about Jesus.
Jesus must be frustrated with them. This is what the statement about blaspheming against the Holy Spirit means. “All sins can be forgiven, unless you cut yourself off from the source of forgiveness, which is the Holy Spirit.” It is by the acceptance of the Holy Spirit working in our souls that we receive God’s forgiveness.
We are members of Jesus’ family. On the Day of Pentecost the family of Jesus received the Holy Spirit, and it lives in us today. As in Jesus’ time many people in the world today believe in Satan’s lies, that might makes right, that a man can be a woman, that doing what feels good to you is the way to ultimate happiness, that revenge can be satisfying. We have accepted the Holy Spirit and by its guidance we see these things are not true or good for people. The way of life with Jesus and the Holy Spirit is often at odds with the culture around us.
So, let us not forget to pray regularly—not just on Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit to renew us, to shape us to be more Christ-like, and to bring us that peace that passes all understanding. Amen.
