October 27, 2024 JESUS AND INDIVIDUALS 5. "Caught in the Act"

 

Readings: Psalm 34:1-8, Hebrews 7:23-28, Jeremiah 1:4-10, John 8:1-11
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, October 27, 2024

I've been preaching a series about Jesus and Individuals, taking a series of snapshots and observing how Jesus reacted with both individuals and groups of people. We saw a sinful woman at the home of Simon, we saw how He dealt with a group of Scribes who came from Jerusalem to contend with Him. We saw an encounter He had with a disturbed man in a graveyard and the reaction of the townsfolk when He healed the man.

As we've looked at those stories a number of common themes have emerged.
•    Self-Righteousness in people blocked His love from working in their lives.
•    He loved people... regardless of their social standing and was concerned to reach those others rejected.
•    While loving the sinner, He was opposed to their sin and wished to deliver them from it.
Those three themes emerge again in the account that we heard today about Jesus and a woman caught in the act of adultery.

THE TIME Most commentators suggest this was during the latter part of the ministry of Jesus. We also know from verse 2 that events took place early one morning.

THE PLACE Again we can identify it precisely. The incident takes place in the temple, just after Jesus has come down from the Mount of Olives.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES Jesus is teaching in the temple. People are gathered around Him. They are seated, or sitting on the floor, listening, asking questions. It's an idyllic rabbi and student’s picture. Into this cozy gathering barge some scribes and Pharisees, dragging with them a woman. They force her to stand before them and before the people.

They explain what is happening. “Teacher” they call Jesus. This was something of a turnabout. The day before they were calling Him a deceiver and telling folks He was doing the Devil's work. “Teacher” they say, “This woman was caught in the act of committing adultery.” They go on to tell Jesus what the law of Moses required. That she should be stoned to death. (As though, being a teacher, Jesus didn't know what the law of Moses required. )

Of course, they are not really concerned about justice being done. Nor have they any feelings towards the woman except to use her as bait to place Jesus in a compromising situation. Maybe they had set the whole thing up in the first place. It is suspicious how they only bring the woman along with them, and not the man who was with her.

They obviously suspect that Jesus would not stone her Himself. After all, He had already been teaching them that He had come to fulfill the law in a new way. And they already knew what kind of company He had been keeping. Elsewhere we have heard them grumbling about “Harlots and tax-collectors” being His friends.

They know how to play the game. If Jesus let her go...firstly, they would prove beyond any shadow of doubt that He was not fulfilling the law of Moses, He was an enemy of the law of Moses. Secondly, it would validate their conviction that as one who had friends who were sinners, He was relaxing all laws of morality and was as guilty of sin as they were. Whatever course of action He took they would catch Him out. You can almost picture them plotting, rubbing their hands together in glee, “Hey, hey, hey, we've got Him this time!”

For the Scribes and Pharisees their concern for legalistic morality went far beyond their concern for their fellow human beings. The way they treat the woman, shaming her, dragging her along, declaring her guilty without a trial, simply using her as a prop for their hateful scheming and desire to protect their own power against the threat of the love of Jesus, is a disgrace.

You know anybody can moralize. It's easy. You just point your finger and say, “You mustn't do that” “The Bible says you need to repent” “You are going to hell if that's the way you're going to live.” It's easy to pump yourself up through pulling others down. “Oh my gosh, look at the way they are acting. We are above that sort of behavior. Look at what she's wearing. Listen to how they are talking. I wouldn't be seen dead acting like that...” And so it goes.

You can do all that, and as you do so, you stifle any remnant of compassion you may still have in your being.  But, beware, for when you point the finger, the finger points back at you. When you shine a light on other people’s behavior, watch out, for the light is also shining down on you.

Jesus did not come to moralize the world. He came to save it. His teaching took morality beyond the law and into the heart.

Of course, the church must speak out about sin, challenge it, and call it what it is. Of course, the church must call people to personal morality and speak about social and political morality, because the Bible does. A quick look at the teaching of the Old Testament prophets reveals God's Word to be very political and with a bias towards justice, the downtrodden and those whose cries are often ignored.

But the unique revelation that Christianity offers is the grace of God and the forgiveness that Christ offers through a blood stained cross and the renewing, life giving, game changing power of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees and Scribes offered to the people a religion of morality. Jesus, for sure spoke about right behavior and the danger of sin but did so from the foundation of love and compassion.

It is the reception of the love and compassion of Christ that forms morality and through His Spirit the power to overcome sin is found. The gospel good news is not “Sort your life out and then you will be acceptable to God” But, “God loves you and as you love God back, your morality will fall into line... for your heart’s desire will be seeking to do God's will.”

Returning to the scene in the temple. Jesus. The crowd. The Pharisees and Scribes mistreating this poor lady and breathing daggers at Jesus. They challenge Him. “So, teacher,” “What do you say about this... woman!”

What Jesus says... is …. nothing. He instead begins to write on the floor, in the dust. There must have been a moment of roaring silence. The Pharisees and Scribes must have been thinking, “Oh Yeah. Got Him now.”  Maybe they were looking around at the people and sensing they were starting to come around to their point of view. “See. What did we tell you about this guy?”

Jesus sits up and says, “Whichever of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” Then He carries on writing in the dust. Some commentators wonder if He was writing down sins related to the crowd gathered around Him.

Slowly, starting with the eldest, they file out of the temple. What He said frightened them because it sent them back to their own consciences. He had shown them to themselves. Maybe they were afraid His next words would show them to the world. We read in Hebrews 4:13 'There is nothing that can be hidden from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies before God's eyes. And it is to God that we all must give an account of ourselves.” We can fool some people some of the time. We can even fool ourselves. But we can never fool God.

This came home to those people as they walked out of the temple. A wound had been opened. Their consciences were struck. The sad things was, that as often happens to people, rather than have the wound treated and healed by Jesus, they hope it will heal itself. Bible Commentator, Matthew Henry, writes, “It is folly for those who are under convictions to get away from Jesus Christ, for He is the only One who can heal the wounds of conscience. To whom will they go?”

Then Jesus stands up. He is alone with the woman. He, as He was without sin, could have cast the first stone. Instead, He asks her, “Where are your condemners?” She answers, “No-one left.” Jesus declares “Then neither do I condemn you.”

He then adds... “Go. And sin no more.” Though she was indeed, as we all are, a fallen human being, she is offered respect and He talks to her, not about her past, but about her future. That seems to be how the love of God deals with us. We can't change our past. But we can learn from it. We can move on from it. Forgiveness opens that doorway. The gift of the Holy Spirit enables to walk on in peace and the security of God's acceptance and love. And that changes the way we desire to live!

A FEW LESSONS FROM THIS PASSAGE

1. We should reserve our condemnation of others and concentrate on our efforts to reach them with the grace and salvation of Jesus Christ. Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” John 3:17 “For God did not send God's son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

2. We should realize that we cannot change anyone by telling them how to live or giving them a set of rules. We must show by example that Jesus Christ is alive, changing and renewing our lives, by His Spirit bringing joy, peace and fulfillment to us. Then others will seek Him.

3.We should consider if our presence as Christian people makes others feel accepted or condemned. Notice how the holiness of Jesus bought to her soul a sense of peace and acceptance, while the alleged spirituality of the Scribes and Pharisees brought to her fear and rejection.

4. We, like Jesus, should not be intimidated by self-righteous people who tell us what Christians should or shouldn't be doing. Rather we should hear Christ's call to reach out to the down-trodden, to the lost, to the sinful, to the hurting and the needy, regardless of personal cost or reputation. We should offer the forgiveness of Christ and explain that, through a living relationship with Jesus Christ, and in the power of God's Holy Spirit, the possibility “To go and sin no more” is available to us all.

Of course, we will fall. Of course, we can never be perfect. But we can strive to be a better version of the person God wants us to become.  Every time we gather to worship, is an opportunity to nurture our personal faith for whatever journey may lay ahead of us. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

October 20, 2024 JESUS AND INDIVIDUALS 4. "Darkness and Deliverance"

Readings: Psalm 104:1-9, Job 38:1-7 (34-41), Hebrews 5:1-6, Mark 5:1-20
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, October 20, 2024

I'm continuing with a series of sermons I've titled “Jesus and Individuals,” taking a look at ways Jesus interacted with both individuals and groups of folk.

Our first sermon was about Jesus at Simon's house, when a lady of questionable morals anointed His feet, much to the disgust of the religious folk present. Then we looked at an encounter Jesus had with a group of Scribes come down from Jerusalem. We saw how they were warned by Jesus not to describe the things of God's kingdom as somehow being associated with any evil scheme, but rather recognize that His ministry was the real thing.

This time we leave the Jewish territories and travel to the land of the Gadarenes, a predominantly Gentile area of the country and we witness an encounter between Jesus and a man said to be possessed by a legion of demons. We also see the effect his healing has upon the locals.

THE TIME is immediately following a story about Jesus calming the Storm. On the same days as Jesus controls the chaos of the natural world, He also brings calm to a troubled soul who is a danger to himself and feared by those who are around him.

THE PLACE is a graveyard somewhere between the two cities of Gerasa and Gadara, near the Eastern shore of the lake of Galilee in the borderlands between Arabia and Judea.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES. Inhabiting this graveyard is a man in a miserable condition. He is living among the dead. He is unclothed and uncontrollable. He is strong and though people have tried to bind him, he breaks free.  He is a danger to himself, inflicting self harm, and violent towards anybody who comes near. People are very afraid of him.

In our day we would probably suggest he had severe mental problems. Some of the mentally ill  homeless folk in our cities, especially those who exhibit violent behavior, evoke a similar response of fear and repulsion to people not accustomed to dealing with them. Thankfully for this man, Jesus is not among those who were intimidated. The man even recognizes something about Jesus that causes him to reach out. Though in the man’s mind are many voices, somehow the light of God's love breaks through when Jesus enters the scene.

It's a dark story. As a teenager I used to watch many of the movies that came out of the Hammer Horror studios. Films that were often populated with vampires and werewolves and dark forces of the undead in draughty mansions and graveyards where the thunder and lightning would magically appear at the most dramatic moments.

In this story Mark tells us that night is drawing in, darkness is falling. Back then demons were thought to be most comfortable in lonely and desolate spots, in dark hollows and lonely caves where no human usually trespassed at night. It was a perilous place, at a perilous time, and the man was a dangerous man.

When the man speaks, it is in horror movie fashion, with multiple voices, representing some kind of internal struggle. “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most High God?”  This is in response to Jesus first attempt to release him from his predicament, an attempt that had been unsuccessful because the man was in deeper trouble than at first imagined.

Further conversation takes place, and the man tells Jesus, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” This revelation offers a striking explanation of the terrible situation the man was in. The term legion would at least mean a battalion of 2000.

There are some fascinating aspects to this story. The area of the country that they are in is one that had fallen heavily to Roman occupation.  The legions had conquered this region and that's why it was known as Gentile territory. That's why there were people there farming pigs, an animal unclean to the Jews, but presenting no dietary issue to Romans and Greeks.

This is also one of the first times Jesus and His disciples extend their ministry outside of the boundaries of Judaism. It is only later in the story that He begins instructing His disciples to take the gospel message to Jerusalem, Samaria and the ends of the earth. There is the hint here, that His mission was about a lot more than the locality in which He had been raised.

Then there's the fact that this legion of demons comes before Jesus and bows down. There is a hymn in our hymnbooks... “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess Him, King of Glory now.”

The demons recognize His authority and power... at a time when, as we saw in Jesus’ confrontation with the Scribes who came up from Jerusalem... the religious authorities were suggesting He was the one who was in league with the devil. Yet here we see God's Kingly power subduing imperial domination, here we observe the beginning of a religion that would eventually dominate the Roman empire.

Returning to the encounter, the unclean spirits that the man gives voice to, beg not to be sent out of the country but to be allowed to possess a herd of pigs that are grazing nearby. It is a considerable herd, about 2000, the same size as a Roman legion. Jesus gave them permission, and  the whole herd jumps off the cliff and are drowned in the same waters Jesus had earlier calmed during the storm.

In our day we may be more comfortable describing the man’s condition as a sickness, rather than him being demonically possessed. Even though our culture has a fascination with the dark side... we have a problem with the notion of evil.

Our literature and movies and TV programs are filled with material that focuses on the living dead and the occult and vampires and monsters. Many classic movie franchises, from Star Wars to Harry Potter, to Lord of the Rings to the whole Marvel Universe, are stories about another worldly struggle between good and evil. Such tales give a voice to our fears and maybe a window on our subconscious. But how we translate that into daily life, how we deal with the demons of terrorism and war and drug abuse and Human Trafficking... well … that's a different matter. It has said that are two dangers we can make in regard to evil.

The first is to focus too much on it and end up demonizing everything. Every moral failure becomes a battle with the devil. Those who we disagree with become not just wrong, but agents of Satan. We discover secret plots where none exist. We give the Devil and his minions far more credit and power than they deserve.

The second mistake is to mystify it to such a point that we deny it. That evil becomes a matter of perspective, rather than something to be wrestled with and overcome. That we attribute everything to causes we can explain and believe that we have the power to cure all things... even the darkest desires of the human will, without reference to God.

The Lord's Prayer offers us a helpful perspective. Every week we pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Such acknowledges that, not only can we be our own worst enemies and make wrong choices, but that there are also forces and powers that can destroy us. We may not describe those powers as “demons” but the cycles of addiction and abuse and anxiety that cause untold suffering and the loss of life, in the lives of families and communities and individuals are surely things from which we need deliverance. And the power of prayer and the gift of God's Holy Spirit are truly remarkable resources available to every disciple of Jesus Christ.

Witness the effect of Jesus ministry upon the man. It was remarkable. His storm is over. The people of the village, verse 15, “They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion.” But we also read of their reaction. “And they were afraid.”

Some who were particularly afraid were the owners of the pigs who had just lost their livelihood. I'm guessing there has never been a compensation scheme for victims of exorcisms! It tells us something about the way the world works that they were a whole lot more worried about their pigs than they were delighted by the miracle of a man now in his right mind.

When the Kingdom of God invades the kingdoms of this world, there can be economic ramifications. Imagine for instance if coffee growers or garment manufacturers in the third world were paid the same wage as their counterparts in developed countries. Surely such would be a fair way of doing things.

But we also know that the price of coffee and clothes would go through the roof. Our prosperity is partly due to global economic inequality. We are not so keen on others receiving benefits that may take away our privileges. We would be more likely to complain about rising prices than rejoice at their rising standard of living. In a similar way, the pig owners are not at all pleased and want Jesus out of their neighborhood.

Other folks were simply frightened by the encounter. This encounter with evil was not something they wanted to deal with. We easily become accustomed to the way things are. We don't like radical change. Everything and everybody has their place. Some may not be in a good place, but please, don't upset the apple cart!

Jesus and the disciples do as they are asked. They leave the area. They walk away. But they leave behind an incredible seed for the Kingdom in the person of the man they have delivered. The man begs the disciples to take him with them. Jesus refuses to do so.

Instead, the man is told, “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you.” In this way the mission to the Gentiles would continue. Seeds were being planted that later Christian evangelists could build upon. For we read, “He went away and began to declare in the Decapolis (that is in the ten Greek/Roman Gentile cities in that region) how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.”

The man was moved from being in a place of darkness to becoming one of the first Christian missionaries to the world outside of Judaism. The name of Jesus, even during His earthly ministry, was becoming known in places you would never have expected.

SOME TAKE AWAYS FROM THIS  ACCOUNT

Firstly, The mission of Jesus, and therefore of the Church, involves confronting evil, however such may manifest itself. Such is not always comfortable, not without anxiety or fear and involves us in having to trust in the authority and love of God as our source. Ministry isn't always pretty or decent and in order. When the light shines in the darkness, we don't always like what the light reveals.

Secondly, The mission of Jesus, and therefore of the Church, can bring disruption as well as peace. When powers are challenged and injustice is opposed, there are losers as well as winners. We may not want to go there. But the command of Jesus is clear. Go into all the world and make others my disciples.

Thirdly, The mission of Jesus, and therefore of the Church, is totally dependent on the work of God's Holy Spirit, to bring healing, to deliver from evil,  and to calm the storms that threaten to destroy us.

Yet just as evil and violence and fear are a reality, so is the Cross and the forgiveness that is offered to us in Christ, and the power of His resurrection is a force to be reckoned with. Though it is not yet, there will come a time, as already spoken of in the hymn I referenced, when “At the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess Him, King of Glory now.”

Until that day we are called to do, as did that delivered man, to go home to our friends, and our families and our communities and tell them how much the Lord has done for us, and what mercy He has shown us. And all to the glory of God. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

October 6, 2024 JESUS AND INDIVIDUALS 3. "Jesus and the Scribes" (Communion)

 Readings: Psalm 26, Job:1:1;2:1-10, Hebrews 1:1-4, Mark 3:20-35

Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, October 6, 2024

I'm preaching a series titled “Jesus and Individuals.” Two weeks ago we were thinking about an encounter Jesus had at the home of Simon the Pharisee with a sinful woman of Galilee. Last week we were considering a personal 40 year journey since ordination.

This time I want to take a look at an encounter from Mark's gospel where we find Jesus encountering a whole group of folk known as “The Scribes” or “The Teachers of the Law.” They have come down from Jerusalem with a whole host of questions in mind. We also see an encounter in this passage that Jesus has with His own family, and some words of Jesus about forgiveness... or rather the lack of it!

As we each personally encounter the gospel message in our lives, it does indeed raise for us many, many, questions. If we choose to embrace the gospel message, then it creates new dynamics in our relationships with others, including our own families.

There are some scriptures we find difficult to understand. Each of us is on our own spiritual path. Our journey is not the same journey as another person’s. We walk in our own shoes. We are all unique. We are all individuals and that's what this sermon series is all about, Jesus and Individuals.

In Colossians chapter 3:20 Paul writes  “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord.” Apart from being the kind of advice that parents really like to hear, it is clear that in the early church there were whole families who had felt the embrace of the gospel. And though it is sadly an increasingly less common feature of our society, in the past there have been many who fortunate to have grown up in a Christian home.

I have had several people over the years tell me that they just don't remember a time when they didn't believe in God. God was just... always a part of our conversations, our mealtimes, our bedtimes. We went to church because that's what we did.

Of course, they can identify some significant moments when particular insights came their way, but they can't say,  when their discipleship journey began, because they can't remember a time when they were not on it. More importantly they can point to a present experience of God to which their journey has led them.

For others their Christianity is more of a Damascus Road experience, rather like St. Paul. Paul could point to the hour, the day and the moment when he met Jesus and felt God's call on his life, the crisis encounter that changed everything in an instant.

In between the two are a vast number of options. There are those like Peter, who though they follow, can hardly put a foot right. Who have learned just as much from their mistakes as from their breakthroughs. There are those like Thomas, who struggle to believe because their doubts overwhelm them. Who just have that mindset that says, “I hear what everybody else is saying. That's great for them! But I need to touch it and feel it for myself.” And Jesus came through... eventually... for Thomas.

There's an encounter Jesus has with a man called Nicodemus. In John 3:7, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be  or “Born from Above” or “Born Again” if he was ever to experience the Kingdom of God. Some sections of the church have taken that phrase and used it as a source of division. So that there are average Christians... who don't really get it... and then there are the true faithful, the “born again” Christians.

I recall an encounter I had with a lady in a Christian bookshop in the U.K. In conversation I explained that I had recently felt the call of God on my life and was now a Presbyterian minister. I was looking for some good theological books to help me feed my congregation. She shook her head in disgust, as though knowledge were a terrible thing to pursue and said, “That's all very well... but are you born again?”

It is scary how certain phrases can be taken completely out of context and overlaid with meaning they were never intended to have... and become not a source of unity, but a source of division within the Christian Church. Some folk use certain scriptures like sledgehammers to destroy those who feel different to them! Kind of like the Scribes who came down from Jerusalem to meet with Jesus. They weren't seeking enlightenment. They were on a mission to discredit. Let's dig deeper.

THE TIME It's a busy day. The disciples haven't even had time to eat because of the crowds around them. Jesus is on a second tour of ministry and there have been remarkable healings and exorcisms taking place. His ministry is causing quite a stir.

THE PLACE Capernaum. The hometown of Jesus.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES As Jesus is in His hometown, His family are around. And they are expressing their concern! They think He's lost it... going too far... a touch of madness has got to Him. Believe me, when you tell your family you are giving up everything and going to be a minister of gospel for the rest of your life... some people are not slow in telling you that, in their opinion, you have totally lost your marbles.

Been there. Experienced that! I think there may even be some who still think that this whole Christianity thing is just a phase I'm going through. Who shake their heads and say, “He always did take things to extremes. He couldn't just go to church, he had to go and be a pastor!”

But with the family of Jesus, it's more than that. They are also concerned about the trouble that He's stirring up. Although in favor with many, because of His ministry, others, notably the Scribes and Teachers of the Law, are offended by Him and they just want Him to stop. So, they arrive from Jerusalem.

THE SCRIBES ARGUMENT The Scribes argument is altogether more sinister than that of His family. They don't think He's mad. They accuse Him of being evil. They suggest that the only spirit driving His mission is a demonic spirit of Beelzebul, the God of dung and flies.

It's an argument that the great Christian apologist C.S. Lewis had encountered. In his own spiritual journey, he came to the conclusion that Jesus must have been mad or He was bad. Either that, or He was exactly the person He claimed to be. The Scribes from Jerusalem are sticking with the second option. He was bad .In fact He was evil. Mark 3:22 tells us plainly; “The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons."

In reply to such an accusation Jesus gives them some pictures... short parables.

Firstly, a country fighting itself and tearing itself apart. Secondly, a family dividing into groups, and falling apart. Thirdly, the picture of a thief breaking into the home of a strong man and needing to tie him up before taking his possessions.

The Scribes who came down from Jerusalem never question the power Jesus had to cast out demons. They question the source of His power. One commentator describes them as saying “It is by the great demon he casts out little demons.”

Jesus completely explodes their argument. William Barclay, in his commentary, writes, “Jesus says, 'Just think! If there is an internal dissension in a kingdom, that kingdom cannot last. If there are quarrels in a house, that house will fall! If Satan is actually making war on his own demons, then he is finished as an effective power, because civil war has begun in his kingdom.'”

We may wish to go further and say that the power of love was being shown as overcoming the power of hate. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

Jesus refuses to be drawn into a debate about the nature or the source of evil. He does not try and explain it, or quantify it,  He just deals with it. He brings healing into the situation. He dealt with it and gave others the power of His Spirit that they may engage in the same struggle to bring God's Kingdom to be revealed among the kingdoms of this world.

Having reasoned with them, then Jesus starts to warn them that they were making accusations that put their souls in peril and led them beyond the grace of God. That if they took such a flippant and careless attitude towards the things of God, they were in deep trouble.  They only had to look around them. To see that person restored to a right mind. To talk with that person who had now received healing.  These good works were the work of God's Holy Spirit.

They knew how absurd it was that the Devil would cast himself out and they knew that the Spirit which gave Jesus power was a very different spirit than that which gave the devil any power. They were not just people with stupid theories, they were placing themselves in a dangerous position in relation to God.

We then have one of those biblical verses that has caused a lot of head scratching and heartache. Mark 3:28 and 29 “Truly I tell you; people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” This passage, and others like them, have led folks to speculate if there are some sins that are unforgivable.

The “So-Called” unforgiving sin has been put forward as being everything from suicide to sexual orientation, from paganism to folks simply belonging to a different religious tradition. Thankfully this passage offers the actual context. Verse 30 “For they (that is the Scribes) had said, "He has an unclean spirit."

The original meaning of the word blasphemy was that it described “the act of insulting or showing contempt  for God.”  In their heart of hearts, the Scribes know they are wrong. 'The Message Bible' offers us a perspective that gets to the heart of the matter.

Jesus tells the Scribes:  "Listen to this carefully. I'm warning you. There's nothing done or said that can't be forgiven. But if you persist in your slanders against God's Holy Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives, sawing off the branch on which you're sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives." Jesus, as did John before Him, is calling them to repentance. They choose not to respond.  They therefore remained outside of God's grace. That was where their inability to be forgiven kicked in.

A whole lot of lessons in this encounter Jesus had with the Scribes. Here are some of the things we can learn.

From the family of Jesus who thought He had lost His mind we learn that, at times following the call to discipleship can be misunderstood be even those who are closest to us. Yet God chose to redeem the world through what Paul describes as “Fools Wisdom.” People encounter and are embraced by such wisdom, in as many different ways as we are different people.

From the Scribes we learn a sobering lesson that the heart can be so deceptive as to lead us beyond the reach of God's grace and cause us to knowingly attribute the work of God to the work of evil. If we are in that position, we should fear for our personal salvation. Forgiveness is always available to those who repent.

From the passage as a whole we learn that we are not called to explain evil, but in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are called to oppose it and work against it. This we do through acts of healing and love, though acts of deliverance and justice, both individually and corporately as communities of faith.  

While we cannot explain every evil in this world, we can consistently stand against all that cheapens and destroys. We can continue to pray that God's will may be done, and kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. We can seek to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem We can always seek for God's transforming grace to lead us and guide us. 

Around a table laid with bread and wine is a wonderful place to do just that. Amen!

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.