Sunday Musings

Is Anything Unforgivable?

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Today is the Third Sunday after Pentecost.

I’m taking this Sunday off — mostly because Richard’s birthday is this weekend and we’re celebrating!

I asked my friend, Jake Owensby, who writes a Substack newsletter, The Woodlands, if he’d share a reflection with The Cottage. Jake’s a bishop of the Episcopal Church in Louisiana, a philosopher, a university chancellor, and the author of several very good books.

This Sunday continues the recent emphasis on the Spirit and rules and laws.

Mark’s passage is a hard one — with a tough theological question at its heart: Is some sin really unforgivable?

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Mark 3:20-35

The crowd came together again, so that Jesus and his disciples could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house 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. 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.

“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” — for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

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“Is Anything Unforgivable?” by Jake Owensby, The Woodlands

Jesus is the forgiveness guy. It’s sort of his brand, which turns out to be God’s brand. So, the last thing you might expect him to say is something like, “There’s nothing you could do that I wouldn’t forgive. Well, except for this one thing.” And yet, that’s precisely what some people hear when they read this passage:

“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” — for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.” (Mark 3:28-30)

Anxious to avoid the eternally unforgivable sin, a few people have asked me to outline the specifics of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. They’re assuming that it’s on a sin list, like lust and greed. But they’ve got Jesus wrong on several counts here.

Specifically, they’re mistaken about what the moral law is. As a result, their notion of sin is wrongheaded. And finally, they’ve missed the essence of divine forgiveness. So, let’s take these points one by one, and then we’ll loop back to what Jesus actually means when he says that those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit cannot have forgiveness. (Spoiler alert: I’ve italicized “have” on purpose. You’ll see why in a bit.)

Let’s look at the moral law. Focusing narrowly on the book of Leviticus might lead you to think of the moral law as a code of conduct, a list of dos and don’ts. Sort of like the conduct code at a school or a club. Don’t smoke in the building, for instance. No parking on the grass. Don’t eat shellfish or boil a calf in its mother’s milk. Skip the tattoos.

If the moral law was a redlight, greenlight list, go or don’t go, then sin would simply be breaking one of the clearly stated rules. You went when you were supposed to stop. You stayed put when you should have gotten rolling.

By that logic, a God of justice would reward the rule-followers and punish the rule-breakers.

But the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also a God of mercy. So, God gives the rule-breakers a pass (after due repentance, of course).

But you may recall that Jesus gave us the summary of the law. It goes like this:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Jesus is not distilling all those specific rules in some mushy, general way. He’s telling us that all those rules are an attempt—in specific times, places, and circumstances—to articulate what love looks like. And love is the point. God wants us to have a full-hearted life: a life of peace and joy, integrity and purpose.

The root of the moral law is God’s love for us. We were created by that love, for that love. We were created to respond to that love by giving that love away. It goes like this: God loves us. When we love God in response, we love our neighbor as ourselves. After all, God loves our neighbor just as surely as God loves us.

Sin is thus more than merely breaking a rule. Sin is the rejection, distortion, or corruption of love. When we sin, we tear the fabric of reality: the web of relationships between the divine and the human, between human and human.

We also debase our very essence. We betray our own selves. As the image of God, we are our true selves only when we love as a function of our enduring character.

In the Incarnation and on the Cross, Jesus reveals that God’s love for us takes the form of forgiveness. God’s love keeps seeking to reconnect when we’ve sought to sever the link.

Look, God’s love for you and for me is not just a divine affection. God’s love is communion with us, connection with us right down to our toenails. Forgiveness is what God’s love looks like in a fractured world: reconnection.

But here’s the deal. God will connect only as God. As unflinching, uncompromising love. And love like that is a power that changes us. In fact, it’s the only power that transfigures us into who we truly yearn to be: the kind of person who loves from the depths of our enduring character.

God does not and will not force us to receive the divine love. Receiving that love comes with the willingness to be transformed by it, even if it’s going to leave a mark. That’s what it means to say, “Thy will be done.” Remake me in the image of love that is my true self.

And this brings us, at last, to the eternal sin. To blaspheming the Holy Spirit. None of us has to accept God as God in our personal lives. Jesus’ critics had said that he had an evil spirit. In other words, “You’re not the God of me.”

God offers forgiveness. Every time. No matter what. But we don’t have to say yes to the transforming power of that love. And as long as “thanks, but no thanks” is our spiritual posture, we cannot “have forgiveness.” We will not experience the benefits of what we refuse to accept.

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INSPIRATION

If we cannot
lay aside the wound,
then let us say
it will not always
bind us.

Let us say
the damage
will not eternally
determine our path.

Let us say
the line of our life
will not always travel
along the places
we are torn.

Let us say
that forgiveness
can take some practice,
can take some patience,
can take a long
and struggling time.

Let us say
that to offer
the hardest blessing,
we will need
the deepest grace;
that to forgive
the sharpest pain,
we will need
the fiercest love…

— Jan Richardson, from “The Hardest Blessing.” Please read the entire poem HERE.

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