FOR OR AGAINST?
Dear people loved and purchased by God through Jesus’ blood: Grace be unto you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In this election year everyone has to think about who they are for. If the choices aren’t great sometimes it’s determined more by who they’re against. The stakes often seem to be getting higher for our country – for our life here.
In 1 Kings 18, the stakes were even higher. It was about their very faith in God, and eternal life. The prophet Elijah was up against 450 prophets of the false god Baal. The people of Israel wouldn’t take a side. Elijah said, “If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But “the people answered him not a word.” Elijah said they were “faltering between two opinions.” He prayed to God, that “this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again” – that they would be for God and against Baal worship. God sent fire down to consume the sacrifice that Elijah made; only then the people said: “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!” (1Ki 18:21, 37ff)
In our text from Mark 3, Jesus teaches that we have to take a side. It’s Jesus and His teachings, or the devil and his false teachings. What God does and says is good, and to reject any of it has consequences for our eternal life. We must also take the side of Jesus and His Word above all family ties or loyalties.
Sermon Text, St. Mark 3:20-35. 20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.” 23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. 28 Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter;
29 but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation” – 30 because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.” 31 Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. 32 And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.” 33 But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” 34 And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
It seems like a softball question: Are you for or against God, with Jesus or against Him? Of course you’re pro-God, and you love Jesus. But in this portion of Mark 3, we see that being for Him, and against evil, is harder than we think.
What gets our attention is the part with “the scribes” who came to gather evidence against Jesus. We find out in Matthew, they are there because Jesus healed a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute. Not only that, it’s that when the man spoke and was able to see, the crowds ask, “Could this be the Son of David?” They were close to believing in Jesus, being “for” Him.
So the scribes make accusations against Jesus, saying: “He has Beelzebub” – actually they say “Beelzebul” – and: “He casts out demons by the ruler of demons.” Be-elzebub was a god worshipped by the Philistines, and it meant “lord of the flies.” The Jews changed that name into Be-elzebul, meaning “lord of the dung-heap” or “lord of filth” and applied it to Satan, as lord of all that was unclean. Remember how Mark always calls demons “unclean spirits.”
So while the scribes can’t deny that Jesus cast out the demon, they say it’s Satan acting through Jesus. They’re calling Him evil. Jesus did something good, they call it evil. They’re also questioning His power, implying that for a demon to obey Him and go out of a man, Jesus must have to partner with Satan.
In response to this, Jesus re-asserts that He and Satan are enemies, thus what they say is absurd. Jesus uses the illustration, “If a house be divided against itself that house cannot stand” –and then applies it to Satan: “If Satan has risen up against himself, he cannot stand.”
Next Jesus pictures their battle. He says it’s like a strong man – that’s what Satan, “strong” – being overcome by a stronger man – that’s Jesus, always stronger. He pictures Satan having “goods”– the souls enslaved to him, which is the way we are at birth. But Jesus redeems us from the power of the devil. He redeemed all people. This word redeemed means “purchased.” As our catechism says, He didn’t do this with money, with gold or silver. He did it with His suffering and death. He did it with His holy, precious blood.
Using the language of Jesus’ picture, through His death Jesus “binds the strong man,” Satan. In His death Jesus pried all people – pried you – out of Satan’s grasp, freed them – freed you – from bondage to sin and Satan.
This is pretty clear, that you want to be for Jesus and against Satan. Satan lies to you and deceives you and locks you in his prison. But Jesus loves you so much, He died for you to free you from Satan, and his accusations. Jesus’ death really did this. Everyone’s sins are died for. He redeemed everyone. Satan is powerless to undo what Jesus’ death and resurrection did for you.
Everyone is redeemed and forgiven because of Jesus – but it’s yours only by faith. This is where the means of grace come in. In Baptism, in the Word, and in the Lord’s Supper the Holy Spirit makes it yours and gives you faith. But if someone refuses to believe, rejects what Jesus did for them, or won’t repent, that person has rejected salvation, isn’t saved, and is in Satan’s grasp.
So Jesus now gives a warning about a person “who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,” that such a person “never has forgiveness.” This is what’s called the “unforgivable sin.” It’s a surprising statement coming from Jesus, who came not to condemn but to save. God wants all people to be saved, and the Holy Spirit never stops working to bring people back if they’ve strayed.
Together with other verses that teach this (Lk 12:10, 1Jn 5:16, Heb 6:4-8), Jesus is speaking of a person (a) who’s been given saving faith, and comes to reject it; who speaks against the true faith; who rejects all efforts to turn him back; and – this is the kicker – persists in this stubborn resistance to the end of life.
We can’t ever tell if that’s true of someone. Only God sees the heart. We pray for everyone we see doing this. We ask God to keep after the people who are hostile to Him, just as Jesus is keeping after these scribes and wants them too.
Jesus is speaking this as a warning, to let us know that it’s possible to fall from faith for good. To make us afraid of this happening and take precautions. To make us struggle with it. The struggle is good. For if you worry that it’s true of you, you’re not guilty of it, and it isn’t true that you have no forgiveness.
Instead you always have His forgiveness as you struggle with your faith, as you struggle with doubt and with the truth, as you deal with suffering, as you struggle with all Satan’s darts – but doing so in conversation with God in His Word. How do you know you always have His forgiveness? You confess your sins and failures. And what’s always His answer? “I forgive you.”
Although we’ve been dealing with the part where Jesus speaks to the ones who are against Him, look at His loved ones too. Although they have good intentions, it’s to accomplish their will, not His. His mother Mary comes, with His brothers who didn’t believe in Him yet, to take Him away. They have good intentions, but for Jesus it’s interfering with His mission, taking Him away from the people He was helping and saving. It isn’t the Father’s will.
So He declares that being His “mother and brothers” isn’t by blood, but you’re in His family – the family of God – by faith. Jesus lovingly corrects them. This is a comfort, that even if you’ve always been close to Jesus, you’re a lifelong Christian and churchgoer, Jesus is just as concerned for you. He does not take your faith or salvation for granted. Nothing catches Jesus by surprise. If you say the wrong thing, or have wrong thoughts in your faith, Jesus has loving correction for you too. All for your good, to preserve your faith.
The most important thing is not how you do at being for Him; it’s how He is always for you. St. Paul writes: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” God is for you, in Christ. “We are more than conquerors through Him” (Rom 8:31, 37).
This makes you able, with His help, to do what you can’t do by your own strength: to be for Him, to say “Yes” and “Amen” to His promises, to say “No” to the devil and his lies. This is how you’re one who “does the will of God,” to “hear the Word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28). By His grace, with His help. Amen!