I was not the only parishioner at St. James' this morning struck by Father Kirk Lee's sermon. Responding to Mark 3:20 ff., he first gave us parallel texts from the synoptic gospels all telling us that "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" cannot be forgiven. But, what constitutes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?
He provides context from Mark. At the point of this statement, authorities and family both have asked if Jesus is not demon-possessed, as he has broken taboos, regulations, and laws of Scripture and laws of nature.
In other words, they were attributing to Satan the work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus. That, he concluded, is blasphemy against the spirit.
That makes sense to me in a way that other glosses on the passage never have done.
No comments:
Post a Comment