Simon bar Jacob - Simon, son of Jacob - had just finished the pruning of his olive trees, ending with the three old trees farthest from the road. He was pleased with his work and looked at it for some time, complimenting himself with satisfying grunts. "Job well done!" He turned to look out upon the full olive grove of 57 trees. Each one had received his careful work, talents learned through the years and taught to him by Jacob, his father. But as he looked toward the roadside near the orchard his heart stopped. There, walking into his orchard was an army of people, a larger crowd than he had ever seen. They filled the spaces between the trees. One young child actually swung from an olive branch, nearly breaking it off, Simon was certain!

The crowd filled the lower part of the orchard and circled round so that they all were in sound-reach of the man who now sat upon a ridge of rocks that Simon had gleaned from the soil. Simon began to run toward the crowd, uncertain of what he would do or say but certain of his desire to protect his property, his inheritance of olive trees. He broke into a run and was quickly at the outskirts of the crowd. But his initial fears and anger were quieted when he saw that he knew many of the folks now gathered around the teacher. "They will not hurt my orchard," he thought. "I know them."

And he was right. Although they stayed for most of the day, not one branch was broken. Nor did the young boys climb the trees. Soon Simon was listening to the teacher and sharing in that special moment when Jesus, from nearby Nazareth, taught about God. It was said by those standing with Simon that Jesus' own family was part of the crowd. It was said they had followed him from Nazareth, hoping that he would come back with them and back to the work and into the protection of Nazareth. Jesus was gaining too much attention by the things he did and the words he spoke. He was not as he once had been. His family was worried. But in the press of people Simon never discovered who they were.

What he did discover was that shortly after noon, a silence fell upon the crowd. It was a silence that began along the road's edge and worked its way through the crowd until it reached Jesus. Priests from the temple in Jerusalem had entered the orchard. Their presence brought a hush upon the crowd. Unlike Jesus' family they were easily seen! Their dress was elaborate. Their head wrapping was of finest cloth. Their step was like that of royalty, expecting adulation. The look upon their faces was of great disdain, but edged with fear for they were in a foreign setting. They could not have remembered when they last walked in an olive orchard. Those priests came close to Jesus and the leader pointed a jeweled finger to the teacher's face. "You are possessed by Beelzebub," he said. As if to second the motion, another priest quickly shouted, "The ruler of demons casts out demons!"

Simon bar Jacob - Simon, son of Jacob - remembered the silence of that confrontation that took place amid the ripening trees of his orchard. He was there and he found that he, too, had to decide about Jesus.

Twenty centuries later, you and I share that moment of confrontation. That is the point of this sermon from these verses in Mark's gospel! That is the point of the Christian faith! Each of us is involved in the confrontation.

The confrontation came early and with great force in Jesus' ministry. As Mark tells the story, Jesus had just chosen his disciples. He had just begun his teaching times, and word spread quickly that his touch could heal broken lives. The crowds were eager to hear him and to receive from him. The beginning verse of the text tells of it, "the crowd came together again so that they could not even eat."

That word sped quickly to Jerusalem. Included within that word was the accusation that Jesus' newly-appointed disciples picked grain on the sabbath - they broke the law! - and that Jesus had healed a "withered hand" on the sabbath. - Again, the law had been broken! Something must be done! The religion of law - only law - was threatened! And so the Pharisees traveled down from their high, holy city. They accused Jesus of being possessed by Satan. Jesus was God's enemy. The gauntlet had been thrown down upon the dusty road in the Galilee! Sides had to be chosen, decisions made.

Jesus countered, if Satan is evil, how can Satan do good? This is schizophrenic! Jesus did not use that word! He did say a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, which is a fair definition of that word. This was not discussion over some small point of religious law. This was debate over change - great change. Little wonder that Jesus' family wanted to hurry him away to the protection of his home.

Midway into this confrontation Jesus said a very harsh thing. What did he mean when he said, "Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin?" (Mark 3:28-29) One commentator, Halford E. Luccock, noted that this is one of the things he wishes Jesus had never said.

Jesus' statement has produced hard emotional scars upon some sensitive persons. Not many months ago I had a conversation with a man who was deeply disturbed. He was emotionally sick. He needed professional counseling - much more than I could provide. What he continually talked about was his belief that he had committed that eternal sin, that unpardonable sin. He never shared what it was or what he believed it was. "I just can't speak it," he said. It was a thought that he had held since his youth, and for thinking that terrible thought he believed Jesus was condemning him eternally. The whole gospel message was - for him - focused on that single verse, that single eternal condemnation by Jesus. I worry about how such a phrase is taught to young people, to young lives just forming serious religious understandings. Biblical literalists, from their position of self-confidence, refer to it as if that single verse stands all by itself.

But Jesus' word is part of the total confrontation that took place that day. The religiously learned stood before Jesus and condemned him for doing good, because it was done on the Sabbath; condemned his followers for the simple act of plucking heads of grain on the sabbath; condemned the common people of that day for their lack of righteousness because they did not follow the religious law with the exactness that they (the religiously learned) followed it. Indeed, the word pharisee comes from separated ones. Those richly-robed leaders were proud of their separation from the sinful common people, from those contaminated by the world. In their haughty separateness, the Pharisees had become so blind that they called the good works of God to be the works of Satan! "The essence of their sin is callous blindness." (Cambridge Bible Commentary on Mark, page 32) "The sin for which there was no forgiveness was just what the scribes were doing when Jesus spoke the words - calling good evil." (Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 7, page 693) That religious elite was so caught in pride and self-interest that it labeled what was divine as satanic! That was the sin. The religious ones were so tied up in their sense of religious rules that even great good to human life, taught by Jesus as God's good gift, could be seen only as the act of evil. That, said Jesus, in that moment of confrontation, was unpardonable!

But I find another message in this confrontation. In the sharpness of the words exchanged on that ancient day we may overlook a wonderful spiritual forest because of this single textual tree! Through his deeds and in his word here, Jesus is also affirming the wideness of God's mercy and love and forgiveness! God's forgiveness is part of that great expansive good open to every human life. So much of our human sin and error is redeemable! If only this narrow, myopic sin of the scribes and Pharisees is unpardonable, then so much more is pardonable!

That message is one to be shared far and wide. That is good news. Jesus is saying that there is a release from guilt that is offered. Jesus is saying that there is the possibility of a "new start" with our Heavenly Father. Is that the message of the faith you need to hear today?

Some orders of worship include what is titled Words of Assurance. They are scripture words telling the chance of forgiveness:

"The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." - Psalm 148:08

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:09

Our confrontation with Jesus Christ opens to each of us the blessed opportunity of forgiveness, and in that unburdening, the opportunity for a new start in our relationship to God and to one another.

I hope and pray that the broken and sick man, burdened beyond his ability to cope by that single verse, was eventually able to see the broader landscape of God's great love and forgiveness - that landscape lived and shared through Jesus Christ. For in that larger land is his hope - and ours!