Sometimes when we go home, things seem strange. For example, if we have been away a long time, things aren’t the same when we get home. Sometimes home looks better when we arrive after being away a long time; sometimes things look worse; usually things look different. We gain a different perspective, having moved to a new area, or just having taken a vacation. Sometimes the relatives back home don’t understand us. That happened to Jesus in his town of Nazareth.1
Jesus had launched his ministry from Nazareth a short time earlier. Before that he was a carpenter in Nazareth, having taken over his father’s business when Joseph died. He was the oldest son of Mary. In Jewish tradition everything fell to the oldest son when the father died. Jesus was responsible for his younger brothers and sisters. It must have caused quite a stir and some sharp criticism when one day it was discovered that the carpenter had turned itinerate preacher. The criticism grew sharper when Jesus returned home.
According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had met and conferred with his cousin John the Baptizer; cast out demons with power; healed the sick, including a paralytic and a leper; forgiven sins (which, the scribes protested, "Only God can do"); eaten with sinners; confronted the Pharisees about their legalism; and withdrawn to the hills with his newly called apostles for a prayer-and-strategy session. By the time he reached Nazareth, he was the talk of the town. Nazareth was alive with rumors and counter-rumors. The air was blue with controversy. The controversy grew sharper when Jesus returned home.
What happened? Jesus spoke right into the teeth of the controversy by talking about a divided house, the unforgivable sin, and his new family. Nazareth discovered that this was no gentle and quiet, mild, and meek soft-spoken teacher who had returned home. Tensions and tempers rose when Jesus went home.
Satan’s Divided House
The stories about what Jesus was doing fueled the fires of criticism back home in Nazareth. Now that Jesus was home, his friends (3:21, RSV) and relatives (3:21, TEV, Phillips, and NEB)2 thought that things would get better. They got worse. The friends and relatives tried to explain to the people, "He is beside himself" (3:21). The scribes said, "He is possessed!" (3:22). "Perhaps he will just ignore this insult and let things quiet down," his friends and relatives thought. Jesus hit the criticism head-on with special words which have affected us ever since he spoke them.
"How can Satan cast out Satan?" Jesus asked. "I have come to clean up the house of the human soul," he said in effect. "The first thing to do is to bind the Evil One who has gained so much control over so many. I cast out unclean spirits, not by the power of Satan, but by the power of God." "A Kingdom divided against itself cannot stand."
The scene changes now and we see President Abraham Lincoln searching his soul for the right answers in the famous Douglas-Lincoln debates. Lincoln reached back, far back in his memory, for a word to assure a nation of his resolve to preserve unity. Was it a Bible verse he had learned in a Sunday school class in Illinois or a word he had read the previous week in his personal Bible study? It was a word from Mark’s Gospel, a word from Jesus. There it was:
"A house divided against itself cannot stand" (3:25). Lincoln did not originate it. He just borrowed it from Jesus.
Jesus was not trying to preserve a nation, but the emerging followers of the Way, those who would eventually become known as the Christian Church. "Satan must be bound. Satan must be defeated. I have cast out Satan," he said. "You, too, must cast out the evil spirits which possess you."
Evil spirits are like the rotten fruits Paul describes in Galatians 5:19-21: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery (abuse of drugs), enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. The worst evil spirit is the one which resists the Holy Spirit. With the boldness of a man born to be King, Jesus now confronts the real problem: the refusal of some to cooperate with the power of God, the Holy Spirit.
The Unforgivable Sin
"All sins can be forgiven," Jesus said, "except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit."
Even murder? Yes, even murder.
Even adultery? Yes, even adultery.
Even idolatry? Yes, even idolatry.
Even lying? Yes, even lying.
Even coveting, stealing and using the name of God in vain?
Yes, all of them can be forgiven if people repent. What then is the "sin against the Holy Spirit?" What is the one thing which will keep us out of the Kingdom? What does "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" mean?
The function of the Holy Spirit (another term for the living Christ or God alive today) is to bring us back to God when we sin. The refusal to be brought back to God, even when we hear the truth and know the truth, is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
In other words, the unforgivable sin is not to repent. God has designed us so that our cooperation is essential to our restoration to God. Our will must turn to accept and embrace God’s will. We must turn back to God by the power of the Spirit of God. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit. Repentance ("metanoia" in the original Greek) is an attitude of openness to change.
What is it that divides a home?
What is it that divides a family?
What is it that divides friends?
What is it that divides a nation?
What is it that divides nation from nation?
The answer is clear: An arrogance and pride that leaves no possibility for repentance and forgiveness.
The ancient words of Jesus are more contemporary than our morning newspapers. Much has changed in the past 2,000 years. The human heart remains the same. It can pump blood as long as it has not turned to stone. Jesus calls people together who are willing to repent. They are his family.
The Family Of God
We are born of the flesh to one family. We become true spiritual family with other people only when we have a common father, God; a common brother, Jesus; and the common power of God’s Holy Spirit.
"Those people there - Mary and my brothers and sisters of the flesh - are only my spiritual family when they, like you, make this turn back to God called faith. That’s why I came: to tell you the Good News of that possibility," Jesus said.
"If you return, I will restore you," Jeremiah once echoed. But "if" is the biggest little word we know.
What unites a home?
A family?
Friends?
A nation?
Nation with nation?
A return to God!
"If you return, I will restore you," says the Lord. Repentance unites us.
"Who is family to me?" Jesus asked. "Those who do the will of my Father. Those who return to my Father. Those who repent. Those who renounce their evil ways."
"My family is not perfect. Every member of my family is a sinner, but a sinner who repents of his sins and keeps coming back to my Father," Jesus teaches.
"If you return, I will restore you," says the Lord.
Jesus went home one day. There he talked about repentance. That’s because he wants us to come home to be with the Father.
Repentance is the way home.
1. Some translations of 3:19b read "They went into a house" (KJV); "Then he went indoors" (Phillips); "He entered a house" (NEB). The RSV and TEV agree "Then Jesus went home." Home was Nazareth.
2. I am using "friends and relatives" not only because the translations vary, but also in the light of 3:32-35.