Have you ever been accused of being a bad person or of doing or being evil because of the way you think, speak, or act?

In a humorous article that Buzzfeed posted a few years back, they listed what they consider to be “26 Everyday Habits That Make You An Evil Human Being.”

Topping that list was:

• Leaving clothes in a dressing room after you are finished trying things on.

• Pretending to text so you don’t have to awkwardly start a conversation.

• Secretly getting joy out of cutting someone off.

• Letting clothes fall off hangers, then proceeding to leave them on the ground.

• Becoming frustrated with slow-walking old people.

• Screening calls from your parents.

• Using all the toilet paper, and leaving the empty roll for someone else to take care of.

• And, not returning your shopping cart to the cart corral in the parking lot.

By these definitions of evil, each one of us here, now, is a wicked, wicked human being.

According to these definitions of evil, we are all someone’s villain or monster.

Beginning a few years ago, we began hearing a lot about a movement called “cancel culture.”

Those behind cancel culture are the people who try to eliminate, block out, and boycott people and organizations who have done wrong or failed according to their understanding of the culture’s values.

Simply put, many in today’s society think that they are the judge, jury, and executioner, always working to label those that don’t think, speak, and act exactly like them as “evil.”

Everyday that I peruse the news and my social media sites, I hear about another politician, celebrity, local teacher…you name it…being canceled or living in fear of being canceled.

In our text this morning, we are going to hear that both Jesus’ family and the Jewish scribes wanted to cancel Jesus by calling his words and actions evil.

Let’s hear about this attempt to cancel Jesus found in Mark 3:20–35.

The text reads:

[20] Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. [21] And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

[22] And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” [23] And he called them to him 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 will not be able to stand. [26] And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. [27] But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

[28] “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, [29] but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—[30] for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

[31] And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. [32] And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” [33] And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” [34] And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! [35] For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (ESV)

This text contains the passage that I can say is the most frequently asked question from young adults and teenagers during my 20+ years of ministry.

Verses 28-30 contain what is often referred to as, “The Unforgivable Sin.” 

Verse 29 says, 

[29] but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—

The confusion is that this verse seems to go against everything else we know about God—we know that God forgives sin through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But, here it is saying that there is an unforgivable sin–something God won’t forgive.

And, the questions arise…

What is this unforgivable sin?

And, if there is an unforgivable sin, have I committed it?

I have to say that this week, after spending several days with this passage, God opened my eyes to something that I have never seen or put together in this text.

Let me take you through this.

The first thing we have to notice is that Jesus’ family wants to remove him from the public eye because they think he is crazy, out of his mind, and a danger to others.

The second thing we have to notice is that the Jewish scribes want to remove Jesus from the public eye because they think he is crazy, out of his mind, and a danger to others.  

The difference is that we are told the Jewish scribes go as far to call Jesus evil.  They do that by accusing him of being one of Satan’s helpers or minions.

After those two pieces of information and the confrontation recorded in this text, Jesus responds with information about what is called, “The Unforgivable Sin.”

When we take, “The Unforgivable Sin,” in the context that is was originally presented, we see that, “The Unforgivable Sin,” is simply not having faith in Jesus’ words and work.  Not having faith in Jesus is not believing that Jesus is God in the flesh here to save us from our sins and give us eternal life.  What that denial of Jesus says is that you believe he is wrong, crazy, out of his mind, a danger to others, and therefore, evil.

So, those who live their entire lives and die not having faith in Jesus as the Savior have committed the unforgivable sin.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise because elsewhere we hear things like last week’s text which says:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3.16-18, ESV)

The Word of God, the Bible, is living and active.  

What that means is that it causes us to look into the mirror and see who we truly are.

When we read this morning’s text, we are forced to look into the mirror and ask the question, “Am I like Jesus? Or, am I like Jesus’ family and the Jewish scribes who through Jesus was crazy, wrong, and evil?”

If we answer the question honestly, there are many points in our life where we are like Jesus’ family and the Jewish scribe who thought Jesus was crazy, wrong, and evil.

PBS’ The Great American Read is an eight-part series that explores America’s 100 best-loved novels. Some of the episodes explore specific trends. One of which is that “Americans can’t seem to get enough of novels with notorious villains and monsters. 

Why are we drawn to these stories about evil-doers? What do they reveal about our own dark impulses?”

Just think of the villains in these novels: Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment, The Godfather, Stephen King’s The Stand, Game of Thrones, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Harry Potter.

Various literary critics made the following comments on why they’re drawn to evil characters: 

-“There are villains in literature because there are villains in life. They allow us to see a little bit of what it might be like go beyond the edges of accepted society.”

-“The monster is very human. You can almost sympathize with the monster.”

-“We identify with the villain. You can understand a little bit about what has made them and what has shaped them. Their monstrosity doesn’t seem foreign.”

We are a bit obsessed with villains and monsters in literature and on film because:

There are villains in real life.

We sympathize with the villains and monsters.

We identify with the villains and monsters.

And, their evil and monstrosity doesn’t seem foreign.

As much as we may like to characterize Jesus’ family and the Jewish scribes in this morning’s text as the bad guys, the villains, the monsters, the presence of evil in the world, we have to realize that there have been times in our lives and will continue to be times in our lives that we are the bad guys, the villains, the monsters, the very presence of evil in the world.

And, “Why is that?,” you ask?

It is because of the sin that dwells down deep inside of us.

It is because of the rebellion against God that we are born into and continue in as we struggle with the broken and corrupt flesh that we are tied to in this world.

Walt Whitman, one of the greatest American poets, who grew up right here in Huntington Station, writes in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” of his capacity for evil:

I am he who knew what it was to be evil,

I too knitted the old knot of contrariety,

Blabb’d, blush’d, resented, lied, stole, grudg’d,

Had guile, anger, lust, hot wishes I dared not speak,

Was wayward, vain, greedy, shallow, sly, cowardly, malignant,

The wolf, the snake, the hog, not wanting in me,

The cheating look, the frivolous word, the adulterous wish, not wanting [in me],

Refusals, hates, postponements, meanness, laziness, none of these wanting [in me]….

What the world with its “cancel culture” doesn’t offer is grace or forgiveness. And, that is because many in today’s society don’t look in the mirror and see their own need for grace and forgiveness.

However, what Jesus always offers you is grace and forgiveness.

When you look in the mirror and see that you have been like Jesus’ family and the Jewish scribes in this morning’s text, Jesus does not come in with a judgment that says you are guilty and condemned to be separated from God forever.

No, Jesus comes with the judgement that says, “you are guilty and deserve to be condemned and separated from God forever, but I took the punishment on the cross that your sin deserves and I exchanged it with my perfection and righteous for you.

I take your evil and give you my good.

Believe in me, become part of God’s eternal family in Heaven, and be saved!”

So, I bring you to Psalm 1 and encourage you to pray to God asking him to give you faith and to strengthen your faith so that you are always included as the blessed man or woman who thrives and lives.

[1] Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

[2] but his delight is in the law of the LORD,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

[3] He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

[4] The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

[5] Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

[6] for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish. (ESV)

And, I leave you with the exhortation from Hebrews 3:12–14:

[12] Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. [13] But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. [14] For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Pastor Fred Scragg

March 12, 2023