Mark 3

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.”

There was once a very elderly Christian lady who lived next door to a very outspoken cynic and critic of Christianity. They lived in a poor part of town where the houses were old and in various states of disrepair. Every morning the little old lady would enrage her neighbor by going out on her front porch, reading her Bible, praying, and thanking God for her many blessing. This did not enrage her neighbor because she would wake him while doing this. In fact, he was always sitting on his front porch drinking coffee when the lady would do this. It enraged him because he thought the entire scene to be absurd. Here, after all, was an old lady with failing health living alone with nobody checking on her in a dilapidated old house. And with all of that going on, she thanked a God that he was sure did not even exist. “If there was a God,” he thought, “she should curse Him and not bless Him. After all, He has left her alone and in poverty.”

Even so, the little old lady would praise the Lord each day in the morning and throughout the day. On those occasions when the two spoke, the lady peppered her speech with cheery optimism and gratitude to God most high. After a while, her neighbor set aside his deference to her old age and began first to question her faith and then to mock it.

“How can you believe there is a God,” he would ask, “when you live alone and are so poor and forsaken?”

“Because He has always been good to me and has always provided for me throughout my entire life,” would be her cheery response.

On and on this would go with slight variations but it always returned inevitably to the same theme: the old woman’s faith and her neighbor’s unwavering scorn.

One day the man decided to make a point to the old lady. Frustrated with her praising and her praying, he was determined to prove to her that there was no God after all. So he went into town and bought four large bags of groceries. They were filled to overflowing with more food than the old lady had ever had in her house. Late in the night, he crept over to the lady’s house and put the bags in front of her front door.

He got up earlier than usual that morning so that he could make his great point and savor his victory.

Like clockwork, the old lady emerged from her house, but this morning she saw before her a scene of nearly indescribable bounty. There at her feet were four bags of beautiful groceries. Fruits and vegetables and food were just sitting there…for her!

Overwhelmed, the dear lady broke down in tears and then rose up in praise. As her smirking neighbor watched and waited, the old lady lifted her tear-stained face to heaven and gave praise to the Lord. She thanked God for the miraculous provision of food. She thanked God for His never-failing love and care. She thanked God for the love of Jesus and she committed herself afresh and anew to following her Lord.

Finally, her neighbor, unable to contain himself any longer, leapt to his feet, ran to the foot of her porch, pointed a finger derisively at the old lady, and proclaimed, “Aha! Aha! This is exactly what I mean. Lady, the Lord did not provide you with those groceries. I provided you with those. I went to town, bought them, and put them on the porch. There is no God! There are no miracles! Nobody is looking out for you! Jesus is not watching over you! You old fool, it was me! I did it! Me! Me!”

The lady paused briefly to take in what her angry neighbor was shouting at her. Finally, she seemed to understand. A smile started forming on her face and then spread into a wide grin. The tears of joy came again and, once more, she spread her arms wide and looked into the heavens. Then, to her neighbor’s flabbergasted astonishment, she began to praise God yet again. “Oh Heavenly Father,” she prayed, “You are so very good to me! You never cease to provide for me! Oh Lord, not only have you provided me with these groceries, but You even made the devil pay for them!”

The question of who is really at work behind the scenes of what we see is a fascinating question. In the story I just told, the elderly lady had learned to trust God so much that she could not help but see Him at work in all of her circumstances. In Mark 3:22-30, however, the scribes had become so blind to God that all they could see in Jesus was the devil at work. This accusation led to an amazing encounter in which Jesus asserted with razor sharp clarity that in Him, God, not the devil, was working, and that the work of God would never fail!

Jesus: Lord of the House that is Standing and Undivided

Jesus was continuing His great work of healing and preaching when a party of His opponents came to confront Him.

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.

It is interesting to read that these men were “scribes who came down from Jerusalem.” Jerusalem was some sixty or so miles from where Jesus was. Just as we have seen the geographical expansion of Jesus’ reputation in terms of where people were coming from to be healed, so too we see now the geographical expansion of the origin of Jesus’ critics. That these scribes journey “down from Jerusalem” to spread malicious lies about Jesus is telling. It shows just how popular Jesus was becoming.

And what was their primary allegation about Christ? It was that Jesus “is possessed by Beelzebul” and “by the prince of demons he casts out demons.” R.T. France has offered some helpful background information on this odd title:

It seems clear from this identification, and from the sequel in vv. 23-26, that Mark understands [Beelzebub] as an alternative name for Satan. The name is not found in this sense in pre-Christian Jewish accounts of demons, or indeed in any previous literature, the only previous occurrence of a similar name being that of the Philistine god, [Baalzebub], “Baal of flies”…in 2 Ki. 1:2, 3, 6, and 16. It is conjectured that this was an abusive Hebrew corruption of an original [Baalzebul] (‘Baal of the height’ or ‘of the house’)…In the end we simply do not know where Mark got it from or exactly what lexical meaning, if any, he would have understood it to carry. It is, as he uses it, simply an alternative name for Satan.[1]

The scribes came all the way from Jerusalem to accuse Jesus of being demon possessed. Interestingly, the accusation that Jesus had a demon became quite popular among His opponents and “Rabbinic polemical literature continued the accusation” for years to come.[2]

Ronald Kernaghan has offered the intriguing insight that the words of the demons from earlier encounters when Jesus came into contact with possessed people actually led to these accusations of Jesus being demon possessed Himself.

It is not hard to discern something that might have made that charge believable. Whenever Jesus cast them out, the unclean spirits called him “the Holy One of God” or “the Son of God.” Their declarations went far beyond the affirmations anyone in the crowds had made about him, and they are the kind of statements that would have been kept alive in the public imagination. The testimony of the demonic powers offered a plausible way to undermine Jesus’ growing popularity. It was the seed of an unholy idea.[3]

In response to this absurd charge, Jesus does something interesting. He starts talking about houses. He does so in a metaphorical way. We have already seen that Mark does not describe the locations of Jesus’ activities in a happenstance way. On the contrary, where Jesus is at any given moment, and the way that Mark describes His various locations, is really very important. Jesus’ periodic withdrawals to the wilderness appear to be described in Mark in such a way as to evoke two key places in salvation history: the ruins of Eden and the wilderness through which Israel wandered for forty years. There is a strong backwards look to the exodus in Mark. The Jordan River becomes a type of Red Sea in Mark except that whereas the waters parted before Moses, the heavens were opened before Jesus at His baptism. We have even seen that the synagogue becomes a type of picture of the palace of Pharaoh in the story of the healing of the man with the withered hand.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus talks a lot about houses. Perhaps this is because in the world of the first century (and, one might say, this is generally true in the world of today as well), a person’s house was the most valuable thing he owned. As such, it would make sense that one of the primary metaphors Jesus would use in His teaching is the metaphor of the house.

Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount to let our light shine so that “it gives light to all in the house” (Matthew 5:15), that we are to be like the wise man who “built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24), that we are to “go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6), that Jesus is “the master of the house” and that we are a part of His “household” (Matthew 10:25), that He was sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24), that the temple is the “house” of God and should be a “house of prayer” (Matthew 21:13), that Jerusalem is a “house” that is “left to you desolate” and “forsaken” (Matthew 23:38, Luke 13:35), that the Kingdom of God is like a “house” into which people in the “highways and hedges” are called to enter (Luke 14:23), and that Heaven is Jesus’ Father’s “house” in which there “are many rooms” that Christ is preparing for His people (John 14:2).

Jesus liked the metaphor of the house and He clearly used it frequently. His use of it here is intriguing and telling.

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.

Jesus begins by denying that it was even possible for Him to be possessed by Satan. This is because He was casting out Satan in His ministry of exorcism. Therefore, He asks a very simple and very logical question: “How can Satan cast out Satan?” How indeed! The devil does not work for the devil’s own destruction.

Then, Jesus talks about houses. The first thing Jesus says is that “if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” In other words, if Jesus was doing His work by the power of Satan then Satan was divided against Satan and his satanic kingdom and house would not be able to stand. A divided house cannot stand. Houses, as Jesus is referring to them, seem to mean something like “realms of power” or “domains of power.”

Peter J. Leithart has made this interesting observation about houses in Mark 3:

Thus far in Mark, Jesus encountered Satan in the wilderness, but then found a demon-possessed man in a synagogue and also found murderous Pharisees in a synagogue (3:1-6). Synagogues are the enclosed spaces where Jesus meets Satanic threats face-to-face.

Jesus withdraws to a different house (3:20) and there discourses on the boundaries of His family (3:31-35).

Thus Jesus’ house has been set in contrast to the house of Israel, which is currently where Satan dwells. When Jesus claims to be dividing Satan’s house, he is literally talking about the divisions He creates within Israel. When He talks about plundering the strong man’s house, He is talking about plundering people who are oppressed by the Satanically-inspired leaders of Israel.

Israel is the house that Satan rules, and Jesus comes to divide and topple it, so that He can construct a new house from the pieces.[4]

Fascinating. Jesus conflicts with Satan in three locales: the wilderness, the synagogue, and houses, and clearly He is establishing a distinction between Satan’s house and His own.

A house divided cannot stand. If Jesus were possessed by Satan, then He would be in a divided house. Jesus is not in a divided house, though, so Jesus cannot be possessed by demons.

If Jesus is not a victim in a satanically divided house, that means He is actually Lord of an undivided and standing house. The house of Satan is destined to fall and great will be the fall of it! The house of Christ is an eternal house, a house without end.

Jesus is Lord of the house that will never fall!

Jesus: Plunderer of the House that is Evil

Not only is Jesus Lord of an undivided and forever-standing house, He is also the plunderer of the house that is evil. Verse 27 is a fascinating verse.

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.

Satan’s house is destined to fall. The Kingdom of God will forever stand. As part of the triumph of the Kingdom of God, Jesus, the King of kings, enters the devil’s house, binds him, and plunders his goods.

This is a thrilling image! As Jesus paints this scene, the devil is a strong man who is holding hostage the people of the world. The only way those people can become free is if a stronger man is able to enter the devil’s house, overtake the devil, and plunder him, taking back what is His.

This is exactly what Jesus has done and is doing. Jesus is the stronger man who plunders the house of the devil, but only after having bound the devil. Jesus did this work of strength, paradoxically, through what the world saw as weakness: His death on the cross. Through submitting to the cross, Christ plundered the house of Satan. He did so by entering into the domain of sin by becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) and by redeeming the lost through His shed blood.

On the cross, the strong man was the weaker man who submitted Himself to death. This is the way of the Kingdom of God. True strength is submission to the will of God, even to the point of death on a cross.

Christ, Lord of the undivided house, plundered the house of the devil.

Jesus: Door of the House that is Eternal

What is more, Jesus is the door of the house that is eternal. He is the determining factor in whether or not we enter the eternal house of God. Jesus next makes a comment that has proven to be one of the most perplexing comments in all of the New Testament.

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.”

The average pastor cannot count how often he is asked this question: “What exactly is the unforgiveable sin?” It is a good question because much is at stake. In short, Jesus defines the unforgiveable sin as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It seems common today in evangelical circles to interpret blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as rejection of Christ. Of course, rejecting Christ is an act of rejecting the forgiveness that Christ brings. Whatever blasphemy against the Holy Spirit means, rejecting Christ is part of it.

That being said, in the context of our text, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a particular kind of rejection. It is specifically the act of attributing to Satan the work of God. It is looking at what Jesus is doing and saying, “That is Satan at work.” Isaiah had warned against such blasphemy in Isaiah 5.

²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Ronald Kernaghan writes of this sin that “[t]he sin is something the teachers of the law had just committed. They had accused Jesus of being in league with Satan. To identify the work of God as the work of the devil is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit; it is the ultimate blindness, the point from which there is no turning back.”[5] I agree with this interpretation. Furthermore, John R. Donahue and Daniel J. Harrington rightly note that “[i]n Mark this sin is not final impenitence or refusal to accept doctrine, but a deliberate choice to interpret the presence of divine action as evil.”[6]

That is to say, while rejecting Christ means rejecting the forgiveness that Christ offers, what Jesus is specifically talking about is what just happened. It is unforgiveable to call Jesus Satan. It is unforgiveable to call light darkness. It is unforgiveable to look at the works of God and call them the works of the evil one.

One cannot help but think, though, that our emphasis on understanding the obscure aspects of this passage have kept us from marveling at the most obvious aspect of this passage.

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.”

The most obvious aspect, and the most beautiful, is verse 28: “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter…”

Christ Jesus is the Lord who forgives. In and through Christ, “all sins will be forgiven the children of man”. And this forgiveness hinges on Christ. It is Christ who forgives. It is attributing evil to the name of Christ that damns. It is acceptance of Christ that brings life. It is rejection of Christ that brings eternal separation from God.

Jesus is therefore the door, the only door, through which we can enter the Kingdom. In John 10, Jesus said:

⁷ So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Christ Jesus is the conquering, forgiving Lord of life. Christ reigns eternal and supreme. Christ is King of the eternal Kingdom. It is a Kingdom that is undivided and unconquerable. It is the reign and rule of God in Christ. Christ is the Grand Plunderer, the stronger Man who binds the devil and sets free those whom the devil has stolen. Jesus is the determining factor of all eternity. Our eternal destiny hinges on our standing with Him. To reject Him is to close the door to life eternal. To call Him evil is to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul put it in these terms:

³ Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is Lord! His reign is forever and ever! To say otherwise is to be in league with the devil whose house is crumbling and whose days are numbered.

 

[1] R.T. France, The Gospel of Mark. The New International Greek Testament Commentary. Gen. Eds., I. Howard Marshall and Donald A. Hagner. (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), p.170.

[2] Abraham Kuruvilla, Mark. (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012), p.71, n.18.

[3] Ronald J. Kernaghan, Mark. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Ed., Grant R. Osborne. Vol.2 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), p.81.

[4] https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2013/11/satans-house

[5] Ronald J. Kernaghan, p.82-83.

[6] John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., The Gospel of Mark. Sacra Pagina. Ed., Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Vol. 2 (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), p.136.