The crowds were saying that Jesus had gone out of his mind (Mark 3:21), and his mother and his brothers came looking for him (3:31) in order to “restrain” him (3:21) – the word κρατέω (krateo) here means they were planning to seize him by force and take him home, as you might do with a crazy relative: the first-century equivalent of arresting someone to take him to the psychiatric hospital.

The Scribes’ diagnosis went further and declared that Jesus was demon possessed: “He has Beelzebub,” they said. It’s the same phrasing used elsewhere to say that someone “has a demon,” but the Scribes ramped it up by proposing that it was because Jesus was possessed by the ruler of the demons that Jesus had the power to cast out demons (3:22). Jesus responded that this wouldn’t be all that good a strategy (picture him with a wry grin, shaking his head at their lack of insight); it would be like a house divided, with Satan casting out Satan, and the end of the kingdom of Satan would be at hand (3:23-26).

As readers we often jump from here to the unforgivable sin (3:29), but watch what happens first. Jesus insists, “Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter” (3:28). That’s a pretty universal-sounding statement: no “if they repent” or “if they confess” or “if they are predestined to be saved.” Whatever we want to say about what kinds of sins and sinners can or cannot be forgiven, we need to reckon it within this context: an astonishingly broad statement of God’s sweeping intention to forgive us for all our sins.

And we need to reckon with the context of the Scribes seeing Jesus free people from demonic oppression and then rejecting that action as something devilish. When the Holy Spirit comes to set us free from being trapped in our own wrongness, if we then disparage as evil the means God uses to set us free, we don’t have another way to get set free.

This presents us with a choice of interpretations. You can see this text as an indication that God is willing to forgive any and all sins, and Jesus is too (Matthew 12:32); but the Holy Spirit holds a serious grudge: one bad word and you’re rejected forever. Or else you can see this text as an indication of the means by which God saves us. It’s like if you reject the rope that God throws you to pull you out of the quicksand, you don’t have any other way to get rescued. It’s not like the rope gets mad and pushes you under: it’s just that there’s no other way out of your own lostness.

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Help us, Lord! We get ourselves so lost in the quicksand of our own rebellions and self-justifications. You are the only one who can rescue us; if we reject you, we have no means of saving ourselves. All we can do is give thanks for the astonishing reach of your redeeming love.

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