TRANSLATION MATTHEW 12:22

Then they brought to him a man possessed by demons, who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that the mute man was able to speak and see. The whole crowd were astonished and said, “Maybe this man is the Son of David!” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This fellow only throws out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the chief of demons.

Now when Jesus grasped their thinking he said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is ruined; and every city or dynasty divided against itself, cannot stand. And if Satan is throwing out Satan he is divided against himself. How then will his Rule be maintained? And if I throw out demons in the power of Beelzebul, through whom do your pupils throw them out? So they will be your judges. But if in the power of the spirit of God, I throw out demons, then the Rule of God has come upon you.

But how can anyone force entry into a strong man’s house and seize his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder the house.

If you are not with me, you are against me. if you are not gathering with me, you are scattering. So I tell you, that all sins and blasphemies will be cancelled for human beings; but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be cancelled. And if you say something against the Son Of Man, that will be cancelled; but if you say something against the Holy Spirit, that will not be cancelled either in this age or in the age to come.

Again Matthew gives a stern warning which he attributes to Jesus, Because of the KJV translation, this warning is called by scholars, ‘The unforgivable sin” but the word used here can be translated “cancelled” as I have done, or even “disregarded” – so it appears that the Judge will require some penalty for “saying something against the Holy Spirit” but it may ultimately be forgiven.

The crime envisaged by Jesus is the slander of a compassionate act done in the power of God’s spirit. This is a refusal to to see any goodness in something done by a person disliked or feared by your party. It is exactly the kind of refusal made by a virulent form of politics such as Trumpism in the USA or Chi-ism in China, indeed by a certain sort of vicious populism anywhere. Jesus saw that if a certain ideology could blind you to plain facts, you might do very serious crimes.

Jesus argument against the accusation that he is in league with the Devil involves the understanding that illness is brought about by the Evil One. So how could Satan empower his healings? That would signal a schizophrenic Devil whose power could not last. Jesus reminds them that there is an alternative view, which the crowd has already taken, namely that he is acting in the power of the spirit, and that God’s active rule, through the Messiah Son of David, has arrived. The verb for arrival is strong, it might be translated, “has over-taken you.”

The “strong man” is Satan. Jesus is saying that if he is able to rescue the victims of Satan, in this case, those who are ill, then he must have the power to bind Satan, that is, the power of God. It is a tiny vivid parable about Jesus’ power, which may have come from him. The magic of Jesus, which is celebrated by Matthew, is nothing like human or superhuman power, but is simply of God. Luke in his version of this passage calls it “the finger of God” which seems very accurate. God in Jesus doesn’t go in for stunts, but just touches evil with his pinkie.

Jesus recognised opposition; he calls it by its name. But he states that opposition to him and his ministry can be cancelled by the judge, but not opposition to the Holy Spirit, the finger of God. There will be hell to pay for that, even if it is forgiven at last.