Jesus said:
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
(From the Daily Office Lectionary – Matthew 12:30-32 – May 28, 2012)
You have no idea how many times in 22-plus years of ordained ministry someone has said to me, “What exactly is the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Spirit? What is that?” I used to struggle to answer that question because I wasn’t sure myself. I’m not all that sure now, but I think the answer to to simply look at the context in which Jesus says these words. He has just healed a blind and mute demoniac. The Pharisees insist that “It is only by Beelzebul, the rule of demons, that his fellow casts out demons.” (Matt. 12:24) In this context it would appear that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is saying that Jesus did his miracles by the power of the devil. It was attributing to evil the work of the Holy Spirit. ~ I wonder if doing the opposite might also be considered here – attributing to the Holy Spirit words that she didn’t say, deeds that she didn’t do, and experiences that she didn’t produce, attributing to the Holy Spirit that which is not the work of God. There are plenty of TV preachers these days attributing to God lots of things (especially political positions) that I simply cannot believe are the work or word of God. Are they flirting with blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? ~ Here’s what I think . . . attributing to evil the works of good and, in the opposite vein, calling good that which one knows to be evil, these things destroy relationships and disrupt community for no reason or purpose other than promotion of one’s own agenda. If, as we believe, the church is a community created and constantly renewed by the Holy Spirit commissioned to go into the world to do the work of Jesus, then the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit are words and actions which disorder that community and disrupt that work. ~ There are some who say that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit can no longer be committed because it is specifically about the actions of Jesus himself; since Jesus is no longer in the world, one can no longer attribute his actions to evil. Others say that anyone who is a believer in Christ cannot commit this sin. I think they’re both wrong. I think people blaspheme the Holy Spirit on a regular basis . . . and a lot of them are (or, at least, claim to be) Christians.
I think that is a great way of looking at the question. Reading it in context is of course key.
As to the unforgivable sin, if we consider that the writer was much closer to the time of that writer who proposed smashing children’s heads on rocks than to our time, I think we can appeal to the concept of progressive revelation, and suggest the full import of utter love and utter forgiveness just had not yet sunk in.
Matthew, while Jewish in background, is coming to terms with the profoundly disordered ways of Judaism’s leadership at that time, in his opinion. And, we can also suspect, laying the groundwork for the proto-antisemitism to follow in John.
While your interpretation is probably correct, I’m struck by the notion of no forgiveness in this age or the age to come. The sense seems to be that this blasphemy against the Spirit is something that “can’t be taken back,” while one might think that misunderstanding the workings of the Spirit, or even initially considering them as evil, would be something of which one could repent if one learned to see correctly. From the passage, and similar passages through the Gospels, it sounds to me more like Christ is saying that, once you’ve taken that step, the door closes and forgiveness becomes impossible, no matter how you may change in the future. (When I was young, the general sense among us kids was that blasphemy against the Spirit was “the magic words that guarantee you’ll wind up in Hell,” and I don’t think the Gospel passages really differ from that sense all that much.) And, if it’s simply a matter of misjudging the works of the Spirit either way, what can be said of those who try their hardest to discern the Spirit, but remain mistaken?
James, I suspect that there is a difference between simply being mistaken and being willfully contrary. There is in human justice, so I’d be fairly confident that there is in God’s economy as well.