Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
The scribes, a group of scholars who are experts and authorities on Scripture, conclude that Jesus has been able to cure a demoniac, cure Simon’s mother-in-law and many other sick and possessed in her area, cleanse a leper, heal a paralytic, heal a man with a withered hand, and cure many sick along the shores of the sea, all by the power of demons. In other words, even though Jesus has been preaching the necessity of repentance from sins, has been declaring that the kingdom of God is at hand, though so many of the signs of the Messiah have been evident in His ministry, they refuse to believe in the possibility that Jesus is, or even could be the Messiah. In fact they are so reluctant to believe that they will not even entertain the idea that He could be a prophet, or perhaps empowered by angelic forces. It must simply be demons.
What incredibly hard hearts! And so Jesus lays out their logic for them, exposing how weak it truly is, and how dangerous, for they are not merely accusing Jesus of doing all these holy things through unholy means, but that He therefore has an unclean spirit.
Yet we know by faith that Jesus does all these things by His own divine power: by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why can blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—attributing His works to the works of Satan—never be forgiven?
Remember the prayer of absolution you hear at every confession: “God the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins…”The scribes have rejected the very Spirit by which they may be saved; they cannot be forgiven because they have already refused forgiveness: they stand within Satan’s collapsing house.