October 13, 2009
The Pharisees today claim that Jesus casts out demons by Beelzebul. He has just healed a man oppressed by a demon and the people are beginning to understand. They begin asking, "Can this be the Son of David?" The Pharisees say, "No. He casts out demons by the prince of demons." Jesus reveals the foolishness of this statement. "If Satan casts out out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?"
Then Jesus gets to the point, "If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Matthew 12:28). This is what is happening. Jesus is the Son of God who brings the kingdom with Him and that kingdom is characterized by the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the demon possessed set free, and the dead living. But the Pharisees refuse to see it. And Jesus has a stern warning for them, "every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." What is this blasphemy against the Spirit? In the context of this exchange it can be no other thing that refusing to acknowledge that Jesus is in fact the Son of David, the promised Messiah, the incarnation of the kingdom of God.
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