Jesus and the Prince of Demons

Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

August 10, 2020

Jesus and the Prince of Demons

“I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.”

Mark 3:28-29

Read: Mark 3: 20-30

Much has been written about the present “cancel’ culture. The latest to be canceled is the Catholic author, Flannery O'Connor. Loyola University Maryland announced that it is renaming the Flannery O'Connor Residence Hall on campus primarily because of something O’Connor wrote in a letter to a friend when she was eighteen years old. O’Connor died in 1964. Some suggest this “woke / cancel” culture is a new movement. As we read today’s passage, we see the cancel culture is at least two thousand years old.

Today’s passage is a testament to the astounding ministry of Jesus. Through his teachings and miracles, crowds converged on him wherever he went. At the beginning of today’s reading, Mark said Jesus and his disciples couldn’t even find time to eat. How do you explain Jesus’ fame in such a short period of time? Jesus’ family still knew him as the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. They concluded he must have gone mad. The religious leaders were more devastating in their assessment. They concluded Jesus was possessed by Satan, who gave Jesus the power to cast out demons.

Jesus turned their charge against them through simple logic. But then Jesus made a very harsh judgment: “. . . anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.”

My Takeaway: If all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, why can’t the sin against the Holy Spirit be forgiven? Because a person who can look at the miracles of Jesus, the wholeness of lives restored, and conclude it is the work of Satan has completely closed the door in their life to God. They can’t be forgiven because they will never ask for forgiveness.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.