The Sin That Won’t Go Away

Gospel Reading and Text: Mark 3:22-30

Epistle Reading: Hebrews 6:1-9

If you blaspheme my name, you may irritate me or may make me depressed. But you probably won’t provoke a full-fledged counterattack to defend myself. 

If you slander my friend, or my relatives, or my children, you will probably get a somewhat stronger reaction from me. When I was an almost teenager of 12, a school bus driver accused my little brother of lying. When the bus stopped at our stop I stood on the ground, looking into the still open door, and said, “Lady that’s my brother, and my brother doesn’t lie.” That got me called into the principal’s office of my fundamentalist Christian school, but with my legs shaking I stood my ground in defense of my brother.

But there is one kind of blasphemy that will make me go nuclear – that is blasphemy against my wife. Merle Haggard sang during the Viet Nam War, “If you’re runnin’ down my county, hoss, you’re walkin’ in the fightin’ side of me.” If you start slandering my wife, you are walking on the raging side of me. I may never forgive you for that.

Jesus spoke in such terms about a sin He calls blaspheming the Holy Spirit. You can get forgiveness for any kind of sin, even other forms of blasphemy, but blaspheming the Holy Spirit is a sin that won’t go away – ever.  Continue at  Christian Curmudgeon