Be Careful What You Say About Jesus

“As they went out, behold, they brought to Him a dumb man possessed with a devil.  And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.  But the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils”.  Matthew 9:32-34

Jesus had just healed two blind men after asking them if they believed that He was able to heal them.  They had responded that they did believe He could do it.  He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith be it unto you.”  He then told them not to tell anyone, but now that they could see, what else could they do but tell everyone they saw, probably for the first time, but that didn’t justify disobeying Jesus’ command.  Soon, everyone in the surrounding areas heard about the fame of Jesus and came to see Him do more miracles.  The skeptical Pharisees also came, not to see a miracle, but to find some reason to accuse Jesus of working against God and against the law.  Imagine spending all your time trying to find fault with others.  It’s too bad that a lot of folks waste their time like that rather than seeking to do good and make this world at least a little bit better.

As soon as the two men who were healed of their blindness departed, there were others who came to Jesus and brought a dumb man, that is, one who could not speak.  He was possessed by a devil which had taken away his voice.  While scripture doesn’t record any other healing in the house where Jesus was staying at this time, in my mind’s eye I can almost picture a line forming outside the door of people waiting to see Jesus.  No wonder that He could not stay in one place for very long.  This dumb man had to let others speak for him to request healing.  Perhaps they had a form of sign language in ancient times.  When Jesus cast out the demon, the man could finally speak.  The people gathered around were astonished.  They said that they had never seen anything like that before.  That makes sense because there has never been anyone on earth like Jesus before.  Demon possession was a reality.  Until Jesus came, the demon-possessed had no hope of ever being able to be a normal person.  (I wrote recently that I believe much of these ungodly actions of people today, particularly by young people, are caused by demons who are encouraged by the demons in adults.)

Thus, here we have two blind men who could now see and one man who could now speak, all three miracles were certainly something to celebrate, but not everyone was happy about it.  Leave it to the Pharisees to criticize Jesus for doing such a marvelous work.  Not only were they critical of Jesus, but they also accused Him of casting out devils by the power of Satan himself.  They could not deny that the dumb man’s devil had been cast out of him so they had to give credit for this miracle in such a way that no honor would be bestowed upon Jesus.  Since the Pharisees claimed that they did not believe Jesus to be the Son of God, they did not consider their criticism of Jesus, that is, accusing Him of working for the devil, to be blasphemous.  They actually considered themselves to be defenders of God’s honor, while, at the same time, accusing God’s Son of sorcery.  I imagine that if they could convince the people to turn away from Jesus for this reason, they would be well on their way to winning their battle against Him.  Jesus did not come to win a war.  He came to surrender His life in order that we could have victory over sin.

This wasn’t the only time that the religious leaders accused Jesus of doing miracles by the power of Satan.  In Matthew 12:22-37, Jesus had healed a man who was both dumb and blind, as he, too, had been possessed by a demon.  The Pharisees were upset because the crowd was amazed and asked, “Is not this the Son of David?”  For anyone to believe that Jesus was in any way remotely associated with their revered King David was an insult to the religious leaders.  They accused Jesus of working by the power of Beelzebub, another name for the devil.  Jesus asked them a pointed question, “If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?”  He then went on to say that sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven of men, not now, not ever.

What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?  According to the website gotquestions.org, that particular blasphemy was charged against the Pharisees of Jesus’ day because they knew the truth (how else could they not know that Jesus was God’s Son) yet they attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to the devil.  Jesus said that their willful blindness was unforgiveable.  This blasphemy was a particular charge against the religious leaders for that time.  It cannot be repeated today because no one can personally witness Jesus doing a miracle and then assign that power to the devil instead of the Spirit.  Today, there is the “unpardonable sin” which is continued unbelief.  God can forgive any sin except the sin of not believing in His Son.  Since Christ is the only way to heaven and eternal life, it is impossible for someone to be saved if they reject Christ, thus, they die unforgiven.  Their sin separates them from God forever.  Jesus stands ready to forgive since He has already paid the penalty for man’s sin.  What a tragedy to have the penalty paid yet refuse it.  Why would a person who was acquitted of a crime choose to serve a life sentence in prison?  Why would a person who could be forgiven of all sin choose to serve all eternity in hell?