There is much to explore with Jesus in Matthew 12:22-37 including His power over Satan and Satan’s demons, His ability to heal, the willingness of many to see the truth about Jesus from the evidence they witness and the rejection of Jesus by those who are evil regardless of the evidence presented to them.
22 Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. 23 The crowd was amazed and asked, “Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard about the miracle, they said, “No wonder he can cast out demons. He gets his power from Satan,[d] the prince of demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart. 26 And if Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided and fighting against himself. His own kingdom will not survive. 27 And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. 28 But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you. 29 For who is powerful enough to enter the house of a strong man like Satan and plunder his goods? Only someone even stronger—someone who could tie him up and then plunder his house.
30 “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.
31 “So I tell you, every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven—except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come.
33 “A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. 35 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. 36 And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. 37 The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”
Let’s review a couple key points:
- Jesus heals a demon possessed man who is blind, cannot speak. Those who are unbiased in their view observe the evidence and immediately consider it as pointing toward Jesus as Messiah. Even those with evil in their heart cannot deny that the miracle happened or that a demon was cast out and the man healed. Instead, they make up a wild explanation to continue their pre-existing bias against Jesus. They refuse to see.
- Jesus takes the time to clearly show the wicked why their argument against Him makes no sense, despite knowing they will ultimately reject Him anyway. He tells them the truth and gives them the opportunity to turn toward Him.
- This demonstration of the power of God to cast out a demon demonstrates also that God has power over Satan.
- Jesus reminds us that there is no neutral position, no quiet position “sitting on the fence”. “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.” [Matthew 12:30]. We must each decide if we are working with Jesus or we are working against Him. It requires more than quietly acknowledging Him with our lips and then refusing to speak out against sin and speak up for God’s way. It requires living boldly for Jesus and proclaiming Him loudly – even in the face of persecution.Jesus speaks of the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. There can be some Christian debate on to what exactly Jesus is referring. One likely conclusion is that Jesus is speaking of the Pharisees experiencing an undeniable miracle of the Holy Spirit, and consciously choosing to reject this evidence and instead attribute the event to power from Satan. There are examples of others, like Saul of Tarsus who later became Paul, who rejected the Holy Spirit at first and then accepted it later. Thus we conclude it is not a one time rejection, but rather a continuous and willful rejection of the Holy Spirit.
- Jesus uses the wickedness of the Pharisees as an example for us to understand how to use discernment to evaluate the wickedness of someone’s heart. We are to identify or judge a tree by its fruit. While we should do so carefully and with grace, we are given direct example from Jesus that we are to use discernment to identify the wicked / evil. By discerning properly, we will be better prepared to tune out the false teaching of the evil and focus on proper teaching and leadership of the righteous.
- Continuing, Jesus reminds us that we are accountable for our words, that they represent an overflow of the condition of the heart, and are very powerful and at times can be either helpful or destructive.
There is a lot of important teaching to dwell on in this small amount of scripture. I encourage each of you to read it again and think about how to apply each part to your life to grow closer to Jesus.
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