Jesus is accused by rulers of being a demon, “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.” Jesus replied, ‘How can Satan drive out Satan?” “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.’” “’No one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man.’ ‘All sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness.’
Jesus preaching to the people about a new Way to live together, the Community of God, and curing them of diseases, catches the notice of rulers. For all the goodness Jesus is effecting, the rulers demonize him. Rulers must do so, as they know they speak and act for God and therefore know Jesus’ challenge is ungodly, demonic. How will the people ever live free of rulers who do not heal but instead harm and ‘know’ they do so in God’s name? Jesus is beginning to suggest there is another force in the world. It is not the control of the ruler class nor of the God they invented. It is the power of the people. That power is the Spirit. We might consider the Spirit to be “the strong man” Jesus talks about in today’s Gospel? The Spirit exists as the strength of people to be the fullness of their creation, singularly and communally. To sin or to blaspheme against the Spirit could mean that someone is tying up that power, intentionally so. Some individuals or some groups, such as bullies and rulers, are willfully denying a person or a community of people their strength. For example, our strength for healing is tied up by a ruling class or its supporters who harm us with a warrior ethic that intimidates us into a fight, flight, freeze, fawn mode rather than an air, care, dare, share witness. We take a breath, center ourselves in our heart, dare to be a vulnerable human being not with an enemy but with another human being, and share OUR goodness, ours and theirs, by evoking common ground. The warrior ethic ties up our strong man, our Spirit, our willingness and ability to air, care, dare, and share. The act of tying up the strong man, the Spirit, is then followed by Jesus saying that “whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness.” Is it possible that such a sin will “never have forgiveness” because the perpetrator does not seek forgiveness? The tying up is intentional. Worse, the perpetrator is convinced the tying up is of ‘God.’ It is like the ‘godly’ rulers who see Jesus healing yet are demonizing him, trying to tie him up. What do the rulers want instead? From their words and actions, it must be that they want harm. Do they know this truth about themselves? Do they know their ‘God’ is a harmful deity? From the Gospel story, rulers do not demonstrate that they know the harm, the tying up they do – of the Spirit, of others, and of themselves.
A repeated phrase of late is, ‘You can’t cure stupid.’ Stupid is associated with stupor, which means having our mind or faculties blunted or dulled, to be stunned. The suggestion is a person has been struck dumb, made stupid, dulled, by an external force. In a sense, their strong man has been tied up. Whether by a political party, a conspiracy theory, or a laziness in reasoning, they are being plundered of their power, their Spirit. If we do not want to give up on people or do not want to succumb to their control and cede our power, if we want to cure stupid, to help a person out of harm and into healing, we will need to model OUR Spirit to them. OUR Spirit invites the ‘stupid’ person out of their fight or flight or freeze or fawn, and into OUR air and care and dare and share. It is likely what others have done for us when we have been ‘stupid.’
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, keep us open to learning, growing.
Question: What is my self-awareness, especially during conflict?
June 9, 2024 Gospel Mark 3:20-35 Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time