MATTHEW 12:22-37
AFTER THE DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI, Pat Robertson blamed the tragedy on a pact the Haitian people made with the devil, a pact supposedly made over 200 years ago, during the days of French colonialism. I didn’t watch the whole segment on CBN, so I don’t know if Robertson was quoted out of context—if we only got a sound bite from an otherwise carefully reasoned systematic theology of the problem of evil—or if he ended his interview saying, “And yet, with all I’ve said, like Jesus I weep over the grim reality of death, and like Job, I cover my mouth, for I cannot fathom all there is to fathom of this inexplicable tragedy.” But I do know that our media and comedians had a field day with what he said. His devil-talk became the butt of their jokes.
But why? Why is it that when a popular figure like Robertson speaks about a powerful God and also powerful evil forces at work in this world and about past sins having present consequences he is first lambasted and then laughed at? In a culture whose best-selling books and most popular TV shows and movies are about wizards, witches, and vampires, are we too scientifically sophisticated for evil?
Sure, there is a danger in overemphasizing the supernatural (and that seems to be what Pat Robertson did). But there is a greater danger in underemphasizing and underestimating it.
So before we come to our text, as I invite you to open your Bible again to Matthew 12, I want us to open our minds to the Biblical worldview—a way of looking at the world that might just be closer (or spot-on) to the way the world really is.
One Miracle, Three Motifs
Let’s begin our exploration of this miracle. “Then a demon-oppressed [or insane] man who was blind and mute was brought to him [Jesus], and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw” (v. 22).
Compared to other miracles, this one is told with “admirable brevity.” That is, it’s short but significant. It’s significant for a number of reasons. First, it again shows Jesus’ power. Just think about this. Perhaps you know someone who is blind or mute. I have a neighbor whose daughter, when she was four years old, was diagnosed with a disease that would slowly take away her vision. I remember the day my wife told me this sad news and how distraught I was to think of this terrible thing happening to this sweet little girl. Today, over a decade later, she is nearly blind. And every time I see her I wish I had the power to heal her. Jesus has such power. That’s what these people, including the Pharisees, witnessed.
Verse 15 says that Jesus performed many miracles—“many followed him, and he healed them all.” But this particular miracle of healing of this blind, mute, insane man makes it into Matthew’s Gospel. And perhaps it makes it in because it was the most spectacular of the day, or perhaps because it is the perfect parable for the discussion that follows. I think it’s both. It’s a real, powerful miracle, but it’s also a symbolic miracle.
In verses 23-37 there are three main motifs—sight, speech, and supernatural spiritual powers. Sight is the most subtle motif. The crowd sees Jesus for who he is. Or they are at least open to the possibility that he is the Messiah— “Can this be the Son of David?” (v. 23). But the Pharisees are blind to Jesus, so they say in effect, “Might this be the sidekick or subordinate of Satan?”
Beyond the motif of sight and blindness, we also have the motifs of speech and supernatural spirits. My original title for this chapter was “A Word on Words” because I noticed how much talking is talked about. Including words like “spoke,” “said,” “tell,” “speak” and “speaks,” “word” and “words,” “blasphemy,” and “mute,” I counted seventeen words that talk about talking. And this theme of speech builds as Jesus speaks, especially in verses 31-37, which ends with these words on words, “by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
This is a supernatural miracle? For sure. But is it also a symbolic miracle? Absolutely! Do you see that?
Two Reponses
If the Bible’s theology and history do not invite you to praise Christ, let its artistry. The first Gospel is artistically first-rate. This miracle—this one miracle (short but significant)—sets everything in motion.
Let’s look now at that motion. Verse 22 describes Jesus’ miracle. Verse 23 describes the people's reaction: “Can this be the Son of David?” They wonder if Jesus is the King who would fulfill the Davidic covenant. The Pharisees heard verse 23, and they essentially said in verse 24, “Oh no! No way!” I imagine them then scrambling for a quick answer.
They don't doubt the miracle. Isn’t that interesting? N. T. Wright sees their reaction as attesting to the historicity of Jesus’ miracles. Jesus was no amateur magician struggling to pull a rabbit out of a hat, or they would have said so. Rather, he was doing inexplicable miracles that no one had even seen before—raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, etc. The Pharisees knew that Jesus had power. They saw the hand of God. But they hardened their hearts to that hand. They refused to let that hand nudge or push (or punch) them into the kingdom.
And they refused because to them, other than some of the miracles, Jesus was doing everything opposite of what they expected the Son of David to do. Not only did Jesus not offer or “endorse a program of national liberation,” but he was associating with the enemy (a Roman centurion) and with the social and religious outcasts (tax collectors and sinners). And not only was he violating (blatantly so it seemed) long-held rabbinic ethical codes, but he was making preposterous claims. He claimed to be greater than David, greater than the temple, having the authority to forgive sins and calling people to have Sabbath rest in him.
They could not and did not deny the power. This Jesus has supernatural authority. But, they did not believe it could be the supernatural power of Yahweh (cp. Deuteronomy 13:1-5). Thus it had to be the supernatural power of Satan: “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” (v. 24).
Two Logical Rebuttals
In verses 22-24 we have the miracle and two reactions—one reaction positive and on the mark, the other negative and off the mark. Then in verses 25-27 we have Jesus’ rebuttal of the Pharisees’ false accusation. In those verses our Lord gives two logical rebuttals, one choice, and two gracious warnings.
First we’ll look at the two logical rebuttals. I say logical because here Jesus doesn’t use Scripture as he did in verses 3-7 or shared human sympathy as he did in verses 11, 12. Here he uses logic, what is called a reductio ad absurdurn. Look at verses 25, 26. Knowing their thoughts by either divine intuition or human observation, Jesus basically said, “Don’t be absurd,” or as Matthew records it:
Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
Do you get the logic here? Jesus gives three scenarios, moving from kingdom to city to house. If it helps you can think of any organized entity like a government, a company, and even your Ecclesia. If I said the vision of your Ecclesia is, “By God’s grace we hope to see love extended unto the Ecclesia, the city, and the world,” and the arranging Brethren said, “No, the vision is that we, by the magic of Tinker Bell, hope to see pixie dust scattered onto the Ecclesia, the city, and the world,” needless to say, we’d have a problem. It wouldn’t be long before our whole experiment Ecclesia imploded and then exploded.
So here Jesus says in essence, “Use your head. What sense would it make for the devil to empower me to deliver people from devils? What sense would it make to make them healthy in body, mind, and spirit?” That is the logical response Jesus gives in verses 25, 26. His reply in verse 27 is only slightly different. In verses 25, 26 Jesus says in effect, “Use your head,” and in verse 27 he says, “Come on now, will you please use your head!” The actual words in verse 27 are these: “And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons [the Pharisees’ followers—the Pharisees were known for their exorcisms] cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.” The idea here is that if your underlings can perform little exorcisms and no one doubts it is of God, then when Jesus performs his miracles, you better believe that he’s playing for God’s team. Thus, in verse 28 Jesus says, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Guess what? The Son of David is here.
That’s Jesus first logical rebuttal. Here is his second. It’s in more parabolic form: “Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house” (v. 29). The “strong man” represents Satan; his “house” is his kingdom, and his “goods” are those people under his influence. As the parable proceeds, Jesus is the one who breaks down the front door, ties up the strong man—and then delivers the hostages. He plunders the house of the devil’s goods.
You see, Jesus is not sitting on his heavenly throne being entertained by angels as they do somersaults in the sky. Rather, he is on the front line kicking down evils door and setting the captives free! His first victory was won in the wilderness, his most decisive victory was on the cross, and his final victory is still to come with the second coming. So, “far from belonging to Satan’s kingdom and using Satan’s power, Jesus has attacked [and will attack] sin itself and overcome its power.”
One Choice
Verses 25-29 provide us with Jesus’ two logical rebuttals. Then, in the middle of our text—the structural center—we have the choice, our one choice. Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (v. 30).
I thought about entitling this chapter “Two Kingdoms, Two Choices.” But here it is really two kingdoms, one choice. You either see Jesus to be the Son of David (the promised earthly king) and the Son of Man (the promised divine King) and thus choose him as King or you don’t. And if you don’t, you are not on neutral ground. You are in hostile, enemy territory. There are only two kingdoms and one choice. Stay where you are, call it your own kingdom if you like (if that makes you feel better or safer), and think of yourself as Mr. Middle-of-the Road or Mrs. Broadminded, but in reality you are teeter-tottering. Jesus dispels the myth of religious neutrality.
We do not live in a religious bubble. Not only can we learn about other religions by reading, traveling, or surfing the Web, but also by sitting down at the school cafeteria or coffee shop and listening to our coworkers or fellow students, who come from different parts of the world and believe very different things about the world. But as Christadelphians we must not let such information make us intelligently impotent. The claims of Jesus are the claims of Jesus. We either believe them or we don’t. What he said in verse 30 is either true or false. We can re-imagine Jesus into our own image, twisting and turning his words to sound a lot like our own. This has been done in many Christian denominations, hasn’t it? Such behavior I find intellectually dishonest. Don’t call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe Jesus ever existed. Don’t call yourself a Christian if you believe only half of the red letters in your Bible have any connection to the historical Jesus. Don’t call yourself a Christian if you think Jesus didn’t die for your sins and rise for your justification. Don’t call yourself a Christian if you think obeying Christ’s commands are optional. And don’t call yourself a Christian if you think there are many ways to God. To be a Christian is, at the very least, to take Jesus at his word. “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (v. 30). Thus saith the Lord.
So “Those who hedge about devotion to Jesus... or about the importance of a clear decision for him... who question Jesus’ exclusivity... and who disdain his work... are in trouble.” That’s what Jesus teaches here. They are “against” God’s kingdom. They might think they are standing safe and still, but in fact they are busy scattering seeds of sedition.
Two Gracious Warnings
We have looked at two logical rebuttals (vv. 25-29) and the one choice (v. 30). Finally, we have two gracious warnings (vv. 31-37), which serve to help us make the choice we should make about Jesus.
The first warning is found in verses 31, 32, the second in verses 33-37. Note that both warnings involve words, and both end by speaking of the final judgment: “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.”
We’ll look at the first warning first:
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
(vv. 31,32)
After hearing those words, you might say, “Okay, I’m hearing loud and clear the warning part. This is a severe warning! Jesus is talking about committing some sin that cannot be forgiven. I get that. What then is gracious about this warning?” I'll get to that shortly. Let me first define, for those who are curious or concerned (I hope you are at least curious), “the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.”
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is basically doing what the Pharisees are doing here. And it involves, if we flesh out that basic definition a bit, the “combination of clear knowledge and deliberate rejection of Christ.”" So there’s a certain amount of light in the head—one can see clearly who Jesus is, as plainly as the Pharisees saw his miracles—and yet there is hatred of that light in the heart. Therefore, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is a knowledge of the light, a hatred of it, and I’ll add (and this addition is key) that there is also an earnest and persistent effort to put out the light. There is denial of the power of God to forgive.
With that definition in place, I can safely say that Matthew Henry's long-standing pastoral counsel on these verses is still appropriate. He wrote, “Those who fear they have committed this sin give a good sign that they have not.” That is, if you are someone who has committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, you won’t care about the state of your soul because you’ve passed the point of no return (cp. Hebrews 12:17). You are so self-deceived that you’ve not only stopped believing in Jesus and some Holy Spirit (“that’s like fairy tale stories, stuff for little children and ignorant old ladies”), but you have actually thought yourself so wise, so beyond others that you’re now earning a nice living writing best-selling books about why Jesus’ miracles never happened and how Jesus never said what we once thought he said. Such a person, who at one point may have tasted the truth of the gospel, has now spit it out (cp. Hebrews 6:4-6), and he or she wants others to spit it out as well. For such a person as this there is no chance of forgiveness because there is no chance of a change of heart. That person’s heart is so hard it cannot soften. It cannot and will not repent no matter how obvious the evidence, even if a dead man would rise again on the third day. That’s the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ warning about it.
So, what is gracious about this warning? First, Jesus is essentially saying to the Pharisees, as hard as they are, and others—perhaps you, as hard or soft as you might be—“Now is the time to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit in me.’’ He is saying, “Listen, I’m ‘patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance’” (2 Peter 3:9). Here Jesus warns the Pharisees about the unpardonable sin. He doesn’t accuse them of having committed it. That’s what is gracious about this warning.
What is also extremely gracious is just how many sins can be forgiven. Skim through these two verses again and notice twice the phrase “will not be forgiven”—that refers to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. But then also notice the phrase “will be forgiven” (also repeated twice), and then notice the word “every” in verse 31. “Every” is the loveliest word in the world. “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven.”
What about driving under the influence? Every sin will be forgiven. What about cheating on that history test? Every sin will be forgiven. What about getting your teenage girlfriend pregnant? Every sin will be forgiven. What about having an abortion? Every sin will be forgiven. What about lying under oath? Every sin will be forgiven. What about all the backbiting? Every sin will be forgiven. What about cheating on your husband? Every sin will be forgiven. What about loving money more than God? Every sin will be forgiven. What about experimenting with homosexuality? Every sin will be forgiven. What about murder? Every sin will be forgiven.
Yes, every sin will be forgiven, for “The saying is trustworthy and deserving all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” like us (1 Timothy 1:15). Do you know who wrote that? A guy name Saul of Tarsus. Do you remember his story? He was a Pharisee. He called himself “a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees” (Acts 23:6). He was so zealous for the traditions of the elders—Jewish traditions, the ones that got the Pharisees here so mad—that he persecuted the Ecclesia. He pursued and captured Christians and had them killed. And yet we all know what happened to him. Jesus captured and killed Saul and turned him into a new man named Paul. Paul would take the good news of the forgiveness of sins to Greece and Italy, and Paul would write the words, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” Are you a worse sinner than Paul? I highly doubt it. Every sin can be forgiven. That’s grace. And that’s what I call a gracious warning.
Here is the second gracious warning. In verse 33-37 Jesus says,
Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
After Jesus says to the Pharisees, “You brood of vipers” (i.e., “you sons of snakes”) you might be saying, “Okay, again I hear the warning. In fact, I hear more than a warning—I hear an announcement of judgment.” And yes, I’ll admit Jesus is giving them a prophetic judgment. Like the prophets of old, he is pronouncing woe. He is saying that God is fed up with such talk about him. It’s evil to deny Jesus. It’s Garden of Eden snake talk. “You shouldn’t be saying what you are saying, and no one should be tempted to listen to what you say.”
The announcement here is severe. But it is an announcement mixed with admonishment. That’s why I call it a gracious warning. Later in chapter 23— with Jesus’ seven woes to the Pharisees—there is no admonition (note 23:33). But here, verse 33 begins with a call for change: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” In other words, “You guys speak evil about me because you are evil. You are like a bad tree. Bad trees produce bad, rotten, inedible fruit. Good trees produce good, fresh, tasty fruit.”
We often underestimate the connection between the heart and the tongue. We might admit the notion of “Freudian slips” (sometimes our tongues reveal our subconscious), but we deny that such slips of the tongue, words that escape in casual conversation, are a “reliable indicator of... the state of the heart.” We say things like “I didn’t mean what I said.” However, as Jesus has taught in the Sermon on the Mount (5:22-26, 33-37; 6:7; 7:4, 5, 21-23), here he again teaches that our words are reliable indicators of who we are, so reliable that on Judgment Day Jesus will know we are his by our tongues. What is in the heart—good or bad—comes out of the mouth.
So, what’s the solution for bad mouths? New hearts. You must be born again, born of the Spirit. Verse 33 is a call to be converted. This is a gracious warning. The tongue is such a small part of our body (James 3:5), and yet it shows the heart. Most people think their heart is okay, but they struggle a bit with their tongue. Jesus says you struggle with the tongue because your heart is not okay. You haven't yet moved from the dominion of sin into the kingdom of God. So repent and believe. Cut down that old bad tree, and let the Lord Jesus plant a new one. Abide in him and watch the good fruit grow.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” In Matthew 25 it is by our works that we are acknowledged to be righteous; here it’s our words. Our works (what we actually do) and our words (what we actually say) show whether we have faith in Christ or not. We are justified by faith alone, but true faith is never alone—it comes out in our words and in our works.
(R. Kent Hughes. and Douglas Sean O'Donnell., 2013; edited Carl Hinton., 2020)