Convinced that Jesus is not God’s agent and annoyed by the popular response to him, the Pharisees resort to the only other possible explanation for his supernatural power over demons: it comes from the devil himself. In a lengthy response, Jesus not only refutes their charge but turns it back against them. Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus here is also significant for our own day in a number of ways. Jesus presents a world sharply divided into God’s kingdom and the devil’s kingdom, and indicates through various arguments that one cannot be working for both kingdoms at the same time.
Jesus first asks why the devil would work at cross-purposes with himself. Jesus next questions why his opponents single out his ministry of exorcism while approving exorcisms performed by their own disciples. Third, if Jesus was driving out demons by God’s Spirit, this action constituted proof that the time of the kingdom was upon them. Although many Pharisees apparently rejected miracles as proof of truth, Jesus summons them to consider an alternative explanation for his miracles, namely, that the promised time of the Spirit has come. Matthew rightly interprets “finger of God” as God’s Spirit, showing that Jesus is the promised harbinger of the Spirit, the first agent of God’s kingdom. This makes good sense: as the climax of history approaches, the forces of God’s kingdom and the devil’s are arrayed in battle against one another. Fourth, Jesus had defeated the strong man, “binding” him so that he could plunder the possessions in the strong man’s house. That is to say, Jesus invaded Satan’s domain and defeated him so he could recapture the human hearts that Satan had enslaved through demon possession or other means. Finally, this list of arguments concludes with Jesus’ warning that whoever was not on his side was on the other side. Jesus allows no wouldbe disciples to straddle the fence: one either follows him or opposes him, just as one does with the devil.
Jewish teachers acknowledged that deliberate sin against God’s law, such as deliberate blasphemy against God, was normally unforgivable. Even such a sin as Peter’s denial of Jesus clearly does not count in the unforgivable category; the context of blaspheming against the Spirit here refers specifically to the sin of the Pharisees, who are on the verge of becoming incapable of repentance. The sign of their hardness of heart is their determination to reject any proof for Jesus’ divine mission, to the extent that they even attribute God’s attestation of Jesus to the devil.
The equivalent today would be someone who remained so committed to rejecting Christ that she determined to find alternative explanations for any obvious proof attesting him. Even in what seems to be that case, however, Paul exhorts one of his students and coworkers to remember that we humans cannot judge who has forever crossed that line. Not uncommonly young Christians read about the “unforgivable sin” and fear they have committed it. We therefore must reiterate the point in this context: the sin is unforgivable only because it reflects a heart too hard to repent. Those who desire to repent, troubled by the fear that they may have committed this sin, plainly have not committed it!