God invites us to a genuine relationship with him, empowered by his Spirit. This is not the same as mere religious rules, a contrast evident in some conflicts between Jesus and some Pharisees in his day.
True rest
In Matthew 12:1-14, a series of conflicts about the Sabbath, Jesus articulates a rest different from that of the Pharisees. The preceding context shows how this is the case. Jesus invites all the weary to come to him, promising that he will provide rest for their souls (Matt 11:28-29). In saying this he echoes a biblical promise from God, who also offered rest for his people’s souls (Jer 6:16). Likewise, both the Bible (Prov 9:5) and Jewish tradition (Sirach 24:19) depicted divine Wisdom as inviting others to come. Jesus is here the one divinely authorized to provide rest to those who come to him.
In 12:1-14, however, members of the religious elite debate Jesus over the interpretation of rest. They observe Sabbath law so strictly and literally that they risk inhibiting the rest that the Sabbath was meant to bring. Jesus prioritizes his followers’ hunger and people’s need for healing above Sabbath rules—after all, eating, health, meeting of needs contributed to rest. The Pharisees understood this for some issues as well, so Jesus challenges their inconsistency.
From what we can gather about the Pharisees from later sources, they should not have been so angry with Jesus. First of all, Jesus defends his practice based on some biblical analogies similar to the sort used by Pharisees themselves. Second, Pharisees themselves debated whether medicine could be used on the Sabbath; more lenient Pharisees allowed it. Moreover, Jesus is not even using medicine. When he heals a man with a withered hand here, he simply commands the man to stretch out his hand, which no one could consider a Sabbath violation. Pharisees debated Sabbath questions among themselves all the time, without seeking to “destroy” those who disagreed (12:14).
Yet as we recognize from our own experience today, religious people do not always live up to the best ethical ideals espoused by their teachers. Sabbath conflicts between Jesus and his critics may have simply reflected a larger array of concerns. Pharisees were respected, a sort of religious elite, and tended to be better educated and of higher status than most people. Jesus cared for the poor, the sick, the marginalized, and even sinners; he did not cultivate the favor of the elites. Jesus had not been trained in Pharisees’ traditions; in fact, at times he challenged them. Jesus was a threat to their own sense of security in their beliefs and practices—as he would be to those of many people today. Some Pharisees here therefore desire to silence him, although they lacked political power to harm him. That task would fall to the political elite—Sadducees in Jerusalem and ultimately a reluctant but corrupt governor.
Blaspheming the Spirit
In the following narrative, Matthew warns that Jesus’s Pharisaic critics come close to blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Sometimes readers today fear that they have committed the offense; no one concerned about it, however, may have committed it. No one able to repent has committed an unforgiveable sin (12:31-32).
So what does this passage mean by blaspheming against the Spirit? In this context in Matthew, Jesus has been driving out demons by the Spirit of God, showing that God’s kingdom was upon them (12:28). His critics shrug off this evidence that God is with him, attributing this defeat of Satan’s kingdom to Satan himself (12:24). They thus treat God’s Spirit as a demonic spirit! These critics are rejecting not just Jesus’s own testimony, but the Spirit’s conspicuous testimony that God’s reign is drawing near in Jesus. That is, they are determined not to believe no matter what the evidence! Jesus shows why this charge cannot be correct and shows how biased they are in explaining away his exorcisms.
Matthew’s context shows us something further. Because Jesus is empowered by God’s Spirit to cast out demons (12:28), he fulfills a prophesied mission. Matthew has just quoted a passage in Isaiah about God’s servant endued with the Spirit (12:18). This servant would initially be gentle rather than like a warrior (12:19-20; cf. 11:29; 21:5). In Isaiah’s context God originally gave this servant mission to Israel, but because Israel was disobedient (Isa 42:18-20), God would raise up one within Israel to bring the nation back to him (49:5; 53:4-6, 11). The context in Isaiah further shows that the servant would bless not only his own people, but also the Gentiles (42:6; 49:6; 52:15), announcing good news of God’s reign (52:7).
How did Jesus’s critics risk blaspheming against the Spirit? They were rejecting God’s own verification of Jesus’s identity and mission. After falsely accusing Jesus, his critics have the audacity to request a “sign” (Matt 12:38)—after explaining away the signs he has already offered! The ultimate sign would be their ultimate test: “the sign of Jonah”—Jesus’s resurrection (12:39-40).
An unforgiveable sin is one in which one’s heart becomes so hard that one rejects even obvious evidence of the truth, to the extent that one cannot ever become convinced. Only God knows whose hearts become irreparably unrepentant, but when that state occurs, it can occur from persistently refusing to believe even in the face of what is obvious. Obviously no one who afterward accepts Christ has gone that far.
Inviting demons back
In the ancient Mediterranean world, people often returned charges against false accusers, and Jesus does so here. Instead of recognizing that Jesus drives out demons by God’s Spirit, his critics attribute his works to demons. So Jesus tells about a man delivered from a demon who ends up with eight demons instead of the one, and concludes, “That is how it will be with this evil generation” (12:45). Jesus has been casting demons out, but his critics are welcoming them all back in. It is thus they, and not he, who are doing Satan’s work.
The Spirit confirms that Jesus fulfills what the prophets before him promised. Those who refuse to believe him in the face of divine attestation have no excuse.
Religion by itself may not please God. What pleases God is carrying out his will, and we can do that only by his Spirit.