1 00:00:10,600 --> 00:00:13,600 Hi everyone. Welcome back to the Daily Gospel 2 00:00:13,600 --> 00:00:16,960 Exegesis Podcast, produced by Logical Bible Study. 3 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:20,800 And as always, we're going to dive into the text from today's 4 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:23,600 gospel reading, and we're going to try to work out what's the 5 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:27,080 literal sense, What did the words mean in their original 6 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:29,160 context? What was the author trying to 7 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:31,960 convey to their audience? And this is where we have to 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:34,200 start as Catholics. We have to look at the literal 9 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:36,800 sense first. So we have a longer reading 10 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:39,440 today. It's Mark, Chapter 3, verses 20 11 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:42,080 to 35. And here we have what's called a 12 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:45,160 mark and sandwich. So Mark often does this in his 13 00:00:45,160 --> 00:00:49,280 gospel where he talks about one event and then he sort of stops 14 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:52,280 talking about that, talks about something else, and then comes 15 00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:54,800 back to continuing that first event. 16 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,160 So it's sort of divided into 3 thirds. 17 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,560 And the idea of the sandwich is that each part of the each of 18 00:01:01,560 --> 00:01:04,599 the three parts of the sandwich kind of sheds light on the other 19 00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:07,000 part. So Mark deliberately interrupts 20 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,240 the story to make a point that's going to help you understand the 21 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:12,960 story. And then he resumes the story, 22 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:14,360 and we'll see that as we go here. 23 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:20,880 So Mark, chapter 3, verses 20 to 35, Jesus went home, and once 24 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:24,800 more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal. 25 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:28,120 When his relatives heard of this, they set out to take 26 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:31,040 charge of him, convinced he was out of his mind. 27 00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:35,200 The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, 28 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,320 Beelzebel is in him, and it is through the Prince of devils 29 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:43,640 that he casts out devils. So he called them to him and 30 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,840 spoke to them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? 31 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,760 If a Kingdom is divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot 32 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,960 stand, and if a household is divided against itself, that 33 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:59,880 household can never stand. Now if Satan has rebelled 34 00:01:59,880 --> 00:02:03,520 against himself and is divided, he cannot stand either. 35 00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:07,920 It is the end of him. But no one can make his way into 36 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:11,720 the strong man's house and burgle his property unless he 37 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:13,880 has tied up the strong man first. 38 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:16,880 Only then can he burgle his house. 39 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,480 I tell you solemnly, all men's sins will be forgiven, and all 40 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:25,000 their blasphemies, But let anyone blasphemy against the 41 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,920 Holy Spirit and he will never have forgiveness. 42 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:32,640 He is guilty of an eternal sin. This was because they were 43 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:35,160 saying an unclean spirit is in him. 44 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:40,280 The mother and brothers of Jesus arrived, and standing outside 45 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:42,360 they sent in a message asking for him. 46 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:46,120 A crowd was sitting around him at the time The message was 47 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,760 passed to him. Your mother and brothers and 48 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,720 sisters are outside asking for you, he replied. 49 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:54,960 Who are my mother and my brothers? 50 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,720 And looking around at those sitting in a circle around him, 51 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:04,120 he said, Here are my mother and my brothers, anyone who does the 52 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:07,600 will of God. That person is my brother and 53 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:12,360 sister and mother. So that's a long reading today. 54 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:15,760 And now let's get into it. So Jesus has just begun his 55 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:18,720 ministry in Galilee, in the northern part of Israel. 56 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,160 So it's very early on, but already he's developed quite a 57 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:24,120 big following. There's crowds everywhere 58 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,040 following him around. Just before this, he's gone up 59 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:31,520 into the hills around the Sea of Galilee to pick his 12 apostles. 60 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:34,400 Now we'll start at verse 19 B today. 61 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:36,800 This is the last phrase in verse 19. 62 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,320 It helps sets the scene. It just says then he went home. 63 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:43,080 So Jesus now goes back to Capernaum. 64 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,600 That's his home at the moment. And remember, he's living in the 65 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,280 House of Simon and Andrew. That's his house in Capernaum. 66 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:54,080 Verse 20. Once more such a crab collected. 67 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,200 So try to get the picture here. Jesus is at home in his small 68 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,360 house in Capernaum. In fact, you can go and see this 69 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:02,800 house today. If you go to Capernaum, they've 70 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,960 basically uncovered what the house looks like, and you can 71 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,800 look in from a bird's eye view to see a floor plan of this 72 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:11,280 actual house. It's quite amazing. 73 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,200 So Jesus is here at home in his small house, probably with his 74 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:18,519 disciples, probably with his family, and there's people from 75 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:20,959 all over the countryside who want to follow Jesus, and 76 00:04:20,959 --> 00:04:23,520 they've followed him home, and they're probably inside the 77 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:24,960 house. They're all crowding into the 78 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:28,960 house and Mark here says there's such a crowd that they could not 79 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,040 even have a meal. So Jesus and his disciples and 80 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:34,520 his relatives, they just want to sit down in their house to have 81 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:36,280 a meal. They can't even do that. 82 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:38,920 There's such a big crowd there wanting to hear from Jesus, 83 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:43,080 verse 21, when his relatives heard of this. 84 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,600 Now some translations don't have the word relatives. 85 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:50,160 They have it as friends or even own people when his own people 86 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,280 heard of this. But I think the best translation 87 00:04:52,280 --> 00:04:55,760 is relatives or family. So our lectionary gets it right 88 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:59,520 here. His relatives heard of this, so 89 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:02,840 this will be his relatives in Nazareth, which is not far from 90 00:05:02,840 --> 00:05:05,680 Capernaum. And Nazareth is where Jesus grew 91 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:07,800 up and it's where most of his relatives still live. 92 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:12,800 Now verse 31 tells us more about who specifically these relatives 93 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:14,960 are. So Mark tells us in verse 31 94 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:19,320 that his mother hears about this and a group that Mark calls his 95 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:22,160 brethren. And we'll look at this phrase a 96 00:05:22,160 --> 00:05:24,440 bit more when we get to that reading, because obviously 97 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:26,400 there's been a lot of controversy about who the 98 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:28,440 Brethren of Jesus are in Nazareth. 99 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,680 The short version is it appears that these brethren are Jesus 100 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,160 cousins. Roughly, they're from Mary's 101 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:39,080 side of the family and they also live in Nazareth, just like Mary 102 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:42,040 does. So his relatives, his mother and 103 00:05:42,040 --> 00:05:44,600 his brethren set out to take charge of him. 104 00:05:44,640 --> 00:05:47,320 Or more literally what it actually says here is they went 105 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,160 out to seize him. The same word there is used for 106 00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:52,680 when Jesus is arrested. They went out to seize him. 107 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,560 So Jesus relatives here, they travel from Nazareth to 108 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:00,440 Capernaum to come and get Jesus. That's a 20 mile journey, so it 109 00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,520 probably would have taken a whole day for them to get from 110 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:07,160 Nazareth to Capernaum. So word is spreading from 111 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:10,480 Capernaum to the nearby towns that this amazing miracle worker 112 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:14,240 Jesus is attracting Huge crowds. And Jesus relatives hear about 113 00:06:14,240 --> 00:06:16,560 this and they want to come and seize him. 114 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,760 Why? Well, Mark says they are 115 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,040 convinced he was out of his mind. 116 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:24,840 There's different ways of translating this particular 117 00:06:24,840 --> 00:06:28,320 phrase. So instead of out of his mind, 118 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:31,960 you can translate it. He is beside himself and there's 119 00:06:31,960 --> 00:06:34,040 even some ambiguity about who says it. 120 00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:39,280 So some translations have the relatives saying he is beside 121 00:06:39,280 --> 00:06:41,920 himself, but other translations because the Greek here is 122 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:44,480 ambiguous. Other translations put it As for 123 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,200 some people were saying he is beside himself. 124 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:51,200 So either Jesus family is saying this or at least people in 125 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:55,120 Nazareth in general are saying that Jesus is beside himself. 126 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,160 So word is getting around that Jesus is out of his mind. 127 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:02,200 We need to keep in mind the cultural context at this 128 00:07:02,200 --> 00:07:05,200 particular time. So in this culture family 129 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:08,800 obligations and family ties are very strong, they are very 130 00:07:08,800 --> 00:07:12,960 important and they over shadow a lot of individual rights that we 131 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,080 would have today. In western society, family 132 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:19,720 obligations came first and an individual was always in a sense 133 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:22,880 representing his family. So any action by an individual 134 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,280 in that culture was seen as a reflection on the whole family 135 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:29,960 and any breach of family honour would result in severe 136 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:32,760 discipline. So from the perspective of Jesus 137 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,960 family here, Jesus should be back in Nazareth being a 138 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:39,640 Carpenter rather than doing weird things like attracting 139 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,640 crowds and making the religious authorities angry. 140 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,440 So from what Jesus family understands Jesus wonder working 141 00:07:47,440 --> 00:07:49,560 activity? It's probably evidence that he's 142 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:52,400 mentally imbalanced. He's not thinking straight. 143 00:07:52,400 --> 00:07:53,440 There's something wrong with him. 144 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:57,040 And we later see this in chapter 6 when Jesus actually goes to 145 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:00,520 Nazareth. Pretty much the whole town has a 146 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:02,400 similar attitude. They think he should be a 147 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:03,960 Carpenter. He shouldn't be a miracle 148 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:07,840 worker. Also keep in mind that Joseph is 149 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:09,920 probably no longer alive by this point. 150 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:14,320 So Jesus, older relatives probably felt that Jesus was 151 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:16,760 under their charge. They have to take responsibility 152 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:18,720 for him. So they hear that he's doing 153 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:21,240 these weird things, that he's out of his mind. 154 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,040 So they set out to find him and seize him. 155 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:27,880 Probably this is partially to protect him as well, because 156 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:31,360 they might sense that he's making the religious authorities 157 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:36,200 angry and he might be in danger. So they come to get him in 158 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:38,919 Capernaum. That's the end of today's text, 159 00:08:38,919 --> 00:08:41,960 and we then have what's scholars call a mark and sandwich. 160 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:46,040 So Mark often does this where he starts a story, then leaves it 161 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,760 incomplete, turns to something else, and then later finishes 162 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,600 the story. And it seems that he does this, 163 00:08:52,920 --> 00:08:55,960 does this very carefully. He puts a particular story in 164 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,360 the middle of the sandwich that's going to, in a sense, 165 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,200 amplify both ends of the sandwich. 166 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:05,040 And that's what Mark does here. He leaves this story incomplete, 167 00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:07,680 and he turns his attention to another event, and then he goes 168 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:11,200 back to describing what happens with Jesus relatives. 169 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:15,840 So this story of Jesus relatives will pick up again in verse 31. 170 00:09:16,480 --> 00:09:19,040 The next thing we're going to hear this kind of middle of the 171 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,240 sandwich. This interrupting story involves 172 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:26,280 Jesus being accused of being possessed by the devil, and that 173 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:29,160 is actually linked to what Mark has just said here about his 174 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:32,840 family, because in that culture, mental imbalance was associated 175 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:35,640 with demonic activities. So that leads pretty well into 176 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,800 this next story where people come right out and accuse Jesus 177 00:09:39,800 --> 00:09:41,840 of being possessed by the devil because they're sort of 178 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:45,000 perceiving that he's not mentally right in their view. 179 00:09:45,640 --> 00:09:51,000 So now the scribes come down from Jerusalem in verse 22. 180 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:54,760 So up to now, he's just been doing stuff in Galilee, and the 181 00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:57,080 Galilean Pharisees don't really like him. 182 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,440 But now we have some scribes from Jerusalem, which is 183 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:02,400 actually South in the southern region. 184 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,080 They're coming all the way up to Galilee. 185 00:10:04,680 --> 00:10:10,120 So they've travelled quite a few days to hear, to hear Jesus. 186 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:12,760 They want to investigate this strange preacher that everyone's 187 00:10:12,760 --> 00:10:15,520 talking about. South Jerusalem is sort of the 188 00:10:15,520 --> 00:10:18,880 capital of Israel and that's down the southern area and Jesus 189 00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:22,880 has been working in the northern area, but he's become so famous 190 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:24,520 that word has spread to Jerusalem. 191 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:28,480 So the Jerusalem leaders send these scribes in and these are 192 00:10:28,480 --> 00:10:30,160 kind of like the big guns they are. 193 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,480 The Jerusalem scribes were the absolute experts in the law that 194 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:39,200 were considered to be more authoritative even than the the 195 00:10:39,200 --> 00:10:46,040 ones in Galilee. So they accuse him or they say 196 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:48,800 firstly they use this word Beelzebel. 197 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:53,000 This is a name, Beelzebel, and it's a word that the Jews used 198 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:57,040 at that time for Satan. It's one of the words for Satan. 199 00:10:57,040 --> 00:10:59,640 Satan had a few names and Beelzebel was one of them. 200 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:03,480 And it's probably derived from the Canaanite God Baal. 201 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:09,000 It's just another way of saying Baal or Satan is Beelzebel, so 202 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,040 they say Beelzebel is in him. So basically, they're accusing 203 00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,040 Jesus of being possessed. By the devil. 204 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,200 And this is their thinking. So the scribes have come to see 205 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,000 him and they're like, how is this guy doing this? 206 00:11:21,000 --> 00:11:22,600 How is he casting out the demons? 207 00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:24,720 And their reasoning goes something like this. 208 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,840 He's casting out so many demons, and the only person who has that 209 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:31,600 much control over demons is the devil himself. 210 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,320 Therefore Jesus must be possessed by the devil. 211 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:39,120 That seems to be their thinking. Obviously they've missed a key 212 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:42,680 point here being that God has power over those demons as well. 213 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,040 So this this saying, oh, he's possessed by the devil. 214 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:49,680 So verse 23, he called them to him. 215 00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:54,000 So Jesus actually calls over the Pharisees and he wants to teach 216 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:57,160 them. In particular, he speaks to them 217 00:11:57,160 --> 00:11:59,360 in parables, so he's going to give them a couple of short 218 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:02,080 analogies, not like the longer parables we're used to. 219 00:12:02,680 --> 00:12:05,400 It's still a parable though. It's a it's a short analogy. 220 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,320 He's going to teach them a couple of things about exorcism 221 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:13,920 and what it's all about. He says to them, first, how can 222 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,640 Satan cast out Satan? And that's a rhetorical 223 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:18,880 question. He doesn't expect them to answer 224 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:22,080 because the answer is obvious. The answer is he can't. 225 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:27,280 Verse 24, Jesus says to the scribes, if a Kingdom is divided 226 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:30,400 against itself, that Kingdom cannot last. 227 00:12:30,920 --> 00:12:34,120 So if you've got this Kingdom and there's internal fighting 228 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:36,520 going on, the Kingdom is not going to last long. 229 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,520 And so Jesus point here is, if Satan was being forced to get 230 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:46,680 rid of his own demons, he's fighting against his own demons, 231 00:12:46,680 --> 00:12:48,760 then it would not be a very strong Kingdom. 232 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:54,000 But the scribes knew very well that Satan's Kingdom is strong, 233 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:56,600 so that can't be right. It can't be that Satan is 234 00:12:56,600 --> 00:12:59,440 fighting against his own demons. That doesn't make sense. 235 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:03,000 Verse 25, Jesus gives another similar analogy. 236 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:07,240 And if a household is divided against itself, that household 237 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:10,640 can never stand. So same basic idea. 238 00:13:10,720 --> 00:13:13,000 If there's fighting within the family, it will be a weak 239 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,520 family. And now, verse 26, Jesus tells 240 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:17,800 us the point he was trying to make. 241 00:13:17,800 --> 00:13:22,080 Now whenever you're looking at parables, you want to work out 242 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,920 what's what was Jesus point. He usually makes a couple of 243 00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:29,080 little analogies. Sometimes he then tells his 244 00:13:29,080 --> 00:13:31,520 readers, and this is the point that I'm trying to make. 245 00:13:31,680 --> 00:13:34,600 And that's what he does here. Thankfully, sometimes he doesn't 246 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,080 tell the meaning of the parable though, and that's when the 247 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:38,760 disciples sort of scratch their heads. 248 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:41,800 But when he tells us the meaning of the parable, we should pay 249 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:45,520 attention because that can help us get some principles for 250 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:48,680 interpreting the other parables. And here he tells us what he 251 00:13:48,680 --> 00:13:52,720 means, verse 26. So if Satan has rebelled against 252 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:55,800 himself and he's divided, he cannot stand either. 253 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:01,680 It is the end of him. So that's Jesus Point scribes. 254 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:03,800 You're wrong. Satan is not casting out these 255 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,320 demons. That doesn't make sense. 256 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,240 So he's firstly, he's ruled out their hypothesis. 257 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:12,640 He says you're wrong. Now in verse 27, having ruled 258 00:14:12,640 --> 00:14:16,560 out that idea about the Kingdom divided, he's now going to tell 259 00:14:16,560 --> 00:14:19,360 them what's really going on, what's really happening in these 260 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,000 exorcisms. No one can make his way into a 261 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:27,440 strong man's house and burgle his property unless he is tied 262 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:31,440 up the strong man first. Now some people have a problem 263 00:14:31,440 --> 00:14:34,520 with this because it's implying that God is a burglar if you 264 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:36,880 take it too literally. But remember, parables are not 265 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:41,240 supposed to be identical to Jesus or identical to God in 266 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,880 every aspect. You can't map every aspect on 267 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,040 exactly. That will be over stretching the 268 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,320 parable. He's just trying to make one 269 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,480 central point that they will be familiar with and then applying 270 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:55,960 that to God. So the idea here is if someone's 271 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,640 planning to rob a house, but they're they're planning to do 272 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:01,120 it, they know who lives there, and they know the home owner is 273 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:04,240 a strong man, then the burglar is obviously going to make a 274 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:07,600 plan to tie up the strong man first before he tries to steal 275 00:15:07,600 --> 00:15:10,240 his property. Otherwise, he's not going to get 276 00:15:10,240 --> 00:15:11,800 very far. The strong man's just going to 277 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:15,760 kick him out. So Jesus here is saying that 278 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,600 Satan is like the strong man. Satan is like the strong man 279 00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:24,560 guarding his possessions. What's Satan guarding? 280 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,760 He's guarding humans. In this particular period of 281 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:31,400 salvation history, he has possession over humans, and in 282 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,320 particular the ones that he has that he's possessed through the 283 00:15:35,320 --> 00:15:37,720 demons. They are his property. 284 00:15:38,680 --> 00:15:41,880 So Satan is the strong man. And Jesus is saying that by 285 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:47,920 performing these exorcisms, he is weakening the power of Satan, 286 00:15:48,800 --> 00:15:51,520 the power of the strong man over the world. 287 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:55,200 So Jesus is weakening the strongman Satan. 288 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:59,960 By casting out these exorcisms, he's slowly weakening Satan's 289 00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:04,480 influence in the world. So this probably implies, 290 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:07,400 because remember what Jesus says here is first you weaken the 291 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:10,000 strongman and then you plunder his goods. 292 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,880 So probably what Jesus is saying here is that these exorcisms 293 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:17,840 that he's doing currently a phase one of plundering Satan's 294 00:16:17,840 --> 00:16:19,960 house. So he's currently binding Satan, 295 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,360 weakening his power over the world, and probably Jesus is 296 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,080 implying that soon there'll be a phase two where Jesus steals 297 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:32,280 Satan's goods and that would mean that's where he takes some 298 00:16:32,280 --> 00:16:34,640 of the people from the Kingdom of Satan and brings them into 299 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,800 the Kingdom of God. So here I think is one of the 300 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:40,880 clearest teachings about what Jesus mission is. 301 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,080 We don't often like to talk about Satan and him having power 302 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:47,720 in the world, but that was the whole context of the Kingdom of 303 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:49,200 God. If you read the Gospels 304 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:54,120 carefully. Jesus clearly is teaching that 305 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,640 the world is largely under the power of Satan, and the point of 306 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:00,680 the Kingdom of God is to give people a different Kingdom to be 307 00:17:00,680 --> 00:17:06,200 a part of if they want to. So that's all the stuff about 308 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:09,160 exorcisms there that he's he's done a couple of little 309 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:12,359 analogies. Verse 28, we get to the hard or 310 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:17,960 controversial part to interpret. Jesus says to them in verse 28. 311 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,560 I tell you solemnly, Now, whenever you say that you want 312 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:24,200 to pay attention. This is where Jesus says, well, 313 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:27,680 basically means I'm about to tell you something very 314 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:29,840 important. Other translations would have 315 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:32,760 this as truly, truly, or Amen, Amen. 316 00:17:33,200 --> 00:17:35,640 Or he who has an ear, let him hear. 317 00:17:37,000 --> 00:17:39,440 Verily, verily is the Old English way of saying it. 318 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,320 Whenever you see those flag words, you want to pay attention 319 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,760 because Jesus is about to teach something, and it's probably 320 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:48,960 going to be something that's binding forever. 321 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,440 It's probably some general theological principle that he 322 00:17:51,440 --> 00:17:56,160 wants people to know about. So it's a signal that Jesus is 323 00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,880 about to conclude he's make a conclusion, bring everything 324 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:04,560 he's said to a head and to make the point that he wants to make. 325 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,760 So he's dealt with the little things the Pharisees have said, 326 00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:10,600 and now he wants to make his deeper, more profound point. 327 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,000 It's a textual indicator to us as the readers that he's about 328 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:19,560 to say he's about to teach something in his capacity as 329 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:21,360 Messiah. He's about to teach something 330 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:25,880 theological and it's going to wrap up the things he's just 331 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:27,760 said. Here's what he says. 332 00:18:28,680 --> 00:18:32,360 All men's sins will be forgiven and their blasphemies. 333 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:34,720 So that's part one of the sentence. 334 00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:38,240 So what's he said so far? He said that if a person turns 335 00:18:38,240 --> 00:18:41,840 to God and enters the Kingdom, then all of their past sins will 336 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:46,800 be forgiven. Yeah, Jesus is saying there's no 337 00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:49,640 limit to God's forgiveness. All sins will be forgiven. 338 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:54,160 Even blasphemies and blasphemies were some of the worst crimes 339 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,240 according to the Jews. The worst sins because that's 340 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:59,800 when you abuse God directly. It's a direct offence against 341 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:01,640 God. But Jesus here says even 342 00:19:01,640 --> 00:19:05,160 blasphemies will be forgiven. But then the second-half. 343 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:08,280 Sorry, I won't say the second-half yet. 344 00:19:08,280 --> 00:19:11,880 Let's just talk about the word Holy Spirit, because it's the 345 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,480 first time that Jesus uses it here in Mark. 346 00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:20,200 The Holy Spirit we sometimes think of as like it's not in the 347 00:19:20,200 --> 00:19:22,160 Old Testament at all. It's a New Testament idea. 348 00:19:22,280 --> 00:19:25,280 It is in the Old Testament, but it's in the later books of the 349 00:19:25,280 --> 00:19:28,760 Old Testament. And a lot of those books are not 350 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,520 in Protestant Bibles. So in the Book of Wisdom and the 351 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:36,040 book of Sirach, there's a couple of descriptions about the Spirit 352 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:39,120 of of God or the Holy Spirit. It's even called in one place. 353 00:19:39,360 --> 00:19:42,560 So the Jews were familiar with, and they did believe in the Holy 354 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,440 Spirit. It's just that they didn't 355 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:47,240 connect it with the Trinity. They didn't believe in the 356 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,480 Trinity. And Jesus is not referring to it 357 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:51,160 in a Trinitarian way here either. 358 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:54,160 So what was their idea of the Holy Spirit? 359 00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:57,040 It's basically the power of God on earth. 360 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:01,520 That's what they saw the Holy Spirit as, the power of God on 361 00:20:01,520 --> 00:20:02,680 earth. And that's fine. 362 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:07,440 We as Christians, we believe that too, with that in mind. 363 00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,640 And so the Jews know what the Holy Spirit is, or the basics of 364 00:20:10,640 --> 00:20:14,880 it, Jesus now says. Whoever blasphemes the Holy 365 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:19,640 Spirit or another translation, whoever speaks a word against 366 00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:23,640 the Holy Spirit, why does he say that here? 367 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,560 Well, the scribes were in fact just doing this. 368 00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:30,920 They were blaspheming against the Holy Spirit. 369 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,480 If you think about it, they were blaspheming against God's work 370 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,960 on earth. They were watching Jesus cast 371 00:20:35,960 --> 00:20:40,480 out demons with the power of God and they were attributing it to 372 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,840 Satan. They're blaspheming against the 373 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:46,040 work of God on earth. They're blaspheming against the 374 00:20:46,040 --> 00:20:50,280 Holy Spirit. Now they didn't know that 375 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:51,480 though. So if we're going to analyse 376 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:54,280 this in terms of, you know, mortal sin and things like that, 377 00:20:54,840 --> 00:20:58,840 they didn't have full knowledge. They actually didn't realise 378 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:00,600 that God was working through Jesus. 379 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:04,480 So if we want to pass it out that way, they weren't fully 380 00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:07,120 culpable of it. So Jesus is actually just giving 381 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:08,920 them a warning. He's not saying they're going to 382 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:11,080 hell, He's just saying, oh, we need to be careful here. 383 00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:16,600 OK, so whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, Jesus 384 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:21,320 says he will never have forgiveness or he is guilty of 385 00:21:21,320 --> 00:21:24,600 an eternal sin. An eternal sin. 386 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:30,600 This is something that people find really hard to accept and 387 00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,880 sometimes called the unforgivable sin. 388 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,680 How can there be a thing such as an unforgivable sin? 389 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:45,520 So let's think about it. Jesus is not saying that if you 390 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:49,240 personally offend God or you personally offend the Holy 391 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:54,600 Spirit by saying bad things about him, you'll be damned. 392 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:56,160 That's not the point he's making. 393 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,200 He's saying something more general. 394 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:01,320 He's using this idea of blasphemy, which they've just 395 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,080 done, but he's now making a more general point about general way 396 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:06,600 that we can blasphemy against God. 397 00:22:08,320 --> 00:22:10,320 And it's this. What Jesus is saying is this. 398 00:22:10,600 --> 00:22:15,040 If a person dies having seen the work of God in their life, but 399 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:19,200 they deny that it's the work of God, or they refuse to accept 400 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,080 his promptings, then they cut themselves off from God. 401 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,720 Now that's basically the Catholic teaching on salvation. 402 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,120 So it's not, it's not that there's one. 403 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:31,160 How can we put it? It's not that there's one 404 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,920 specific thing you do, one specific sin that you commit in 405 00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:35,520 your life and you're done. That's it. 406 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,000 You can never be forgiven. That's not what Jesus is saying. 407 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,600 He's saying there's only one thing that would stop you from 408 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,440 from entering the mercy of God, from entering the Kingdom of 409 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:50,120 heaven, and that is refusing to accept the work of God. 410 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,360 If you refuse to accept the work of God, then there is no 411 00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:56,240 forgiveness to you. There's no forgiveness 412 00:22:56,240 --> 00:22:58,440 available, and you can't make it into the Kingdom of heaven. 413 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:05,160 So it's a teaching on salvation. So notice the language here 414 00:23:05,160 --> 00:23:07,720 talks about all men an eternal life. 415 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:09,880 It doesn't say Pharisees. You need to know this. 416 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:14,400 It says all all manner of sins will be forgiven of men. 417 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:16,000 So we're talking about men in general. 418 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:19,080 And he mentions eternal life. So this is something that's 419 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,720 binding permanently. Jesus is teaching general 420 00:23:22,720 --> 00:23:28,800 Christian theology here about salvation and the Church, The 421 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,560 Catholic Church has confirmed that the principle Jesus lays 422 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,600 out here is still binding today. This is a permanent principle, 423 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:37,960 so let me reiterate what that is. 424 00:23:37,960 --> 00:23:41,400 Again, the unforgivable sin is not that if you do one specific 425 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,160 sin that you can never be forgiven and you're stuffed up 426 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,400 for the rest of your life regardless of the good you do. 427 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,960 That's not what Jesus is saying. He's saying that there's one 428 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:56,400 thing that will always be a barrier to you having 429 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,200 forgiveness and eternal life, and that one thing is rejecting 430 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:04,320 the work of God on earth. And so if we have it with that, 431 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,680 if we keep that perspective in mind, which is the perspective 432 00:24:06,680 --> 00:24:09,880 of the Catholic Church, that fits nicely with everything else 433 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,840 we know about salvation and everything we know about 434 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:16,680 Catholic teaching in general. Verse 30. 435 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:22,120 The last verse here, Mark tells the readers this is because they 436 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:25,320 were saying an unclean spirit is in him, So we need to keep that 437 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:27,400 in mind. Jesus has given us this teaching 438 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:31,600 in response to the claim of the scribes that Jesus is possessed 439 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,360 by the devil. So Jesus here, remember, when 440 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,400 Jesus sort of responds to critics, what he generally does 441 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:43,640 is he sort of disabuses some of their false notions first. 442 00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:46,880 But then he goes on to make a more serious point. 443 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,000 So he's disabused some of this false idea that he's possessed 444 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:52,800 by the devil. But now he's going to make a 445 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:56,600 more serious theological point, which is and it's this. 446 00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:59,200 Imagine he's saying this to the to the scribes. 447 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:03,720 You need to be careful. If you don't change your mind 448 00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,320 about this. If you continue to reject the 449 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:09,080 work of God that you've just seen, you will be damned. 450 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,680 That's what he's saying. It's a warning, OK? 451 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:13,760 It's a warning. Jesus is not saying. 452 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:15,920 Since you have said this, you are damned. 453 00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,000 He's not saying that. He's saying that. 454 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,360 You need to be careful. You need to reevaluate this. 455 00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:25,880 If you continue to see these things and reject them as the 456 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,160 work of God, and you say that they're the work of Satan, then 457 00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:31,720 you're blocked from the Kingdom of God because you will not 458 00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:36,400 accept the work of God. This general principle applies 459 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:38,920 to all of humanity today. This is what we as Catholics 460 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:42,640 would say who goes to heaven? It's the people who accept the 461 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,720 work of God in their life and they cooperate with it who goes 462 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,120 to hell. It's those who reject the work 463 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:50,440 of God on earth and in their life. 464 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:55,400 Now that will be me paraphrasing complex Catholic theology, but I 465 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,520 think it's a fair summary. Verse 31. 466 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:00,440 They arrive. The mother and the brothers of 467 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,800 Jesus arrive from Nazareth in Capernaum. 468 00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:05,160 So they've just arrived in Capernaum. 469 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,160 So we have here the mother of Jesus. 470 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,840 That's Mary. Now, a lot of Catholics are a 471 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,640 little bit uncomfortable with this passage. 472 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:16,080 Now it's possible she was just dragged along by the other 473 00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:19,560 family members, but I think it's reasonable to say that at this 474 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,080 point Mary does not fully comprehend what Jesus is doing. 475 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,920 The Angel Gabriel apparently didn't tell her the full extent 476 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:30,560 of what Jesus ministry was going to look like, just that he would 477 00:26:30,560 --> 00:26:33,000 be the son of David that everyone had been waiting for. 478 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:36,480 She probably didn't. Anticipate this massive crowd 479 00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:39,200 thing and the authorities persecuting him. 480 00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:42,800 She didn't expect all that. So at this point in Jesus 481 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,640 ministry it's quite early on she doesn't understand. 482 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:49,080 And I do think it's worth discussing this verse a bit, 483 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,480 because as Catholics you can have different opinions about 484 00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:52,960 it. As I said at the start there, 485 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:56,600 it's possible that she does fully understand everything that 486 00:26:57,160 --> 00:27:00,400 Jesus ministry would entail and she's just been dragged along. 487 00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,720 That is certainly possible and many Catholics hold to that 488 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:04,520 view. But we also want to think about 489 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,680 what are the possible ways of thinking about it in terms of 490 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:09,520 she genuinely doesn't understand. 491 00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:13,320 Well, we know that according to Luke's Gospel, she knows quite 492 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:16,760 early on that he is God. So that Angel Gabriel says to 493 00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:19,800 her he'll be the son of David, the son of God. 494 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,440 And then when she visits Elizabeth, Elizabeth explicitly 495 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,600 says you are the mother of God, so she does know all of that. 496 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:30,920 But it's not entirely clear how much Mary knows about the exact 497 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,960 details of what Jesus ministry would look like. 498 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:39,040 Theologians do discuss this because certainly in the early 499 00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,880 chapters of Luke's Gospel it does say that he's going to 500 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:47,440 cause division. But remember that she's also in 501 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:49,040 that same gospel and the Gospel of Luke. 502 00:27:49,120 --> 00:27:52,160 She's quite concerned about Jesus when they find him in the 503 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,960 temple. That wasn't obvious to her, that 504 00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:56,280 they would find him in the temple, and she didn't expect 505 00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,560 him to be doing what he's doing. So I do think we as Catholics, 506 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:03,880 we have room to say that Mary is concerned about some of the 507 00:28:03,880 --> 00:28:07,160 things she's seeing Jesus doing. And there's a whole lot more you 508 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,760 could say about this. As you explore Marian theology, 509 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,040 you'll see that theologians have agreed that Mary had the 510 00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:16,120 fullness of grace. But theologians are divided in 511 00:28:16,120 --> 00:28:19,920 terms of what that means about her knowledge, and this is one 512 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,000 of these verses it's well worth getting into. 513 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:25,880 But probably by the time of the cross she does understand. 514 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,320 She gets it then. But at this stage it's OK for us 515 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:31,160 to say that. Mary doesn't fully get it. 516 00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,280 And she's concerned about Jesus. She thinks is possibly a little 517 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,880 bit gone, a little bit too far. So there's the mother of Jesus. 518 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,440 We also have the brothers of Jesus. 519 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:44,680 Now we need to explore these brothers of Jesus. 520 00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:49,480 So firstly, the word brother in Greek is a Delphos, and in that 521 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:53,160 culture is used quite loosely as it is in the Old Testament. 522 00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,720 We have lots of examples of people being called brothers in 523 00:28:55,720 --> 00:28:58,720 the Old Testament and we later discovered they're not actually 524 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:00,440 brothers, they're just close relatives. 525 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,880 So in that culture as it is in some countries even today, 526 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:07,680 people will be called uncle, auntie, brother, when they're 527 00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:12,600 not literally that biologically, they're not biologically 528 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:16,280 brothers, but perhaps they are extended family members or 529 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,360 cousins. That's the way it was used in 530 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:21,800 Jewish culture. So just seeing the word Adolphus 531 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,040 doesn't guarantee that we have here a biological brother of 532 00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,160 Jesus, just some sort of close relative. 533 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,800 We also know from later in the passage that some of his sisters 534 00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:32,440 are there as well. So we have some brothers and 535 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,320 sisters. So we know that there's some 536 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:37,840 sort of senior close relative of Jesus. 537 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,880 Because remember, they feel responsible or they want to 538 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,800 take. They feel that they're 539 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,560 responsible for Jesus because Joseph has passed away, which 540 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:49,040 probably indicates that they're older than Jesus. 541 00:29:49,320 --> 00:29:51,320 So they're senior relatives of Jesus. 542 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,000 Who are they? Let's see what we can work out 543 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,680 about them. These brothers and sisters of 544 00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,480 Jesus are mentioned several times in the New Testament, 545 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,720 though we're never given a full explanation of who their mother 546 00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:05,680 and father are. We just get little tidbits. 547 00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,920 Another thing we know is the early Church unanimously held 548 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,600 that Mary remained a virgin her entire life, and that's Catholic 549 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:16,800 teaching as well. Catholics. 550 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,400 A Catholic belief is that Mary did not have any children after 551 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:25,280 Jesus or before Jesus actually. So we know firstly they cannot 552 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:27,440 be children of Mary. Whoever these brothers and 553 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:29,720 sisters of Jesus are, they're not Mary's kids. 554 00:30:31,920 --> 00:30:34,480 But. Also, if Joseph has died at this 555 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,640 time, it seems like Mary is living with these other 556 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:41,560 relatives in Nazareth. Since she's still living in 557 00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:45,440 Nazareth, and since these other relatives are also living with 558 00:30:45,440 --> 00:30:49,120 her in Nazareth, it seems likely that these other relatives 559 00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:51,280 probably grew up in Nazareth too. 560 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,400 If we put all that together, probably we're looking at some 561 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,200 blood relatives of Mary here, some people who all grew up in 562 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:07,200 the Nazareth area, some blood relatives of Mary, as we already 563 00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:10,680 said that they are probably older than Jesus because of 564 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:14,080 their authoritative behavior. So they're born before Mary and 565 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:18,200 Joseph were married. Now here's the interesting bit. 566 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:21,600 Later in Mark, in chapter 6 verse three, we actually get the 567 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,240 names of some of these so-called brothers of Jesus. 568 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,560 So there's four brothers of Jesus that we're given names for 569 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:32,280 in Mark chapter 6, verse three, and you can look at this up as 570 00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:36,160 well. We have James, Joseph, Judas and 571 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,000 Simon. Now it's problematic as all four 572 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,480 of these names are really common even amongst you can see there 573 00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:46,280 that three of them, James, Judas and Simon, they have the same 574 00:31:46,280 --> 00:31:50,080 names as Son of Jesus Apostles. And the 4th 1 Joseph is the same 575 00:31:50,080 --> 00:31:53,560 as Jesus Father. So it gets really confusing 576 00:31:53,560 --> 00:32:00,080 trying to track who these four boys are, but we know for sure 577 00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:02,440 that they're not four siblings. And here's why. 578 00:32:03,480 --> 00:32:07,680 The James and Joseph, the two of the boys mentioned here, James 579 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,400 and Joseph. We later get more information 580 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:14,800 about James and Joseph in Mark chapter 15, verse 40. 581 00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:19,280 It says that James and Joseph have a mother called Mary, but 582 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:23,040 it's not the Mary that's Jesus mother. 583 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,880 So we Mark explicitly tells us that James and Joseph are not 584 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,240 full blood relatives of Jesus. They're not full siblings. 585 00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:33,240 They are in fact from another mother. 586 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,720 So who's this other mother? Mary. 587 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:42,080 Many in the early church, we're not sure about this, but we know 588 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:44,160 Mark tells us for sure that they're not. 589 00:32:45,280 --> 00:32:47,320 They don't come from the same mother as Jesus. 590 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:50,720 And then on top of that, many in the early church believe that 591 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:55,320 this other Mary possibly is Mary the wife of Cleopas mentioned in 592 00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:58,320 the Gospel of John and the early Church. 593 00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:01,200 A lot of. The church fathers talked about 594 00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:04,320 this other Mary actually being a relative of Mary, the mother of 595 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:08,520 Jesus. So if that's the case, if this 596 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,800 other Mary is a relative of Mary, the mother of Jesus, then 597 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:16,760 roughly what we have here is that these boys, James, Judas, 598 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,760 Joseph, and Simon, basically they're Jesus cousins or second 599 00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:23,280 cousins, something along those lines. 600 00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,480 So it took us a while to get to that conclusion. 601 00:33:26,480 --> 00:33:28,600 But if we put together all the data, particularly what the 602 00:33:28,600 --> 00:33:33,240 Gospels tell us about the mother of these boys, we know for sure 603 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:37,080 that they're not Mary's kids. They're probably Jesus cousins. 604 00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:40,240 There's some other theories as well, but I think this is the 605 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:46,600 most plausible theory that these are blood relatives of Mary, but 606 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,560 not blood relatives. Sorry, this that's not a good 607 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:51,440 way of putting it. They are blood relatives of 608 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,720 Mary, but they are not Mary's children. 609 00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,520 OK, so having said that, they arrive in Capernaum. 610 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,000 So that's they've been on a 20 mile journey, probably only took 611 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:05,720 a day or two. They arrive in Nazareth and they 612 00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,360 stand outside. There's waiting outside Jesus 613 00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:12,480 home in Nazareth in Capernaum. Because the crowd is too dense, 614 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:14,080 they actually can't get into the house. 615 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:16,239 Jesus is in his house. He's healing people. 616 00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:20,040 He's teaching massive crowds as usual, and it's too dense. 617 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,480 They can't get in. So keep this in mind. 618 00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:26,199 Often in pictures you'll see it as though they could see Jesus 619 00:34:26,199 --> 00:34:27,960 or something and Jesus could see them. 620 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,040 He actually can't. From what we can tell, the crowd 621 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:32,320 is too thick. They can't see each other. 622 00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:35,719 So what they have to do is they send in a message. 623 00:34:35,719 --> 00:34:39,120 So they get they send someone to squeeze through the crowd to 624 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,199 speak to Jesus. And this is the message they 625 00:34:41,199 --> 00:34:43,159 send into Jesus. Verse 32. 626 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,520 Your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for 627 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:48,520 you. That's the message Jesus gets. 628 00:34:49,639 --> 00:34:52,199 So remember, Jesus can't see any of his relatives. 629 00:34:52,199 --> 00:34:55,280 This is probably news to him. He's probably going oh OK, these 630 00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:57,400 people have arrived. I wasn't expecting them. 631 00:34:58,200 --> 00:34:59,760 Who knows? He's the son of God. 632 00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:04,120 Maybe he was expecting them. But then his reply in verse 33. 633 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,720 Because it says here, he replied, it's it seems likely 634 00:35:08,720 --> 00:35:11,120 that he's not speaking loudly to the crowd here. 635 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:14,040 Probably only those nearby would have heard his reply. 636 00:35:14,040 --> 00:35:17,720 Here That would include Peter. And remember, Peter is the main 637 00:35:17,720 --> 00:35:21,360 source for this gospel of Mark. So here's his reply. 638 00:35:22,160 --> 00:35:25,400 Who are my mother and brothers now? 639 00:35:25,400 --> 00:35:28,440 Jesus here is not pretending to know his biological relatives. 640 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:31,200 He's not being like, oh, who are my mother and brothers? 641 00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:32,560 I don't know. I've never met them before. 642 00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,240 That's not what he's saying. He's just using this as a 643 00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:37,600 teaching opportunity. He's about to springboard off 644 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:39,560 this, to say something more profound. 645 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:44,560 Verse 34, looking around at those in a circle about him. 646 00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:48,680 So the crowd that are nearby, sitting, listening to him think 647 00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:52,000 about what's going on here, this inner circle of the crowd is 648 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,080 sitting and listening to him. And they're accepting the 649 00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,440 message of the Kingdom. They're taking in, the message 650 00:35:56,440 --> 00:35:59,160 of the Kingdom. They want to hear more about God 651 00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:04,920 and about Jesus. He says that here are my mother 652 00:36:04,920 --> 00:36:07,440 and my brothers, this inner circle of the crowd. 653 00:36:09,240 --> 00:36:13,000 And then he goes on verse 35, anyone who does the will of God. 654 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,800 Now let's pause there. Anyone who does the will of God, 655 00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:18,200 that's anyone in the world, even up until today. 656 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,320 If you do the will of God, this next bit applies to you. 657 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,720 That person is my brother and sister and mother. 658 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,720 So anyone who does the will of God, that's the prerequisite. 659 00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:32,240 Jesus sets out here. Can be considered legitimately 660 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:34,680 to be part of the family of Jesus and God. 661 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:39,360 Anyone who does the will of anyone who does the will of God. 662 00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:41,160 So that's not just a nice sentiment. 663 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,600 You might go on retreats and things and hear this oh, you're 664 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,200 a child of God or Jesus is your brother. 665 00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:49,200 Well, it is a nice sentiment, but actually Jesus teaches this 666 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:51,160 here. It's literally true. 667 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:56,120 Well, in a spiritual sense, it is correct to say that we're a 668 00:36:56,120 --> 00:36:58,800 part of Jesus family. So not only is Jesus 669 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:02,240 establishing the Kingdom of God, he is doing that, but he's also 670 00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:04,320 establishing a new family of God. 671 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,600 We sometimes forget that aspect of it. 672 00:37:06,720 --> 00:37:09,840 Jesus is establishing a new family for God. 673 00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:13,960 Now let's go back to the cultural aspect of this. 674 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,880 Jesus says he's my brother and he's my mother and brothers. 675 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,240 That would have been shocking. You can imagine a gasp from the 676 00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:25,160 crowd because to essentially put aside your own biological family 677 00:37:25,160 --> 00:37:27,600 and say, Nah, I have another family, that's shocking. 678 00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:31,920 That's putting aside your the expected family obligations, 679 00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:38,600 that's quite scandalous. Now one thing to notice who 680 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:40,760 Jesus doesn't list in this family, He says. 681 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:44,520 Anyone who does the will of God listen to what he says is my 682 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:48,440 mother and my brother and my sister who's missing from that 683 00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,120 list. Father. 684 00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,000 There's no father in. Well, there's no one who's added 685 00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:56,960 into the family of God as father. 686 00:37:57,520 --> 00:37:59,840 That's significant. Jesus here is saying there's 687 00:37:59,840 --> 00:38:02,040 already a father of this family and that's God. 688 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:04,280 I think that's quite an interesting little bit of the 689 00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:08,160 text, isn't it? God is the father of the family 690 00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:10,240 and Jesus. Part of Jesus mission is to 691 00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:12,760 bring more people into that family, but there's no more 692 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,600 fathers of the family because there's only one father in 693 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:19,960 there. So. 694 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,000 Let's try and get a Jesus overall meaning here. 695 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:25,520 He's not dissing his own family. It's. 696 00:38:25,680 --> 00:38:29,040 What he is saying though is that his obligations to his true 697 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:33,320 spiritual family override his obligations to his natural 698 00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:36,480 biological family. He is saying that that he has 699 00:38:36,480 --> 00:38:38,880 another family that's more significant even than his 700 00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:42,040 biological family. So we can say that even the 701 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:45,200 closest of human bonds the biological family. 702 00:38:45,720 --> 00:38:47,920 Has to take second. Place to the Kingdom of God. 703 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:51,320 That still applies to us today. And we need to think about how 704 00:38:51,320 --> 00:38:53,400 that might apply, you know, our own lives. 705 00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:57,120 Yeah, He's not dismissing his own family completely. 706 00:38:57,120 --> 00:38:59,160 He's not cutting them out of his life or something. 707 00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:02,240 And think about if things looked different at that particular 708 00:39:02,240 --> 00:39:03,920 time. So there's a massive crowd in 709 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:05,760 the house. He can't see them, they can't 710 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:08,400 see him. If there was no big crowd, 711 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:11,080 things might be quite different. If Jesus was alone up in the 712 00:39:11,080 --> 00:39:13,600 hills or just with his 12 apostles, probably the 713 00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:15,120 conversation would have been quite different. 714 00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:19,280 It's just that there are so many people there in the crowd with 715 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,680 him, and he's in the middle of teaching and healing. 716 00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:29,920 So presumably he's saying right now I'm needed here. 717 00:39:31,080 --> 00:39:34,040 This is the family that I need to tend to here, and that's more 718 00:39:34,040 --> 00:39:37,840 important than my biological family, and that's where the 719 00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:39,440 text ends. Presumably he would have 720 00:39:39,440 --> 00:39:41,400 continued teaching. He would have just kept talking 721 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:44,280 for a bit longer, and it's possible maybe that he might 722 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:45,960 have caught up with his family later. 723 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:48,480 Who knows, maybe the crowd stuck with him for too long. 724 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,400 But it's possible that he did go and see his mother and his 725 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,880 family a bit later on. But that's not recorded for us 726 00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:57,040 in the Gospels. Another thing to keep in mind 727 00:39:57,040 --> 00:40:00,760 here is many of his family, many of the people listed here did 728 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,160 eventually accept Jesus as the Messiah. 729 00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,080 Obviously his mother did, and we know that some of his brothers 730 00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:09,240 and sisters did. So that's mentioned in Acts 114, 731 00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:13,640 one Corinthians 9 verse 5, and Galatians one verse 19. 732 00:40:13,640 --> 00:40:16,520 There's these references. To the mother and brothers. 733 00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:20,080 Sorry, the brothers and sisters of the Lord who eventually 734 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:22,920 become his disciples. Although for many of them it's 735 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,200 not until after his death, we know that one of them in 736 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,800 particular was really important. One of Jesus brothers called 737 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:35,960 James eventually becomes the first Bishop of Jerusalem and he 738 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,240 becomes a really, really important figure in the early 739 00:40:39,240 --> 00:40:41,000 church. One of the most important. 740 00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,640 Now let's have a look at the catechism passages here. 741 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:46,280 There's a few really interesting ones. 742 00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,960 Paragraph 548, there's a description about how Jesus is 743 00:40:51,920 --> 00:40:53,720 accused of being possessed by Satan. 744 00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:56,840 Paragraph 574, It's the same thing. 745 00:40:56,840 --> 00:40:59,920 It says Jesus is suspected of demonic possession. 746 00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:03,440 Paragraph 539, I'll read out this one. 747 00:41:03,440 --> 00:41:07,320 It's about Jesus temptations. The evangelists indicate the 748 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,800 salvific meaning of this mysterious event. 749 00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:14,320 Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where the 750 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,600 first Adam had given in to temptation, Jesus fulfills 751 00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:22,920 Israel's vocation perfectly, in contrast to those who had once 752 00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:26,520 provoked God during 40 years in the desert, Christ reveals 753 00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:30,120 himself as God's servant, totally obedient to the divine 754 00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:33,200 will. In this, Jesus is the devil's 755 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,560 conqueror. He binds the strong man to take 756 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,800 back his plunder. Jesus, victory over the tempter 757 00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:42,880 in the desert, anticipates victory at the Passion, the 758 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:46,960 supreme act of obedience to his filial love for the Father. 759 00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,800 So you'll hear there the echoes about binding the strong man. 760 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,360 Paragraph 1864 is the one that we want to spend the most time 761 00:41:56,360 --> 00:41:58,560 on. This is in the section about 762 00:41:58,560 --> 00:42:00,960 different kinds of sin, mortal and venial sin. 763 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,600 And this paragraph is about the unforgivable sin. 764 00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,520 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven 765 00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,840 men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 766 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:17,760 There are no limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who 767 00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:22,360 deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting rejects 768 00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,280 the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the 769 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,800 Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead 770 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,720 to final impenitence and eternal loss. 771 00:42:33,760 --> 00:42:37,000 So really clear Catholic teaching there about anyone who 772 00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,640 deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting rejects 773 00:42:40,640 --> 00:42:43,360 the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the 774 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:48,640 Holy Spirit. Now I want to read out a bit of 775 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,680 an extended quote here because this paragraph that we just read 776 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:55,320 out 1864 of the Catechism is largely informed by an 777 00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:59,880 encyclical written by Pope John Paul the 2nd called probably not 778 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:02,400 going to pronounce this right Dominum. 779 00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:06,600 It's Vivicantum, that's the Latin and it's the English title 780 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:10,560 of that encyclical is on the Holy Spirit in the life of the 781 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:16,120 Church and the world. Now I want to read out paragraph 782 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,960 46 because this is where the teaching of the Catholic Church 783 00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:22,440 on what the unforgivable sin is is explained here in this 784 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:24,920 encyclical. So if what I've said so far 785 00:43:24,920 --> 00:43:28,160 hasn't made sense, hopefully this will help clarify it. 786 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,720 And certainly, you know, I don't have any authority to proclaim 787 00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,160 Catholic teaching, But the Pope does, and so I think it's well 788 00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:40,680 worth listening to him describe how we should understand the 789 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:44,600 unforgivable sin. So this is paragraph 46 from 790 00:43:44,600 --> 00:43:46,320 Pope John Paul the second's encyclical. 791 00:43:47,240 --> 00:43:50,560 Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? 792 00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,040 How should this blasphemy be understood? 793 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:57,120 Saint Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin 794 00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:01,880 that is unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes 795 00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:05,040 the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place. 796 00:44:05,960 --> 00:44:09,440 According to such an exegesis, blasphemy does not properly 797 00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,040 consist in offending against the Holy Spirit. 798 00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:16,280 In words, it consists rather in the refusal to accept the 799 00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:19,440 salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, 800 00:44:19,720 --> 00:44:23,800 working through the power of the cross, if man rejects the 801 00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:27,560 convincing concerning sin which comes from the Holy Spirit, and 802 00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:29,040 which? Has the power to save. 803 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:33,120 He also rejects the coming of the Counselor, that coming which 804 00:44:33,120 --> 00:44:36,760 was accomplished in the Paschal mystery in union with the 805 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,320 redemptive power of Christ's blood, the blood which purifies 806 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:44,840 the conscience from dead works. We know that the result of such 807 00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,240 a purification is the forgiveness of sins. 808 00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,600 Therefore whoever rejects the Spirit and the blood remains in 809 00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:55,720 dead works in sin, and the blasphemy against the Holy 810 00:44:55,720 --> 00:44:59,800 Spirit consists precisely in the radical refusal to accept this 811 00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:03,200 forgiveness of which he is the intimate giver, and which 812 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,680 presupposes the genuine conversion which he brings about 813 00:45:06,680 --> 00:45:09,920 in the conscience. If Jesus says that blasphemy 814 00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,840 against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life 815 00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,840 or in the next, it is because this non forgiveness is linked 816 00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,480 as to its cause to non repentance, in other words to 817 00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:23,280 the radical refusal to be converted. 818 00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:27,240 Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin 819 00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:30,800 committed by the person who claims to have a right to 820 00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:35,240 persist in evil in any sin at all, and who thus rejects 821 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:39,320 redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, 822 00:45:39,680 --> 00:45:43,560 thus making impossible one's conversion and consequently 823 00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:47,080 their remission of sins which one considers not essential or 824 00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:51,520 not important for one's life. This is a state of spiritual 825 00:45:51,520 --> 00:45:55,160 ruin because blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not allow 826 00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:59,560 one to escape from one's self-imposed imprisonment and 827 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:02,960 open oneself to the divine sources of the purification of 828 00:46:02,960 --> 00:46:06,000 consciences and of the remission of sins. 829 00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:10,120 So that's the end of the quote there from Pope John Paul the 830 00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:17,040 2nd SO paragraph 500 against this doctrine of Mary's ever 831 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:19,600 virginity. The objection is sometimes 832 00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,880 raised that the Bible mentions brothers and sisters of Jesus. 833 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:26,560 The Church has always understood these passages as not referring 834 00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,640 to other children of the Virgin Mary. 835 00:46:29,240 --> 00:46:34,160 In fact, James and Joseph, brothers of Jesus, are described 836 00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:38,600 as the sons of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, whom Saint 837 00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,080 Matthew significantly calls the other Mary. 838 00:46:42,200 --> 00:46:45,560 They are close relations of Jesus according to an Old 839 00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:51,760 Testament expression. So I'll put all these paragraph 840 00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:54,600 sorry catechism quotes and the Pope John Paul, the second quote 841 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,320 in the show notes. And this is one of those 842 00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,960 passages that needs to be read a few times and perhaps analysed a 843 00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:05,400 few times. So if you think you got the 844 00:47:05,400 --> 00:47:08,240 basics of what I've said but you want to listen to it again, 845 00:47:08,240 --> 00:47:09,800 that's probably not a bad thing to do. 846 00:47:11,080 --> 00:47:12,760 Thanks for listening. Hope you learned something new 847 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:16,440 about demon possession and the unforgivable sin. 848 00:47:17,040 --> 00:47:19,920 And if you think others would benefit from hearing this 849 00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:23,440 podcast as well others who might wonder about the unforgivable 850 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,920 sin, then please consider sharing this podcast with them. 851 00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:28,600 Thanks for listening.