The crowd included more than just the sick and demonized. There was a growing public awareness of Jesus, not only among the common people, but with the religious power base as well. While the people pondered as to whether Jesus might be the Messiah, the religiously powerful sought to discredit him. Seeing the deliverance of a man in their midst, they chose to credit Satan, rather than admit that Jesus exercised God’s empowering.

Matthew gives us more detail of the confrontation than Mark. He adds that the Pharisees not only accused Jesus of exercising demonic power, but then demanded a sign to prove he was of God—as if the deliverance just completed was less than a miracle.

Here, we have one of Jesus’s statements that’s difficult to reconcile with his other teachings. It’s the question of the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Such blasphemy is unpardonable, but what is it? Misrepresenting Jesus is forgivable, but not misrepresenting the Holy Spirit. Misrepresenting Jesus may come from our opinions about him, but the witness of the Holy Spirit is internal and directed to us. Thus, it seems this unforgivable sin is to hear from God, know the truth, and choose to misrepresent it as evil. From other teachings of God’s long-suffering grace, this may represent a fixed decision to confront God and reject him, rather than some one-time lapse of rebellion.