I started to read all this, but it gets very technical for me, and I’m not sure it needs to be technical.
Who?
Jesus (obviously) is speaking–but who is He and for what was He sent? He is the last prophet of Israel the Son of David/the Son of man/the Son of God, and He was sent to the children of Israel. Gabriel said, “…for He shall save His people from their sins.” Who were His people? When the woman of Cana asked help for her demon possessed daughter, He said, “I am not sent but to the House of Israel” (or something very like that). It was after Israel (as prophesied) turned away from Him that the torch was passed to the Gentiles–that we might also be saved, yes, but also that by our salvation we should make the sons of the kingdom jealous so that they would also turn to Christ.
To whom was He speaking? To the priests and Pharisees who accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul. He was saying, in essence, that the Jews (meaning the religious authorities, which is the way I believe the gospel writers usually used that term) were calling good evil (and the companion of this is to call evil good.) If not directly calling evil good, at the least they were calling Good (the Spirit) evil. We read in the Old Testament “Cursed are they who call good evil and evil good.” I think this is a kind of what we’d call Transference today. That sorry state in which the evil-doer accuses the victim of the evil that he himself is doing. Such a person is certainly cursed since he has deceived his own heart. He truly believes his own accusations. IOW, he’s nuts.
What?
According to Jason (and I think he’s right (you can look it up in his writings if you want his reasoning on this), the demoniac Jesus was performing deliverance on was the same He had earlier delivered from demons. He had left his “house” empty, swept and garnished. Thus the Jews held Jesus to be responsible for the man’s further degraded state. It “didn’t take” and the man ended up worse than at the start. So they said, “He casts out demons by the finger of Beelzebul.” Jesus said to them, “If I cast out demons by the finger of Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.”
Where?
If I recall, this whole thing played out in Jerusalem–but it could have been anywhere in Israel and it doesn’t matter so I’m not going to check. The point is, it happened IN ISRAEL and His words were directed at the Jews. Some theologians insist that no one save the Jews to whom He was speaking even had/has the ability to commit the “unpardonable sin,” but I disagree. It IS important to note, though, that Jesus was not speaking directly to modern people today.
When?
Obviously–in ancient Israel of Jesus’ day. This was not said directly to the person who reads it today. It’s important to remember that–even though yes it does have applications to us today. We so often forget that, when we’re reading the Bible, we are reading someone else’s mail.
Why?
I think Jesus said this as a warning. Clearly the Jews (for the most part) didn’t heed the warning. They were not forgiven in that age (the age before His death and resurrection?) nor in the age to come (the church age?) They died in their sins. In truth, I believe they weren’t able to be forgiven because they had turned their backs on the agent of their reconciliation–the Holy Spirit. They regarded the Spirit as an agent of the devil. They saw themselves as good and Jesus (and the Spirit) as evil. Because of this, how could they possibly be forgiven while in that state?
We can do the same thing today. We can insist that evil is good and that good is evil. I think we see a lot of that in society at large (and no doubt occasionally, to whatever small degree, even in ourselves). To take the classic example, Hitler attributed everything that he saw as evil to the Jews and believed himself to be good and right in his attempted annihilation of not only them, but anyone who supported them and/or opposed him–and also any others who weren’t up to his standards of worthiness (the sick, mentally feeble, physically defective, etc.) Hitler called good evil and he believed that the evil things he did were in fact good. He ostensibly did these evil things (at least partly) in order to perfect the genetic pool of the human race. He was even so confused that he didn’t seem to recognize or somehow managed to overlook (or justify) the fact that he himself did not meet his own physical standards. He apparently truly believed these delusions of his, so how could he be saved in that state?
Some things are merely childish and petty. Things that can be overlooked because of our immaturity (which we will grow out of and in our maturing process, come to abhor) or our ignorance (which will be amended naturally as we grow.) Some things are so destructive that they cannot be overlooked but must be dealt with. Calling good evil and evil good is one of those things. I believe this is at least partly what Jesus was warning the Pharisees and priests (and anyone listening in, like us for a start) to beware of. We need to recognize the difference between evil and good. That is a really, really important thing. If we fail at it, that can’t be overlooked. It won’t get better until it is dealt with. Which may take some time and pain. Maybe a LOT of time and pain.