Is blasphemy actually blasphemy if you don’t know God?

On Sunday I was speaking about the occasion, early in Jesus’ ministry, when four men were trying to get their paralysed friend to Jesus so that he could be healed. When they arrive at the house they find a huge crowd blocking the door and filling the room, with Jesus and the religious authorities in the very centre.

Although the crowd which was listening to Jesus speaking were blocking the way to him the men were not going to give up. Spotting an opportunity they climbed the staircase to the roof, cleared away the outside furniture and dug a hole through the roof. They then lowered their friend down, on his mat, so that Jesus could heal him.

However, instead of healing the man, Jesus tells him that his sins are forgiven. Silence must have descended and the religious authorities thought in their hearts that this was blasphemy; after all, who can forgive sins but God alone.

And this set me thinking. Is blasphemy actually blasphemy if you don’t know God? Now obviously Jesus knew God – the bible tells us he was truly human and truly God. But I started wondering about 21^st century Britain. Bible literacy is at an all-time low, the Christian faith isn’t widely taught in our schools anymore, and so are those who blaspheme today actually guilty?

Now at an absolute level then the biblical answer is a resounding “yes”, but that wasn’t what I was thinking about. You see, as Christians we have a tendency to take biblical standards and try to apply them to the society around us. Like the crowd on that occasion 2,000 years ago we gather round Jesus shielding him from those who aren’t on the inside, and like the religious authorities we pass judgement on what we see going on – the only difference is that we are (usually!) complaining about what is going on outside the church.

Once upon a time the law was written on tablets of stone, but Jesus came and God said that he would put his laws in our hearts and write them on our minds – something that happens when we accept the salvation offered by Jesus. Maybe now you see where I’m going with this? If the law is only put in our hearts and written on our minds when we become Christians, can we really complain about a society that doesn’t live by Christian standards; after all they don’t have the law in their hearts or on their minds.

Before you take me outside and stone me I need to be clear that I’m not arguing for immorality and anarchy. I am however wondering how fruitful it is to try and compel society to live by standards they neither know nor understand. We are a people who understand that salvation comes by faith, not by how we live, so why on earth do we try and compel people to live according to a set of rules that if we are honest we struggle with?

Perhaps we would be better to reflect on the four men who were determined to get their friend to Jesus so that he could be healed. Although Jesus went on to heal his physical paralysis, he first of all dealt with the man’s spiritual paralysis by forgiving his sins. Our friends and our families need to know that forgiveness, and so does our nation. Let’s determine to open the way to Jesus instead of crowding round him, and let’s do the job Jesus told us to do – be witnesses by taking the good news to those who need to hear it. Maybe once they know Jesus for themselves then we could let God do the job that is rightfully his – leading them in making better choices about how they live.