Lk 12:8-12
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 8“I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before others the Son of Man will acknowledge before the angels of God. 9But whoever denies me before others will be denied before the angels of God.
10“Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven. 11When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. 12For the holy Spirit will teach you at that moment what you should say.”
Everyone Who ACKNOWLEDGES ME…Whoever DENIES ME: In ancient Middle East, the cultural values of honor and shame permeate all aspects of life—political, economic, religious. Honor is a public claim to worth and a public recognition of that worth. Honor is affirmed or denied before the collective, be it a tribe, the people’s court at the city gates, or a religious assembly.
Here Jesus speaks a religious truth within the context of the cultural values of his time. To acknowledge someone is to honor him; to deny him is to put him to shame. There are two types of assemblies involved here: the earthly (before others, before synagogues, before rulers and authorities) and the heavenly (before the angels of God). Whoever acknowledges or honors Jesus here on earth will be honored and given the fullness of life in heaven; whoever denies or puts him to shame will be punished with eternal death. Literally, the word blasphemy means to shame another person by outrageous verbal insult. To deny God’s activity and attribute it to an evil spirit is to insult him utterly. It is the unforgivable sin not because God refuses to forgive but because the offender refuses to acknowledge the source and gift of forgiveness.