There is a certain horror in the idea of Jesus's own people making the political decision to have him sacraficed so that others may life.
In terms of social stature, he was really just a peasant nobody, a ragged man in ragged clothes, with not a coin to his name, the friend of lepers, and harlots, and all things unclean and impure in a society that valued purity above all else.
He was a trouble-maker too, calling the Pharisees liars and snakes, and his actions in the Temple could very much have had the effect of disrupting the social order, resulting in a riot and the crucifixions of thousands instead of one.
So however cold and calculated it may have been, the decision of the Sanhedrin did have a certain logic of compassion to it nevertheless, for is there not really a certain compassion in letting the one die to save the many?
Of course it is a total blashemy agaisnt an innocent man, it is horrendous, cold-blooded logic that any Jew could throw out an actual family manner, to the Roman dogs for any reason.
But it is a logic with a certain compassion nevertheless, and a sin that Jesus could forgive- and did forgive- even in his agony on the cross.
The Holy Spirit, however, is the Spirit of Christ. It is our own personal experience of God. He is the undeniable experience of grace, and beauty, and love, and truth in our own personal lives.
To reject this inner truth, and beauty, and forgivness, and grace; to reject the revelation of God fully, knowingly and hatefully, as certain of the Jewish leadership were on the verge of doing in the passages quoted in this thread-
is to reject the role of compassion at all.
No, to the extent that even athiests still value the truth, still believe that their lives have meaning and purpose, still possess compassion, then even they do not blasheme the Holy Spirit; the spirit of truth and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord, the spirit of reveerence-the Spirit of Christ.
Pray that you never meet anyone with the blackness of heart, with the total absense of soul, the absolute disdian for truth, and contempt for love, and total lack of the milk of compassion, that they may described as being beyond hope.
Pray that none such as they exist.
Yet, does not the darkness of sin in our own lives keep us at least open to the possibility that some such as these may exist?
Isaiah 112 The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,