Reflective Bible Study

Perhaps one of the most troubling spiritual pictures Jesus ever gives comes following His response to some religious leaders and Pharisees who request to see a miraculous sign. After responding directly to them, Matthew tells us that Jesus follows up by giving us a picture into the spiritual realm – and this picture is challenging but also powerful when we look at its implications.

Matthew’s gospel tells us that Jesus describes the following scenario: “When an evil spirit comes out of a person, it goes through dry places looking for a place to rest. But it doesn’t find any. Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the home I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean, and in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself. They enter and take up permanent residence there. In the end the condition of that person is worse than it was before. That is what will happen to the evil people of this day.” (v. 43-45)

The first thing we should note is that this is a description of what will happen to evil people. God’s people appear to be excluded from this. While this is great news for those who have placed their faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus, the question lingering in the back of my mind when I read this is what makes these “orderly” evil people different from those who are simple-living Godly people? What is the difference between the evil people this illustration describes and God’s people who have been freed from evil spirits?

One word in the description I believe holds the key. When the evil spirit returns, Matthew draws our attention onto Jesus’ description of the person as a house that is “unoccupied, swept clean, and in order.” (v. 44b)

The key word in this description is “unoccupied”. By using this word, Jesus describes a segment of evil people who have focused on cleaning up their lives. These evil people have done a masterful job of emptying their lives of all the negatives and all the bad in them, but by doing so, they leave themselves “empty” or “unoccupied”. This description is of a group of people who have placed a significant amount of time focusing on what to get rid of from their lives, and very little time focusing on what to bring in – in the spiritual sense.

When an evil spirit returns to an evil person who has cleaned up his/her life, the big indicator whether they will be able to capture the person again is whether their lives are “unoccupied”. By only focusing on cleaning the bad from one’s life, an individual only does half of what is necessary to stay clean.

The subtle key and insight I see in this passage separating the evil people Jesus is describing and the righteous people who are excluded from this picture is that those who are righteous will not have empty lives/hearts. This tells me that in order to finish the process of life change and “life cleanup”, I must intentionally choose what to place into my life and heart that will take residence there – making my life look occupied and not empty. The only truly evil spirit-proof One to invite is God – specifically God’s Holy Spirit. With Him in my life and heart, Satan doesn’t have the chance of regaining a foothold in my life.

This passage is one of the richest passages in the gospels for learning ideas about who God is and what He is like. Most often, we like to jump into the parable and into the heart of what Jesus is revealing about God.

However, in this post, let’s look at how Jesus sets up this parable. He probably was seated in a large room at one of the places of honor, and there were probably many people who were making a mad dash to sit near Him or at other prominent places.

In setting up this illustration, Jesus directs His first words to the guests of this meal: Don’t seek out the places of honor – because you don’t know if someone more honorable is running late. The worst thing you can face as a guest at a banquet is choosing a seat and then being asked to move down in position. That is public humiliation that you brought on yourself. It would be better to take the worst seat in the room, that way when the host sees you, you will get public recognition and be honored to a better place.

Now I don’t know if I have ever witnessed someone being asked to move where they were seated, but I do know that I have set myself up for this type of humiliation. At a special event I attended while in college, I was not asked to move, but I did inch my way into a more prominent seat that what would not normally have happened. Perhaps it was the host wanting to be nice, or the environment that allowed for an extra seat, but in reality, I know I probably should have been asked to move down in status.

However, the truth Jesus is trying to teach is broader than simply seat position. He is teaching us a truth about life. Choose to be humble and let others do the exalting. There is nothing appealing about someone who thinks they are more special than they really are. Those who have figuratively “big heads” are not people who we like being around.

However, those who choose humility and to lift others up are people who we do like to spend time with. They are people who help others be better and who help you feel happier after having spent a few moments together. These people have an inner spirit that is attractive and positive.

I believe Jesus was this type of person. I don’t remember seeing anything that makes me think that He played the position “God”-card in any situation. Satan tempted Him to do so numerous times, but He never fell for this trap.

Instead, Jesus exalted God the Father and the Holy Spirit whenever He was praised. People praised God when they witnessed Jesus perform miracles. Jesus never let the glory rest on Himself; He always pointed it upward.

And this leads us to our own lives. We too should always choose humility over exaltation and forwarding the glory onward and upward. It is what Jesus did, and He called us to be like Him. We should never seek glory for ourselves, but point others to the One who really deserves the glory.

During the night Jesus would be arrested, He prays a prayer with the disciples and for the disciples as they traveled to the Garden of Gethsemane. In this prayer, which is one of the few that are shared in detail, we see a picture of how Jesus talked with God, and we can see a better picture of His heart and love for His followers.

John shares that in His prayer, Jesus prayed, “Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.” (v. 11-12)

This portion of Jesus’ prayer is a powerful request for protection. Jesus knows He will be leaving soon, and He asks the Father to keep His followers safe. Jesus acknowledges that He was able to keep them safe while He was on earth, but now that His ministry and location would be changing, He asks God to keep protecting this group of followers and friends.

Jesus also prays for His followers’ unity. Not only does Jesus know that opposition would come from the outside, but equally devastating would be division or separation coming from within. If the disciples lost focus and began to argue with one another, they would lose their mission and the young church would die.

Not every one of Jesus’ core group of twelve disciples accepted this protection and unity. But that didn’t stop Jesus from offering it. While Judas Iscariot ultimately chose to betray Jesus, Jesus still had invited him to be a part of this close group.

Unity and protection are two of the biggest things we can ask God for in our own lives today. Helping His followers be united and protected from Satan and his plots is something that God offered to His followers back then, and it is something that He offers to us as followers today. If Jesus prayed for these two vital things for us as followers, it would be wise for us to accept His offer of help!

During one of the heights of Jesus’ popularity, Luke describes a message Jesus gives to His followers. While Luke states that this message was given to the disciples, Luke qualifies the word “disciple” in this instance to mean the large group of followers present and Jesus likely spoke it loudly enough for everyone present to hear.

But while transitioning to Jesus’ less famous “Sermon on the Plain”, Luke shares some interesting details in the setup for this message. Luke tells us, “Jesus came down from the mountain with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples and many other people were there. They had come from all over Judea, Jerusalem, and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. They wanted to hear him and be cured of their diseases. Those who were tormented by evil spirits were cured. The entire crowd was trying to touch him because power was coming from him and curing all of them.” (v. 17-19)

When I read this, I am amazed at the detail in verse 19 that “the entire crowd was trying to touch him [Jesus]”. When I think about crowds and individuals trying to touch Jesus, I immediately think of the woman who tried to secretly touch the edge of Jesus’ robe. That event is so well known that seeing another place where people were clamoring to touch Jesus may come as a surprise.

It is during this commotion that Jesus turns and shares the four blessings and four warnings with His disciples. Luke doesn’t say that Jesus finished healing the sick in the crowd before beginning to speak; Luke simply transitions the focus making me think that Jesus paused in the middle of this crowd.

Luke shares two reasons for Jesus’ popularity at this point during His ministry. He tells us that the crowd of disciples “wanted to hear him and be cured of their diseases.” (v. 18a)

Wanting to hear Him and being cured of their diseases are two key reasons to follow Jesus. While some people think following Jesus is simply “fire insurance” (another way of saying they would rather go to heaven than hell), following Jesus out of fear does not produce true love. A “fire-insurance”, fear-based relationship does not create the society that God would want to build in heaven. There are many examples of fear-based societies on earth, and none of them are desirable to live in. Fear and love may not be able to co-exist together.

In order for love to be present on both sides of a relationship, there must be the freedom to choose and the desire to be present. This crowd demonstrates this by freely choosing to come to Jesus because they wanted to hear Him. The freedom to choose is the first key reason to follow Jesus.

But the second reason is because Jesus is able to heal us. Another way to say this is that He can free us from our diseases. Luke describes Jesus banishing evil spirits who were torturing others. The crowd came to Jesus in order to be helped by Him.

Jesus is interested in freely helping those who come to Him. Jesus wants us to choose Him because we want a relationship with Him and a relationship with God. God wants to win us over to Him through acts of love and a selfless attitude towards us. Jesus demonstrates this – and there is nothing fear-based in God’s approach of inviting us to follow Him!