The Journey of the Evil Spirit

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Scripture: Matthew 12: 43-45 (NRSV)

43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”

Devotion:

            Jesus tells this brief parable after casting out an evil spirit from a person. Then he has an argument with the Religious Establishment who claim Jesus is casting out spirits by Beelzebub. Jesus quells that argument and gives a couple of parables to make his point. The point of this parable is that removing an evil spirit from a person is not the end of the story.

            In this parable Jesus describes the evil spirit’s intention as looking for a place to rest. What exactly Jesus means by “rest” we are not sure of. But as the spirit does whatever it is that spirits do. The spirit is unable to find another place to call home even temporarily. So, the spirit decides it will go back to the place from where it departed. It goes and manages to entice seven other evil spirits (who are more evil than him) to see if they can reoccupy the place he had left.

            What do they find? Only a house that has been cleaned and fixed up but still vacant. So, the evil spirits enter and make the next state of the person worse than he was before. Here is the teaching point of the parable. Once you are freed from an evil spirit you must invite the Holy Spirit to occupy your mind. Ask the Spirit of God to continually fill your mind with holy thoughts. Whatever is pure, wholesome, and edifying meditate on these things or you will end up worse off than before.

            The spiritually vacant mind is always easy prey for the enemy of our souls. In this parable there is also a wider spiritual application to this parable as we see from the last sentence. Even an evil generation of people who clean their house must fill it with God’s Spirit or else risk an even worse fate than what they had when they started. There is no such thing as spiritual neutrality. The forces of good and evil are constantly seeking ground to occupy. There is a real spiritual battle going on around us. We must take up our armor and fight for God in the culture that surrounds us.

Prayer:

            Father God, hear our fervent prayer to you today. Cleanse our minds of spiritual pollution and occupy them with your Holy Spirit. May our state be one of improvement in spiritual things. Help us to not only be personally filled with the Holy Spirit but may we influence the world around us to take enemy occupied territory. First cleanse us so that we may be salt and light to those around us each day. Amen.

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