Matthew 12.43-45

Have you ever tried to quit a bad habit?  I think we all have.  Depending on what you tried to quit, you maybe had this experience:  You just tried to stop cold turkey whatever it was you were doing.  You know, you threw out the cigarettes, unplugged the tv, turned off the phone, told your friend to hit you if you gossiped, or whatever.  If you’re like me, a lot of times that didn’t work.  It’s not that you didn’t have the right intentions, but you didn’t have the right plan.

Most often a habit is broken or a temptation overcome when we fill the void left by quitting the habit with something positive.  You exchange cigarettes for gum, TV for reading, texting for calling, gossiping for praying or talking positively, or whatever.  

In today’s passage, Jesus talks about what happens when there is a void left in a person after a demon is exorcized from him.  While he’s talking about something that seems like an individual’s problem, we’ll see from context that he was probably using that guy as a microcosm of the nation of Israel.

Read Matthew 12:43-45

⁴³ “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

It is super-duper important that we keep context in mind with this passage.  Remember that chapter 12 has been full of these controversies between Jesus and the Jews, and that back in verse 22, Jesus healed a demon-possessed guy who was blind and mute.  Where we are today is a continuation of the conversation that ensued.  

So it could be as Jesus said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man” that he pointed over to this fellow who was talking and seeing for the first time.  It could be that Jesus was explaining what was taking place in those moments:  that the evil spirit had fled from this man, defeated and looking for a place to rest.  It was common Jewish belief that demons hung out in arid places or deserts.  The evil spirit couldn’t find rest so maybe Jesus was warning this guy that this evil spirit could be coming back.  Then Jesus says something kind of scary:  if the evil spirit finds the house empty or unoccupied, he’s coming back with more wicked spirits, seven of them which means completely or totally wicked.  Maybe Jesus is warning the guy that if he doesn’t fill that new found void in his life with something, he’s going to be worse off than he was to begin with.

I think that is partially what Jesus is doing.  He is making sure this guy knows that he must fill himself with Jesus if he is going to see lasting change in his life.

But I also believe that the context and the last sentence of verse 45 make us ask if Jesus wasn’t saying something more, something a little more directed at the Pharisees and leaders with whom he has been fighting for the last chapter.  Jesus says, “That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”  So he not only applies what he just said to this man, but he applies it to a whole generation!

Think about it.  Jesus also applies this passage in the next chapter to this same generation:   

“Though seeing, they do not see; 

though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 

¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: 

“ ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; 

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 

¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused; 

they hardly hear with their ears, 

and they have closed their eyes. 

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, 

hear with their ears, 

understand with their hearts 

and turn, and I would heal them.’  (Matthew 13:13-15)

Just like that demon possessed man they are unable to use their faculties to recognize what they need in Jesus.  And just like with that demon possessed man, Jesus has been going throughout the nation, purging them of evil by casting out demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead.  He has shown them the meaning of the Law in the Sermon on the Mount and introduced to them the real Kingdom of God.  Yet these leaders and this generation continually reject him.  They have a void and refuse to fill it.

So it will be with that generation that when Jesus leaves them that they will not all fill that void with him, and even more evil will flood back into it.  Their void will indeed be filled, not with Christ but judgment (wait for Matthew 24-25!).

In the end, I don’t think the application of this passage rests in a how-to manual for fixing people who have been demon-possessed.  Instead, I think question that comes to each of us is this:  Is every hole, nook, cranny, and void in my life filled with Christ?  May the fruit of your life and your day today reflect this truth (Matthew 12:35).  May you learn from the mistake of that generation and turn to Jesus today to be healed.