This is one of a handful of the sayings of Jesus where he uses rather dark imagery. Which begs the question why? It doesn't seem to go with how we try to portray him. As some have suggested, by speaking in parable and figures of speech he separated those who were genuinely seeking truth, and those who just wanted easy answers. Also, being a disciple of Christ and seeking holiness is not a surface pursuit. If you can't go to the effort of discerning a simple parable, you won't likely get very far in righteousness either. So it only seems fair to assume, he saved the ghastly imagery that people would tend to shy away from, for the most profound truths. Let's face it, humanity has a bad habit of getting hung up on the surface. To this day, the most outspoken people are often just reacting emotionally to the surface, instead of acting rationally to the heart of the issue. Trying to explain anything to such people is really like casting "pearls before swine." (Matt 7:6) to use another of his blunt sayings. As disciples, we should strive for better.
So naturally, this passage reveals an important truth and one that says something about how wholeness is vital to our holiness. It’s a truth I’ve touched on before, but let’s take it head-on by tackling this creepy passage.
The first implication is that simply getting rid of evil is inadequate by itself. As dysfunctional as sin is, it's still a far cry from nonfunctional. Is this not what legalists do and teach? They think since righteousness is the ultimate goal, we need to focus on that alone, and not worry about replacing what we removed with something functional to guide people to wholeness. What if the person who built the foundation of your house thought way. Since concrete is the most valuable part, let's skip the forms and steel reinforcement and call it good enough. That would lead to a sloppy and weak foundation. Everything we tried to build on it would suffer as a result.
Consider what the passage says about the impure spirit itself. While you may think who cares about the impure spirits' motivations? This is often our same attitude towards our sin. Who cares why it's there, it doesn't belong, get rid of it, end of the story. Well, Jesus took the time to say something about it, so there must be an important detail relayed by it. His exact words are "it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." There are real longings behind our sin, and they can make us restless and unable to rest easily. If we don't find a righteous place to direct these passions, they will manifest in unholy ways because of this restlessness. We need to be more strategic in dealing with our sin, because we won't find wholeness, otherwise.
Then, Jesus goes on to warn us what will happen if we don't heed the implications of his words. We can end up far worse than before. Backsliding is a real thing, and it's a strong indicator that we haven't found our ultimate wholeness yet. Without wholeness, our righteousness will just not stick.
With that being said, let me remind you of the truth behind the truth of this series. Wholeness is but one leg in the tripod of holiness. Take but one leg away, and it all collapses. Just like there is more than one dimension to dealing with sin. If we just remove it without dealing with the voids it leaves behind, it all collapses. We really need to approach it smarter, not harder as the legalists tend to. Fix the proverbial cracks in the walls that the impure spirits are sneaking in through. Then, we will find true holiness.
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