There is an old story about Albert Einstein. He was going around the country from university to university on the lecture circuit, giving lectures on his theory of relativity. He traveled by chauffeur-driven limousines.
One day, after they had been on the road for a while, Einstein’s chauffeur said to him, “Dr. Einstein, I’ve heard you deliver that lecture on relativity so many times that I’ll bet that I could deliver it myself.”
“Very well,” the good Doctor responded, “I’ll give you that opportunity tonight. The people at the university where I am to lecture have never seen me. Before we get there, I’ll put on your cap and uniform and you will introduce me as your chauffeur, and yourself as me. Then you can give the lecture.”
For awhile that evening, everything went according to plan. The chauffeur delivered the lecture flawlessly. But as the lecture concluded, a professor in the audience rose and asked a complex question involving mathematical equations and formulas. The quick-thinking chauffeur replied, “Sir, the solution to that problem is so simple, I’m really surprised you’ve asked me to give it to you. Indeed, to prove to you just how simple it is, I’m going to ask my chauffeur to step forward and answer your question.”
I’m not going to talk today about anything as simple as the theory of relativity. Now I don’t know much about the theory of relativity, but I know it’s something we can learn. Most of us could learn it if we determined to do so. I’m talking about something far more difficult today—How to deal with demons.
Our parable for today is one of the most graphic in Jesus’ repertoire of gripping stories. It’s a story of demons and an empty house. Now we may not have the same understanding of the world and of demons as was prevalent in New Testament times, but few of us would reject the presence and power of the demonic in ourselves and in our world.
So this is a story about demons. It’s also the story of an empty house. That’s an image that grabs our attention, because most of us have experienced the sadness of an empty house. A house is left unoccupied for a period of time. Dust gathers. Spiders spin their webs in every corner. The plaster falls off the walls and paint chips away. Rats and mice have the run of the place. Left to themselves, unoccupied, empty houses show how things deteriorate when they are not used. Emptiness seems to be an invitation to vandalism and destruction, as well as the slow decay that sets in upon unattended things.
It’s that image of the empty house that Jesus uses to teach a lesson about demons. “A demon is expelled from a man’s life. Therefore he wanders, a grisly presence, through “waterless places,” seeking rest but finding none. He resolves to return to the life from which he was banished. He still calls it “my house” (for evil yields stubbornly) and is overjoyed to find it “empty, swept, garnished.” No better tenant had replaced him in that cleaned up house. Thus he takes new possession of the house; and lest his tenancy should be again disputed, he brings seven other demons to live with him. With these horrible reinforcements he can defy any new attempt to dispossess him. So, says Jesus—clenching the grim story in a sharp proverbial phrase—“The last state of the man becometh worse than the first.” [1]
The parable is packed with meaning, so let’s move through it and garner its message.
I.
There is an ongoing debate within and outside the church about the nature and presence of evil, or specifically, the nature and presence of demons. Most of us are not prepared to return to a literal, first-century explanation of demons, and the work of demons in our life. In that day, almost everything bad that happened to people was ascribed to the work of demons. This was the primary explanation for illness and unacceptable behavior. While we are not willing to have that kind of rigid understanding, there is a profound truth in this view of the reality of the demonic, in that is simply underscores that reality.
Psychologists and psychiatrists are joining preachers and theologians in a concept of demon possession that gives evil an objectives existence of its own. The witness is convincing that we’re struggling with more than the consequences of what we have personally willed or caused. We are in the grips of forces which defy our power to master. “Even though we may reject making evil an entity that occupies space—a literal, objective evil spirit—we can affirm that existence of evil which is more than the consequences of our actions and by which we are held in bondage.”[2]
David Roberts taught at Union Theological Seminary during the 1940’s and 50’s. Dying in his mid-40’s of cancer, he is quoted as saying a few days before his death, “If I ever should become healthy again, I will be able to say what the demonic is.” Paul Tilleg, who reported these words, remarks that “he was not allowed to, but those who read his sermons…cannot fail to recognize that he knew what the demonic is, namely powers in soul and society against which the good will, even of the best of us, is without power.”[3]
Do you have questions about the power of evil, the presence of demons in our lives and in the world? An Adolf Hitler, a Joseph Stalin, an Osama bin Laden, ought to be enough to convince us that evil is often incarnated. A system of slavery modernized in South African Apartheid, ought to be enough to convince us.
But most of us can understand, identify, and deal with it best at the personal level. It’s not difficult for us to think in terms of being oppressed by psychological demons. Anger, depression, self-depreciation, greed, suspicion, fear, ambition, anxiety, insecurity, etc.—a host of demons which invade our lives and defy our effort to get rid of them. As we struggle with our moods and tempers, our temptations and our exhausting efforts to reform ourselves, we discover the power of forces with which we have to do battle. We’re humbled to recognize that we do wrestle against principalities and powers, against forces that are present within us and persistent in their effort to control our lives.
In the parable, Jesus reminds us of the presence and the persistence of evil.
“The man whom Jesus was talking about did not like the evil spirit that had been living in the house of his life. He wanted to get rid of the wicked thought or emotion that was pestering him. He therefore drove the evil thing out of his life. Not only that, but he also cleaned the place up afterward. The man, no doubt, was pleased with himself. Now he could live at peace. But his freedom from evil didn’t last long. Almost before he realized it, a plague of other evil spirits came upon the poor fellow. He had not bargained upon the persistence of evil.”
“Not many of us do bargain on the persistence of evil. We get rid of some troublesome evil and tidy up the place; then some other wicked thing comes along…
We renounce the lust of the flesh only to become victims of pride or greed. We get rid of hate only to have worry or fear plague our days. We’re too good to steal or murder, but our very self-righteousness catches up with us. We will not tolerate intolerance, but we entertain the selfish spirit almost without knowing it. We thing we’ve successfully buried some deep-set resentment or hated, only to have it come back in some form of mental or physical ailment. We subdue our passions but find them coming to the fore again in our suspicions, jealousies, and ill-temper. We outgrow the sensuality of our youth and discover the materialism of old age.”[4]
The presence and persistence of evil, of the demonic in our life, is very real. Captured dramatically in verse 44 of our text when the demon had wandered over the waterless places seeking rest, but finding none, he said, “I will return to my house from which I came.” How does that grab you? MY house! The demonic thins it has ownership; thinks it has a right to reside in our house!
II.
Look at the parable from another direction: the empty house.
The parable is very much about emptiness. Scientists often underscore the principle “nature abhors a vacuum.” It’s true of the whole of life. The empty mind, the empty heart, the empty life is like an empty house. It is open to whatever demons will come and occupy it. Gerald Kennedy made the point by talking about vacations. “Vacations are fine things precisely because they are limited. They are bound on both sides by work; without these boundaries they would become vast wastelands of despair.” Consider the story of a fellow who was always wanting to sleep in. It was Sunday morning, and his mother tried desperately to get him up for Sunday School and church. It was 9 o’clock and Sunday School was at 9:30 and she couldn’t budge him. In desperation she pleaded, “Son, come on—there are no reasons why you shouldn’t get up and go.”
There are plenty of reasons, he said. “I’m tired; it’s boring; and the people at the church don’t like me. Why should I go?”
“I’ll give you two reasons,” the mother said. “You’re not a child anymore—you’re 43-years old. It doesn’t matter whether the people in the church don’t like you; you’re their pastor.”
None of us need to sleep in all the time. “An eternal vacation would be a good definition of hell, while the empty, purposeless days of idleness are more destructive than poverty.”[5]
The parable is about emptiness. The empty mind, the empty heart, the empty life is like an empty house—open for demons to come and take residence and control us.
See it in some very practical areas of concern. Have you ever heard parents say they’re not going to indoctrinate their children? “Let them decide for themselves what they believe about religion,” they say. Parents who have tried that discover too late that their children get their destruction from someone else. “Children will think about religion, they will ask questions about it, and they will seek instruction regarding it. This teaching will come either from parents who care and understand or from others who may not care and may not understand. To live is to believing in something! And life fills in with a vengeance every attempt to create a spiritual vaccum, even though we bless it by the title of “broad-mindedness.”[6]
Look at marriage. Isn’t the biggest problem emptiness? The space in the relationship is not filled and demons creep in to divert the relationship and bring it to destruction. It’s not enough in marriage to have a good sexual relationship. It’s not enough simply to be bound by the mutual responsibility of being a parent. It’s not enough to have a house, even a big house—and things, even a surfeit of things.
III.
That brings us to the third lesson, perhaps the central teaching of the parable: neutral living is dangerous and negative goodness is not enough.
It’s not enough just to clean up the house of our life, not enough to evict the demons of bad habits and crippling attitudes unless we replace what is presently there with new interests, with positive active goodness. Otherwise, you’re no better off than before. Even more devils will return. It’s the teaching of Jesus to overcome evil with good.
There must be an organizing center around which our lives flow. This is really a parable about discipleship. Note the setting of the parable. It follows Jesus’ response to the Pharisee’s request for a sign. Jesus refused to give them one, saying, “The sign of Jonah is enough.” The people repented at the preaching of Jonah, but something greater than Jonah is here. To underscore his teaching, he called to mind another face of history familiar to his listeners. “The Queen of the South will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, ‘For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.’ (v. 42)
Jesus is calling for commitment to his Lordship. He is the one greater than Jonah and Solomon. He is the one God has sent to bring his people back to him by repentance and surrender to his lordship.
While Jesus was still speaking, still sharing this parable, his mother and his brothers stood outside and desired to speak to him. But he replied to the request, “Who is my mother and who are my brothers?” And then he pointed to the disciples and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!” Then He adds that very clear word, “For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus is saying that we have to run the demons out of our life, but we have to make Him the Lord of our life. We have to allow the Holy Spirit to take residence there, to fill up our lives with meaning and direction, in order that other demons will not return and claim us. It’s a matter of the expulsive power of a new affection.
How do you deal with demons? You make Jesus Lord of your life. You allow Him to be the organizing center around which your life turns. John knew this when he talked about the spirits—the demons that seek to control our lives. He talked to the spirit of the anti-Christ which was powerfully present in the world. Then he added that bracing word, “Greater is He that is in you then he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
The struggle is constant—the struggle between the demons, all that which would destroy us and lead us astray and make us less than God wants us to be—the struggle between those powers and the Holy Spirit empowering us as Jesus becomes Lord.
Toyohiko Kagawa confessed the struggle. He recognized evil in the Shinkawa slums of Kobe, Japan, where he went to live and serve in Christ’s name. The Devil almost succeeded in undermining Kagawa’s soul, when discouragement and despair clouded his vision and he was ready to quit. Kagawa wrote:
One month in the slums
And I am sad,
So sad
I seem devil-possessed,
Or mad…
Sweet Heaven sends
No miracle
To ease
This hell;
The careless earth
Rings no alarm bell
Is there no way
That help can come?
But Kagawa resisted the Devil’s temptation to quit, to give up, to compromise his commitment. And later this Christian saint wrote:
Unless thou lead me, Lord,
The road I journey on is all too hard.
Through trust in Thee alone
Can I go on.
(Toyohiko Kagawa, Songs from the Slums) [7]
How do we deal with demons? Through the expulsive power of a new affection—“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in all the world.”
1. George A. Buttrick, The Parables of Jesus, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1928, pp.74-75
2. Roy C. Clark, Expect a Miracle, Nashville, Discipleship Resources, 1976, pp. 38-39
3. David E. Roberts, The Grandeur and Misery of Man, New York: Oxford University Press, 1955, p. VII
4. Charles M. Crow, Sermons on the Parables of Jesus, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1953, pp. 93-94
5. Gerald Kennedy, The Parables, New York, Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1960, p. 37
6. Harold A. Bosley, He Spoke to Them in Parables, New York, Harper & Rowe, 1963, p. 63
7. Quoted from Don Shelby’s sermon, “How to Eyeball the Devil,” February 16, 1986