Jesus teaches that the stuff he has cleaned from within us may potentially return. The implication is that we can fill the empty places with him, then the bad stuff won't come back.
Matthew 12:43-45 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."
Do we ignore Jesus' teaching that we aren't made whole just by cleaning up, but by filling up the empty places with him?
Note: One of the things Jesus did throughout his ministry was to free people of unclean spirits. Here he warns that while he may free them, that the unclean spirit may return with its friends making the person worse off than before. The implication is that the space left by the unclean spirit in our life needs to be filled by the prescence of God so that the unclean spirit doesn't return.
I think of this in terms of an alcoholic. An alcoholic might stop drinking for a while through the help of a friend or discipline. But there was some reason that alcoholic started drinking to begin with. If that core reason isn't dealt with, the drinking will start again - perhaps worse than before. But Jesus seems to be teaching that if the alcoholic can deal with the reason they begin to drink in the first place - and let God fill up the empty place the absence of alcohol has left, then they will be transformed by God's Spirit. And they will be able to overcome future attacks of alcoholism.
Another example... in working with an indigent population at my previous church, I often ministered to people who would come to us asking for help to find a job. Finding "a job" for them was easy - since they were entry level and uneducated. Fast food restaurants are always hiring. But keeping a job was very difficult for some of them. There was some reason they had never been able to keep a job. Walking along side them to figure out why they had problems keeping a job, dealing with that problem, and replacing it with the hope and love of Jesus is not for sissies. It sometimes means knocking on a front door, getting people out of bed, driving them to work. Meeting them afterwards and talking about how it’s going. Praying together. Teaching them of Jesus' power to fill the place in their heart that used to be filled with whatever has been holding them back. Being willing to get your heart broken while helping the person is an absolute necessity. Being willing to stay the course and not get impatient is an absolute necessity too.
The problem with many of the programs out there to help those addicted and afflicted and unable to stay clean is that the programs only offer "a shower" - a way to get cleaned up. They don't offer Jesus - or the Holy Spirit - who wants to fill the clean place (actually even clean it!) with their presence and transform the person so that the problem can't inhabit that space again. The church is uniquely qualified to do this. The problem is that the church is so rarely willing to do this. We see our community as a place for our friends and we quickly give up on people who disappoint us instead of committing to walk the whole journey with them.
No comments:
Post a Comment