Recently a friend of mine read Jesus’ parable about the empty house of the soul, and the evil squatters who come back to take possession of it:
Luke 11.24–26 [24] “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ [25] When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order*. [26] Then it goes and brings 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.” (*The parallel text in Matthew 12.43-45 makes it clear the house is “empty” as well)
My friend was trying to understand this enigmatic and cryptic story and asked me what I thought. I do not claim to have “the” correct understanding of this passage, but rather a good insight into the dynamics at work in it. I come at this passage from an interpretive tradition that is informed by ministry with those suffering from addiction. To me, this passage is an expression of the spiritual and psychological dynamics of we find in overcoming addictive behaviors.
When someone is “possessed” by an addiction, such that they no longer have rational control of themselves and they make constant decisions against their own health and flourishing, one of the prerequisites for being healed is to find a healthy behavior and passion which is able to replace the addiction. It is not enough to merely suppress the addiction, and throw all the whiskey bottles in the trash, and try to pretend you are fine. This is often called “white knuckling” it is recovery circles. And someone who merely kicks out the addiction without replacing the motive and desire is destined to fall off the wagon and turn back to the addiction when it gets difficult. The demons come back even though the house has been “swept clean”.
So what is required for lasting recovery? To find another passion and purpose— a passionate drive to health and flourishing which causes you to develop new habits and behaviors and interests— which will replace the addictive desires. Or to put it another way: You don’t effectively recover from alcoholism by repeatedly telling yourself “I must not drink alcohol”. Instead, you have to become passionately engaged in another quest— let’s say lifting weights or painting or running or collecting stamps— such that your thoughts and dreams become so full of the quest that you just cease to think about and feed the old addiction. Your house cannot be merely “empty”. It has to be filled with something good and true and beautiful and life giving. To paraphrase the Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft: It requires a Greater Passion to replace a lesser passion.
So, in that frame, this is a parable told by our Lord to illustrate how a person can seemingly be cleansed of evil by “cleaning house” and trying to do good things, and acting “nice”, and checking off all the outward acts of piety and duty. But unless they are inwardly transformed and the house of their soul is filled with a passion for God’s Love and Peace and Joy and Justice, they will be ripe for evil to come right back in. And when that happens, they will be even worse off because of the shame and blame that will accompany falling back into addiction: “The last state will be worse than the first”. The Intervarsity Press New Bible Commentary offers a similar insight: “[This parable’s] point is not to satisfy curiosity about demons but to warn against the danger of a repentance that is purely negative. A relapse can lead to dreadful danger. What is needed is what Thomas Chalmers called ‘the expulsive power of a new affection’. [p. 999]”
To translate this into what we educators and pastors and counselors deal with every day: We have all seen children from good families who have found their purpose, and who have been set on fire to make the world a better place, and then they do amazing things in life. And then we have also seen the same kinds of children from the same kinds of families who grew up empty inside, devoid of purpose. And those kids often spiral from addiction to addiction, from rehab to rehab, from unhealthy relationship to unhealthy relationship. If and when they ever pull out of the spiral, it is because they found a purpose and a passion greater than their addiction to fill the hole in their soul. And I think part of the reason why we do what we do is that we want to help people, while they are still young, to “ignite a life of purpose”, so they find that guiding passion, and don’t live empty lives. Evil and addiction can find no permanent dwelling place inside intrinsically motivated, spiritually purposeful, “humbitious” people, because they are full of the Spirit of God, who is using them as instruments of God’s Love to heal the world.
If you are interested, the “Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture” from Intervarsity Press has similar thoughts from the early Theologian Origen:
The unclean spirit dwelt in us before we believed, before we came to Christ when our soul was still committing fornication against God and was with its lovers, the demons. Afterward it said, "I will return to my first husband," and came to Christ, who "created" it from the beginning “in his image." Necessarily the adulterous spirit gave up his place when it saw the legitimate husband. Christ received us, and our house has been "cleansed" from its former sins. It has been "furnished" with the furnishing of the sacraments of the faithful that they who have been initiated know. This house does not deserve to have Christ as its resident immediately unless its life and conduct are so holy, pure, and incapable of being defiled that it deserves to be the "temple of God." It should not still be a house, but a temple in which God dwells. If it neglects the grace that was received and entangles itself in secular affairs, immediately that unclean spirit returns and claims the vacant house for itself. "It brings with it seven other spirits more wicked," so that it may not be able again to be expelled, "and the last state of that kind of person is worse than the first." It would be more tolerable that the soul would not have returned to its first husband once it became a prostitute than having gone back after confession to her husband, to have become an adulteress again. There is no "fellowship," as the apostle says,"between the temple of God and idols," no "agreement between Christ and Belial."
From: ORIGEN, HOMILIES ON EXODUS 8.4.11
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