Matthew 12:43-45 "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders..."

"When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. 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. 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" (Mt. 12:43-45 NRSV).

Question:

Well, on my spiritual Journey I occasionally just open the Bible to wherever and see what is being said. I have not been working for quite a few years and my wife has. I am basically at home cleaning. I put myself down a lot for this ... no skills ... anyway I looked up cleaning in the Concordance and was directed to this. Now all my positive affirmations just ... I don't know ... would just like a metaphysical interpretation.

Comment:

In a way I think this parable is Jesus' version of the axiom we learn in junior high science: Nature abhors a vacuum. Remember, he's talking now to "some of the scribes and Pharisees" (v. 38), not to his own disciples. They are demanding of him a sign. These are pious men who consider themselves “right with God.” They obey all the rules. They have banished their unclean spirits, but they act as though that alone were sufficient. They have created an empty space, and their former negative thoughts, fears and choices are simply biding their time, waiting for an opportunity to return with even more force than before. Twelve Step programs have long recognized that if an alcoholic, for example, returns to drinking after a period of sobriety, the disease will be more powerful, and the results more painful, than ever before.   So I read this as an admonishment to put our faith into action. I think this is why Charles Fillmore, Unity's co-founder, was so insistent that both denials and affirmations are essential elements in our process of releasing the past and moving forward in spiritual expression. We banish unclean spirits – negative, fear-based thoughts – by denying them power – denying them our power – and there may be a sense of accomplishment in that. But we must be careful not to leave an empty room. We replace the negative thoughts with new affirmations of spiritual empowerment. And we make our life choices from that new positive energy, so that there is no room for negative energy to return. It may sometimes have to do with the jobs we have, and the work we perform. But at a deeper level it's about the energy we bring to whatever we're doing – an energy that sees God in it all, and welcomes every opportunity to clean a room, or heal a relationship, or help a friend, or just to be the expression of God we are here to be.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed