Luke 11:24-28

Transcript

00:00:00:21 – 00:00:27:25
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends, thanks for closing out the week with us again. Sorry about yesterday. Today, as we continue our way through Luke 11. I don’t I don’t know what to say about this passage, Michael. It is it draws some attention in possibly in the wrong way. So let’s just read it and then we can maybe see what we can find in it.

00:00:27:30 – 00:00:47:24
Clint Loveall
Jesus says, We’re here in verse 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 the house from which I came. When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits.

00:00:47:24 – 00:01:22:34
Clint Loveall
More evil than itself. And they enter and live there. And the last the of the person is worse than the first. So there’s something there is something about these kind of passages that just compel people to read the into the details. So, for instance, this idea of waterless regions like hot or desert, the idea of spirits that are more or less evil, like there’s a ranking of evil ness among the spirits.

00:01:22:39 – 00:02:05:40
Clint Loveall
And I think, Michael, that because this is kind of out there language, it just it fascinates people. And these are the kind of passages I think we have to be a little bit cautious, because when we start building doctrine and theologies based on these very obscure references and very strange passages, we we by definition are upside down. And rather than building on the foundation, which has much, you know, to say about things in Scripture, we take these small details and all of a sudden we get really interested in them and we and we try to go deep with them.

00:02:05:40 – 00:02:12:31
Clint Loveall
And I think sometimes they actually are not that helpful because they they lead us astray.

00:02:12:36 – 00:02:46:06
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I think that you’re exactly right, Clint. And in many ways, you know, this is the opportunity to say something catchy and to grab people’s attention. The ironic truth is that people are far more likely to be searching YouTube or to be looking on the Internet for answers to Luke chapter 11, verse 24 than they are to the Beatitudes, where the core of Jesus’s gospel is being preached and where the nexus of God’s Kingdom meeting our reality and lived lives is found.

00:02:46:06 – 00:03:06:01
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the kind of irony that we always live with in our interpretation of Scripture is that there are people who are more interested in the fallen angels than there are people interested in the idea of original sin or the idea that Jesus came and died and was resurrected. And what that has in store for the rest of our hope for humanity.

00:03:06:01 – 00:03:46:33
Michael Gewecke
That that is the kind of irony always at play here. That said, I think that reflects a deeper kind of cultural interest in these subjects, which is not new. And that’s the first thing I want to point out when we come to a text like this. The commentators that I have reflecting on this are making the point that at the beginning of this text here, the idea of the unclean spirits wandering, looking for a person to a well, that these are ideas which Jesus is repeating, which have popular currency in his day and to whatever extent that’s true, I think we should be grabbed by the fact that this is a thing that people in

00:03:46:33 – 00:04:09:12
Michael Gewecke
Jesus’s day also were drawn towards, that they gravitated towards. And we’re in the midst of a section we just talked about basketball yesterday or the last time we met. We talked about the ways in which Jesus is countering this idea of him casting out demons in God’s name or on behalf of or somehow in cahoots with the devil.

00:04:09:12 – 00:04:31:23
Michael Gewecke
And so now this move towards quoting what may be popular demonology is an opportunity for Jesus to once again set himself against that current notion or that popular notion and put himself at the center of God’s actual salvific plan. And maybe there’s a way into it not. Either way, I think we should heed caution as we move.

00:04:31:28 – 00:04:56:18
Clint Loveall
Yeah. So I think on the front end you read a text like this and again, I think sometimes there are two major paths that people take. One is to kind of say, Well, I don’t have any idea what that means and just totally skip it. And the other is to get really fascinated and get to interested in the particulars of the details.

00:04:56:18 – 00:05:22:38
Clint Loveall
And if we’re trying to find a middle road between those two options, we could say, well, maybe what? What does this say? What might there be in this that we can learn from? And I think if we follow the logic, it’s something like this. When a person deals with something in their life, partially it’s possible that rather than heal completely, they end up back in the same spot or worse.

00:05:22:39 – 00:05:47:04
Clint Loveall
So an evil spirit goes out of a person and then they it comes back and it finds the house swept and put in order. But nobody protecting the house. Nobody in the house. And if you’ve lived with people who have struggled, you’ve seen this, right? The person quits drinking, but then they shop, then they gamble, then they sell it.

00:05:47:09 – 00:06:38:29
Clint Loveall
If we don’t fill our life with something meaningful, even when we deal with some of the negatives, they may not be dealt with permanently unless we close the door to other influences and unless if we just go through life trading one mistake for another, we haven’t grown. And I don’t know if that’s the take away point that Jesus intended here, but I think it’s a touch point because all of us have either lived that story or seen others live that story too, to simply say, I’m going to X without then letting Jesus lead and fill and and provide guidance and protection for us is to again be vulnerable in the long run.

00:06:38:38 – 00:06:56:30
Clint Loveall
And I think while that may not be this isn’t a psychological text, I think it has some practical value. I don’t think we have to either go all the way into demonology or ignore the text completely. I think there’s a word for us in the middle.

00:06:56:34 – 00:07:31:39
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, let’s take a look at it really closely because as we should do, and certainly when the story that you’re looking at is filled with a read like this one which represents words of Jesus, we should be quick to put Jesus at the center of any text like this. And one thing that the commentators point out is this idea that you have an unclean spirit looking for return and looking for restoration, and when they go back and find the place has been swept clean, that the idea here might be that Jesus is the one who’s restoring.

00:07:31:39 – 00:07:55:55
Michael Gewecke
And like John the Baptist, people go and hear the good news. Then they they’re sort of setting out to find the kingdom, but that they instead of hearing the words of Jesus and the order and being reunited with him, then the idea of being that the demons are even worse for the person who’s heard the gospel and not responded to it.

00:07:56:00 – 00:08:15:18
Michael Gewecke
It would take a lot of textual work here to figure out what’s happening in the first century. What is the first century here? Here? What is Jesus teaching? How is it connect to the other gospels? Details like the words used here for Spirit is used elsewhere in the Book of Ephesians and Matthew, and that demon language means something.

00:08:15:18 – 00:08:43:47
Michael Gewecke
All of this is to say, I think we often do understand that when a person seeks restoration and seeks it in the wrong place or the wrong way, it does often lead to substantially worse outcomes. In the end, a thing that at first seems controlled, then lets loose and everything gets even worse. After that, there’s a kind of devilish ness to human nature in that way.

00:08:43:47 – 00:09:10:27
Michael Gewecke
There’s a kind of even demonic ness to when we feel like we aren’t in control of our own lives. But the thing, the addiction, the problem, the concern that it is running us. And to that extent, Jesus here is presenting either the Devil’s Kingdom or His own kingdom, as Jesus is often going to do. He invites those who are with him to choose him over the other.

00:09:10:31 – 00:09:41:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and I think keep in mind that Jesus has just cast out a spirit in the passage ahead of this and also ended with a conversation about a strong man protecting the house as a spiritual presence, protecting the person, an individual. And so what do we have here? Perhaps we have a reference to the idea that change and commitment and restoration and discipleship ship should never be short term commitments, right?

00:09:41:38 – 00:10:06:39
Clint Loveall
They should be long term commitments. And when they’re short term, we end up risking that we will fall back to where we were or perhaps even further. We we all know the person who every year in January decides to get in shape, but every year is in December is heavier than they were last December. I mean, we we we live that out.

00:10:06:39 – 00:10:30:59
Clint Loveall
All of us know that struggle in some area of our life. And I don’t want to make this a self-improvement text, but I think this is at least in part, I think this speaks to when you make changes. They should be Christ centered changes and they should be permanent changes. And I think maybe that helps us understand or at least find a touch point with this text.

00:10:30:59 – 00:10:38:42
Clint Loveall
I’m not claiming that’s what it ultimately was about or is about, but I think it says that word to us if if we’ll let it.

00:10:38:56 – 00:11:00:37
Michael Gewecke
If you find this text to be maybe jarring, maybe a text that is difficult to understand, I really think it’s important that we just very quickly tease out the next two verses here, because I think there’s its own kind of jarring that happens that the text reads while he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice, said to him, Blessed is the womb that bore you, the breast that nursed you.

00:11:00:48 – 00:11:21:03
Michael Gewecke
But he said, Blessed, rather, are those. And this is critical to your point, those who hear the word of God and obey it. And if you just sat with us where we are, 10 minutes of discussion about what Jesus is trying to say here about this unclean spirit and returning and it’s going to be seven times worse for the person.

00:11:21:14 – 00:11:41:06
Michael Gewecke
When that happens, it should be noted the very next story, which is seemingly a very jarring transition to someone saying, you know, blessed is your mother who bore you. The response that Jesus gives is blessed rather are those who hear the Word of God and obey it. And to your exact point, I think that’s where we need to be going in.

00:11:41:06 – 00:12:12:28
Michael Gewecke
Our interpretation of the previous text is understanding that we’re not wandering listlessly. We’re not just searching out for wherever the truth might be. That truth has stood in front of us, that truth has spoken. The question is, will we hear it and will we obey it? Will we do what Jesus calls us to do This text, which may seem like this weird transition has a way, I think, of helping teach and show us what Jesus is meaning in the teaching that comes immediately before it.

00:12:12:30 – 00:12:38:39
Clint Loveall
Yeah, because for the Gospels in general and for Jesus in particular, blessing is not a is not a product of status. Blessing isn’t about a certain attainment, it’s about action. It’s about doing. To be blessed and to be a blessing is to be doing that which God calls you to do, not simply to hear it, and then it dries up, but to obey it.

00:12:38:43 – 00:13:11:13
Clint Loveall
And so here this person calls out, you know, blessed is your mom because you’re so great is the implication. And Jesus says, well, fine, but rather blessed are those who hear God’s word, who see what I’m saying, who see what I’m doing, who hear what I’m saying, and they respond, they obey. That is the definition for Jesus of blessed to know the will of God and to then for therefore, and then do it.

00:13:11:13 – 00:13:29:04
Clint Loveall
And I think, you know, not not a very long passage here, kind of, as you said, Michael, a little bit of a little bit of a jarring in the transition, but a really great insight into what Jesus thinks it means to be blessed.

00:13:29:09 – 00:13:58:43
Michael Gewecke
And I think it matters that we remember her that as we’re here nearing the end of Chapter 11, that the very beginning of Chapter 11, Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus was teaching about the nature of prayer. We spent some rather significant time talking about how interesting, unique, challenging, important it is that that prayer that Jesus teaches is so rooted to our common, everyday life.

00:13:58:48 – 00:14:26:55
Michael Gewecke
And I think the temptation we make studying scriptures like this, especially with Beelzebub and then demons and the spiritual strangeness of those stories is we kind of get fixated on that spiritual nature and we miss that. This is all nestled within a very practical, down to earth kind of call to discipleship that that what Jesus has calling his followers to do is the daily bread kind of phase.

00:14:26:56 – 00:14:53:47
Michael Gewecke
It’s the wake up. It’s the be faithful to neighbor, it’s to be faithful to God. It’s the respond with confession. When we sin, it’s the serve others with love. In the moments that we are presented with opportunity. These are the things that in many ways we lose in the day to day. Maybe some days it feels like drudgery, but it’s the it’s the day to day live faith.

00:14:53:47 – 00:15:20:07
Michael Gewecke
It’s the here and do today that Jesus is talking about here. And we shouldn’t let the cosmic the spiritual, maybe even for some of us, the disconcerting language that that Jesus has been using some of this teaching distract from how practical Jesus means that regardless of how he frames the choice, the choice is clear. Follow me, follow Jesus, or follow another force entirely.

00:15:20:18 – 00:15:31:13
Michael Gewecke
And the question is, what will we do today in our in our life? And that is what’s happening here within Luke. And I think we should remember that and not fixate on the peculiarities instead.

00:15:31:17 – 00:15:56:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And if you want to find a theme woven through these passages, how does one protect their house? How does one protect their spirit? How does one protect their soul from evil influence and from the return of it? Well, one hears the Word of God and obeys it. This is Jesus prescription for for protecting our spirit, for guarding our soul.

00:15:56:18 – 00:16:23:33
Clint Loveall
To hear the word of God, to encounter the living Christ and to obey, to be obedient, to listen to Jesus and do what He says. And it really is that simple. And yes, we take a very strange path to get there. With the conversations about Jesus and Biel’s Bible and unclean spirits and and you hear a woman shouting out about Jesus, Mom.

00:16:23:47 – 00:16:31:12
Clint Loveall
But I think if you boil all this down, that that’s I think that’s what you’re left with. And I think it’s pretty powerful.

00:16:31:17 – 00:16:53:43
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, it is. It’s one of those incredible moments where we can be affronted by scripture and the question in front is, what does it do to us? Some of us find that up front and then we turn it into deep rabbit holes, you know, where people write an entire book on section 24 through 26 and they get fixated.

00:16:53:56 – 00:17:14:15
Michael Gewecke
This is the text that we all need to know about. Do you know what it means? And then I ironically, and the constant present danger for Christians is they become so fixated on that teaching that they fail to hear the teaching of the one that they’re trying to follow. And and that’s actually the point that Jesus is making.

00:17:14:15 – 00:17:39:49
Michael Gewecke
Jesus’s point is, don’t miss me for the spectacular don’t miss me for the darkest aspects of life. And if you’ve ever lived with people or worked with people, or reflected upon your own motivations, you know, it is so much easier to get fixated on the flashy or the shiny or the spectacular or the the stuff that seems out of this world.

00:17:39:54 – 00:17:58:55
Michael Gewecke
It is far easier to hear the voice of the one who stands in front of you and calls you to discipleship again today, calls you to obedience again today. That’s the Christian life. And the question is, will we be focused on it or will we find other things that will garner our attention?

00:17:59:00 – 00:18:17:38
Clint Loveall
Yeah. So Luke does some really good stuff for us here. Hope something in that is helpful. Hope that even in strange passages we might find nuggets of wisdom and things that are helpful for our journey as we seek to be disciples. Thanks for joining us this week. Thank for thanks for joining us today. We’ll be back at it Monday.

00:18:17:38 – 00:18:33:50
Clint Loveall
Hope that you can join us again if you want to like or subscribe. We appreciate that. Helps us and helps others find this study. So we’re grateful for all the interaction and is as always, if you have comments or questions, post them and we’ll do our best to get to them.