Luke 11:24-28

     After talking of unclean spirits and who had the authority to deal with them, Jesus postulated a situation in which an unclean spirit has been driven out of a man. But the spirit goes here and there, but finds no rest. So it decides to return to its original home. There he finds it swept and put in order, so the spirit gets seven other spirits even worse than himself and they enter the man so that his later condition is worse than the first.
     This is an odd story. One commentator says it could simply be a warning to those who’ve been healed to be on guard against the danger of relapse. But it could also be a parable. In Matthew it is linked with a comment that the people’s response to Jesus will only be temporary. But in Luke (and Jesus could have told stories at many occasions, applying them differently), there is a sense that when an evil spirit has been driven out, it is not enough to simply put things in order. A beneficial and new dynamic has to occupy the empty space. (This could be applied to church life. Churches sometimes concentrate on fixing the negative things that bother people, but may not give enough attention to creating positive programs or attitudes that make the negative less powerful.) At the very least, in a world that wants quick fixes and easy answers, this story can remind us that few things are that easy and taking that kind of approach can lead to greater problems down the road.
     The idea of evil spirits aside, this story might be applied to any situation where choices are made to get rid of something negative.
      At this point, a woman in the crowd has been listening and is impressed with Jesus. She shouts out a compliment, couched as awareness of how blessed the mother of Jesus is to have such a son. It would be phrased differently today, more likely as saying it outright, ‘your parents must be proud.’ (It is hard not to be imaginative, particularly with the woman’s more elaborate statement. Was she a mother whose child had gone on a negative path and she was experiencing some angst as she looked at Jesus. Or was she a new mother, with a child at her breast and thinking how her own little one would turn out?
     Whatever the woman’s particular condition, Jesus turned it around into a teaching, as he so often did. Blessed is his mother? A mere physical relationship is not enough. Admiring someone isn’t enough. The real and greater blessedness is found in those who hear God’s word and keep it.

Have you ever known someone who made a good decision, then backslid to worse than they were before?
What could they have done that might have helped them end in a better place?
As Jesus wisely linked hearing and doing, where in your life can that link be discerned?