The Home Beyond

The Parable of the Empty House
by the Rev. Dave Sonmor

Scriptural Passages

Matthew 12:38-45

Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, Teacher, we would see a sign from you. But he answered and said to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet: for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South shall rise up with this generation, at the judgment and shall condemn it because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then he says, I will return into my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goes he, and takes with himself seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation.

Jonah 1:11-17

Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea grew more and more tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to get them back to the land; but they could not: for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.

Wherefore they cried unto Jehovah, and said, We beseech thee, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for thou, O Jehovah, hast done as it pleased thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows. And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Sermon

"Then certain of the Scribes and Pharisees answered saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee." These Scribes and Pharisees had just witnessed Jesus perform the miracle of healing a blind and speechless man who had a demonic spirit in him, yet they ask him to give them a sign. There would be no real meaning in this request or in Jesus’ reply to them, if there was not a difference between a sign and a miracle.

A miracle is a marvelous event; an activity or occurrence attributed to a supernatural medium. It excites, discovers and causes amazement. A sign is a thing that is indicative or suggestive of a future state or occurrence; it may be a word or a symbol which declares, testifies, and persuades us regarding something we are curious about. Thus a sign affects the understanding and its faith, whereas a miracle affects the will and its affections. The will and its affections can be excited and awe struck and amazed, while the understanding and its faith must be persuaded and convinced by declaration and testimony.

The Lord’s miracles were works of compassion; and their spiritual purpose was to affect the hearts, or will, of the people with a sense of Divine goodness, and to encourage them to listen to the new teachings of truth, which He was bringing into the world. A sign, on the other hand, is a work of power, having nothing to do with the excitement of feelings and emotions, but to provide instead an appeal to their understanding in order to convince them.

The Lord refused to give a sign because it is not a part of His nature to compel people to believe or to have them believe with the understanding only. We think of the statement of the angel to the shepherds on the eve of Jesus' birth, "and this will be a sign for you, you will find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." There was nothing terribly exciting about this sign, but it requires some thought to discern the meaning of the whole scene. The nativity scene is not going to force anyone to believe that the Lord God has come into the world. It was not a huge cosmological event. Yet it is called a sign.

The Lord could easily do things that would give us no alternative but to believe in Him. He could present every Divine truth to us with such clarity that it would be impossible not to understand it and believe it. Our intellects could be raised into such clear light that we could see the truth. But this would be giving a sign such as the Scribes and the Pharisees were asking for and they were not spiritually advanced enough to honestly receive such a sign in a state of freedom. We will see later how the forced removal of evil from a person does not cleanse them permanently but leaves them even more vulnerable to evil influence.

True faith is not produced by signs but rather by reasoning, that is by the truth being rationally received and spiritually understood. Nor does saving faith come from without, but from within; not by truth alone, but by truth and love united. The Scriptures give the knowledge of truth, and without revelation there would be nothing to believe, no means of belief in God and in spiritual and eternal things; but faith itself comes from the Spirit of the Lord acting upon the heart, and inspiring it with the love of the truth which has been acquired from the Word. If the Holy Word cannot give faith, how much less could an outward sign that neither informs the understanding nor improves the heart.

Jesus went on to say that "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of Jonas." This is the case both with the general population and with individuals. It is only those, whose unbelief has been generated by evil and impure affections, who seek truth and faith through means other than the Word and the Spirit of the Lord. Asking such a thing is asking God to alter the very nature of the freedom He has created for us to grow and exist in. But there is one sign that He says can be used for them, and that is, "the sign of the prophet Jonas", in which Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, and which He says is similar to what will happen to Him, the Son of Man, when He shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth - speaking of His burial and resurrection.

What happened to the prophet Jonah was a sign of the glorification of the Lord just as Jesus’ resurrection itself was a sign of His glorification. They are also signs of the regeneration of people, as regeneration is an illustration or representation of the Lord’s glorification. The new birth is to us and all people the practical sign, the inward and living witness of the truth. If we would believe the truth, we must both believe it and live it. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." (John 7.17). The evil heart of unbelief must be removed before any sign can avail to produce faith, for faith is of the heart as well as of the understanding. The sign of the Prophet Jonah is, therefore, the only sign that can be given to us; but only if we admit that it is the foundation and evidence of our faith.

The Pharisees and Scribes, as we have seen, demanded a sign, and the Lord denied that to them. He then begins to describe to them what the state is of those who fail to recognize the sign that is already there the sign that will lead people to repent and follow Him. He had removed an unclean spirit but of the blind/mute man forcibly. This man represents a person with an evil nature who can neither see (understand) the truth, nor speak it. So the Lord talks about what happens to spirits removed in that way as opposed to the method where we actively work at removing the evil from our lives through seeking truth from the Lord through His Word and living by it once we find it.

Speaking of the evil that we have within when we are not being regenerated, He says, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, but finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house whence I came out; and when he is come , he finds it empty, swept, and prepared for him. Then he goes and he joins to himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there."

The "unclean spirit" denotes uncleanness of life of people, and also the unclean spirits with them. For unclean spirits dwell in the uncleanness of mans life; "dry places," or where there is no water, denote where there are no truths; the "empty house" denotes the interiors of man again filled with uncleanness, that is with falsities from evil. (AC 4744.3)

By the power of a sign the unclean spirit would certainly be driven out for a time, but it would eventually return with seven fold greater force than before, because the person would bring the spirit back as it was not his or her will to have it removed in the first place. It is similar to dealing with an addiction such as alcoholism wherein the person with the addiction has to decide that he or she no longer wants to be afflicted with it and decides to quit using it and seek treatment. Forcing an addict into treatment, alone, never results in them quitting permanently. It is effective only if the individual is convinced inwardly and fully agrees to eliminate the substance from their life. As the effect of the sign begins to pass away, as it eventually must do, or life would cease, the spirit begins to say, "I will return into my house from whence I came out." And when he returns he finds it "empty, swept and cleaned up" that is, empty of everything true, swept of everything good and prepared or brought into conformity with everything associated with a state of evil and falsity. Why? Because in the period of the spirits absence the person has done nothing to replace the evil with goodness and the falsity with truth. It was not really his decision to change in the first place. So the house remains empty awaiting the return back to it’s former state, but the new state will be even more evil than the previous one was because the person has in effect rejected the presence of the Lord.

“The generation to which this state is attributed is the whole mass of evil and falsity, which not only deny the Lords love and wisdom in the salvation of man, but pervert them to the destruction of spiritual life and the everlasting misery of the soul.” (Bruce’s Commentary on Matthew)

This all may sound rather pessimistic, but we must remember that the Lord was addressing a very specific group, the Scribes and the Pharisees, who represent "an evil and adulterous generation". He is saying that a spiritual sign will not serve to change them and that they must make a conscious change The same is not true for people who have already opened their hearts and minds to the Lord. These people understand the signs of the Lord’s glorification, as they have been given in the Word in such stories as Jonah and the whale and the resurrection of Christ. They also have sufficient spiritual growth to recognize the significance of the birth of the Lord in Bethlehem and the gentle caring life of Jesus throughout His ministry. These signs, in such people are experienced from within and are not imposed from without.

May the Lord bless you in your search for wisdom and understanding. Amen