Sometimes Jesus said the oddest things. One of those times was when he was speaking about unclean spirits in Matthew 12:43-45. In this passage, he is speaking to the Pharisees and warning them that their rejection of Him as the Messiah will have dire consequences. He makes the point that when an unclean spirit has left a person, it will return, and if that person has not been filled by God’s Spirit, they will be filled with seven demons who are worse than the first.
What brought this verse to my memory was the state of my garden. Just before leaving my Oklahoma house last fall, I trimmed the roses and pulled the weeds, leaving an empty flower bed. “There,” I thought. “Now I’ll be ready for a beautiful garden next spring.”
However, when I returned last week, I found the bed had been overrun with more weeds than ever before. I guess a flower bed left empty is an invitation to the weeds.
In the same way, a mind and heart left empty is an invitation to all kinds of evil. Sometimes my heart feels empty. Jesus says to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33) There are times when I haven’t done that, but I haven’t rejected it either. The problem is that a neutral heart is not God’s heart. Jesus warning to the Pharisees, and to me, is that neutral ground will be overtaken with weeds.