TRANSLATING 12:43

When a corrupt spirit goes out of a person it travels through waterless places seeking rest and it does not find it. Then it says,’ I will go back to the house from which I came out.’ So it comes and finds it unoccupied, swept clean and tidy. And it goes off and brings with it seven other spirits worse than itself and they arrive and dwell there, so the final state of that person is worse than the first. This is how it will be with this diseased nation.

Matthew has shown Jesus throwing out corrupt spirits, but here he adds some wisdom on the topic. It is such profound wisdom that I am tempted, like Matthew, to believe it comes from Jesus. It certainly has the marks of Jesus’ wisdom, shrewd, earthy and humane.

Of course it is great that a corrupt spirit is removed from a person, but if their soul is now clean and unoccupied with anything good, it will be open to repossession by its former tenant. The human soul cannot be untenanted for any length of time; living is a partnership with others and with God. The indwelling goodness of other people and of God is our only defence against indwelling corruption.

Here, Jesus applies this wisdom to the communal soul of his people; if the public is not nourished with goodness and the holy spirit, it will be easily corrupted. No amount of exorcism can help if there is no communal nourishment.

The demonic condition of tyrannical and populist regimes is ample testimony to this truth.