“I have a question for you,” my father said. In my childhood, when my father wanted to get to the heart of a matter (an incident or behavior), he often used a question.
Jesus asked a lot of questions in order to get to the heart of a matter, to the center of a person:
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I tell you?
Where is your faith?
But who do you say that I am?
For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me?
Whom are you seeking?
Do you love me?
Jesus often implied questions. One day he cast out a demon from a person and the group of witnesses was split by the demonstration of His power. Some said Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the devil, to which Jesus responded, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul” (Luke 11:17-19). No. Jesus is not working with the devil: “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). Yes. Jesus is the “finger of God”, the focal point and locus of the kingdom of God (Luke 17:20-21). He is the Son of God and “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).
And then Jesus draws a line in the sands of time and history and eternity: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23). The implied question is: Are you with me or against me?
The background of this conversation is a spiritual reality Jesus has just brought to the foreground. The devil is a strongman (Luke 11:21-23), an intoxicator and abductor of human hearts who has captured them to do his will (2 Timothy 2:25-26). The home of the human heart is in fact a stronghold, a prison, and the devil is fully armed, fully alert and fully secured. Yet Jesus is stronger. He overpowers the Strongman’s will, craft and enmity, and sets the home free.
Now what? The Strongman is gone, but the heart remains. The heart has experienced grace and power, and as a result engages in activity: sweeping and putting things in right order. Grace always produces activity – spiritual momentum and religious activity. But the heart, while it is active, remains empty (Matthew 12:44). It is at leisure; there’s a pleasantness about the place. Perhaps a new coat of paint has been applied; some repairs have been made; new art is hung. There’s a moral reformation occurring, which isn’t bad. It’s better than what was. But this kind of moral reformation has a peculiarly soothing and dangerous therapeutic effect. “I like the way I feel. I like what I’ve done. I like how I behave.”
But moral reformation is an empty substitute for true, lasting spiritual transformation. It’s also a more attractive opportunity and less powerful obstruction to the Strongman when he returns, and he always does. When he returns to “my house” (Luke 11:24), to the heart which has experienced and received grace and power and deliverance and healing, will he find a moral makeover but a vacant heart and spiritual vacuum, or will he find a cleansed heart (Psalm 51:10) and a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)? Temporary, temperamental, palliative spiritual experiences are not what Jesus is after. He is after a created, steadfast, radical – to the root – change of heart.
“I have a question for you,” asked Jesus: Are you with me or against me? (Luke 11:23)
There are two kingdoms, one heart. Consider Colossians 1:13,“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,” and Colossians 1:21-23, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.” Note the conditional, inspired word “if” (See also 1 Peter 2:9-10; 2 Peter 2:19-20; John 8:11; 5:14). What are we doing with what Jesus is saying to us? With what He is doing in us? We can receive what Jesus gives, yet that doesn’t mean we serve Him (Luke 8:13).
Daily we must choose who we will serve. The question is not, “Whose side is God on?”, but, “Whose side am I on?” (Joshua 5:13-15). God serves no master. I choose who I battle against when I choose who I serve (Joshua 24:14-15). Spiritual vacancy is not an option; spiritual neutrality is an impossibility. Our response to Jesus determines everything, both our present and our future.
God’s deliverance doesn’t mean I become preeminent in all things to God, but that Jesus becomes preeminent in all things to me (Colossians 1:17). That’s the heart of the matter.
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