Jesus and the Moneychangers
In Part I of this series, I wanted to lay a groundwork for why I feel the need to even talk on the topic of “accountability time”. I have a history of accountability-time-gone-bad in my own life, and it set me on a course to figure out why Christians do this sort of thing, and if it can be done in a way that brings more glory to God than to human willpower. Before moving on, though, I want to apologize for something I didn’t make clear in the last post.
When I’m using the word “accountability” in these posts, I’m using the word in a very specific sense in which it’s come to be used in Christian verbiage. I am not talking about accountability as a structure in leadership or a posture of life (which are unquestionably biblical in my mind), but rather as a specific meeting between believers where lifestyle patterns (particularly the sinful kind) are being discussed.
That being said, I don’t think you’ll find an explicit passage of Scripture that outlines how the Church ought to “do accountability” in this kind of meeting sense. It’s thus worth asking if and why it’s a good thing, and even more, how we can make it the best thing. Despite my troubled history with “accountability time”, I’ve come to believe it can be a really great thing. And though the Bible doesn’t explicitly use the word or prescribe a specific practice for it, I think it it’s loud and clear on how it can be done well.
Lately, I’ve been reflecting on Matthew 12:29-35 and Luke 11:21-26 through the lens of what it means for how I ought to deal with my sin (and others’ as well…hence the connection to accountability). I recommend reading them right now if you want the rest of this post to make any sense. In these passages, Jesus gets done telling the Pharisees that it’s silly that they would think he uses the power of Satan to drive out demons, and then he starts talking about a strong man and a house.
Disclaimer: I’m about to interpret Scripture. I’m no Bible scholar, but I do have the Spirit of God living in me, and sometimes He reveals true things to me. So there’s a chance that the following has a grain of truth.
Jesus says that if someone is going to take over a strong man’s house, he needs to be stronger than him and tie him up first (verse 29 in Matthew, 21-22 in Luke). Then you can rob his house and take away all of things he trusted in to keep his house safely under his control. It seems to me that the strong man in the parable is Satan (or one of his demons) and that the stronger man is Jesus. Jesus has power to bind the work of Satan and then dispose of all the things he used to keep your heart, thoughts, and will captive (those tend to be things like lies, accusations, and temptations… see John 8:44, Revelation 12:10, and Matthew 4:3). That’s really good news, but then the teaching gets even more interesting.
Basic Outline: In Luke’s gospel, the next teaching (verses 24-26) is about how an evil spirit, once it leaves a person, will come back to find this person (in this metaphor, the house that was previously occupied by the strong man) nicely swept clean. The strong man and all his armor are gone, but nobody has taken his place. It’s nice and clean, but most of all, empty. Simply awaiting a visit by the evil spirit who will take more evil spirits (“strong men”) with it, and then the person’s condition will be even worse before because he/she is ruled by even more evil spirits. This is a bit scary.
In Matthew’s gospel, the next teaching verses 31-32) is about how God will forgive all blasphemy against Jesus, but not this kind of blasphemy the Pharisees are leveling, which attributes the work of the Holy Spirit to demons. Then he quickly shifts (verses 33-35) to teaching about how if you make a tree good, then all of its fruit will be good, but if the tree is bad, then all of its fruit will necessarily be bad also.
It’s a good question to ask, “What does the blasphemy against the Spirit have to do with trees and fruit? And are these in any way related to the teaching about the clean house that occurs in the same place in Luke’s gospel?” I’m not going to pose a “right” answer to these questions, but I hope to shed some light on what the thread of these passages might be.
I think the first thing to keep in mind is that Jesus is telling a parable to Pharisees. Generally, he did this kind of thing to creatively illustrate to them that they had entirely abandoned the God of the Scripture to serve an abominable idol named Religion. And even worse, they were in total denial about it. They appeared righteous and clean on the outside, but inwardly, they were God’s fiercest opponents (Matthew 23:23-28). I don’t think these stories are any different.
I think Jesus is calling out their inward wickedness here.
He tells them that many (in their ignorance) will speak blasphemy against Jesus, but they will be forgiven. Remember, God is merciful toward ignorance, even the hateful kind (1 Timothy 1:13-14). But the Pharisees commit a far greater sin, one that has its origins in a hopelessly stubborn refusal to acknowledge the work of God. By this they conclusively show that they do not know God, nor do they want to. There is no forgiveness for the person who, despite a world of evidence before them, never yields their heart to the Holy Spirit.
And Jesus goes further. He says that an evil spirit (call it Lust, Malice, Greed, etc.) can leave someone and come back. How does this happen, according to the story? Every strong man (evil power) can be conquered by an even stronger man (Jesus). When an evil spirit is driven away from someone, it wanders for a while, and then returns. It re-invades with many more demons along with it because it “finds the house swept clean and put in order”.
The nagging question in your mind ought to be where is the stronger man?! I mean, if the powers of evil are weaker than those of good (1 John 4:4, Revelation 20:7-10), then the demon can bring with it however many more demons it wants; if the house is occupied by the Holy Spirit, they don’t have a chance. But they go in because the house is empty. Perhaps Lust left, but it was not replaced by the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit does not enter and take up residence, the person-house remains empty and waiting to be conquered by a crowd worse than the one that left.
This was the fundamental error of the Pharisees. Though they seemed to expel all kinds of evil from themselves (by living in strict adherence to the Law of Moses), they did not fill themselves with God, and thus were prone to the greatest of evils (what Jesus calls “neglecting the more important matters” in Matthew 23:23). They gave a tenth of their income (expelling a single demon of greed), yet remained without the Holy Spirit, and so succumbed to the far greater evil of systemically robbing the poor by allowing moneychangers to charge unfairly for temple sacrifices in the Gentile courts (influenced by seven demons of greed).
Jesus’ response is violent (Matthew 21:12-13).
And I think Jesus is equally zealous for our personal holiness. He longs for us not to simply expel isolated sinful actions, but be regenerated. Enter the teaching on the tree and the fruit (verse 33 in Matthew). We cannot make the tree good by making the fruit good. Rather, we make the fruit good by making the tree good. In simple terms, cleaning up our actions will not increase our right standing with God. He’s calling for us to allow the Stronger Man to take up residence in our hearts; a far higher calling than merely cleaning up the outside. In my next post, I’ll share what I think this means for our church accountability practices.
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I personally think that is an EXCELLENT interpretation.
Great post
Frankly I think most of what we call “accountability programs” are garbage and more destructive than helpful…for basically exactly how you interpreted that parable.