Empty Sacks

It is hard to imagine, but even Jesus had his share of critics. We have a tendency to assume that highly accomplished people who are celebrated by history were always…well celebrated. However, thus was not is not the case.

One of the more fascinating twists of history is that people who are celebrated by later generations were often reviled by their contemporaries. Cicero is remembered as one of the greatest orators and statesmen who ever lived. But many of his contemporaries despised him, and he was murdered by Mark Anthony, one of his political rivals. Martin Luther King Jr. is the only African American whose birthday is a national Holiday. Beyond that, almost every city in America has a street named in his honor. But toward the end of his life, he he was smeared with the nickname Martin “Loser” King. To take a more recent example, Lebron James will be remembered for scoring the most points ever in the history of the National Basketball Association, for being the first basketball player to share the court with his son, and for winning the first ever Championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the city from whence he hails. However, we should not forget that when he left Cleveland to take his talents to South Beach and play for the Miami Heat, fans in Cleveland burned his jersey and the team owner labelled him a traitor.

Criticism is inevitable. The only way to avoid it is to do nothing. But once you venture into the arena, your motives will be questioned, your identity smeared and your opinions will be attacked. Yes, even Jesus—as blameless, sinless and guileless as he was—had his critics.

On one occasion, the critics of Jesus accused him of performing miracles by the power of Satan. But Jesus immediately called their perverse logic into question, pointing out that it was impossible for “Satan to cast out Satan.” Doing so would be analagous to Satan dividing his own house, and house divided can’t stand. Later in that same monologue, Jesus makes another stunning observation. According to Matthew 12:43-45, he says :

“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

Nature abhors a vacuum. If a spirit leaves a body and nothing replaces it, the spirit will soon return. This phenomenon is very common with people who struggle with addiction. You just can’t focus on getting rid of something. You must also focus on replacing what you got rid of with something else. Progress is not simply about what you stop. It’s also about what you start. You just can’t leave slavery in Egypt. You must keep on going until you reach the Promised land in Canaan.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Emptiness is an enemy. If there is nothing on the inside, everything on the outside will soon collapse. Without bones, the body will collpase. Without business, a store will close. Without suspension, a bridge will collapse. What is on the inside will determine the success of what is on the outside.

Hence, emptiness is our enemy. To be empty is be without content; void; vacuous; and null. We despise empty promises, don’t like empty music and won’t survive long on an empty stomach. It is horrendous to be empty-headed. And no one should leave any experience empty-handed.

Or as Benjamin Franklin once put it “It’s hard for an empty sack to stand up straight.”