The Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 28, 2024

Mark 1, 21–28

Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

“Then they came to Capernaum.”  St. Mark pits the order of the Lord’s early ministry this way: He is baptized; he is with the beasts for forty days and nights; then, after John the Baptist was arrested “Jesus came in Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1, 14).  Next, as he is passing along the Sea of Galilee he sees four young fishermen whom he calls to follow him.  And it is after this that Mark tells us they went into Capernaum.  It may have been the home town for James and John, among the future Apostles he had called, but it was the adopted home of Simon and Andrew, who hailed from Bethsaida.  Mark does not tell us what they did in the hours between the dawn of the Sabbath day and the synagogue service.  Perhaps they slept.  But then came the time for the service and “Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.”  Attendants in the synagogue would have handed Jesus the scroll he asked for, containing the words of the Law or of the Prophets, and he would have chosen a portion of it to read and to comment on.  Usually a discussion involving members of the congregation would have ensued.  But not on this occasion, for the Lord held everyone spellbound: “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  Jesus spoke as the very author of the Law and as the One who put his words in the mouths of the Prophets.  And he would have put it to his hearers very simply so they could all understand.

“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.”  Mark’s Greek text says, And immediately there was in their synagogue, etc.”  one of the characteristics of his Gospel is the repeated use of the word “immediately”, so it is no surprise to see it here.  The text indicates that one moment the man was not there and then suddenly he was.  He may have come from outside or he may have been huddling unseen in some corner of the synagogue.  “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”  But the unclean spirit did not know who he was, and the devil may have sent this motion of his to find out.  “The holy one of God” can mean any number of things, and to this point Jesus had performed the single miracle at Cana, had preached in the cities, and had refused to succumb to the devil’s temptations in the desert.  None of this pointed to his identity as the only-begotten Son of God, clothed with a human nature.  It may be that the devil did not know for sure who he was until the Lord’s Death on the Cross: “ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, a wisdom which is hidden, which God ordained before the world, unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew. For if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2, 7-8) — not because they feared God but because they did not want men to be saved.

“Quiet! Come out of him!”  The Lord who taught the Scriptures with authority now shows his authority over the demons.  “The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.”  The Lord permitted the demon to convulse the man in order to show the power demons can have over humans, and so warn those witnessing this to avoid evil at all costs.  “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”  Jewish exorcists had used complex rituals in their attempts to exorcise but ultimately they failed.  Here, the Lord of power and might casts out this demon with a single, short command.  The congregation was thunderstruck.  No one could do what this man had done.  Not even the Prophets did this.

“His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.”  Mark again uses the word “immediately” here: “His fame spread immediately”, as though the witnesses burst down the doors of the synagogue and poured out into the countryside telling the news.