Tuesday in the First Week of Ordinary Time, January 14, 2025

Mark 1, 21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath he 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.

“Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.”  St. Mark moves on quickly from his account of the Lord’s calling his first disciples, which took place just outside Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  The lectionary translation of this verse omits the adverb “immediately”, which is present in the Greek text: “and immediately on the Sabbath he entered”.  Mark uses this adverb very frequently throughout his Gospel as a way of marking the beginning of a new action and of propelling the action forward.  This gives off a kind of breathless effect, as of a story tumbling out of a highly excited person.  “And taught”: the imperfect tense is in use here so that we have, “He was teaching”, an action which continued for some time.  With regard to the Lord teaching there we should keep in mind that the synagogue was at that time a place of discussion more than a place of worship, which was reserved for the Temple in Jerusalem.  Any adult male could teach or raise an issue.

“The people were astonished at his teaching.”  The Greek verb is very strong here: they were “thunderstruck” or “astounded”.  And this for two reasons.  The unstated reason is that these teachings came from a carpenter from Nazareth.  The stated reason: “For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  An example of this teaching with authority: “You have heard that it was said to them of old: You shall not kill. And whosoever shall kill, shall be in danger of the judgment.  But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5, 21-22).  Jesus acts as the author of the Law, not merely as its interpreter.  He completes — fulfills — the Law.

“In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit.”  This man may have dwelled in the town with the unclean spirit only manifesting on occasion, or the man may have kept to the open spaces outside the town, possibly haunting its graveyard or keeping to the shore, as the man possessed by Legion did (cf. Mark 5, 3).  On the occasion of the Lord teaching, the demon drove him into his presence in the synagogue in the way Legion forced the man they possessed to run up to him and adore him (cf. Mark 5, 6).  Although one would think the demons would flee before him rather than hasten to him, Satan did not at this time know for certain who or what Jesus was, though he had his suspicions.  He ordered his demons to test and probe in order to find out.  For this reason the demon in the synagogue cried out, “Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are–the Holy One of God!”  In fact, the demon did not know, and “the Holy One of God” was general enough to mean a virtuous rabbi, a prophet, or even the Messiah.  

“Quiet! Come out of him!”  The Lord does not engage with the demon but rebukes him and commands him to exit the afflicted man.  We can readily imagine the scene: the Lord, standing straight, towering over the cringing man possessed by the demon, his stare unwavering, barking out his order with a clear, authoritative voice; the body of the man trembling, grunting, snarling, whining, crouched down like a cornered predator.  “The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.”  The Lord Jesus allows this convulsing and shouting in order to teach the people in the synagogue about the power and the horror of demons so that they would resist their temptations more resolutely.

“What is this? A new teaching with authority.”  This might also be translated, “A new teaching with power.”  The people see that his teaching is validated by the power he displays in his exorcism of the demon: “He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”  The Jewish rabbis had attempted to exorcise demons, but their elaborate methods had little effect.  Here, Jesus succeeds with a sharp command.  The Jews had good reason to be amazed.

“His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.”  We notice that Mark does not say that his fame spread throughout Judea too.  Those who lived in Judea saw Galilee as back-country, a world away from the center of their universe, Jerusalem.  The Judeans never forgave Jesus for being a Galilean: “A prophet does not arise from Galilee” (John 7, 52).

The demon, not knowing that Jesus was the only-begotten Son of God, obeyed his order with fear.  May we, who know who the Lord Jesus is, obey him as a sign of our love for him.