FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B

[cappie]

The Gospel, on this Fourth Sunday  brings us into the acts and words of one who speaks with authority. The light shines today on the character of the one sent from God. The St Mark zeroes in on this divine quality at the very beginning of his gospel. He says of those listening to Jesus in the Capernaum synagogue: “And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.”

Jesus is fresh from his baptism  and immediately after he is baptised, the Spirit drives him out into the wilderness for his showdown with Satan, and Jesus resists temptation for forty long days.  His encounter with the demonic shapes Jesus’ compassion for and clarifies his mission.  In this brief story, still in the first chapter of Mark, Jesus is in the local synagogue “teaching with authority.” He doesn’t know about God; he knows God directly – and there is a big difference. And in the midst of his teaching, a man with an unclean spirit interrupts him, yells at him, disturbs all. Jesus responds calmly, rebuking that spirit, and freeing the man for the life God meant for him to live.

This demon is smart; he knows, before any human being does, who it is he is dealing with: The Holy One of God. He vies for dominion in this man’s life and doesn’t want Jesus’ interference.   This Unclean Spirit seems to have a community of other evil spirits and rightly feels threatened by the presence and power of the One who knows God, the One whom we come later to believe is God, and so he cries out: “ What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? ”

The man who is possessed desired liberation and wholeness. Maybe that’s the part of him that drew him to the synagogue, a holy place. He likely felt trapped by this Spirit, knowing and thinking, “That’s not the real me.”  Like the gap we feel between who you most truly are and how you sometimes act?

There is also the crowd in the synagogue. They had been amazed, by Jesus’ teaching, his authority, his presence. Surely, all of them were shaken up after Jesus rebuked the demon. In those moments, they had seen God’s power triumph over the forces of evil, and they went out to tell others about it – to process what they had seen.

So, as we reflect on this story take these observations for your consideration…

Evil exists. This story doesn’t offer us any explanation. The story  acknowledges the reality. Evil is a force that tends toward death–physical or literal–over which we often have little if any control; we are held in bondage by it. Consequently, we are reluctant to ask for divine aid, for God’s help. When we are dealing with evil, the sooner we can admit our need for help, the better. God’s power is stronger than Satan’s. Or, as it the poet put it in the Song of Songs, “Love is strong as death.”  

And coming to believe in this Power, we are able to ask for divine aid. Sometimes this comes directly from God, as it did for the man in the story. Jesus was there. Jesus rebuked the demons. The man was free. 

But for most of us, divine intervention is mediated by other human beings. And divine intervention happens through what we are doing here, now. In common worship, the divine liturgy, God draws our attention toward his good purposes and equips us—yes, us, these modern-day disciples—to cast out demons.

 Jesus is the prophet foretold by Moses in today’s First Reading. Though He has authority over heaven and earth, He becomes one of our own kinsmen. He comes to rebuke the forces of evil and chaos—not only in the world, but in our lives. He wants to make us holy in body and spirit, as St Paul says in today’s Second Reading. In this liturgy, we hear His voice and “see” His works. And as Moses tells us today, we should listen to Him.