The emphasis in this Gospel extract is the power and authority of Jesus. Mark locates the incident in the synagogue, the Jewish place of teaching, and frames the drama between two paragraphs about Jesus’ teaching and authority. We are not told what Jesus taught except that it is very different from that of other teachers, and that it is most impressive. It made the hearers ask questions like, ‘Who is this person? From where does his authority come?’ Clearly this authority does not come from the usual channels as that of the Scribes.
The dramatic story of healing demonstrates Jesus’ power and confirms that he has true authority. The unclean spirit answers the people’s questions proclaiming, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God’. He then asks his own questions, ‘What do you want? Have you come to destroy us?’ In biblical understanding, naming another signified power over, and thus overcoming that person. When the demon blurted out Jesus’ name, Jesus stands firm, confronts and defeats the speaker by silencing it. The episode sandwiched between notes about teaching, demonstrates that Jesus is the Holy One of God and acts with that authority.
Perhaps Mark has another message for us here. The man possessed seems to be somewhat forgotten but I like to think that Jesus is also saying to him, ‘I know who you are and I know who you are not’. What the people saw was a horrible, evil-looking being: Jesus saw a beautiful human person. When the diabolic presence is cast out and defeated the man becomes free. It is only then, that he can know himself as fully human and capable of knowing and praising the living God.
Sometimes, we find ourselves a bit off-centre, troubled in spirit and know we are not our real selves, not as we are meant to be. Maybe that is a reminder or prod, to see if there is a different step to take, or a teaching to be noticed from the daily episodes of life.
June Peck OP
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