Tuesday of the first week of Ordinary Time

He taught as a man with authority

# In the Christian gospels, the ministry of Jesus begins with his baptism in the countryside of Palestine and Transjordan, near the river Jordan by John the Baptist. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was about 30 years of age at the start of his ministry. A chronology of Jesus typically has the date of the start of his ministry estimated at around AD 27–29 and the end in the range AD 30–36. Jesus’ early Galilean ministry begins when after his baptism, he goes back to Galilee from his temptation in the Judaean Desert. In this early period he preaches around Galilee and recruits his first disciples who begin to travel with him and eventually form the core of the early Church as it is believed that the Apostles dispersed from Jerusalem to found the apostolic sees.

The final Galilean ministry begins after the death of John the Baptist as Jesus prepares to go to Jerusalem. In the later Judean ministry Jesus starts his final journey to Jerusalem through Judea. As Jesus travels towards Jerusalem, in the later Perean ministry, about one third the way down from the Sea of Galilee along the River Jordan, he returns to the area where he was baptized. The final ministry in Jerusalem is sometimes called the Passion Week and begins with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

From the Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark

Jesus and his disciples entered Capernaum. Immediately, on the Sabbath day, he went to the synagogue and there he taught. They were struck by his teaching, for he taught as a man of authority, and not like the scribes. Now there was a man in their synagogue, tormented by an unclean spirit, who began to cry out, « What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth ?

Have you come to lose us? I know who you are: you are the Holy One of God. « Jesus challenged him sharply : « Be quiet ! Come out of the man. «   The unclean spirit convulsed him, and with a loud cry came out of him, and they asked one another, « What does this mean ? This is a new teaching, given with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. « And immediately his fame spread throughout the whole region of Galilee. (Mk 1, 21-28)

Jesus is the Holy One of God and the Saviour

 After his arrival in Capernaum, Jesus entered the synagogue ; it was « a Sabbath day when he taught, and all were astonished at his doctrine, when a man with an unclean spirit cried out, ‘Have you come to lose us ? We know who you are: the Holy One of God. »

Jesus ordered the spirit to be silent and to come out of this man; he obeyed after having violently agitated the possessed man and having uttered a loud cry. This healing provoked astonishment and discussion among the witnesses. The fame of Jesus spread throughout the region.

In the house of Simon and Andrew, Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law of fever by taking her by the hand. She served them.  After sunset, Jesus healed many sick people at the door of the house and forbade the demons to proclaim who he was. The next day, early in the morning, Jesus went to a deserted place to pray. His disciples followed him in his retreat, telling him that all sought him. Jesus told them that he had to go and preach in the surrounding villages.

He began to travel through Galilee. Matthew (Mt 8, 5) and Luke (Lk 4, 31) marked more precisely this arrival of Jesus in Capernaum, where he accomplished the healing of the man with the unclean spirit, impure, because he belonged to the kingdom of darkness, of evil.  The demonic knew that Jesus was the Holy One of God, the one whom God sanctified, the HOLY One par excellence : « For Herod and Pontius Pilate were in league in this city with the Gentiles and with the peoples of Israel against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed » (Acts 4, 27).

It is therefore the absolute contrast between this holiness of Jesus and the unclean spirits that makes the latter’s torment and it should be noted that the latter does not only speak in his own name, but in the name of all his fellow men : you and us; we know. Jesus spoke to the demon and distinguished him positively from the man that this demon was making speak : « Come out of him ! «  If this demonic influence was only a popular prejudice, Jesus would obviously have shared this prejudice. The silence that Jesus imposed on the demon related to the confession that the demon made : « You are the Holy One of God. You are the Saviour ».

Deacon Michel Houyoux

Links to other Christian websites

◊ Cogwriter : click here to read the paper → Jesus : The Son of God and Saviour

◊ The living message   : click here to read the paper → Jesus taught with authority

♥ Fr Jacinto : « The Authority of Jesus «