Mark has been a whirlwind so far – John the Baptist is leading a revival in the desert. Then Jesus comes to be baptized and in that process the Son is received and rejoiced in by the Father and the Spirit both visually and audibly. From there, Jesus heads into the wilderness for 40 days of “basic training” and temptation by Satan. From there he comes out ready to enter the fray, but not before he enlists his first disciples, straight from the fishing boats.
And from there he heads to Capernaum where the fun begins. This was a village of about 1500 people founded in the second century, where Peter had a home that eventually became a church. It served as a home base for Jesus.
Specifically, Jesus headed to the synagogue. This was a combination religious center and community center, a place for teaching but also eating and hospitality and discussion and much more.
This is what Jesus steps into with an authority that took everyone off guard. He was That Guy, speaking of every moment of history as if He was actually there, speaking of God as someone He knows intimately. The Greek for how he spoke was exousia – out of His being.
Then all the sudden someone screams out and interrupts. Given the level of activity in the synagogue this may have been less disruptive than it would be in a church with a more formal structure, but it still would have been an interruption and disruptive.
The shouting man knows who Jesus is, identifying Him by name and hometown and His role as messiah.
While we may not see much of this sort of thing in our educated western church, in the global church and especially in other more pentecostal traditions see it a lot. But we do see evil in our communities, from drugs to oppression to hatred to abandonment. We see those around us captive to evil just as much as this demon possessed man in the synagogue.
We may not be Jesus, with His level of authority, but we have His love within us – we can speak His words, we can offer up our prayers, we can be His hands and feet.
Back to the story, Jesus commands the unclean spirit to least, and that creates even more of a stir than the man himself. The news spreads from there and prepares the way for the rest of His ministry. The Greek word often translated “amazed” can also be read “in fear of” – a fear that blends astonishment and respect, a recognition of something that cannot be controlled by the spiritual powers of the world, let alone the religious or secular authorities.
As we go from this place, may we also come to Jesus with our maladies and our unclean spirits with a recognition that He has the authority to address them in ways fat beyond what we can understand.
— Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, October 1, 2023