Hi everyone and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're looking at Mark chapter 1, continuing from yesterday, but today, we're looking at verses 21 to 28 and as you see in this particular passage Jesus performs an exorcism on an unclean spirit. So we're Going to talk a little bit about what's going on here. So let's start by looking at the
passage that you'll hear. If you go to mass today, Mark chapter 1 verses 21 to 28. Jesus and his disciples went as far as Capernaum and as soon as the Sabbath came, he went to the synagogue and began to teach and his teaching made a deep impression on them, because unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority, in their synagogue, just then there was a man possessed by an unclean spirit and it shouted. What do you want with us? Jesus of Nazareth.
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. The Holy One of God. But Jesus said, sharply be quiet, come out of him. And the unclean Spirit through the man into convulsions and with a loud cry, went out of him. The people were so astonished that they started asking each other, what it all meant. Here is a teaching that is new, they said and with authority behind it, he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey
him. and his reputation rapidly spread everywhere through all the surrounding Galilean Countryside, Okay, so that's our passage today and things are starting to ramp up a bit for Jesus. He's been baptized his moved into Capernaum, his home base. He started to preach the kingdom and now he does this sign as a sign that the kingdom has,
indeed come. So at the start of the passage here in verse 21, it says they went as far as Capernaum or other translations to simplify it a bit to say he went into Capernaum. So this is one of the towns around the Sea of Galilee so Jesus has been Spending time in Galilee earlier, in chapter 1, and now he's coming to Capernaum, which he is his current home town, it's a fishing Village, and Jesus spends a lot of time here.
As soon as Sabbath came or in a more literal translation immediately on the Sabbath, remember in the gospel of Mark, the word immediately appears a lot, almost twice in every sort of major passage. You'll see the word immediately. That's how Mark writes. He says this happened, then immediately that happened. So it's almost like he's giving us a movie script. So it's on this sabbath.
So in that culture on the Sabbath there was obviously lots of rules about what they shouldn't do, but one of the things they had to do on the Sabbath was that they had to attend their local synagogue which is kind of like the local Parish church and when they are there at the synagogue on the Sabbath day that have prayer readings and instruction in the Old Testament much like what you might hear at mass today although perhaps a few less rituals it's more of a teaching
opportunity. There would be a homily of sorts, so they'd read a passage from the Old Testament. And then someone will get up and provide a bit of a homily or commentary on the words that they're just heard from the Old Testament. The homily could actually be done by anyone can be done, why anyone who knew the scriptures, which is actually not that many people because not that many
people could read or write. So usually it was done by the local Alder or a scribe, but a traveling preacher who knew the scriptures, well, could sometimes preach the homily. Component was a reasonably busy talents that was probably quite a few people that could do it. But in this case, Jesus, preaches because he's already become well-known. As a teacher and a miracle worker, he's become quite popular so he gets up and preaches, the sermon on this
day. Now, Mark doesn't tell us what Jesus preached in this particular homily, we don't get the text of the homily here. But we know the crowd's reaction in verse 22. The crowds it says the crowds thought unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.
So the people of Capernaum were used to hearing from the scribes every week and it appears that the scribes when they did their homilies kind of just made stuff up according to what they thought the correct interpretation of the Old Testament was or basically just based on their own ideas and preferences But these people are immediately struck by Jesus.
Jesus homily is quite different. It seems that Jesus seems to know what he's genuinely talking about, and he appears to be appointed by God. They're Amazed by his authority, his really, apparently to them seems to have some sort of Mark that he has come from God, that he has Authority. Unlike the scribes who just make stuff up, Verse 23 in their synagogue was a man possessed and in the original here it says immediately a man who is possessed and so there's that
word again. Now, what's going on here? We have a man who is possessed, but he's in the synagogue, there's a couple of different explanations here because you would think that a demon would not be interested in going to the synagogue. So, there's two possibilities. Probably his acting Incognito. The demon is sort of pretending that he's not there. And so probably this demon acts in a way where he's possessed the man, but no one knows that the man's possess. So he sort of acting like the
man would normally act. So he's probably making the man go about his normal daily business so that no one thinks any differently. Probably no one knows that he's possessed. So he going to this the demon says. Yep. We're going to go to the synagogue, like we do every week, so in order to keep the act up and so you probably didn't know that Jesus would be there. That's one possibility. So the demon could be acting Incognito and just treating the man like a puppet and no one
knows. The second possibility though is that the man is actually in control of his body and the demon only shows up sometimes. So he's got a bit of a lesser influence on the man. Perhaps the demon only manifests in certain situations, but apparently the demon is provoked by whatever Jesus said, in his homily, what is an uncleaned the term here is unclean Spirit? What exactly is this thing?
Well, it's a Jewish term in that culture for a defiled or unnatural supernatural being something is, it's not a pure supernatural, being like an angel in the gospels. The word demon is also you. So unclean spirit, and Demon. Same Nothing. They're mentioned in the Old Testament, but pretty rarely you don't often hear about demons in the Old Testament. Although, Saul the King Saul in 1000 BC is apparently plagued by a demon, so they're around, but
not much. So, probably, it seems that by the time of Jesus, particularly in the 400 years, leading up to Jesus, there was a lot more prevalence about of demons and a lot more people writing about demons. If you read The Book of Tobit, which was written a couple of centuries before Jesus, there's some demons in that book as well. So demons had apparently become quite common, and it was now an accepted scary part of Jewish life. Serious Jews recognized that in
their town. There probably was a couple of people that were possessed by demons and they would usually steer clear of those people because it's pretty scary to have to confront a demon. So the Jews did believe in demons, they knew that these unnatural supernatural beings existed and that you should stay away from them. But the Jews didn't really understand what these beings were, it would appear. There was no consensus on where
these beings came from. The New Testament also doesn't give us a whole lot about the background of demons. The New Testament, tells us that demons are real, but doesn't tell us where, what they're up to or where they came from later Church. Teaching would clarify that these beings are some kind of Fallen Angel and the catechism tells us a bit more about that. Probably important to say this point, as well as a lot of modern Scholars or liberal Scholars would say that demons aren't real.
Oh, and the Jews at the time and the gospel authors thought that demons were real, but they just didn't have a good medical knowledge. Had they had the medical knowledge we have today, they would have realized that these people were just had psychological conditions or, you know, some sort of mental illness. And there's no such thing as demons. If you read the gospels, it's pretty clear that these demons are real things and that they are still around today.
Particularly, if you look at the way that they're exercised, look at the way that they control these people in the things that they say. About Jesus. So certainly Mark is intending to tell us that there was a real supernatural being in this man. Okay, let's continue. So the demon says to Jesus, what do you want with us? So the demon is scared at this point in history. Satan and the demons are in control of the world, it's their
territory. And they know the kingdom of God is going to come one day, but they're not expecting it this soon. So, here's the demon is, genuinely surprised and concerned. So the demon says to Jesus, have you come to destroy us? So the demons do know a little bit about God and His Plan of Salvation, though, not everything they know a little bit and they know that the kingdom of God is going to come one day. And when it does come, they the demons will be judged and destroyed.
Now the demons just like the Jews at the time of Jesus didn't really understand that the kingdom of God is going to come in two stages. So the demons just thought the kingdom of God will come one day through the Messiah and they'd be wiped out straight away. But Jesus would, as he'd go on to reveal, is that the kingdom of God is beginning with him. But there would only reach its consummation one day in the future when the Judgment happens.
The demon goes on. He says, I know who you are the Holy One Of God. So, this is really early in Jesus Ministry. Jesus hasn't yet told anyone that he's the Messiah or the Holy One Of God. He hasn't revealed his Divine identity, but the demon being a spiritual creature supernatural, being recognizes that Jesus is the Messiah. He can see that. This is the Holy One Of God, that they should be worried
about. So it's can be hard to work out what demons know and what they don't know but I think we can say this as a summary and appears that demons know that God is going to send a messiah to bring in the kingdom of God and that when he does they'll be wiped out and they also recognize that Jesus is the Messiah so they're able to piece all of that information together but some things they don't know, they don't know the exact timing of when the kingdom of God is
coming. Secondly, they don't know that the Messiah is going to die in order to bring about salvation. They do not perceive that they don't try to stop Jesus from going to the Cross because they don't realize what Jesus is going to do on the cross. They actually see Jesus death as a victory. They say yes, the messiah's did. He can't do any more damage to us so they don't realize what God is trying. It will what God is going to do
on the cross through? Jesus so demons know more than we do. At this point in history, but they don't perceive everything. Some schools have also said, there might be another element here. When the demon says to Jesus, I know who you are, they some Scholars would think this is a common demon tactic, as in that they claim knowledge of the person's name and identity in order to throw the person off. So some people think the demons are trying to throw Jesus off here by saying I know who you
are. And in that sense, they're trying to surprise Jesus and get some control over him. So, all of that is in the demons mind as the demon speaks verse 25. Jesus said sharply, sorry, our text said Jesus said sharply or another translation is, Jesus rebuked him. And here's what Jesus says, be quiet. Or another translation is been muzzled. So why does Jesus say that Jesus doesn't want to engage this demon in a conversation? He doesn't want his identity known as soon as the demon says.
I know who you are. The Holy One Of God, Jesus says, be quiet. Jesus does not want his identity known yet. So he just wants the demon gone. So he exercises, the demon And the time to do that, he says come out of him. The Jews at this time were apparently familiar with exorcisms. There were some gifted spiritual people, some profits, and preachers who could do exorcisms apparently. But Jesus is able to do it very quickly and easily.
And so there's something quite different about the way he does it. Verse 26, the unclean Spirit through the man into convulsions. So the demon is doesn't want to leave the man's body. So he sort of putting up his last fight here. As we learn from elsewhere in the gospels, the demons basically a trying to find a person's body. They want to inhabit a body and they're not going to leave
without a fight. Remember, Jesus says, later in the gospels that demons when they're cast out of a man will hang around for a while and then going to someone else and Exorcist today there are some priests who were trained as exorcists will tell you that they when they perform exorcisms, they see similar things. The demon puts up a fight and causes the person to go into convulsions. So the it's successful. The demon leaves him. Now the demons not destroyed.
It's not killed or something, but it is wounded. Probably. It's just going to go off and try and find someone else. So the demons are never really destroyed until the end of time. But by this act Jesus announcement of the kingdom of God, which he had started announcing earlier in the gospel of Mark. Now becomes concrete that people can see what this man can back up. What he's saying? He's performing signs that the kingdom of God is upon us.
And throughout Mark, if you keep reading Mark, you'll see that. Jesus is consistently and progressively dismantling. The forces of Darkness verse 27, the people are astonished and they discuss it with each other. And remember, this is all happened in the middle of a synagogue, very strange. And they say, what is this, a new teaching? So, for them, this is something quite different from what they've been used to from the scribes and the teachers, this is a new thing. What?
They've just seen Jesus do in the sense that He has the power to accomplish what he's talking about. He can walk the talk as it were were as the scribes usually can't with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. So these people begin to recognize that Jesus must be anointed by God. They probably don't work out his the Messiah yet, but they know that there's something special about him.
And verse 28, it says Jesus Fame spread all throughout Galilee, which is this Northern fishing region, but probably worried about. Jesus doesn't spread to Judea and Jerusalem. Just yet at the moment, his ministry is just confined to the northern part of Israel. So that's our text today. I hope you learned a little bit there about demons and exorcisms. There's a few references to this in the catechism.
Firstly in paragraph 2, 173 the Catholic church is teaching about the Sabbath day says the gospel reports many incidents where Jesus was accused of violating the Sabbath law but Jesus never fails to respect the Holiness of this day. He gives the law. It's authentic and authoritative interpretation. The Sabbath was made for man.
Man, not man for the Sabbath. One of the references for this catechism is this passage in Mark 1 when Jesus does an exorcism on the Sabbath, he's doing work on the Sabbath, which we learn later doesn't makes the Jewish leaders quite annoyed. Verse for 38, which is about in the section about Christ.
It says, his eternal Messianic, consecration with revealed during the time of his Earthly life at the moment of his baptism by John when God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power that he might be revealed to Israel, as its Messiah, his works and words will manifest him as the Holy One of God. See here, that quote there the, Holy One Of God. So the demons in mark one recognize that he is the Christ. and in paragraph 16 731 sorry
1673 in the discussion about sacramental, such as holy water, it talks about exorcisms and here's what it says when the church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the evil one and withdrawn from his Dominion, it is called an exorcism Jesus perform exorcisms.
And from him, the church has received the power and office of exercising and that paragraph 1673 goes on to talk about when the appropriate time is to do an exorcism. So I recommend checking out that section if you're interested more in The Rite of exorcism today because demons do exist and exorcisms, continue to be carried out. By members of the church hierarchy. Okay, thanks again for listening. I hope you found it interesting and hopefully we'll see you
again tomorrow. Please tell other people about this podcast, if you're finding this information and this way of learning the gospels useful. Thanks again,