"Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"

 Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.  And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.  Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.  And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"  And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.  Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is!  For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."  And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

- Luke 4:31-37

Yesterday we read that after His temptation in the wilderness,  Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."  So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which  proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country."  Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.   My study bible cites St. Ambrose of Milan, who comments that Christ begins preaching and healing on the Sabbaths to show that "the new creation began where the old creation ceased."

And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.  Jesus does not speak like the prophets of old, nor like the teachers of His own day, who taught in the third person ("The Lord says").  But Christ teaches in the first person ("I say to you").  See also Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount.

Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.  And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"   Everything that has occurred so far in this early ministry of Christ has been done through the work of the Holy Spirit, as our readings have attested (3:22; 4:1, 14).  But here, the spiritual world "breaks out" into the open, and it is clear there is a kind of battle going on, a war for a kingdom within a spiritual setting, in which we also dwell.   But Christ wishes to keep His messianic identity a secret ("Be quiet . . .!").  Isaiah foresaw His refusal to fully disclose His identity as Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-4).  My study bible says the reasons for secrecy include:  (1) the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders; (2) the people's misunderstanding of the Messiah as an earthly, political leader; and (3) Christ's desire to evoke genuine faith, which is not based solely on marvelous signs. 

And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.  Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is!  For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."  And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.  One revelation of Christ's identity occurs through His interact with unclean spirits; He commands them with authority and power. 

Jesus' identity breaks through His own self-imposed silence.  There is a spiritual battle going on, a kind of war for the world.  Human beings are in distress.  In the action of the demons, there is all the symbolism and signs of an invading army:  occupation, brutality, violence, oppression, hostility, imprisonment, hostage-taking.  The unclean spirits impose harsh sentences and penalties upon those who are their victims.  There are many different "evidences" of demons presented in the Gospels:  a boy who's thrown into a fire, a man occupied by a "legion" of demons that destroys his life and his ability to live among people, and here, a man thrown down in the middle of the synagogue.  In all ways, the action of the demons parallels that of an occupying, hostile enemy force.  But in comes Jesus who comes to speak in the synagogue, and it prompts panic from this enemy force, who, unlike the human beings who deny Christ (as in His hometown of Nazareth, in yesterday's reading, above), know precisely who He is:  "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"   The demons fear His power and they cannot resist His commands.  They wonder what He is doing here in our world -- if He's come to destroy them.  It's as if the world is a kind of wilderness where they may roam free, but all of a sudden the One who has the true power and authority to assert order and peace has come into the world.  Has He come to destroy them?  Not quite yet.  Our Savior has come to redeem us, to liberate us.  We needn't be hostages to this force which alienates us from God.  But we are meant to cooperate in our own liberation.  Our Redeemer does no healing and saving apart from our own cooperation and assent to this work.  We are part and parcel of His ministry, and He has come for us, not for the unclean forces that seek to draw us apart from God's love.  Love comes first of all to claim its own, the ones capable of loving in return, and who desire life with Christ -- and to follow where He will lead.  With Christ's word, His entry into our world, just as He enters into the synagogue, He offers us a choice, a freedom, a liberation that asks us to follow Him and make a choice for ourselves.  We are His own creatures, capable of using intelligence and will, and love will not compel us to follow nor love back.  This is a force of love, not manipulation.  We await a final judgment and reconciliation, but in the meantime His life is here, His forces are here, and He offers us this choice to realize who we are in relation to Him.  And this is our healing.  The signs are all there, but who is capable to read them and to know Him and follow?