And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority

 

 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 Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee (following His temptation by the devil as He fasted for forty days), 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 the commentary of St. Ambrose of Milan, who says that Christ begins preaching and healing on the Sabbaths in order 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.  The prophets of old would teach in the third person ("the Lord says"), and teachers such as the scribes of Christ's own time would teach by quoting famous rabbis.  But Jesus' teaching was expressed in the first person ("I say to you").  My study Bible explains that this is what is meant by the statement that Christ's word was with authority, and therefore why this type of teaching astonished the people.  See, for example, 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!"  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.  My study Bible reminds us that the prophet Isaiah foresaw the Lord's refusal to fully disclose His identity as Messiah (Isaiah 42:1-4).  Therefore, Jesus rebukes this unclean demon, crying out with a loud voice, to be quiet!  The following reasons are given for this desire for secrecy.  In the first place, Jesus will contend with the growing hostility of the Jewish leaders (He has already experienced the wrath of the neighbors in His hometown of Nazareth in yesterday's reading, above).  Second, there is the people's misunderstanding and expectations of the awaited Messiah as an earthly, political leader.  Finally, Christ desires to evoke genuine faith, which is not based solely on marvelous signs.  My study Bible concludes that Isaiah's reference to the suffering Servant therefore refers first to Christ, and by extension all who follow Him.

 

Christ's humility takes front and center stage in today's reading.  This statement might seem paradoxical, given that we've just read, in fact, that Jesus teaches with a personal authority that is so rare as to be astonishing to the people.   But, in fact, if we consider that Christ expresses Himself clearly and honestly, but without declaring Himself to be the awaited Messiah, then we begin to understand what humility looks like, and why He is the example we have.  In fact, this humility is precisely what is notable about Isaiah's depiction of the Christ as a suffering Servant.  Through Jesus' example, we learn what it is to tell the truth, being obedient to God, but without ostentation or grandiosity, incurring the astonishment -- and resentment -- of others.  In fact, this propensity of Jesus to act and to speak with authority will earn Him the opposition of the religious establishment, and lead to His persecution.  It will be a sticking point in the questioning of the religious authorities as to why and how Jesus conducts His ministry.  But Jesus manages to do something very important:  He acts and lives by His true identity, but never declares this as a proposition to others.  It is His life that reveals who He is, something that can be seen only with the eyes of faith.  This teaches us a great deal about what is true humility.  Humility is not debasing ourselves nor degrading ourselves in some manner so as to please others, or to grovel.  Humility is basically an absolute truth; we are humble before God is who we are, including our flaws, and seeking to do the things that please God in all our choices.  If we think of being fellow servants with Christ -- and servants and disciples of Christ -- then we seek His will in all things, and this is humility.  Just as Christ puts His human will second to the will of God, so we seek to please God and put our own impulses in service to God.  And this is humility and truth, for it is a true expression of the truth of who we are as creatures of God who seek to be children by adoption, to be children of Abraham, in the words of John the Baptist (Luke 3:8).  To live this way is to live with true integrity, for it is an attempt to live transparently in accordance with who we truly are, no more and no less, as those who must acknowledge God and God's guidance as our greatest need and dependency in life.  To live as humble is to remember God, and that God is the ultimate judge of all things, and not ourselves.  To be humble is to know that the discernment of the Holy Spirit, who reminds us of all of Christ's teachings, is what we need to seek at all steps in our lives.  To be humble is to remember that we are time-bound creatures, and so we are born to be always learning, especially from our mistakes.  As those who live bound by time, we live with constant change, and that dynamic of change applies to us as well.  Therefore we must be aware of our constant need for repentance or "change of mind," as the Greek word μετανοια/metanoia literally means.  As Christ's disciples, we will always have new things to learn, and He is our authority.  As His disciples, we are also called upon to forgive and to love, both of which take a great deal of humility, and form a long learning curve.  Let us be "like Him" in all things, as we are able.