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, following His forty-day period of testing 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.  And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.  According to the commentary of St. Ambrose of Milan, Christ began to preach, heal, and teach on the Sabbaths to show that "the new creation began where the old creation ceased."  Jesus speaks with authority, astonishing the people.  The prophets of old and the teachers of Christ's time taught in the third person ("The Lord says").  But Christ teaches in the first person ("I say to you").  See also Matthew 5, the first chapter in 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.  Jesus rebukes the demon for speaking ("Be quiet!").  The Orthodox Study Bible comments that Christ's refusal disclose His identity as Messiah is foreseen by Isaiah (Isaiah 42:1-4).  The reasons for secrecy include first of all, the growing hostility of the Jewish leadership.  Then there is the people's misunderstanding of the Messiah and expectations for an earthly, political leader to bring material wealth and power to Israel.  Finally, our Lord desires to evoke genuine faith not based solely on marvelous signs.  See Matthew 12:16-21.

 

 As Jesus begins His ministry, we see the spiritual conflict that is at the heart of His mission coming out into the open.  The devil is called "the ruler of this world" by Jesus in St. John's Gospel.  And those demons who oppress human beings and make their lives a misery serve under that particular "god of this age," as St. Paul put it.  It is part of Christ's saving mission to lay claim to our world as rightful Lord, and claim it away from the one who holds sway, and refuses to serve the true God.  So, in today's reading, Jesus' power and authority come not merely through His teaching and speaking, and His startling way of phrasing what He says ("I say to you").  It comes through His power over the demons, who also recognize Him.  It comes through His power to cast out the demon, commanding the demon to "come out of him," and -- perhaps startlingly -- it comes through His power to command the demon to "be quiet!"  Jesus is the Master of His ministry, and it is only He who will reveal His identity, and in the proper time, for the proper purposes.  He does not want to be identified by the demons, who know who He is.  They say, "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!"   They identify Jesus as "the Holy One of God."  The One is the One Son of God, the Holy One.  Notice how they are surprised that He is in their midst, and they even know Him as Jesus of Nazareth.  It's interesting to observe what the demons know and what they don't, because it tells us something about these spirits at work in our world.  They can't second-guess the work of God, although they do recognize the power and authority of Christ, for they have no choice.  They are compelled to do so.  Jesus' first act, after His Baptism by St. John the Baptist, was to go into the wilderness and be tested and tempted by the devil.  The Gospels tell us that in so doing, He was led by the Spirit.  (In St. Mark's Gospel, it is said that Jesus was driven by the Spirit; the literal translation of the Greek tells us He was "thrown" by the Spirit into the wilderness, "cast out."  See Mark 1:12.)  In that time of testing in the wilderness during His forty days of fasting and praying, Jesus defeated Satan in their confrontations through obedience to the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Here the demons are powerless even to challenge Him; Jesus simply commands them.  But it opens up for us Christ's mission as Deliverer and Savior.  For He is not on His saving mission simply to make us good, or better people, to teach us good teachings, or even purely to save souls.  He is here to claim His authority; He is here "for the life of the world" and all the created order.  He is here to displace the false rebellious ruler of this world, and through His ministry He also invites us into this fight.  After all, we are at the center of it, and the battle that goes on here is the battle that takes place for our souls, inside of us.  While the demons use human beings for their tortured and selfish, parasitical purposes, Jesus' mission into the world enlists us also as servants of God, just as He is the Servant of Isaiah's prophecy.  He is here so that in our redemption we may become "sons of God" by adoption, even as the angels (including the fallen ones) are bodiless powers called "sons of God" simply by creation (Job 1:6; 2:1).  In this sense, human beings, by the holiness made possible through grace and Christ's redemptive mission, become a part of Christ's ultimate victory and the defeat of the demons' rebellion, even potentially assuming higher places in the created order of God.  Through Christ's Incarnation, deified human nature may thus take the place of the destiny forfeited by the fallen angels.  So, Jesus' presence among the demons spells their end, in a truly cosmic and final way.  Let us pay careful attention and strengthen our faith in His redemptive mission.