Power, compassion and priority are words that come to my mind as I re-read Mk 1:21-45.
Jesus is not like the teachers the crowds are use to, he teaches with authority. He walks into a synagogue and straight-off a demonized man is powerfully impacted; the demon within knows their game is up. Jesus isn’t some traveling rabbi, he is the “Holy One of God” (see some xref ).
The power Jesus has as God’s Holy One, does not isolate him from people and their needs. He enters Peter’s house, whose mother-in-law is ill, and he heals her…in fact he spends the whole night healing the sick and delivering the demonized. Near the end of the chapter again we see this compassion expressed as Jesus touched the untouchable leper and healed him.
Healing people and delivering the opressed is a key part of Jesus’ ministry, but it wasn’t the reason he came. He came to proclaim the gospel of God saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1:15). It seems to me that he didn’t want either the demons or those healed to broadcast his miraculous works as if they were the headline story. No he wanted his message to be heard, even if that meant keeping his identity and power under wraps.
What I was struck with is that there is no picking and choosing with Jesus. For example, you can’t say, “Oh I like that he can heal, but I will pass on his repentance message.” I have to be open to the whole influence of the Holy One.
Let’s start that dialogue…what did you see in the passage regarding Jesus?
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Men of the Way 