Amazement & Resentment – Mark 1:21-28

A text – Mark 1: 21-28

1:21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.
1:22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
1:23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,
1:24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”
1:26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
1:27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching–with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
1:28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

A reflection:

Jesus has just been baptized, been victorious in the wilderness over Satan, and called his first disciples – the fishermen. Jesus has begun his earthly ministry. In Capernaum on the Sabbath, his group enters the synagogue and Jesus begins teaching boldly, energetically. During this teaching, an unclean spirit inside a man in the crowd recognizes Jesus as Lord and loudly names him, committing blasphemy to say Jesus was the Holy One of God. Jesus silences him (and the blasphemy), and then he orders the spirit to come out of the man. It does.

The synagogue crowd is really flabbergasted, understanding Jesus’s teaching as coming from one who really knows, and witnessing Jesus’s casting out of the unclean spirit, freeing the man to live a normal, unpossessed life. This was probably the first time those people had heard such bold teaching and/or seen an exorcism. It was a sudden and remarkable beginning of Jesus’s ministry – and an epiphany for the Capernaum faithful. This man they were watching was not a shy and retiring, sweet and loving Jesus. This was a bold Jesus who interpreted the Torah clearly and definitively, and when he taught in this strong way, the unclean spirit knew exactly who Jesus was and also knew his own remaining moments possessing this poor man were numbered.

What was Jesus’s effect on the crowd? What would it have been on you? And what did the regular rabbi think and feel at that moment? I would like to think that, had I been that rabbi, I would have recognized Jesus as Lord, too, on that morning, and dropped everything to follow him. But maybe, if I had been that rabbi, I might have resented the intrusion on my lesson plan for the day. I might have thought, “Hey, this guy is real trouble. We’d better watch him…” Epiphanies come in all shapes and sizes. Resentment can turn wonder into furtive apprehension. The crowd was amazed and pleased, but the leaders? Maybe not. This was the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, and the beginning of his turning things upside down.

When does resentment get in your way? It gets in my way when I am insecure, when I try to tightly hold onto something I would be better off holding loosely or letting go. I will try to practice wonder instead.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for putting amazing things on our path. Help us to wonder about them to hold them in awe before judging them and resenting them. After all, they may be gifts from you.  Amen.