28 January 2024: Mark 1:21-28

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Please read the passage before reading the commentary

My sisters and brothers,

Jesus entered the synagogue and taught, and the people were astonished at his teaching.  He was a hometown boy and had never been to the great University of Jerusalem or even the regional Bethlehem Junior College and Trade School.  He had no credentials, yet he taught with authority.

Jesus had just announced the fullness of time and the coming of the Kingdom of God.  This would be the ending of the kingdom of Satan.  It is not that Jesus would make a direct attack on the devil.  It was that the devil would seek him out.  It is not that Jesus had come to destroy the devil, but that the devil himself had come to be destroyed.

It was like what many famous and successful generals have done, lured the attacking army into a wild goose chase, depleting their supplies and weakening them into surrender.

Here, when Satan was sneaking up on Jesus, Jesus met him head on.  Jesus spoke with authority and told Satan to leave quietly.  Jesus commanded and the unclean spirits obeyed him.

We do not have to go looking for the devil, because the devil comes looking for us as he had looked for Jesus.  We have the power to dismiss the devil and put him in his place.  We have the power to command him to leave and we should always command him, not ask him, to leave.

Satan has lost the battle and the war.  He has been defeated by Jesus and has no power over us because we are the living presence of Christ in the world today.

We have the power to live the Christian life with authority.  It is not that we have been to the prestigious University of Jerusalem or the regional Bethlehem Junior College and Trade School.  Our only credentials are that we have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in us who gives us the power to command even unclean spirits and have them obey us.