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January 28, 2024
COLOR Green
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
Friends;
Our Gospel account takes place shortly after Jesus’ baptism, when the Spirit descends on Jesus and declares him to be: “my Son, the Beloved” (Mark 1:11, NRSVUE). But now we have a different spirit, one that renders a son of God less than he is intended to be, one that controls, convulses, and uses the man to shout loudly in a place of worship. This spirit is unclean. It is not the Spirit of the cleansing waters of baptism; and rather than being concerned about the well-being of the man it inhabits, this spirit is concerned only for itself: “Have you come to destroy us?” (1:24). The preceding question, however, is amazing for what it comes to mean for the suffering man: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” (1:24). Jesus has everything to do with this man, who somehow found his way to the synagogue and to the very presence of the Spirit-accompanied Jesus.
And he now has the gift of freedom, perhaps even the first experience of silence he has had in a long time. What have you to do with us, Jesus? Everything.
