Now after John was handed over, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.” Saint Mark does not keep the order of times. For John’s imprisonment did not occur immediately after the forty days’ fast and the Lord’s temptation. Before John was cast into prison, Jesus both taught many things and worked miracles, as is clear from John 3:24. “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” That time appointed by God has drawn near, of which the Apostle says: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law.” Jesus preaches repentance, as John his forerunner did, to show that he is the Son of the same God of whom John was the Prophet.
“And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” He is called unclean both because of his obstinate will in malice and because he takes vehement delight in the sins and shameful deeds of men. And he cried out, saying: “What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” What business or cause is there between us and you? Have you come to destroy us by preventing us from harming men, by taking away our power over them, by overthrowing our dominion, and by casting us down into the abyss? “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Now by experience I know, and am fully persuaded, that you are the Holy of Holies, that Holy One foretold by the Prophets, promised and expected from God by men, the Son of God.
“It is clear from these words,” says Saint Augustine, “that there was great knowledge in them, but no charity. For they feared their punishment on account of him, but they did not love justice in him.” They knew only as much as he willed them to know, and he willed only as much as was fitting. Yet they knew him, not as the holy angels know him—who enjoy participation in his eternity as the Word of God—but in the way he needed to be known for their terror. For he was about to free, from their tyrannical power, those predestined for his kingdom and glory. Thus he was known to the demons not through the eternal life and unchangeable light that illuminates the pious and by seeing which hearts are purified through faith in him, but through certain temporal effects of his power and by a most hidden sign of his presence, perceptible even to angelic senses, even of evil spirits, rather than to the weakness of men.
“And Jesus rebuked him, saying: ‘Be silent, and come out of the man.’” By threatening he commanded him to be silent and not to manifest him. He imposed silence on the demons and did not permit them to proclaim his divinity, which they confessed out of fear, flattery, hatred, and envy—both lest he be thought to have commerce or collusion with them, which later the Pharisees dared to allege by calumny and blasphemy, and because it was unfitting that truth should receive testimony from the father of lies. He rebuked the demon sharply, says Tertullian, as insolent and impertinent even in his confession, as though this were the highest glory of Christ, that he had come for the destruction of demons rather than for the salvation of men. Christ wished to be acknowledged as the Son of God by men, not by unclean spirits; by those to whom it fittingly belonged, since he had already provided those through whom he might be known, and certainly more worthy heralds. Therefore he rejected the proclamation of the unclean spirit, since saints abounded.
Finally, he shows that ears are not to be lent to demons, even if they mingle something true with their words. Lest anyone, while hearing one who preaches, follow one who errs. For the devil is an evil teacher, who often mixes falsehoods with truths in order to cloak the testimony of fraud with the appearance of truth, as Saint Ambrose says.
“And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.” The devil, violently convulsing the wretched man, casting him to the ground and with a wild cry indicating his rage and pain at being forced to depart from his body, came out of him. Compare Luke 4:34: “And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, it came out of him and did him no harm.” Christ, by command and rebuke, expelled demons, not by persuasion, presenting himself as one to be feared, says Tertullian.
“What is this new doctrine?” and “Because with authority he even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” What doctrine is this, so effective and joined with such power, that he who teaches it does not cast out demons by invoking the divine name, as our exorcists do, but drives them away by command and sovereign authority?
And immediately, going out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was lying down with a fever, and immediately they spoke to him about her. And approaching, he raised her up, taking her by the hand, and at once the fever left her, and she ministered to them.
Three notable miracles Saint Mark recounts in this chapter: the expulsion of a demon, the curing of a woman, and the cleansing of a leper. For since by the envy of the devil death entered into the world, the medicine of salvation had first to act against that very author of death: first, the serpent’s tongue was to be shut up, lest it spread its poison further; then the woman, who was first seduced, was to be healed of the fever of carnal concupiscence; thirdly, the man who had listened to the misleading words of his spouse was to be cleansed from the leprosy of his error—so that the Lord might observe the same order of restoration that had existed in the fall of our first parents.
Now when evening came, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were ill and those possessed by demons … and he cured many, and so forth. He denied the desired benefit of healing to none of those who were brought to him, he who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him. Yet he is said to have healed “many,” because all who were brought to him—the sick and the demoniacs—were many. Thus the blood of Christ is said to have been shed “for many,” though it was shed for all.
And a leper came to him, begging him, and kneeling said: “If you will, you can make me clean.” This is the same leper whom Saint Matthew recounts as having been cleansed by Christ immediately after he came down from the mountain following that famous sermon (Matt 8:1). And warning him sternly, he immediately sent him away. He commanded him strictly, with threats added, not to make public the miracle that had been done in him, and dismissed him. “Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded,” and so forth.
He is ordered to show himself to the priest so that the priest might understand that he had been cured not according to the order of the Law, but by the grace of God above the Law. He is commanded to offer the sacrifice so that the Lord might show that he had come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it—he who, walking according to the Law, healed above the Law those whom the remedies of the Law had not healed. As far as the avoidance of human glory was concerned, he wished the miracle not to be spread abroad, says Tertullian; but as far as the safeguarding of the Law was concerned, he ordered its ordinance to be fulfilled: “Go, show yourself to the priest,” and so forth.
For figurative arguments, as belonging to the prophetic Law, he still preserved in their images—images which signified that a man once a sinner, but now cleansed by the Word, ought to offer a gift to God at the temple: namely prayer and thanksgiving in the Church through Christ Jesus, the Catholic Priest of the Father. Therefore he added: “for a testimony to them.” Without doubt, this testified that he did not dissolve the Law but fulfilled it; it testified that he himself was the one foretold who would take upon himself the diseases and infirmities of men.
C ONTINUE
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