Mark 1:21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted, 24 saying, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Nazarene? Have you come to destroy us? I know you who you are: the Holy One of God.” 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him.” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28And at once the news of Him went out everywhere into all the region of Galilee and its surrounding area. NHEB
Jesus is in the synagogue reading Scripture and commenting on it and the people are astonished. We are also introduced to the scribes who are the opponents of Jesus. Suddenly there is a man with an unclean spirit who wants to know why He is out to destroy them. (A second encounter with the dark side and we are barely halfway into the first chapter of Mark). It is interesting that the spirit speaks in the plural initially (“us”) and then switches to the singular as he is exiting the man’s body. Also notice who it is that makes the proclamation about Jesus as the Holy One of God – reminiscent of the demons who believe, and shudder in James, chapter 2. We see “Holy One of God” and immediately think Messiah but it is a little different as Jesus is the unique manifestation of God in the world. The demons know it because it means sayonara for them.
These verses start with Jesus teaching and the people being astonished at His authority then along comes a demon. The demon is banished and we are back to where we started in the synagogue with the people now being amazed at this exorcism and His teaching. Mark’s purpose in relating these stories is to establish the authority of Jesus.
Colossians 1:13 It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son, WEY
This demonic event shouldn’t be all that surprisingly since wherever the people of God show up, the forces aligned against God will also show up. Jesus announces a new kingdom and then a demon shows up as a representative of a different kingdom.
Mark 1:29 And Immediately, when they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And He came and took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them. NHEB
Capernaum is the home of the first four Apostles as well as being one of the most excavated sites in Israel today. You can actually sit on the floor amongst the ruins of this same synagogue today. About 50 yards away is Peter’s house. Since the person to be healed was Peter’s mother in law, we know that the first Pope was married.
In the ancient world, a fever was a death sentence so read it as being about a woman who is dying. There are some today who read this as Jesus working the miracle because he wanted lunch and there was no one there to serve Him. This is viewing the text through 21st century eyes and if you do this, you will miss some important details in this story. First, Jesus is touching a woman who isn’t His mother, wife or sister. In addition, there is no germ theory yet but she is clearly unclean. In the conventional beliefs of the time, the Holy One of God isn’t going to get mixed up in this type of situation, yet Jesus doesn’t hesitate.
Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” NET
The calling of the first four Apostles is a model where Christ says to follow and they do just that. Here is a second model of how to follow Jesus. He restores us to wholeness and our response is as a servant. At this point in the story, the Romans are just shaking their heads. Here is a guy who astonishes people and has power over darkness yet His idea of authority is to serve people.
Mark 1:32 When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to Him all who were sick and demon- possessed. 33 The whole town gathered by the door. 34 So He healed many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew Him. NET
We reach the end of the Sabbath and people start bringing folks to Jesus. He doesn’t permit the demons to speak because Jesus doesn’t want to reveal Himself until the right time. If He reveals Himself too early, the expectation is that He is here to take out the Romans. This messianic secret is that Jesus wants to wait until the right time because He is not what they are expecting.
There is the idea floating around out there that the ancient world didn’t have mental illnesses so in their primitive knowledge, they simply classified these cases as a result of people being demonically possessed. Such thinking diminishes the reality of the demonic. (Note that there is a difference between mental illness and demon possession). Others will say that we don’t see demonic possession today. Perhaps one reason we don’t see it is because we are no longer in the fight against the world and world’s culture because we have let secularism creep into our thinking. Another difference is that those of us who are Christians possess the Holy Spirit. In his book, 3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare, Dr. Clinton Arnold describes demon possession in terms of ownership. Since we belong to the Lord, we can be oppressed by demons but not possessed.
Now demon possession is a mysterious subject. I well remember a sermon by one of my fathers in the Lord that began something like this, “I don’t know much about demon possession but I’ve read a lot of books by people who say that they know much about demon possession, and they don’t know much about demon possession either.” Dr. Ligon Duncan