Competing Voices

Luke 4:31-37

The reception in Capernaum is very different than the rejection Jesus experienced in Nazareth, his home town. He’s been here before. And he seems to make Capernaum, this lakeside market and trade hub, a home base of sorts during his ministry in Galilee. Not everyone likes him here either, but there is enough receptiveness that he is free to do his thing.

In this case, his “thing” is to exorcise a demon. And he does it in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Later Jesus will entail much opposition from the Pharisees for doing good deeds, like healings, on the Sabbath. But now it is early in his career and the opposition hasn’t yet gotten mobilized.

So on this particular Sabbath, Jesus is teaching. He is an itinerant rabbi and it is common for such rabbis to be given a welcome to expound on the Scriptural passages of the day. Jesus’ teaching is different from what they have heard for it carries a weight of authority. It seems as if it possesses a self-confirming truth, something they’re not used to hearing.

In the midst of Jesus’ teaching, a man cries out at the top of his voice, highly disturbing everyone present, no doubt. What the man says has a ring of truth to it, for he – or actually the evil spirit possessing him – recognizes that Jesus is someone sent from God. But there is fear present as well.

Fear is a sign that God’s work is not present. And this man, possessed by something very other than the Spirit of God, is filled with fear and projects that fear to the crowd. The good folks in Nazareth didn’t need an evil spirit to project fear on them; they could conger up fear on their own well enough. Jesus didn’t want that same fear spreading in Capernaum.

Jesus’ response is to silence the man and then to command the evil spirit to come out of him. Which is exactly what happens. The people are amazed, naturally, and the word gets out rapidly that this Jesus is something special.

Several things are happening in what Jesus is doing. Obviously he is freeing this man from the spirit that controls him. Jesus had come, as he proclaimed in Nazareth, to free those who are oppressed, whatever form their oppression takes, and he is demonstrating just that.

But beyond that, Jesus is doing what he often does in his ministry, silencing those who will say too much too soon about his true identity. It is a strange thing. You would think that Jesus would want the word to get out. After all he himself has said that he has been sent by God, and now he doesn’t want this to be known?

People have all kinds of expectations, all kinds of baggage attached to their understanding of this One who will be sent by God. And Jesus wants time to define himself to others. He doesn’t need this half-cocked evil spirit mixing a message of truth with a message of darkness. Messages of darkness are not totally wrong – in deception, truth and falsehood are mixed up so much together, it is nearly impossible to sort it all out.

Moreover, Jesus is not about to let this evil spirit outdo him even if the evil spirit is acting like a Jesus promoter. You can usually tell when something is in the wrong, especially when it comes in the name of the Lord, for it tends to steal the spotlight from God. That which is holy will draw everyone’s attention to God, something even Jesus himself practices. This attention-getting spirit is not of God and so must be silenced. Which Jesus does.