Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time
The Levites who composed the Book of Deuteronomy included some teachings of which it could be said that the less they are known, so much the better. But they also included some of the most beautiful expressions and instructions in the Old Testament. For example, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, strength.” This was considered by Jesus to be the most important commandment in the whole Old Testament. The Deuteronomists did not write, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That was not part of their expression of religion. That commandment is found in Leviticus 19:18. More importantly, Jesus himself connected love of neighbor with love of God as one combined commandment.
Other than the commandment to love God first, a second very important part of Deuteronomy is found in today’s first reading. Much of Deuteronomy is in the form of a long sermon by Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness, though Moses had been dead for many centuries when the book was composed. The question came up of a successor to Moses as prophet and leader of the Israelites. Moses answers, “A prophet like me will the Lord raise up for you from among your own kin. To him you shall listen. Those who will not listen to him, I myself will make him answer for it.” In the original context, this oracle legitimizes Josue as Moses successor and spokesperson for God. In the New Testament, however, these oracles find a new meaning when they are interpreted in reference to Jesus. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke relate these oracles to Jesus in their versions of the transfiguration of Jesus, when the voice from the sky says, “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased. To him you shall listen!” Luke gets more explicit in Acts 3:23, openly proclaiming Jesus as that Prophet like Moses.
With this background from the Old and New Testament, it seems clear that the liturgy of this Sunday in its gospel reading also proclaims Jesus as the Prophet like Moses by describing his activity and words as “a new teaching with authority,” just as the oracles and activities attributed to Moses were given absolute authority by the voice from the sky and by tradition. The people's response to this Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm (95), “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” continues the theme that God’s voice must be heard, the voice that came through Moses in the Old Testament and through Jesus in the New Testament.
The second reading continues a series of selections from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Paul is always anxious about the imminent return of Jesus as final judge, even though he was mistaken in this expectation. The headline of this part should be the closing verse of last week’s second reading, “…the form of this world is passing away.” This chapter of 1 Corinthians deals mostly with relationships between wife and husband, and how they may respond to the imminent Parousia (the technical term for Jesus’ final visit to earth). Shall they continue to live their marriage? Paul writes, “I want you to be free of anxieties.” In his opinion, the unmarried man is more concerned with pleasing the Lord, while the married man pleases his wife. Likewise for the unmarried woman versus the married woman. Did it not occur to Paul, who was unmarried, that Christian couples can please the Lord together perhaps more than they could as singles? Fortunately, Paul adds a safety valve to keep married couples together as married, and avoid any scruples about it, “I say this for your own benefit, not to place any restraint on you, etc.”
In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus had chosen his first disciples while walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The home base of these disciples’ fishing business was on the NW shore in the city of Capernaum. So they all arrive in Capernaum – probably at the home of the brothers Simon and Andrew Johnson, (sons of John). This home would become headquarters for Jesus ministry in Galilee. It stood next to the synagogue – implying the importance of the Johnson family in Capernaum. Since Jesus was a devout practicing Jew, and since it was Sabbath Day, Jesus went next door to the synagogue. He would already have been well-known by this time because he immediately took over the reading stand, read a part of Scripture, and proceeded to explain it. Mark describes the scene, “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not like their scribes,” (the usual homilists in synagogues).
In the synagogue on this Sabbath was a man possessed by “an unclean spirit.” The demon knew who Jesus was and proclaimed him by name and by an awesome title, “What have you to do with us, (the demon world), Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” Most politicians would give their right arm for that kind of publicity, no matter what the source. Jesus responds with divine authority, as “the Holy One of God,” “Silence! Get out of him!” Immediate success! The demon convulses the man and exits. The author of Mark’s gospel implies that the miracle itself is a form of teaching, when he depicts the people saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey.”
Why the astonishment? Because the attribution of any misfortune or any sickness to “unclean spirits” was very common, necessitating many forms of remedial exorcisms. Ancient literature has preserved for us some rituals, incantations, and descriptions of materials used. The rituals could be quite long, but Jesus gives a simple command. A detailed account of one or more of these rituals must wait for a future column.
