“Sunday Reflection” is a regular feature, looking at the specific readings used in today’s Mass in Catholic parishes around the world. The reflection represents only my own point of view, intended to help prepare myself for the Lord’s day and perhaps spark a meaningful discussion. Previous Sunday Reflections from the main page can be found here.  For previous Green Room entries, click here.

This morning’s Gospel reading is Mark 1:21–28:

Then they came to Capernaum, and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit; he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. All were amazed and asked one another, “What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.” His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

The Gospel of Mark starts just before the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, alone among the first four books of the New Testament. Matthew, Luke, and even John (more briefly) preface the ministry of Jesus with an explanation of His divinity, his lineage, and even his childhood in Matthew and Luke. Mark, however, cuts to the chase; he starts off by quoting Isaiah and links that to John the Baptist’s proclamation in the desert that one mightier will follow him. After a very brief narration of Jesus’ baptism and trek to Galilee, Mark writes of Jesus’ teachings in Galilee — and of Jesus’ desire to keep the nature of His incarnation quiet, if not entirely a secret.

That seems curious in the context of the overall arc of the Gospels, but Mark’s narrative of Jesus’ days in Galilee seem to indicate that He had His own timing in mind. The demons cast out by Jesus seem intent on calling Him by His true nature, an attempt to control Jesus by using the power of His name that fails utterly. However, in the very next passage after this reading today, we hear that Jesus leaves the synagogue “immediately” after that exchange. Jesus then goes to Peter’s house and heals his mother-in-law. When news of that spreads, by sundown the house is inundated with people who want healing — and again, Jesus “would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.” Early the next morning, Jesus went to “a lonely place” to pray, forcing Peter and others to seek Him out.

At that point, Jesus tells the disciples that they need to move on, rather than stay and allow His ministry to grow in strength in Capernaum (although He returns to Capernaum soon enough).It seems clear that Jesus wanted to teach “with authority” throughout the land without having Himself declared a king. We see this in other gospel passages as well, when Jesus slips away from crowds which have gathered to follow Him. He had His own timing in mind, waiting for the time to be ripe to make His nature known, and to provoke a confrontation with the religious authorities that controlled the lives of Israelites in those days. On his return to Capernaum, we see that already beginning in the story of the paralytic who gets healed after being lowered through a hole torn in the roof. The scribes challenge Jesus over His forgiveness of sins, calling it “blasphemy,” even though the paralytic has been legitimately healed.

And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they questioned like this within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question like this in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.” And he rose, and immediately took up the pallet and went out before them all; so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

Why wait, though? Why not just come right out and declare His kingship and divinity, and then prove it directly rather than through signs and teachings? Jesus traveled, taught, and healed in much this same fashion for three years throughout Israel before finally challenging the temple authorities directly, having avoided it prior to that. Why not just come right out at the synagogue at Capernaum and explain the source of both His insight and His power — even if only to His disciples?

The answer is that God wants us to come to Him, not as slaves or subjects but as His children. In fact, He wants that so badly that His Son came to us to teach us how to accomplish that. As C.S. Lewis put it in The Screwtape Letters, God wants His servants to willingly and joyfully become His children, to form their wills to His own, not by decree but by formation in sincere caritas love. This answer is frustrating, even for the faithful, who would sometimes (often!) prefer to be formed rather than go through the difficult process of formation on our own. That, however, is the blessing and curse of being made in God’s image. We have free will, and that means we can choose whether to follow God or the impulse toward sin.

To declare Himself as the Son of God would have forced Israelites to choose immediately between eternal life and death, without any preparation to make that choice. Jesus gave the people of Israel the choice of pursuing salvation by providing the teaching — the formation — necessary to make that choice, even though He knew they would reject Him. He protected the Israelites by keeping that knowledge from them while forming them in such a way that they (and we) could eventually accept it.  The disciples, especially Peter, come to understand the truth of Jesus, but even then Jesus warns them to keep the knowledge to themselves. It’s not to protect Himself, but to give everyone a chance to grow enough to accept it, even after they reject and execute Him.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. And the Son loved us so much that He worked patiently and tirelessly for salvation. The demons that Jesus cast out only know slavery and domination, and only understand it as well. Jesus came to free us from that, from the slavery of sin to the inheritance of love and joy. However, we must make that choice in the end, as that is the gift we have from God, and from the formation in Christ that we choose to undergo. Will we choose a life as the sons and daughters of the Lord, or bind ourselves willingly in the chains of sin?

Note: Please accept my apologies for missing this feature last week. The Iowa Freedom Summit took all my attention on Saturday, and I spent all of Sunday morning driving home.

The front page image is of the site of the 1st-century synagogue in Capernaum. The darker stones date back to the time when Jesus taught; the structure above is from the 4th century. From my own collection.