Demons Flee At The Sight Of Jesus

𝐒𝐄𝐏𝐓. 𝟐, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝟏 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝟓:𝟏-𝟔, 𝟗-𝟏𝟏

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐬𝐚 𝟐𝟕:𝟏,𝟒, 𝟏𝟑-𝟏𝟒 “𝐈 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠.”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐋𝐊 𝟒:𝟑𝟏-𝟑𝟕

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅’𝒔 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒚 𝑶𝒏𝒆.” (𝒗.34)

         In today’s Gospel passage, we read the evil spirit that possessed the man at the synagogue knew who Jesus was as he exclaimed: “𝑰 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆! 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅’𝒔 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒚 𝑶𝒏𝒆.” (𝒗.34) This only goes to show that even the evil spirit or spirits know who Jesus was and the only difference between these forces of evil and believers is that they don’t recognize the sovereignty of God.

         But in the light of the many issues affecting the Philippines’ political environment today especially those related to the scandalous disbursements of funds for the flood control projects, the question that our Asian neighbors are probably asking is or would want to ask is how well do the only Christian nation in Asia know God.

         This question indeed has to be answered because of the magnitude of the corruption that has crept into the highest echelons of government. While reports claim that P545-Billion in public funds have gone to scandalous infrastructure projects of the government, the level of corruption may even breach P1-Trillion.

         And history has an uncanny way of repeating itself. That this is happening under the current Administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. brings back memories of the issue of corruption that led to the ouster of the government of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos some 40 years ago..

         Do not be offended if ever this question is asked because there is some merit behind it as these things won’t be happening if we see ourselves in the way that God sees us. Why this culture of corruption has spread like wildfire is because we have learned to live with the unholiness of our surroundings that we have come to look at it as part of the social landscape.

         Indeed times have changed over the years and today we no longer find it unusual when people especially our elected officials will look you straight in the eye and lie and the only way this can be reversed and restore the sanctity of God’s created beings is to live under the shadow of the Holy Spirit because only the Spirit of God can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holiness of God that is in man.

         Today’s gospel passage comes on the heels of the rejection of Jesus in his own hometown Nazareth and Luke wrote right at the beginning of this Gospel narrative what provided the Jews a view of who Jesus might be as “𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒎𝒂𝒛𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒚.” (𝒗.32)        

         Compared to the other prophets and the Rabbis in those days who spoke quoting from the Words of God given to them and to some extent even us who are given the privilege to teach based on a delegated authority, Jesus separates Himself from the other proclaimers of the Word because He is the incarnated authority. He Himself is already the authority and his teachings are the evidence of this reality.

         And to the amazement of the people in Capernaum, Jesus showed his authority even against the evil spirits that possessed a man who was in the synagogue at the time. Again this is something that we all need to ponder upon.

         While demon-possession was also mentioned in 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭 𝟖:𝟏𝟔 and 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝟏:𝟐𝟑-𝟐𝟔, this was the first time that Luke wrote about demons and this was not without basis as it was the common belief in those days that some of the illnesses related to deafness, dumbness, chronic fever and even insanity were caused by possession of evil spirits.

         And this man in 𝐯.𝟑𝟑 shows us that even demons can make its way into places of worship and it would be foolish for us to think that the Church can provide us shelter from evil spirits as Satan can intrude into our presence wherever and whenever he can.

         This is the reason why baptized Christians especially disciples who are committed to following Jesus must always be aware of the environment that we are in even with the people that we deal with in both inside or outside of the Church or Community.

        We must develop in us the gift of discernment so that we can properly and adequately discern the presence of the evil spirits in our midst as they may come in every form and shape and they may even proclaim words of wisdom as do the false prophets.

         Evil is something that we must live with as it suffuses the world around us and unaware of how evil spirits operate, people are often fearful as they are incapable to ward off the influence of the evil spirits in their lives. To begin with, we can start by reflecting on the circumstances in our own lives. How is our relationship with our family, with the church or community, with my colleagues in the workplace, with the ordinary people that we meet on the street.

         What are the demons in our lives? This is something we need to know so we can confront it, bind it and put at the foot of the cross of Jesus. Demons come in different forms or shapes, and these can even come in a way that we may not be aware of as it can crawl and influence our lives without our knowing it such that we may unconsciously be harboring hatred, grudge, rancor or recrimination against someone and just as suddenly find our relationship shattered to pieces.

         We may be considering ourselves loftier or superior to others. It is possible that our position and wealth may also be influencing the way we relate to others. Many times, we find it difficult to forgive others. At some point, we also find it hard to respect authority not only in the church or community, thinking of ourselves as better than those who exercise pastoral authority over us.

        The important thing is we have the Word of God upon which we can rely on, and we see this when Jesus commanded the demon saying: “𝑪𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏!’ 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅; 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒇𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.” (𝒗.35)

        This passage is significant because it tells us that not only did the evil spirit leave the man, but the man was not even injured. This shows the extent of the authority of Jesus that it left the people at the synagogue so amazed that he came to be known throughout the while region of Galilee.

        This proves the authority of Jesus in conquering evil, and this also shows us that the first step to confront evil and the demons in our lives is to confess the power and authority of Jesus who has overcome evil and Satan himself.

         Luke assures us that the authority of Jesus is much greater than Satan as Jesus also emboldens us in 𝑱𝒏 16:33 “𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕! 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅.” And what Luke is telling us is that where Jesus is present, demons cannot stay for long. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 – 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵. 2, 2025)