Why can’t we see or hear God as we see and hear each other? Well, there are many reasons why, but one of the most unexpected of those reasons is that those who saw or heard the living God in this life never wanted to do so again. And that is what Moses recalls to the children of Israel in today’s first lesson from the Book of Deuteronomy.
Speaking of himself, Moses said to the Hebrews “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up from among your own kin; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you requested of the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let us not again hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’” (Deuteronomy 18:15-16)
In others words, the Hebrews found the experience even of the indirect sight and sound of God to be a source of terror rather than consolation because they correctly perceived that nothing ungodly can survive in the divine presence. And precisely because the children of Abraham knew their own sins, they feared for their lives while standing before the glory of the God of hosts who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and who gave them the Law to prevent them from returning to the base condition of slaves by captivity to their own passions.
That is why the people asked Moses: “Let us not again hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.” And that is why the Lord moved Moses to teach the people: “A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen.” This prophecy of Moses is offered to us in the first lesson today to help us understand the significance of what happened in Capernaum 1500 years or so after Moses foretold the coming of a prophet who would speak with the authority of God.
Our Gospel today begins at chapter one, verse 21 of Saint Mark and describes the first public teaching by the Lord Jesus after his Baptism. Mark writes: “And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”
Here we must remember that a scribe was a combination of a theologian and a judge. From the time of Ezra who restored the Sacred Scriptures to Israel after the Babylonian captivity, the scribes were essential to the religious and political life of the nation. The scribes began as highly educated men who were trained to read and write the Torah scrolls which handed on the written Word of God, and over time they took on responsibility for interpreting the sacred texts and applying the Law of Moses both to the lives of individuals and to the entire people of God.
But being sinners like all the sons of Adam, even the scribes fell to the temptation of enjoying their privileges and exploiting the ignorance of others to profit from their knowledge. This exposed the scribes, like the Pharisees, to the fire of the Lord Jesus who said of them: “The scribes and Pharisees sit on the chair of Moses, so do and observe whatsoever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.” (Matthew 23:1-3)
In saying this, the Savior acknowledged the authority of the scribes in handing on the Law and the Prophets, but Christ also insisted that the witness of the scribes’ teaching was diminished by the scandal of their lives. And so now we can grasp why the people in the synagogue at Capernaum reacted as they did to the Lord Jesus: “they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”
Then Saint Mark tells us of a strange development. “And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And 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.’”
Beginning with the Enlightenment, many scholars were inclined to interpret all biblical references to unclean spirits as pre-scientific accounts of grave mental illness rather than as fallen angels or demons who reject the living God and rebel against his eternal plan of salvation. But that is the same form of rationalist skepticism that leads to the Resurrection being reimagined as the memory of the Lord Jesus living on in the hearts and minds of his disciples rather than him being truly raised from the dead.
Now, of course there is mental illness which has nothing to do with demonic activity, but unclean spirits are not a literary device or a figment of anyone’s imagination. They are real, and they are evil. These unclean spirits are angelic persons who fell from God’s grace at the time of their creation and who seek to lead other persons - us - into the misery of their rebellion because misery loves company.
There are more than twenty references in the New Testament to the activity of unclean spirits, and in every case they are enemies of the Lord Jesus because they know him to be God the Son, the eternal Word made flesh. That is why Holy Baptism includes a rite of exorcism and a renunciation of satan and all his lies.
Here we must take note that the demons do not doubt who Jesus is. But although the unclean spirits and their master, the father of lies, know that Jesus Christ is Lord, they do not love him and they will not serve him. And most important for us, in the presence of the Lord Jesus demons have no power, as the bewildered people of Capernaum learned that day.
Saint Mark tells us that “Jesus rebuked him, saying ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying our with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.” (Mark 1:25-28)
Moses promised Israel that the living God would raise up in their midst a prophet like him who would speak with authority and reveal the Word of God, and the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise. Christ is both the preacher of the Word of God and the Word who is proclaimed for the salvation of the world, and so the Letter to the Hebrews describes the Lord Jesus in chapter three, verses one through six, as greater and more glorious than Moses, thus confirming that Moses was a type of the Christ, meaning a foreshadowing of and preparation for the coming of the one who in his own flesh is the Law of Love and Word of God made man.
Saint Mark wants us to see the divine glory of Jesus of Nazareth and to hear the authority of his teaching, which is why Mark’s Gospel opens with the words “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” So, the proper fear of the Hebrews at Horeb was at last overcome by love because in Christ, a man like us in all things but sin, we can now see and hear God as we see and hear each other.
The Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Law and the Prophets. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is the beloved and only begotten Son of God the Father. He is the Holy One of Israel who teaches with authority and rules over all creation as the omnipotent and eternal Word by whom all things were made. And the miraculous deeds of Jesus - his many healings, his authority over unclean spirits, his mastery of nature, and his power over death - all of these are given to us as signs of Christ’s divine glory which summon us to see God the Father in him and to hear and heed his words with the obedience of faith.
But, friends, it is not enough for us to know these truths because even the demons know that Jesus Christ is Lord, but they do not love him and they will not serve him. So yes, we must know the Gospel to be true, but we must also love and serve the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and love our neighbor as ourselves. And that is why we must respond with faith, hope, and love to the summons given by Christ at the very beginning of his public ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
This is the text of my homily for the Fourth Sunday of the Year.
Fr Jay Scott Newman
Thanks Father Newman for publishing your homilies as text. The podcasts are great but sometimes reading it brings out a few details I miss otherwise.
Why can’t we remember this!
Even demons know Jesus 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻