Almighty and everlasting God, you govern
all things both in heaven and on earth:
Mercifully hear the supplications of your
people, and in our time grant us your peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Mark 1:21-28
Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then 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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
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This Gospel reading ends with a crowd wondering who exactly is this Jesus of Nazareth, and how he has the ability to heal. Remember that these ones have not received the gift of the Holy Spirit whose first gift for all of us is to reveal the answer to this question that is still asked in our own day and generation. As we have received the promised Holy Spirit, we know that this Jesus who heals the sick, forgives sinners, and raises the dead, who himself rose from the dead and opens the tombs of the deceased, is none other than God Immanuel, God among us, God clothed in our humanity to be like us in every respect save that he is eternally perfect, free from sin.
Father Timothy Alleman
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