<> (Download Audio) Mark's Presentation of Jesus Mark 1:21-28 Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 7 Study # 5 March 5, 2019 Moss Bluff, Louisiana 1901 ASV 23 And straightway there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24 saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. 25 And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. 26 And the unclean spirit, tearing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? a new teaching! with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. 28 And the report of him went out straightway everywhere into all the region of Galilee round about.

• I. The Unclean Spirit's Scream of Terror.
  • A. Mark only used the word translated "cried out" twice and the second use informs the first (6:49) because it is very clear from the second use that there is "terror" behind the "cry". This points us to this use because the words expressed here are those of "terror" also.
  • B. What the "spirit" said.
    • 1. It was "said" as "truth" ( legw ). The consistent use of this verb indicates that the focus is upon the "content" of the "saying", not merely the "sound" of speech.
    • 2. "What to us and to you?"
      • a. The " ea " of the Textus Receptus is omitted by the editors of the Nestle/Aland 26 with no discussion in the textual commentary (so insignificant is the support as to not be considered). Its use in any case is rare (only one other use in the entire New Testament; Luke 4:34 in a parallel passage to this one in Mark).
      • b. The essence of this "question" seems to boil down to a claim that there is nothing which co-exists between us. In essence, "What do we have in common?". The strong implication is that the "unclean spirit" thinks that he "owns" the synagogue and its "doctrine" is "his" as it is "fully in common" with his own way of thinking, so that Jesus "does not belong here".
      • c. Typical to all "legal" thinking (a most-fundamentally "unclean" way of thinking in regard to the "relational universe"), Jesus should have, long ago, ceded the "synagogue" to the dark realm as "totally infected and unworthy of the attention of the Divine Spirit".
    • 3. "Jesus, Nazarene" (the central "problem" between God and His sentient creation: man's refusal to resist the pressure of a lack of "reputation", "status", and "power" in the eyes of contemporaries). Or, stated another way, the refusal to be contented with the degree of "reputation", "status", and "power" granted by God.
      • a. Jesus was named "Jesus" because the Father had delegated the task of redemption to Him. Along with this, the Father declared Him to be "My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased".
        • 1) This meant, in terms of "reputation", "status", and "power", that Jesus was the Beloved in the Father's "Love" and, thus, could have no greater "reputation", "status", and "power". Man's "love" is completely without value when it is in contrast with God's.
        • 2) This also meant that He was to execute the Father's plans without any regard whatsoever for what it was going to do to Him; He was to be "an abject slave to the Father's will". In other words, He was to "love" the Father as the Father "loved" Him.
        • 3) This also meant that His loyalty to the Father was going to cost Him in a way that had never been pursued before: Death was going to be allowed a temporary triumph within the "glory" of the "Living" God that was to impose upon Him a level of suffering and loss that human beings cannot even begin to imagine.
        • 4) As "Nazarene", He was to be absolutely stripped of all "reputation", "status", and "power" in the eyes of His angelic and human contemporaries. This is presented visually at the cross where He was stripped of His clothes (as the clothes represented Him) and crucified as a heinous criminal.
      • b. The unclean spirits are called "unclean" because they have absolutely denied the "values" that drive all that is "God" and have absolutely defied the Father at every point of His labors in His creation.
      • c. Jesus, as "Jesus", and Jesus, as "Nazarene", was, is, and is to always be, the epitome of the "Love" of God and the "Truth" of God; and the "unclean spirits" are, and are to always be, in unmitigated opposition to that Love and Truth.
    • 4. Have you come to destroy us (the root of the "terror")?
      • a. This question reveals the knowledge of the "unclean spirits" regarding their future: they are going to be "destroyed", not in the sense of "existence-annihilation", but in the sense of "success-annihilation". In other words, they are going to be preserved as to sentient creatureliness, but are to be denied every "goal" (love) and frustrated in every "pursuit" (faith). The Lake of Fire, created for these beings, is the ultimate experience of these combined outcomes as "vessels of wrath".
      • b. This question also reveals their total ignorance of God's plans in "Jesus"; they cannot conceive of any real substance in God's "Love" and "Truth" so they naturally expect that He is going to "explode all over them" as He has opportunity.
    • 5. I know You, who You are: the Holy One of The God.
      • a. This "holiness" has already been introduced by the descent of the "Holy" Spirit upon Him in concert with the declaration of Heaven that He is the Beloved Son of the Father.
      • b. As "holiness", Jesus has absolutely no "darkness" in Him, not even the barest "shadow", and for the unclean, this is total "opposition". As total opposition, this is the answer to the "What do we have in common?", the expression of "Jesus, Nazarene", and the root of the expectation of "destruction".
  • C. How Jesus responded in measure to him, saying ( legw )...
    • 1. Be made silent.
      • a. The command uses a word that Strong's says means "muzzle it". It is used in the New Testament to mean "muzzle" in the sense of putting a muzzle on an ox so that it cannot eat (1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18); it is used figuratively to mean to cause to not speak (Matthew 22:12, 34; Luke 4:35; 1 Peter 2:12); and it is used figuratively to mean to cause the wind to stop blowing (Mark 4:39).
      • b. The question that is raised in this text is "Why did Jesus stop the unclean spirit from saying anything further since what he said was supportive of the thesis that Jesus was an Authority sent from God?".
        • a) It is a claim by Mark in more than one place that Jesus forbade certain "speakers" to tell others about Him for reasons we will consider when we run across them.
        • b) It is probable that Jesus silenced the unclean spirit's speech because He did not want to confuse the issue of His identity by accepting "testimony" from that part of the spirit world. Satan is a liar and all the Jews understood that. So even when he, or one of his cohorts, spoke the truth in words, the implications were intended to set up a deception.
    • 2. Come out of him.
  • D. What the "unclean spirit" did (all of which indicate intensely oppositional obedience).
    • 1. He caused the man to convulse.
    • 2. He made a loud sound.
    • 3. He came out from him (as commanded).