Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
Jesus did not need lengthy formulas or incantations in order to command demons to obey him. His word was different from the words of others. Others spoke much more and yet the results were by no means guaranteed. Jesus simply spoke, and what he said would then be.
“What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out.”
There was something utterly unique about the words of Jesus, different from any exorcist they had ever seen or any teacher they had ever heard. This was part of what made his message at once so compelling to the crowds and so offensive to the religious establishment of his time. He himself did not even need to pray to cast out a demon. All he needed was the power of his word.
When Jesus he taught he did so with an authority that was greater than Moses, greater than Solomon. He was not limited to saying only what he could prove by quoting the Scriptures. He was not constrained even to what Moses taught. Hence his sermons often began, "You have heard it said", citing what God himself revealed through Moses, and then continued, "But I say to you". He was doing more than adding another layer of nuance or interpretation to their deposit of divine revelation. He himself was the divine voice speaking, revealing the culmination and fulfillment of what had been before only partial and fragmentary. No mere human, with merely human authority, could ever speak in this way.
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (see Hebrews 1:1).
Human wisdom could not penetrate into the divine mystery. Even with the entire Old Testament it was beyond the wisdom of creatures to guess or calculate how God himself would bring his plan to completion. As Paul said, no human ever knew the mind of the Lord, so as to counsel him. Only Jesus himself could reveal it to us. But reveal it he did.
we have the mind of Christ.
Jesus not only revealed his mind to us, he allowed us to have a participation in it, to receive from him a new and spiritual way of thinking. This gift was given to us when we received his Spirit in baptism. It allows us to understand what he taught in a way that natural intelligence cannot. It reveals to us the wisdom of the cross, which is foolishness to the world. This spiritual mind transforms us, making us like Jesus himself. His own words, taught to us by the Spirit, become not only our own words but even our own thoughts. We can, when the Spirit leads, speak with an authority that transcends anything we could claim for ourselves. This is an important way in which we manifest the presence of Jesus to the world, in all his capacities, including as both teacher and healer.
we have the mind of Christ.
We do in fact have the mind of Christ. But we often still choose to use the foolish natural mind with which we were born rather than this amazing gift. Let us pray that we might realize the gift we have received, when the word of Jesus first transformed us, so that his word at work in us can now reach out to others.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (see Romans 12:2).
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