The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
The teaching of Jesus was different than that of any who had come before him. It was not like that of the scribes who merely interpreted scripture and handed on opinion which they considered probable. Jesus spoke with certainty, and, although consistent with the scripture, he was not limited by it. He would go beyond it, as he did in the Sermon on the Mount, mentioning a litany of what had been written beforehand and then transforming it to something befitting the new law of grace with his famous "But I say to you". In his voice was no uncertainty or doubt. He was in fact truth itself speaking. This was a level of authority beyond even the greatest of the prophets, let alone the scribes.
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
Jesus did not have to recite lengthy prayers hoping for something to happen. Instead, he spoke, and it was so, just as at creation God spoke creation into being. And it was in fact the case that the incarnate word speaking within his creation was renewing it by his divine authority. The man with an unclean spirit was merely a representative of a world in the grip of sin. It was a world meant for the promise of the sabbath rest but unable and even unwilling to enter that rest because of compromise and containment by the power of the devil.
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are–the Holy One of God!
The words of the unclean spirit were not useful or conducive to the revelation of the identity of Jesus. To that evil being the Holy One of God was merely a threat, a potential end to the tyrannical rule he enjoyed over the possessed individual. Even though what he said contained some measure of truth it was a truth from a warped and distorted point of view. Jesus did not need such a witness. Indeed, he preferred actions to words, revelation of the power of his Kingdom to idle chat.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
Rather than merely embracing a brand, "Holy One of God" and trying to sell himself by techniques of persuasion and marketing, Jesus demonstrated who he was by what he did. When he did take the opportunity to speak about his mission, he pointed back to what he had done and was doing.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (see Luke 4:18-19).
Jesus was famous, not by self-promotion, but by self-gift, bringing truth, freedom, and love into the world in places previously ruled by darkness. And as a consequence it became obvious that he was not merely another contender for the spotlight and "[h]is fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee".
Since Jesus is the one anointed by the Spirit to bring the Kingdom of God into the world we should not be afraid to pour out our troubles to him just as Hannah did, even exposing to him our deepest sorrow and misery. For Jesus is filled with compassion far exceeded that of Eli. He knows our deepest needs better than we know them and desires what is best for us even more than we do for ourselves.
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