Tuesday of the First Week in Ordinary Time
I am always struck by how hard Jesus works to keep his identity a secret in the Gospels. Today’s Gospel (Mark 1:21-28) is one such example. In it, we see Jesus perform the first miracle in Mark – curing a man possessed by a demon. Notice what the demon says before being cast out, “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24) Jesus, having heard enough, commands the demon to be quiet and get out of the man. I come away from this passage with one burning question: Why is the demon knowing Jesus’ identity such a threat?
There’s a lot of power in knowing someone’s identity. There’s a reason that so many companies, organizations, and schools post pictures, names, and brief personal histories of their employees. The goal is to make things more comfortable for a prospective client or student – being able to match a face to a name means that next time you visit a campus, you can recognize someone even if you have never actually met them. You can identify them without knowing much more than you’ve heard from others or seen online. But Jesus doesn’t want his identity as the Holy One of God known to the public. Instead, he actively works against that happening. Why?
Consider the people Jesus does reveal himself to. In the Gospel of Mark, it’s almost strictly the disciples and those for whom he performs miracles. He reveals himself most fully to the disciples at the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8) and lets the recipients of miracles conclude who he is on their own. He is very careful to reveal that he is God only to those who he is most intimately connected, and shies away from having it proclaimed to other people. Having a demon shout to an entire crowd in the synagogue is the opposite of the way that Jesus reveals himself to others. It is not until after Jesus dies that someone not possessed by a demon can proclaim that ”truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39)
What are we to make of all of this? What do we do with the fact that for an entire Gospel, Jesus doesn’t reveal his identity as God publicly, but only in closed, intimate settings?
We learn that we must draw near to Jesus. It is not enough to be among the crowds, watching Jesus preach and perform miracles. We must spend time with him in prayer. We must seek to follow him not only as spectators, but as disciples. We must welcome him into our illness and our pain and our suffering. The disciples only witnessed the Transfiguration because they had already sought to follow him so closely. Those who received miracles only did so because they first admitted to Jesus that they were in need. In order to connect with God and to have him reveal himself to us, we must allow ourselves to get as up close and personal as possible, as it is only through a relationship that intimate that God can fully reveal himself to us.
Let us seek to know Jesus with the closeness needed to truly know Him, the Holy One of God
- Marty Bagatti