by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. | June 7, 2024 12:05 pm
In the Gospel for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, Jesus is pointing to a change of regime, for “now the ruler of the world will be driven out.” The usurper’s days are numbered, and now the true sovereign has shown up to set things right and free his captive subjects. Why, then, do some of the Jews accuse him of being in league with the very same enemy he has come to defeat? The problem lies in a misunderstanding of what the Kingdom of God is truly about.
In Bible times, most Jews identified their enemies as foreign oppressors, such as the Philistines or Romans. Jesus sets his sights on unmasking the ultimate enemy at the root of human suffering and rebellion. This is the enemy, symbolized by the serpent in Genesis 3, who had led the first man and woman into sin and therefore into alienation from God and from each other.
As he begins his public ministry, Jesus’s message is that God is right here, right now, with us in an entirely new way. It is now God’s chosen moment, the moment he asserts his sovereign lordship over his rebellious creation. He has come to take charge, to straighten things out, to make things right.
So, it is no accident that the first mighty deed recorded in the Gospel of Mark is an exorcism. In the desert battle, Jesus “binds the strong man”; now he sets about plundering the strong man’s house (Mark 3:27). What we see in the ministry of Jesus is an assault on the kingdom of darkness, a clash of kingdoms. The usurper who has seized God’s world and oppressed his people is now confronted with the world’s rightful sovereign reclaiming what is his, liberating his subjects.
From a purely historical point of view, it is indisputable that Jesus, as the Jewish historian Josephus puts it, is a “doer of startling deeds.” In his own day, not even his enemies disputed this fact. They just said it was “by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons [that] he casts out the demons” (Mark 3:22). Jesus points out how ridiculous it would be for Satan to fight against himself. What he says next underlines clearly what these exorcisms and healings mean: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). The kingdom of God is the liberating, healing power of the Holy Spirit flowing from Jesus into the people who welcome the kingdom by faith.
In the new era of the kingdom of God, Jesus reveals God’s secret name and deepest identity – Father. The fundamental truth, the Rock on which we are to build our lives, is this infinite and merciful love that calls each of us by name.
This is the meaning, ultimately, of the deliverance and the healings worked by Jesus. He is making war on Satan not merely to take his territory back. He comes to take his children back. We were kidnapped, and he is fighting to free us and take us home. As in the Exodus from Egypt, he is bringing us out of bondage to make us his very own.
The Scripture readings at Mass for the Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) are: Genesis 3:9-15; | Psalms 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8; | Second Corinthians 4:13–5:1; | Mark 3:20-35[1].
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