1st Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 10th January 2022 — Gospel: Mark 1,21-28
Command to Silence
The first miracle in the Gospel of Mark is an exorcism. The casting of exorcism indicates that the kingdom has indeed drawn near and therefore, Jesus taught with authority and the crowds were astonished at his teaching. The “new teaching” is that Jesus is able to exorcise the demon by a mere word. This is the first time in Marks’ Gospel that we come across what is commonly known as “the command to silence”. This is a Markan technique in which Jesus commands sometimes demons (1,25;1,34), sometimes those he has healed (1,44) and sometimes the family members of the one healed (5,43) not to make known his identity or that he has been the one who has healed them. This technique is used to denote that Jesus did not want people to mistake him for merely an exorcist or miracle worker but wanted them to realize that he was the Christ who would suffer, die on the cross and be raised.
