Was he a total stranger,
visiting the synagogue for the very first time? Or had his condition just
remained hidden from the leaders and his fellow worshippers over many months,
even years? Whatever it was he took a big risk the day he manifested before
Jesus (Mark 1:21-28). For to be recognised as having an unclean spirit would
have almost certainly meant he would have been banished from the synagogue and
probably from the wider community too. Unclean spirits and religious
institutions just didn’t mix.
On the margins
The demonised can be added
to a long list of unwelcome people to 1st century Judaism. Tax
collectors, whores, Samaritans, lepers, the disabled – the list just goes on.
Marginalised, rejected and condemned to live on the outside of civil society.
So when this man took the step of manifesting in the synagogue on the day Jesus
had been teaching he was taking an almighty risk. Of course, he could have been
a total stranger in Capernaum and therefore didn’t have a stake in that society
anyway. What is sure is that whatever his status there once he manifested his uncleanness
he would have been quickly dispatched.
Compassion
The why he manifested can
easily be answered by saying he was seeking a confrontation with Jesus – ‘the Holy
One of God’. His fear and defensiveness are clear. But could it also be that he
saw in Jesus someone who wouldn’t reject him? That he saw his opportunity for
healing and acceptance? He had lived with the fear of being pushed to the
margins for who knows how long but that day he met with someone who was willing
to take his own risk with marginalisation. And in the meeting between the two,
compassion flowed.
