“And they went into Capernaum; and immediately on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching! With authority, he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.”
There is a lot to be said about what happens here with Jesus when he goes to teach in Capernaum. The people there were totally fascinated with His teachings, they couldn’t believe that this simple man could teach even better than the scribes, priests, and Pharisees, in fact, they knew that even the high priest of any synagogue couldn’t remove unclean spirits from the people, but here this simple carpenter from Nazareth could. Yet, even with such a miracle happening right in front of their own eyes, they still couldn’t see who He truly was.
The most amazing part of this whole scene is not that the people didn’t know who He was, but that the unclean spirit or demon knew the minute he saw Him, who He was; , “…the Holy One of God!” Not only did the demon know who Christ was, he obeyed the demands of Christ when Christ demanded that the demon leave the man. Yet, the people didn’t know who He truly was.
Things really don’t seem to have changed much since the days when Christ walked on earth. You might scoff and even say “How does this gospel even relate? Demons aren’t taking over people, we’re not a suspicious people like they were then.” But you’d be wrong, demons are all around us, whether in the spiritual realm or on the earth. They can be in human form, within our hearts and souls, within the different things that have a tendency to move us further and further away from our Father in heaven. Anything or anyone who has the power or influence over the human spirit to be able to blind us from the truth of whom He really is could be considered a demon or unclean spirit.
The direction in which our society is moving in is causing a great divide, one in which is widening more and more each day as the secular world tries to drown out the voice of God through technology, science, unfounded hatred for others brought on by lies, misconceptions, misinformation, demands for conformity to beliefs that many do know are morally wrong, yet for the fear of “cancellation” or public ridicule, too often we find ourselves being bullied into a corner, and we lose sight of Jesus and often can no longer see who He really is.
Demons today, have not changed. They still know their purpose and that’s to keep us as far away from God as they possibly can, because, they know exactly who He is. They understand where He comes from and the power that He holds over them. Even a demon or unclean spirit knows that they have no power over Him and that even they must obey His Word! This is why it is vital for our immortal souls that we too know who He is. We cannot allow for the evil of this world to cloud our vision. We must realize that the unclean spirits of this world in whatever form they may take exist only to keep us from knowing who He really is.
As things keep spinning out of control all around us, we need to stop thinking that we have all the time in the world to turn things around in our lives. Because we don’t. Now is the time that we need to fight back against the evils of this world, not tomorrow. Now is the time for us to rediscover who Christ is. Not tomorrow! And now is the time for us to surrender to Him and not to the demands of society. Because tomorrow could be too late!
No Thought Police 