A clash of spirits

Straight after his escape from his own townspeople when they tried to throw him off the brow of the hill where Nazareth is located, Jesus finds favour among the people of the nearby town of Capernaum, as we read in today's gospel from Luke 4:31-37. In a sense there is a similarity between these two events. They both represent a clash of spirits. In taking up the scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read the passage of Isaiah which begins, "The spirit of the Lord has been given to me ..." This spirit was very much unacceptable to his own folk in Nazareth because, in the two biblical stories that Jesus told about how prophets could be sent to non-Jews as they could to Jews, he explained that there were no bounds to the movement of the true Spirit of God. "Who does he think he is, this kid from nazareth, telling us that we are not special, that we are not the privileged recipients of the Spirit of God?" So here, in today's gospel, we have Jesus facing a man who is possessed by a demon and this spirit says, "Who do you think you are? I know who you are: the Holy One of God." This time he is not just the next-door neighbour's kid. The demon knows that this man is One sent by God. This is a battle for the hearts and minds and spirits of all people. Without having read from the scroll of scripture, those around him exclaim, "What teaching!" They saw the power of Jesus' words. And the message quickly spreads. Let us always be open to the movement of the Spirit of God in ways which can seem disturbing even intolerable, or appear powerful and even unbelievable. But don't be put off by what may appear to be a clash of spirits. Trust in that Spirit which is always inclusive, healing, unafraid and powerful, often in a very gentle way.