3. A day in Capernaum

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

This is the summary of Jesus' preaching that the evangelist Mark places at the beginning of his text as a fundamental kerygma. We are at the beginning of the first part. The Gospel of Mark is structured in two great moments where each culminates with a profession of faith. We will now consider the first part, which culminates in Peter's profession of faith: "You are the Christ" in chapter 8.

This first part is structured in three moments, with some characteristics that are repeated. Each of these three moments begins with a summary, that is, a synthetic sentence that summarizes the action and preaching of Jesus. After the summary, comes a scene of vocation. Then some fairly homogeneous episodes in the structuring to close the part with a note of rejection of polemical opposition.

Thus, this first part of the entire first section starts from the first chapter, verse 14, with the preaching of Jesus and ends in chapter 3, verse 6, with a note of division: “The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against him to put him to death.” The following verse is a new synthesis, another summary: “Jesus withdrew toward the sea with his disciples. A large number of people followed him… ... he cured everyone."

Therefore, the evangelist thought of organizing the material he had with a certain structure. We should not naively think that the Gospels are the life of Jesus. We have already said that Mark does not mention Jesus’ childhood. Many details about the biography of Jesus are omitted. Mark has no intention of writing a biography. He collects the apostolic preaching on Jesus. His book is a kerygmatic text, that is, he wants to announce Jesus in whom we must believe.

It is a text created for the Easter liturgy aimed at the faith of the catechumens. Mark does not simply tell a story, but forms believers and accompanies them to the initial profession of faith of baptism, in such a way that it becomes the structure of all life. Hence, the material that he found that was handed down to him by tradition, and in large part, perhaps already in writing, he rewrites it and gives a structure to the various episodes.

Thus, he organized this first part of his narration with three summaries, three vocation stories. After the concise announcement of the preaching, the call of the first four disciples, an extremely synthetic narrative. It is not a historical reconstruction to be able to follow that man who demanded a great deal.

Simon, Andrew, James and John should already know something more about Jesus. And it was naturally so, in the sense that before following Jesus they must have listened, valued, esteemed him, but the story is extremely schematic, essential or omits everything that is not aimed to the proclamation of faith.

"As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”

The same scene is repeated immediately afterward.

“Jesus saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay, he called them, and they left their father Zebedee… and followed him.”

Mark is interested in very important verbs. Jesus entered the lives of these disciples, called them and they responded positively. No detail, no chronicle account. It is a theological synthesis. And it is important to underline that initial change in perspective. They were fishermen, but Jesus proposes them to become fishers of people. It is a radical change.

Let's try to reflect: the fisherman pulls the fish out of the water and kills them. He takes them out because he wants to eat them, especially because he wants to sell them, to have an income, to gain from it. The fisherman kills the fish to make a profit. But Jesus' perspective is to transform those men into fishers of people.

He who fishes a man saves his life. Recent news has presented us with the drama of those who can die at sea if nobody intervenes to fish them out. A fisher of people is, therefore, one who saves the lives of those who are drowning and does not do it for material gain, but precisely for an intervention of salvation, of liberation, of human promotion. Instead of a promoter of death, he becomes a giver of life.

Jesus’ perspective is overturning the word ‘fisherman’ from its usual meaning; the perspective is completely different; and those four leave behind what was their existence and begin a new experience.

At this point, Mark tells a typical day of Jesus set in Capernaum, which has become his city of choice. He left Nazareth, a remote village on the hills of Galilee where very few people pass by. To be able to announce his message and make it spread quickly; it was necessary to start the ministry in a vibrant country with a lot of people.

Capernaum was a seaport, a bit the center of the fishermen’s cooperatives of the lake where all those who trafficked in fish – where all those who bought the fish and transported it to sell it around were found. Therefore, it is a place where many people went around and from that provincial but lively environment, Jesus begins his preaching and begins it in the synagogue in a particular way. He starts just like a teacher.

This is a bit of an enigma because the synagogue was well structured, organized with precise rules. The synagogue was a religious reality managed above all by the Pharisees, quite different from the temple. While the temple was unique in Jerusalem and was managed by the priests who make sacrifices there, that is, the immolations especially of animals, according to the rules. The synagogues are many. Every village has one and the cities can have several. They were meeting places where Sabbath-observant Jews gather to read the Scripture, to meditate, to pray, and it takes someone to lead the prayer meeting, to do the reading, and to explain the biblical text that was proclaimed.

The synagogue was organized with a festive lectionary. Every Saturday a text was proclaimed, following a kind of lectionary of the Scriptures. Archeologists have found some texts, dated a little later than Jesus’ time. Through these findings, we know that the reading of the entire Pentateuch was done over a period of three to five years. Books of Moses were read in full with a division, to have about 150 passages, one for each Saturday for three years. When the last chapter of Deuteronomy was reached, on the following Saturday they would restart with the first chapter of Genesis. And therefore, the whole text of the law of Moses was continually proclaimed as the first reading.

Then a second reading, a text taken from the prophetic texts, served as an interpretation, accompanying explanation. But even this text was not left to the free initiative of the reader or commentator, but was foreseen by the ritual of the synagogue, as well as the various prayers of introduction and conclusion. Jesus enters the synagogue with the attitude of a teacher. Somehow they recognize him as a master of the synagogue.

Did he study, did he attend those fine schools that he had the qualifications to do it? We do not know; it is not said. But from the facts that are told we can imagine something like this. It is not enough to enter a church. Let’s think about our current requirements. In order to be able to preach, there is a regulation of the liturgy. The first one who arrives to the church does not pick up the microphone, he cannot read the text he wants and give his explanations. If I let him preach it is because I recognize him as competent and belonging to a structure, for which, instead of me doing it, he does it. It means that the head of the synagogue in Capernaum recognizes that Jesus is qualified, authorized to hold meditation, the biblical commentary on those passages that were proclaimed.

Mark recounts this as the first scene: “They reached Capernaum and immediately Jesus entered the synagogue on the Sabbath to teach.”

I don’t know if you have noticed how frequent the adverb ‘immediately’ is used in Mark’s text. It is a small detail, but it should be noted since it does not appear in any of the other evangelists. Mark uses it abundantly, perhaps too much. It is expedient to give his narration a particular and dynamic approach, that is to say, there is no time to waste. Jesus is an active man; do things right away. “Immediately the Spirit pushed him into the desert” … “Immediately the disciples followed him…” “He immediately called them and immediately they followed him” … They came to Capernaum and "at once" Jesus came in to teach on a Saturday.

He taught. The first thing about Jesus is that he is a teacher. He is a synagogue teacher. He explains the readings and people are amazed, however, at his teaching because he did not teach like the scribes, but as one with authority. The tradition of the scribes was to reinforce their teaching with reference to previous teachers; and so, we have in the great collection of the Talmud of the 5th century after Christ, but a collection concerns many older masters and the habit of the tradition of the scribes of Israel is to keep the name of whoever said that sentence. ‘The teacher taught it to me and I repeat it to you under the authority of that teacher.’ ‘Our parents have taught us to do so, therefore, I repeat to you that it is necessary to do because our predecessors have told us.’

Jesus, on the other hand, amazes people because he does not appeal to any authority that precedes him, but he is the authority. He presents himself as one who has authority. In the gospel of Matthew, we find those formulas that Mark does not reproduce, but which give us a good idea of the authority of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients, but I tell you…” That ‘I tell you’ of Jesus makes explicit his authority.

In that teaching context, something unexpected happens. Suddenly one of those present goes into a rage, starts talking, interrupts Jesus screaming, somehow insults him: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” (Here you are in Capernaum… you are from Nazareth—meaning to say: ‘go home’.) "Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are‚ the Holy One of God!” Who is this man? Is he speaking on his own initiative or is there someone else who makes him speak?

The narrator has told us that he was a man possessed of an unclean spirit. Note that the unclean spirit is the opposite of the Holy Spirit; God's spirit is holy but the unclean spirit is a spiritual reality opposed to God and, therefore, has become corrupt, dirty; it is a diabolical, satanic reality. This man is prey to a diabolical power that makes him speak against Jesus. “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” He does not tell the man to be silent but to that spirit, which makes him speak, he commands the spirit to go out. It is important to note that it is an exit, an exodus.

This is the first miracle narrated by Mark. It is an exorcism; it is an exodus. Jesus brings out an evil spirit from a man. That man, although he has been torn apart, becomes free. “Everyone was so afraid that they wondered: ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands unclean spirits and they obey him.’” Here is where the authority of Jesus’ commands is realized. Jesus is a teacher who speaks and realizes what his word says, he has a power that we call ‘sacramental’, effective, he realizes what it means, he is not simply a theorist who announces something ideal with beautiful words. He is one who realizes concretely what he says. He was explaining the scriptures of liberation and concretely liberates a man from the power of evil.

“What is this?” people ask. It is a 'didaké kainé’, it is a doctrine of new quality accompanied by authority. Jesus has authority, but he is not authoritarian. Jesus has the authority of one who can make the word effective. “And his fame immediately spread everywhere in the whole region of Galilee.” For Mark, the beginning of the ministry in the synagogue of Capernaum is an emblematic sign of the work of Jesus, a powerful teacher in the words he says, in the actions he performs, and causes the exodus to happen. If it is true that the Gospel of Mark was written for Easter night, the night of the exodus, and prepares the catechumens to leave the old world to be liberated, this beginning of Jesus’ ministry directs the recipients in that direction. The recipients are "that man" who can be freed by the word of Jesus.