Demoniac in the Synagogue

While teaching in the synagogue of Capernaum one Sabbath a demoniac began to cry out at Jesus. People were listening and astonished at Christ's teaching. The demoniac's interruption occurred at the point where Christ was speaking of His mission to set free those who were slaves of sin and of Satan. In this experience Christ was brought once more face to face with the enemy whom He had defeated in the wilderness of temptation. The audience was listening intently to the message Christ bore, and Satan designed in this way to divert the attention of the people from the truth that was finding fertile ground in at least some of their hearts.

The evil spirit hailed Jesus as One who was in particularly close relationship to God. At other times demons addressed Him as the "Son of God" (Matt. 8:29 Luke 8:28), the very title that led the Jewish leaders to desire His death (John 5:17, 18) and eventually to condemn Him. Jesus "censured" the evil spirit without, however, bringing a "railing accusation" against him (see Jude 9). The rebuke appears to have been administered because the spirit addressed Him as the Messiah. Jesus well knew that an open claim to the Messiahship at this time would only prejudice many minds against Him. Furthermore, the turbulent political situation in Palestine produced many false messiahs, who proposed to lead their countrymen in revolt against Rome and Jesus sought to avoid being considered a political messiah in the popular sense. This would have blinded the people to the true nature of His mission and have offered the authorities a pretext for silencing His labors.