I’ve been watching a lot of Masterpiece Mystery of late, so when I think of someone saying, “I know who you are,” I automatically impute a menacing tone to those words. Though it’s a phrase that can convey a happy recognition – of a movie star, say, or an old friend – it suggests a hidden knowledge about someone’s past or true identity, something not everyone knows about them.
One of the ongoing themes in the synoptic gospels is that the only ones who seem to consistently understand Jesus’ true identity as Messiah are the demons. That makes some sense – as spiritual beings, they would recognize the spiritual authority of the Son of God. They are always afraid of him, as we see in this week’s gospel story:
“Just then 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.’”
These dark forces recognize that part of Jesus’ mission is to destroy them. After all, there is no point in announcing that God’s life has come among us with power to heal and transform the universe, if you’re not also going to deal with the other side of the equation, what our baptismal rite refers to as “the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.” Jesus came that we might have life, and have it in abundance, and that means he also came to break the power of evil over humankind, whether that manifests as demonic oppression, economic and political injustice, disease and disability, or personal sin. One of our great claims as Christians is that Christ did break the power of evil and gave us the means to combat it, through the power of his name.
Do we know who Jesus is? The divine Son of the Living God, the savior and redeemer of the world, the One before whom the forces of evil cower? When we reduce Jesus to a nice guy, a good teacher, a moral model, an important world leader who only wants us to love one another, we leave out the power he possessed and demonstrated, power even his followers could wield in his name, power to heal and forgive and bring peace and justice that his followers can still wield in his name.
He has given us authority over the forces of evil, however we may encounter them. We make his power and presence known simply by invoking his name: Jesus, the Christ, the name which awakens faith, the name by which Peter and John healed a lame man (Acts 3).
This week, whenever you encounter darkness, whether in the depression of a friend or in the headlines of your newspaper, stop and invoke the name of Jesus, inviting his power to transform that situation. That can be a scary prayer, because it’s only one factor among many in any given situation – but if we believe it is the most significant factor, we dare to take that step of faith and make that prayer.
Whenever we do that, we are saying to Jesus, “I know who you are.”
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