First Week of the Year – Tuesday 13.1.2026

By: Rev. Fr. Fredrick Kiwanuka

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus began His campaign as He went into the Synagogue and begun to teach. People were completely astonished at the way he taught, for he taught them like one who had personal authority, and not as the scribes did.

The Gospel passage for today is the first account of exorcism, of Jesus driving out a devil, in St. Mark’s Gospel – the first victory over the powers of evil. If Jesus’ words had amazed the people in the Synagogue, his deeds left them thunderstruck. In the Synagogue there was a man in the grip of an unclean spirit. He created a disturbance and Jesus healed him. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? Saying, “Be quiet! Come out of the man” And with a loud voice the devil came out of the man. The gospel goes to say that all were amazed and began to ask one another. “What does this mean? A completely new teaching in spirit of authority. He gives orders to unclean spirits and they obey. And so Jesus’ reputation for teaching with authority spread throughout the country side, confirmed by His authority over evil spirits.

Too often we consider ourselves Christians when the going is easy, when Christ’s teaching agrees with our easy way of life, when it doesn’t disturb our complacency. But when His teaching is hard, we tend to overlook it. We fail to recognise the supreme divine authority which Jesus speaks in the Gospels. When He speaks about love, justice, the poor, about giving a coat to our neighbour who has none if we have two, we hold back. We apply different values. We fail to act as Christians. We are unwilling to sacrifice out comfort in order to live by the authority of Christ’s Gospel.

We pray that we love Jesus’ teaching because He teaches with divine authority.

@ Christ the King Parish, Kampala