Walking the Walk

Gospel MK 1:21-28

Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, 
and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
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!” 
Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Here we read about Jesus in his public ministry teaching in synagogues.  This must have been a sight to behold in that the young, precocious Jesus was teaching, not as a scribe, but as one having authority - more like a rabbi or priest, but since he was the "Holy One of God" even with MORE authority than a rabbi or priest.  Jesus was a disrupter.  He didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk even casting out an unclean spirit from someone in the crowd.  Was it really someone who was possessed by an evil spirit like in The Exorcist or was it someone with a mental illness (perhaps schizophrenia) - who knows for sure but Jesus healed the man.  Lesson learned.  I am at my best when my words and actions are congruent, otherwise my words are like puffs of smoke floating away with the breeze.