Today's Gospel in Art - Jesus said, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!'

Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius, by Sandro Botticelli 1500 © National Gallery, London

Gospel of 1st September 2020 - Luke 4:31-37

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath. And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.

In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, 'Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.' But Jesus said sharply, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!' And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, 'What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.' And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.

Reflection on the Painting

In today's reading we hear how Jesus 'spoke with authority' to the crowds. They were impressed with the way Jesus spoke. They were not just inspired by what Jesus said, but also by the way He said it. Often we run the risk of separating the message from His person. By doing that we are in danger of merely reducing Christ's message to a moral code. It is much more than that; it is intricately linked to Him as a person.

Later on we read about an exorcism Jesus performed at Capernaum. In art, it isn't really until the Middle Ages that exorcisms are depicted. We have looked before at Medieval manuscripts depicting an exorcism (see https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/296 and https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/339 ), but let's look today at a painting. Our painting (and please enlarge it on screen if you can), is by Sandro Botticelli. In the Middle Ages, the role of the exorcist was inseparable from the saint's life, whose primary function was to help heal people and make them grow closer to God. Similarly to Christ, the medieval saints were expected by the people around them to have the ability to perform divine healings. So the depictions of saints performing exorcisms became very popular. Botticelli's painting of the Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius illustrates the life of the 5th-century bishop Zenobius, one of the patron saints of Florence. The first miracle, on the very left of our panel, is the bishop healing two possessed young men. The men, who had beaten their mother and who, after being cursed by her (depicted in the middle scene), began to devour their own flesh, are being exorcised by Saint Zenobius who is praying before a Crucifix. We can see the two demons leaving their bodies. The scene on the right hand is the young men kneeling in front of the bishop after having been healed by him… with authority…

LINKS

Today's story - https://christian.art/en/daily-gospel-reading/531

Christian Art - www.christian.art