NOTES for Лк 4:31-37

It is interesting that the more religious a person is, the more often he suspects the people around him of being possessed. Most of these suspicions are unlikely to be justified, but possession certainly does occur. It happens that damage to the sphere of the will, which can already be regarded as mental illness, is accompanied by the intrusion into a person of an alien will which at certain moments takes control of him. The Gospels describe quite a few encounters between Jesus and such sufferers, and in most cases the possession manifests itself when the bearer of that alien will, the demon, cries out upon recognizing the One who is approaching. Jesus never rejoices in such recognition or in such testimony about Him—for can the testimony of a demon be accepted? Instead, He forbids the evil spirit to speak or act and drives it out of the person. This would seem to be an unequivocal victory of good over evil, yet people's inner corruption is such that they fail to recognize good even when it is plainly casting out evil.