Read Mark 1:21-28 with your family.

This is the first story of healing in Mark’s Gospel. One of the curious things about this story is how the unclean spirit knew who Jesus really was, but none of the people around Jesus understood that he was the Messiah.

Jesus didn’t want any of the people around him to know until he was ready to tell them, so he told the unclean spirit to be quiet. Jesus did that a lot throughout the whole Gospel of Mark.

There was so much to teach his disciples that Jesus needed time to share everything. If they knew who Jesus was right away, they might not have listened and learned the way they did. Sometimes people are so overwhelmed by how important a person is, or how famous, that they don’t listen to what is being said. Jesus didn’t want that to happen.