“…with authority”

(Mark 1:21-28)

They went to Capernaum; and when the Sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.   They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  Just then there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and 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.”  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”  And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.  They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this?  A new teaching—with authority!  He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”  At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

            Just as a reminder: In the Gospel of Mark, Galilee is the place where the Gospel is preached, where the kingdom of God comes near, where the time is now.  So, we’re told at the beginning of today’s lesson that Jesus and the disciples went to Capernaum which is, in fact, in Galilee.  The ministry has begun.  And when we hear that Jesus’ fame began to spread around Galilee, we can only imagine all that’s about to come. 

So, Jesus’ ministry takes up its first issue, and it is about authority—who has it and who doesn’t.  This is important to establish because it is about God’s new revelation, God’s voice in Jesus.  It’s about Jesus breaking into the old system and offering a new way—with authority.

            So, let’s talk about authority for a bit.  For most of us, our parents were the voice of authority during our young years.  There was no being convinced about it, no questioning it—most of the time.  They just were the authority figures.  Then we added our teachers and various other adults.  As young teens, we may have become a bit full of ourselves.  That’s when our peers and other external forces took on the voice of authority in our lives.  As we became adults, we, hopefully, began to make mostly wise decisions about who takes on the voice of authority for us. 

Some of us have spent a good bit of time looking around for a guru, an external voice of authority to which we can turn.  An example of a guru is Deepak Chopra, a champion of mind-body healing who has written extensively.  One not so wise is Dr. Oz, a guy who showed himself to kind of have feet of clay when he ran for office last year.  Some of us have jumped from one guru to another.  Some of us keep a whole collection of them in our back pockets.  Some of us are lucky and find a person who really does deserve to be a voice of authority in our lives.  But then there are some of us who will accept no one’s word because we think we, ourselves, have the last word on everything. 

The best case scenario for us human beings is that, sooner or later, we will all begin to depend upon a Higher Power as our primary voice of authority.  Obviously, this can be a little tough since God is Spirit.  We can’t give God a quick call or text; we can’t arrange a lunch meeting at the Peninsula Coffee Shop.  But we can learn to live in such a way so that we stay in constant contact with God through prayer and meditation and Bible study. 

The ideal is that we find ourselves receiving guidance through happenings, maybe, by way of other’s trusted voices, or perhaps through a sense within ourselves.  Some receive guidance through dreams or in the midst of our prayer time.  Some call it a gut feeling, some think of it as intuition, some get a logical, rational idea in our heads.  The thing is, we all need to listen to that voice of authority.   

So now in today’s lesson Jesus entered the synagogue.  We are told he taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.  So, the folks who taught in the synagogue, the scribes, the religious leaders, the ones who were experts in interpreting the Law, are described as not having authority in contrast to Jesus, who did.  

Now, having authority has to do with who has the power to judge, to act or to command.  It also refers to the way Jesus enters situations with persuasive force.  But this discussion of authority also, especially, refers to where this authority comes from.

            Now, if you will, put that thought on the back burner while we have a little conversation about Jesus’ casting out the unclean spirit.  Now, I don’t want us to lose track of the point of this text by getting weirded out thinking about evil and unclean spirits.  Ancient people attributed things they didn’t understand to the presence of evil spirits.  This was especially true of illnesses of any kind: physical, mental, spiritual, or emotional.  Jesus’ rebuke of this unclean spirit amazed the people, and it amazes us.  We’re told that “Jesus commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him!”  His healing powers were astounding even regarding unclean and evil spirits—things that we don’t spend much time thinking about or giving credence to these days, but were forces that ancient people did not understand.  …I might add that there are forces like that in play even in modern times that we don’t understand, but we do know are clearly evil….

            And, yet, we need to keep in mind that the unclean spirit plays a role in this important story—a really critical role.  You may recall how this all unfolds.  We hear about Jesus teaching in the synagogue.  Just then, there was the man with the unclean spirit entering into this holy place.    He cried out (and listen closely to this again), “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.”  So here we are, listening to a witness to Jesus’ authority from no other than an evil spirit.  This unclean spirit is one who seems to know who Jesus is—unlike the religious folks. 

            Sometimes we Christians get so darned sure of exactly who we think Jesus is and exactly how he wants his church to be and to act–that it’s hard to listen to anything different.  We begin to think we, ourselves, are the voice of authority on all these matters. 

Perhaps this text, this story, is the Gospel writer Mark’s way of asking us to have a look at how we sometimes confess our faith without really listening to what’s going on in the scripture text.  Mark may be asking us to pay attention to how we sometimes profess what Jesus means in our lives without seeing him as he is.  The Gospel writer wants us to think about how we often act like we know all about Jesus and church without even getting out there and trying to be Christ for the world. 

This should cause us to ask ourselves, “When I declare who Jesus is in my life, what are my motivations?  Am I just interested in appearing to be right about God and Jesus?  Or am I telling it so that people can discover how their lives can be changed, how they can experience peace and forgiveness through the love of Christ.”

The authority here is in the Word, the Word that Jesus was teaching in the synagogue.  This will be shown to us throughout the reading of the Gospel of Mark.  We will see how the authoritative Word brought to us through Jesus is going to make us look really hard at the church today and who we are.  It will have us asking questions like, “How are we just staying safe inside our buildings and not out there engaging with the world?”  And “are there times when we church folk find ourselves worshiping something other than God—our own view of scripture, our money, our property, our opinions?  Or maybe we hold up a Christ that we have created and described in our own image?  A certain style of worship?  Or a building, whether it be a historic one or the new type with a stage and a café? 

            The authority with which Jesus spoke in the synagogue is the authority that we hear about and experience throughout the Gospel of Mark.  As we read Mark we are going to be challenged by Jesus’ authority.  We will, hopefully along the way, allow ourselves to be humbled, allow our own lives to be corrected through the authority of Jesus’ Word.  And we may even find that we and our church family become more authentic because of the authority of Jesus’ teaching. 

            When we find ourselves foolishly saying, “I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth,” may we remember that unclean spirit who didn’t really know anything.  May we never be arrogant, cocky, self-assured, or smug when reading this story.  Rather, may it be a reminder for us to be corrected, to slow down, to even be shocked, astonished, astounded, inspired, open-minded and open-hearted.  Because our authority must be found in Jesus’ voice.  Through him we can find the power to judge and act, a power that only comes through God, through the voice of God, through the voice of authority.  Amen.