They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, “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!” “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek. The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching - and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
(Mark 1:21-28)
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Everybody wants to talk about the demon. That’s one thing I discovered over the last few days. One of the great things about the internet for a preacher is that it gives you the opportunity to see what a lot of other people have to say about a Scripture passage. So when I looked up sermons and writing about this passage, almost everyone (probably in the range of 80-90% of what I came across) talked about Jesus driving the demon out of the possessed man and left it at that. Now - that is pretty amazing. Let’s be honest, Exorcisms are the stuff movies are made of! But everyone fixates on the demon and the exorcism, and they ignore the most basic statement of all in the passage - that Jesus was “one who had authority”; or they make the argument that the exorcism of the demon was how Jesus demonstrated his authority. But no. That wasn’t it. The people recognized Jesus’ authority before the demon made its appearance. It was his teaching that amazed people, or, more precisely, it was the way he taught that amazed them: “he taught them as one who had authority.”
Authority, of course, can be either good or bad. Personally, I’d argue that it’s always necessary. Without some type of authority you’d have chaos. Sometimes - I’ve noticed this especially in the church - we want to downplay the importance of authority in favour of egalitarianism, and we pretend that there’s no hierarchy. That’s not true, of course. There’s always a hierarchy of some sorts. And authority becomes more dangerous it seems to me if you try to pretend that it doesn’t exist, when, in fact, you know that it does. Well, Jesus was “one who had authority” - and I’m going to take it as a given that he used his authority well. So what I began to think about as I thought about the passage was what it was that gave Jesus enough authority to “amaze” people, and then why the church - which is the Body of Christ in the world today - doesn’t seem to amaze people anymore. What have we lost? What are we missing? I want to think for a moment about the authority that Jesus not only possessed, but that was so obvious to those who encountered him.
First, Jesus was very consciously aware of where his authority came from. He knew from a very early age. We think of the story of the 12 year old Jesus in the temple in Jerusalem, debating the religious leaders. What made him think he had the right (the authority) to do that. Some would call that picture of Jesus precocious - I suspect the temple elders had a few other words they would have liked to have used to describe Jesus. But when Mary and Joseph came looking for him, angry because he had gone off without them, his response demonstrated why he claimed the right to be in that situation: “didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house.” he said. He knew that his authority came from God; that he was called by God to teach and the proclaim the coming Kingdom of God. And, knowing that his authority came from God, he didn’t try to evade it or to get out of the responsibilities and sacrifices that being called by God entailed.
The second thing I notice from this story is that Jesus didn’t try to pretend that he didn’t have authority. Those, in my opinion, are the most dangerous people - the people who possess great authority but then try to convince everyone else that they don’t. that’s either what we call false modesty, which is a denial of God’s call because it denies the gifts and abilities God has given us, or it’s a backdoor way of trying to manipulate and control people. But Jesus wasn’t guilty of any of that. He wasn’t shy about the authority he possessed. He put it on display - not in an arrogant way, but simply in a way that acknowledged that he was called by God. Whether it was being a precocious child in the temple at age 12, or whether it was in the synagogue at Capernaum, where the story seems to suggest that Jesus simply took upon himself the right to teach God’s gathered people, Jesus claimed his authority rather than trying to deny that he possessed it at all.
The third thing I note in this story is that Jesus always used his authority for the benefit of others. It seems a little strange that we don’t know exactly what he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum - but we do know that it excited the people when they heard it. It wasn’t the same old, same old. It wasn’t dry and dusty words from the mouths of tired rabbis. It was something new, something different, something amazing. And it was something that gave the people hope and filled them with joy. It didn’t burden them; it set them free. We can deduce those things just from the reactions of the people. And then, although (as I said) I don’t want to focus on the demon being exorcised, Jesus nevertheless followed up his authoritative teaching with a display of authority over the unseen spirits that hold us captive. “Come out of him!” There was no asking; no begging; no wishful thinking; not even a prayer. A command. “Come out of him.” And the demon “came out of him.” Jesus authority rested on the fact that he always used it for the benefit of others: for those who were burdened by the boredom of their religion, and for those who were burdened by evil in whatever form. Jesus confronted the things that kept people from God - and Jesus always triumphed.
As I reflect on the state of the church today, I wonder if, as the church, we haven’t forgotten those three things? Jesus understood that he possessed an authority that came from God’s call, but I wonder if we haven’t forgotten that we are called by God to speak God’s word to the world? Jesus didn’t try to hide his authority. He exercised it openly and publicly, but I wonder if we haven’t become too quiet, too embarrassed to suggest to anyone that we have authority, so that we hide what we’re called to say and do? Jesus understood that authority was only used properly if it was used for the benefit of others and not for himself, and so he offered living water to those who were spiritually parched and dry and he offered freedom to those held in bondage, but how many people do we leave dying of spiritual thirst or held in some type of evil bondage because we don’t speak out or stand up Are we so consumed with ourselves and our own problems that we often seem guilty of self-centredness, rather than placing our focus on where it needs to be - on the needs we see around us? I wonder.
Jesus had authority - and Jesus used authority - and Jesus is a model for how to use authority well. The church is the Body of Christ today. We have authority - even if sometimes we’d really rather not, thank you very much. Will we use it as wisely as Christ, offering life and hope and freedom to a world where so many seem to have so little of those things? In a nutshell, you might say that people recognized and celebrated Jesus’ authority because they saw that this man and the message he was preaching about God’s Kingdom were somehow and in some way one and the same thing. The man was the message. As a church, we have authority - and people will see it and celebrate when we make sure that the message we proclaim and the life we live are one and the same thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment