Year B
Mark 1:21-28
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Authority That Sets Us Free
In the Season of Epiphany, all the Sunday readings generally have those “aha” moments that seek to open our eyes and our minds to understand who Jesus is and what that means for our lives, and today’s readings are no different. They call us to hear the voice of Jesus and his prophets and to live prophetically ourselves in the midst of all the chaos and injustice that surrounds us. When Jesus appeared on the Galilean scene seemingly out of nowhere, he caused quite a stir. Demons obeyed him, diseases fled before his touch, disastrous winds calmed at a wave of his hand, and even the dead stood up alive when beckoned by his call. But more than that, Jesus could preach! He made sense out of religion!
Mark tells us that his contemporaries that day in the synagogue were astounded by his teaching and by the authority with which he claimed. Jesus is described as one who exercised greater authority than that of Moses. Deuteronomy today tells us that God will raise up a prophet from the people who will speak God’s words. Although Jesus speaks in connection and in line with the prophetic tradition, Mark tells us today that Jesus speaks commands on his own authority. Authority has fallen on hard times in the 21st-century America. A 2016 Gallup poll indicated that only 33% of Americans trust our institutions—only 56% trust the police, 39% the medical system, 29% newspapers, and just 9% trust Congress. I am sure these numbers haven’t changed very much in the last 5 years.
As we have become a much more secular society, as witnessed by the near tripling of the percentage of religiously unaffiliated Americans from 1990 to the present day, it’s little wonder that there is this breakdown of authority and respect. This is why Jesus’ way of exercising authority, his loving way, best accepted by believing his words, is so necessary for us today. Yet, a poll in 2016 found that 77% believe Jesus is the Son of God, but that percentage far outweighs the 20% in church on Sunday. When the pandemic is over, we may see the number of people coming to a church building grow even smaller. Time will tell, but this is the fear I have.
The authority for us as Christ followers is found in God: “All things come from him and we belong to him” as we heard read in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, and the astonishing authority of Jesus in our lives and in our world comes from his divinity. The Gospel is telling us today that, not only as a prophet like Moses, Jesus delivers God’s Word, but that he is God’s Word made flesh, and all the fullness of God was pleased to live in him.” Our Christian tradition has always spoken of Jesus as “truly divine and truly human.” Jesus is not only ‘Lord” and “Christ,” but one with God the Father, creator of all things! And in his words and deeds, death and resurrection, he incarnated the divine presence. Yet, this does not compromise his true humanity which can be seen as his unique indwelling through the Spirit with God.
In the gospel text today, we see the unique indwelling of the Spirit of God in that Jesus speaks with the same miraculous power and authority by which he acts when he rebuked the unclean spirit. He only has to say, “Be silent, and come out of him!” and the spirit departs from the man in the synagogue. On another level, this story of Jesus’ first miracle in his public ministry signifies that Satan’s power over the world has come to an end, and that the kingdom of God has broken into human history. Even the unclean spirit acknowledges this when in the presence of the synagogue assembly it says “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” In Jesus, a human being like us, we encounter not merely a messenger of God, but God’s very self, and truly one whom we can love and worship from the heart. Truly one we can strive to be like.
The compassion we see in Jesus is God’s compassion; the forgiveness that Jesus offers is God’s forgiveness; Jesus’ suffering is God’s own suffering, with and for us; the victory of the risen Jesus is God’s victory over evil and death. This vulnerable authority demonstrated by Jesus in his ministry can be a model for us. Like Jesus, we can be open and vulnerable in offering our own experience and understanding of Jesus Christ to others. Jesus’ own teaching was not, “here is the truth and you better believe it”; it was rather “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and “Let those who have ears to hear, hear.” Such openness and vulnerability may be the true marks of his teaching “as one having authority.”
Such is the nature of authority in the church, we simply know the truth of the One who has been revealed and witnessed to us and we trust that God will reveal the same for other individuals who seek truth, community, and knowledge of God. It is important that we offer our testimony, not in abrasive or forceful ways, but in moments where it can be done honoring others and their insights. In faith, we can have confidence about our beliefs, yet at the same time we do not have or know all the truth. The God whom we know in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit is largely mystery, and we need to be mindful of that as we are striving to love of others and their insights.
Typically we are at our best when it comes to the nature of authority in the church when we engage in acts of service like outreach to the hungry, homeless etc. Congregations like individuals, are known by their fruits. And this is Paul’s point today, as he places the goal of a loving response to Jesus as primary when making all moral and ethical choices, and follows that closely with a sense of obligation to serve and help others. Paul’s ethical code is what Jesus taught: love God above all, and love your neighbor as yourself. We are called to show reconciling love in the church and that has a direct bearing on what we do and how we do it. That is because divine authority, as we find it in Jesus, is not oppressive, but the authority of love that makes us free.
To follow Paul’s inspired advice comes as a gift to all of us, 2000 years ago or today. Love for God and one another are the way great congregations are built. This is why when Jesus came, speaking with honesty, clarity, and as one with authority, the crowds began asking anew, “Is this the prophet?” And for those who received the words of the prophet and had ears to hear, sight is restored, vision refocused, lives mended and hope leads the way. This is why Moses promised ancient Israel that God would always provide prophecy for them, leading eventually to the voice of the great one who would proclaim loudly the goodness of heaven.
This is why the Apostle Paul’s voice was still requested by the Corinthian congregation after he left town, even when restless quarreling muted his authority among them. This is why even the demons shouted when Jesus passed by, hoping to silence him. But the prophet’s voice cannot be stilled. The boundary-breaking, demon-dashing, law-transcending Son of God has arrived in the person of Jesus, and he expects of his followers far more than “amazement.” He expects to be Lord of our lives, as expressed in worship, prayer and following. For it is in Jesus that we find our hope. Truth is not in the things of this world. It is in the astonishing authority of the Word, “the Holy One of God.”