Mark 1:21-28 On the Authority and Power to be Jesus’ disciples
Last week we heard through our Gospel verses (Mark 1:14-20) how Jesus called his first four disciples to follow him. Remember how, straight away, without hesitation, Simon, Andrew, James and John left their families and friends and work – all that was familiar to them – and followed Jesus.
Now, Mark tells us, as they walked away from their homes and families, they arrive in Capernaum. It was the Sabbath, so the five of them went into the synagogue to pray.
We might well imagine that, for the four new disciples, this was a comfortable, familiar place in all the ‘newness’ they found themselves involved in now, in the decision they had made to follow Jesus. Here they were, in the familiar surroundings and ‘liturgy’ of synagogue worship (even if it was not their ‘local’ place of prayer). Here they took part in the singing (chanting) of psalms and reciting of prayers. And we need to remember that, at this point in time, Jesus was still a stranger – an unknown quantity – to the four ex-fishermen. These were the very beginnings of Jesus’ ministry, and of the relationship between Jesus and the four men, for no-one had yet had the opportunity to get to know what sort of man he was, what his ‘ministry and mission’ would be nor, indeed, how it would effect them and their lives.
But this particular Sabbath day, there in the synagogue, the four newly recruited disciples of Jesus and the people gathered there were to be left in little doubt as to the impact Jesus was going to have. And, particularly for the disciples, they would have their first glimpse of the powerful, provocative influence Jesus was going to have on THEIR lives, and upon those he would meet and touch in the future.
First of all they see Jesus stand up and begin to teach. He must really have held their attention, and said things the people had never heard before. Quite what the content of Jesus’ teaching was, we’re not told. But what is important for Mark in his Gospel is that the people are ‘astounded’. Astounded because he taught with an unfamiliar ‘authority’ – unlike anything they had been used to before from their scribes. Jesus was a NEW and POWERFUL AUTHORITY, the likes of which they had not encountered before.
Then – well, let us imagine the scene! Suddenly someone – or something –disrupts the atmosphere of solemn worship and reflection there in the synagogue. A man (we are told) whom Mark describes as being possessed by an ‘unclean spirit’ suddenly springs to his feet and cries out at the top of his voice: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Here, it seems, the ‘unclean spirit’ speaks from within the man, and which (like the people gathered there) also recognises the NEW and POWERFUL AUTHORITY of Jesus.
Again, the people are AMAZED as Jesus rebukes the spirit, calls it to be silent, and releases the man from its grip. “What is this?” the people exclaim! “A new teaching; with AUTHORITY he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him!”
Considering the incredible events that took place, there in that little synagogue that Sabbath, it is not surprising that Mark tells us that Jesus’ fame begins to spread throughout the region of Galilee from that time onwards. And the life of the disciples would never be the same again.
So, for the first time, that Sabbath Day, the question begins to be asked, “Who is this man, Jesus?” A question that has occupied the minds of countless people from that day to this! Who is this man, Jesus, and from where does he get the power, the AUTHORITY, to do what he does with such great effect?
It is the question of Jesus’ identity, and that of the source of his authority, that is approached in our verses from Mark’s Gospel. For he tells us that Jesus “Was recognised as a man who taught them as one having authority.”
What sort of ‘authority’ did Jesus have in his teaching, though? That authority that made him so remarkable, so different? For his teaching was so very different to that of the scribes, whose authority lay in their training, in their inherited knowledge, and in the power bestowed upon them by the upper hierarchy of the priests to exercise their role as religious leaders. Theirs was an authority based on knowledge and understanding – of their faith and tradition and the Scriptures that underpinned these. But it could also be said that they were as ‘slaves’ to this tradition and to the ‘inherited’ understanding of the Scriptures. They had no freedom to think for themselves about the mystery of God. They placed their faith on, and gained their authority from, their ‘inherited’ religion and through the official roles they had conferred upon them.
By contrast, Jesus appears on the scene without any of this ‘official’ authority. No ‘official’, accepted, training to teach, to preach, to heal. [Even though Jesus might have spent some time as a ‘disciple’ of a scribe in his youth] Jesus had no title, no status, in the eyes of Jewish orthodoxy. And as we know, again and again in the course of Jesus’ ministry, he is challenged by representatives of the ‘official’ faith as to where lay the AUTHORITY for what he says and does. For Jesus’ preaching, his teaching, his overall ministry is so convincing, seems so genuine, that the source of his power is seen as a mystery! He teaches with such AUTHORITY! But it is a NEW authority!
So where does Jesus get the authority to do and say what he does? A clue lies in the fact that Jesus’ authority is about relationship, and not about himself as an individual. Remember that even the ‘unclean spirit’, on seeing the power and authority of Jesus, exclaims, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” Jesus’ power and authority points to a source and a being beyond himself. When Jesus speaks and acts and heals, in reality he does so on the authority (and with the power) of the One who sent him – God Himself. Yet, in reality of course, the ‘sender’ and the ‘sent’ (the Son of God and God), the message and the messenger, are one. So in a very real way, while Jesus’ power and authority ultimately points to God and to God’s love, he is also one with God, he is the Holy One of God. The point is that the source of Jesus’ authority and his power is a close, intimate relationship – a ‘one-ness’ – with God. This was the source of the NEW and POWERFUL AUTHORITY, which the people had not met with before.
Isn’t it true, brothers and sisters in Christ, that so many people today need to meet with a new and powerful authority that is Jesus, more than anything else? How many people have placed their trust in the ‘power’ and ‘authority’ of economics or politics or secular philosophies. And how many people who have done so have been let down – again and again!
How many people need to know the love of God, made known and made real in the life, teaching and actions of Jesus? How many people do we know who need to ENCOUNTER for themselves the love of the Living God, that Jesus ‘points to’ through his life, teaching and actions?
For our verses from Mark encourage us, every one of us, to acknowledge once again that OUR authority to speak and act as Christian people comes only from God himself, through the commission of Jesus, to ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News’ (Mark 16:15). It is our task to enable people to hear and see the Good News of God’s love through us – through our words and actions – empowered through our relationship of love of and devotion to God.
Yes, in our desire to follow Jesus, we are called to foster an ever-closer relationship with God, in prayer and through faith in Christ Jesus, through which relationship we come to discern the will of God for us, and receive the blessing of God’s authority and power in the Holy Spirit to exercise the ministry that Christ Jesus calls every one of us to exercise. It is ONLY through relationship with God that we have the authority and power to live as Jesus’ disciples. And it is ONLY through relationship with God that we are empowered in our lives to make the love of God real to those people who so badly need to experience REAL love today.
Let us put our faith, trust and hope in the Authority and Power of God in Christ Jesus, and share the joy that faith brings with others. For hope, renewal of trust, and knowledge of the Love of God is so lacking – and so badly needed – in our day. Yes, God, in Christ Jesus, entrusts this task to us, Jesus’ disciples today. Let us receive from Him the Power and Authority to do it with joy and faith and hope in our hearts! Let us pray.
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Disclaimer: I have been privileged to share with God’s people, for more than ten years since my Ordination, many, many sermons and Bible studies. As so often, preachers ‘absorb’ words and other insights without knowing or remembering their original source. If any of the above seems somehow ‘familiar’, please accept my humble apologies – I have not wittingly reproduced any writing as my own that should be otherwise acknowledged.
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