Mark 1:21-28

Jesus heads out to Capernaum and immediately begins to preach, yet the people there are astonished because he’s not preaching like the teachers they’re used to.  Instead of referring to other great Rabbi (teacher), he’s teaching like he has authority of his own.  He doesn’t need to reference another person to prove the validity of his teaching but rather he teaches as if he has authority.  He says crazy things like ‘you have heard it said…but I say to you…’. He is contradicting Jewish law – in fact in this statement he is claiming God like status. But rather than stone him for being a heretic, the people listen.  They listen because he teaches the word of God because He is God.  They listen because he does not just appear to have authority, but he actually has authority.

As an ex-teacher I know just how important the appearance of authority is.  But my authority always came with my position – the students responded to my instructions because they knew where my authority came from. It came from the School who employed me, it came from the principal, whose office I could send them to if they did not behave, it came from their parents because they knew what would happen if I called their parents.

When I first started teaching RE I allowed the students to call me by my first name – that term was one of the hardest I have ever had as a teacher. It was as if I was teaching without authority.  The beginning of the next year I asked all the students to call me ‘Mr Trafford’ instead, immediately the behavior change from the year before was evident, because my name now carried authority – my name suggested that I was a teacher not merely a stranger off the street and without the students even being consciously aware of it, they automatically gave me the same respect they would give any teacher.

Yet Jesus did not have to rely on some title to gain authority, or his position as a teacher of the law or refer to other great teachers as the teachers of the law did.  By himself he taught as if he had authority directly from God.

But as he is speaking, this guy begins to yell out, the awe of those listening to Jesus is disturbed by this distraction.  The man speaks by not his own strength or volition but because he is possessed by an evil spirit.  Immediately identifying its enemy, God in its close vicinity, the spirit shrieks out “I know who you are – the Holy Son of God” and in terror questions Jesus as to his purpose – is it Jesus’ desire to destroy the demons then and there?  See God is not afraid of the evil in this world, but the evil is very much afraid of Him.  Evil itself is in no doubt that God’s power is far greater than any they possess.  And with simple words Jesus silences this demon and sets free the man whom it possesses.

If Jesus hadn’t already created a stir, teaching as if he had authority from God, in this act he demonstrated that it isn’t just a façade but it is with Holy authority that he teaches.

As followers of Jesus, we are followers of one with absolute authority over heaven and earth – that’s pretty cool.

Now: Mark 1:21-28

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)