February 1 2009

Year B Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

"What is this? A new teaching - with authority!"

Jesus and his newly recruited disciples went to Capernaum. Mark gives no indication how many days they were there, but on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

Why Capernaum? This town is on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and is the location of the house of Simon Peter. They were still in the place where Jesus had called the four disciples. Already he had been preaching in the region and proclaiming the kingdom of God.
No doubt as he entered the synagogue there were many who had heard of his activities in the region, They would have been keen to hear him speak. While Mark does not provide any details about how it was he came to speak we assume he was invited to speak at the synagogue. What those present on that day heard and saw amazed them.


On two occasions in this passage there is reference to the fact of his 'authority'.
As Mark presents this episode we find that Jesus entered the synagogue and began to teach. The very next words are "The people were amazed as his teaching for he taught as one with authority, and not as the teachers of the law" (1:22). All Jesus had done was speak, yet they recognized authority in his words and manner. At this stage in Mark's story Jesus has been affirmed by God in the amazing events of his baptism, experienced the tempting in the desert. and called his disciples. We believe he was around thirty years old, and so there is some life experience as well.

Where did his authority come from?

His upbringing and education alone did not give him authority or it would have been identified many years before.
His baptism certainly established his credentials, as the Son of God on whom (or in whom) the Spirit of God rested - but a spiritual experience alone does not automatically grant authority.
Perhaps it was the combination of these things - to which was added the experience of testing. He had been prepared in the school of life, empowered by the Spirit and been through the fire of testing.
When Jesus spoke it was not an academic exercise in debating the finer points of the law, it was not telling stories obtained from someone else. When Jesus spoke the authority came from who he was, and what he had experienced. He taught as one who had authority.

What the listeners in the synagogue had discerned from his words was then revealed in his actions. Challenged by a man with and evil spirit (what was he doing in the synagogue?) Jesus ordered the spirit out of the man - and it was so. This demonstration of Jesus authority evoked another comment about Jesus authority (1:27), and Mark tells us that the news spread rapidly throughout region.

Where does our spiritual authority come from?
It is not ours by birthright - for not everyone has spiritual authority. It seems to me that this combination of factors - life experience, times of testing, and the work of the Spirit of God in our lives are necessary prerequisites to spiritual authority.
This authority may be something we have - but it will be other people who recognize it in us, not something we seek.

It is for us to live as obedient Christ followers, who seek to know Jesus better day by day. In time others may recognize spiritual authority in us. If they do it will not be because of what we have done, it will be so because of what God has done in us.