Seeing is Believing: Authority
Jesus Has Authority
Mark 1:21-28
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. January 31, 2021
I was a Boy Scout, growing up. Every summer I’d go with my troop to camp. We jumped around from camp to camp. But one of the camps we frequented had a particularly hard instructor at the rifle range. All us boys were afraid of him. He took no nonsense, and had all the personality of R. Lee Ermey. No one disobeyed his orders. The rumor among the boys was that he was a former marine drill sergeant. If he was, it showed. So imagine my surprise when I went to high school and he was teaching history and geography. I had expected him to run the classroom with all the discipline and authority he ran the rifle range. But as it turned out of all the teachers I had in high school, he had the hardest time managing the classroom. It was his philosophy that he would answer any question the students asked. Which meant he talked about the bell curve and penguin bowling just about every week. I saw students playing card games during his lectures.
When he was at the rifle range, he was a man with authority. And while he was feared, he was also respected. But when he stepped into the classroom whatever it was he had in him that gave him his authority melted away. He didn’t summon it. And because he didn’t summon it the hour I had in his class tended to be the wildest of the day.
We all know authority when we see it. Sometimes authority is toxic or rotten, as in the case of a tyranny. But more often authority is freely offered or freely given. It is something people simply have, and isn’t challenged. My rifle instructor simply had authority, and it was a good thing too. A rifle range instructor at a scout camp better be strict for everyone’s safety. Mark this morning wishes to emphasize Jesus’ authority. An authority Jesus possesses to this day. An authority that will be undeniable when he comes again in glory.
We are told Jesus entered the synagogue on the sabbath to teach. The congregation was astounded by his teaching, they had never heard anything like it. Mark tells us he taught as one having authority, not like one of the scribes. No wonder. As I talked about last week, Jesus announces the coming of the Kingdom of God. He comes with a word unlike any other word. Not something to be evaluated, sifted through, criticized. But a word to be believed or rejected, pondered or scorned. He comes with all the authority of the Kingdom of God. The scribes could only talk about the word, Jesus could bring it.
Mark wants us to better understand the nature of Jesus’ authority, and the power of the Kingdom of God. So he shows us that authority in action. As it happens there is, in the synagogue, a man possessed by an unclean spirit. We might imagine that man had been in the synagogue every sabbath for the past how many years. But the unclean spirit that was within him never made a peep. The spirit could remain silent before the scribes. But Jesus comes speaking about God’s reign, with all the authority of God. The spirit cannot take it, it shrieks!
"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
Every demon trembles at the authority and power of Jesus. This demon seeks to do battle. In ancient magic one could control an entity if one knew its proper name. The demon tries to control Jesus by blurting out his identity. But all he does is confirm his authority, the authority Jesus has over all demons and all unclean spirits. Jesus rebukes him, “Be silent, and come out of him!” The man convulses, and the spirit escapes. The demon is removed from the synagogue, and the people are amazed. “What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
One of the unique emphases of Mark is the power and authority of Jesus, especially against the demonic. Mark is like an action movie, where waves of henchmen and stooges come after the hero, and get mowed down. This is the first shot across the bow, but we’ll see Jesus combating the demons more and more, until finally he takes to the cross. It’s hard to read Mark’s gospel and get around all the exorcisms. The demonic is a reality for Mark, as it is for many Christians around the world who take comfort in these accounts.
We may experience the demonic in different ways. It’s not always rotating heads and pea soup. In fact, that’s very unlikely. But we do face the demonic in temptations. We do face the demonic when we are divided. Always remember Satan means accuser, and he is called the accuser of the brothers and sisters. Our word devil comes from a root that could mean “to divide.”
However we come to experience the demonic, Satan has no power over Jesus. As we’ve seen in this episode in the synagogue, and as we’ll see in future episodes, Jesus has authority and Jesus has power. The word of Jesus, the word of the gospel, has authority and power. Before the name of Jesus temptation flees. In the name of Jesus we can find unity and comfort. There is no name in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, that is greater than the name of Jesus Christ.
And Jesus does not use this authority to dominate. We do not need to fear the authority and power of God. It is an authority for our sake. It is an authority that shows its fullest expression not in smiting, but in the cross. Not in war, but in self-sacrifice. It is in the cross where God judges the earth and its demons. It is in the cross that Satan is overthrown. And when we lean on his name, and trust in his authority, when we believe in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, we may be under his authority. And know his peace.