AUTHORITY THAT CANNOT BE IGNORED
Who or what has the authority to speak into your life? To whom do you give power over the course of your day that causes you to act or think a certain way?
We bought a new set of phones in our household. There is a base with an answering machine and three extra handsets distributed throughout the house. One of the new features of these phones is the intercom. Now Sharon can press a button on the kitchen phone and call down to Ethan in the rec room. There is a slight problem with this new system: it sounds like an old drive-in speaker phone so you can’t tell what is being said. Fortunately, Sharon only uses it at supper time and Ethan knows the garbled message is for him.
This sure beats the system in our house when I was growing up. My mother would pound on the kitchen wall of our story-and-a-half and yell “Rations!” which to tell the truth was not an appetizing invitation.
There are two elements in my story that relates to authority: the one who calls and the message. We respond to the authority of the one who calls: Mom, who has proven to be an expert in food-prep over the years. And we also respond to the message that is sent: Supper, a powerful motivator. This is an authority we generally do not rebel against.
We have no problem accepting the authority of someone who knows what they are talking about, and if the message is what we want to hear, if it applies to us, if it is good for us, and if we trust the messenger.
In the Gospel of Mark we find that Jesus claims an authority that cannot be ignored. Jewish leaders will have trouble with his authority; others will be amazed. The question will be: What do you do with someone who possesses such a profound authority? How do you respond to him? It depends on your view of the one who calls and the message you hear.
Jesus’ message is Good News. What is the essence of this Good News? The Good News is that Jesus has the authority to do what the Father has sent him to do.
To better grasp this message and authority, turn to Mark 1:14-34.
1. Jesus offers NOT advice BUT Good News
It is after John is put in prison that Jesus begins his ministry. Mark gives us this short description to point to something of a turning point. John, the forerunner, has done his job, and he exits the stage. As one ministry ends, another begins.
Jesus’ initial message seems brief. Possibly Mark gives us the essence of the message, but this is what Jesus preached: “The time has come…the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (1:15).
The time has come; the time of waiting is over. For the Jews, the Kingdom of God represented their hopes that God would remove all evil from the world and begin a new era of peace, prosperity and joy. Jesus came preaching that the time is now.[i]
The two phrases, “The time has come,” and “The kingdom of God is near” sound contradictory. But to say that the kingdom is near is like saying God has begun to fulfill his promise.[ii]
This is the good news, or gospel. This was a fairly common saying in the first century world, as well as Palestine. A gospel was an announcement of something that has happened in history, something that has been done for you that changes your status forever. [iii] Jesus declares the good news of God; specifically that Yahweh is doing what he said he would do.
Here is the difference between Christianity and other religions: other religions give advice, Christianity is essentially news. Other religions will tell you what you need to do to attain Nirvana or existential peace or to be right with God. Christianity is the good news of what has been done in history. Our good news is how Jesus lived and died to earn the way to God for us. This good news is that God connects to us not on the basis of what you’ve done or have not done but on the basis of what Jesus has done.
This gospel has been distorted over the years by well-meaning preachers and believers who still want to add advice to the news. They want to slip in a “yes – but” so that seekers still feel that there is an obligation to faith.
But the good news is this: You don’t have to do a thing. That’s why it’s news and not advice. What does God require of you? Nothing. That’s hard to accept. You can “do” for God, live rightly, speak purely, but you know that you will never do enough or fulfill all your righteous obligations to please God completely. And you don’t have to.
Well there is one thing Jesus asks: “Repent and believe the good news!” We know that “repent” means “to turn.” Turn and believe the good news of Jesus. However, “believe” means “trust” instead of merely intellectually accepting the news. Trust Jesus that he has the authority to speak this news and that it is true.
2. Jesus issues NOT a suggestion BUT a Command
It would be naïve to think that absolutely nothing is required of us. A response to the good news is necessary. News is just entertainment if it doesn’t motivate or change your mind.
Jesus goes for a stroll beside the Sea of Galilee and finds four men to whom he issues a call. These men are not complete strangers to Jesus; other gospels suggest that two, three or all of them were disciples of John. So Jesus sought them out and said, “Come, follow me” (1:17).
Astonishingly, they drop their nets, their livelihood and families, and follow Jesus. Can you imagine walking out of your business or barn or classroom and following some guy you hardly know just because he said, “Come follow me”?
There must have been a strong tone of authority in Jesus’ command. It was not a suggestion but a necessity. They needed to follow Jesus. He made it clear that they should.
There is a cost to following Jesus. Luke’s gospel expands on Jesus’ call, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
We must understand that Jesus does not call us to actively hate these “loved ones;” Jesus calls us to hate comparatively. He says, “I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly that all other attachments in your life look like hate by comparison.”[iv]
If Jesus calls you to follow him, he must be your goal. Jesus calls us to know him, love him, resemble him, serve him – and make all of this the supreme passion of your life. Everything else takes second place to knowing Jesus. Remember that in the Dance we revolve or orbit around God; that is the true balance of life. Our goals, activities, work and vacations will reflect that Christ is central to all we do.
If anyone else would command you to follow them you would question the gall that person has in ordering you around. You high schoolers would think twice before getting up and leaving French class without permission. What gives Jesus the right to command you? He is the Son of God and God has given him an authority that is unfamiliar in our world.
3. Jesus taught NOT tired rules BUT Original Truth
Jesus’ authority became obvious when he went to Capernaum and began to teach. “The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law” (1:22).
That Jesus had authority to preach and to call his disciples was plain. Now Mark uses the word “authority” for the first time in his gospel. The word “authority” literally means “out of the original stuff.” It comes from the same root as the word “author.” So what Mark is telling us in this scene in Capernaum is that Jesus taught about life and faith and spiritual things with original rather than derived authority.[v]
Authority was not something that Jesus threw around like an axe in china shop, not caring what he smashed. Plenty of leaders like to call attention to themselves and the authority they have been given, demanding that everyone acquiesce. The religious leaders of the synagogues wanted everyone to notice them, to defer to them, to seek their counsel as the wisest in the community. They wanted to be called “rabbi” or some other important term.
Jesus came and taught and the authority was not derived but evident in how he spoke. He taught as if he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t teach new rules but the truth about God. He wasn’t given a new interpretation; he was speaking as the author, the original writer. (see Dan 7:13-14)
Into the midst of Jesus’ sermon a man with an evil spirit interrupts crying out, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” (1:24).
In the vernacular of our time, Jesus tells the spirit to “shut up.” This is interesting because we have just been talking about authority and wanting recognition. Well here, an evil spirit “outs” Jesus identity as the Son of God, but Jesus silences him. Mark tells us two things about Jesus: he doesn’t throw around titles and demand authority on the basis of who he is, and he certainly doesn’t want the affirmation of demons. Jesus simply says, “shut up,” and commands the demon to leave the man, which he does instantly. The response of the people is telling: “the people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this? A new teaching – and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him’” (1:27).
Jesus does not demand respect; he commands authority. And in the usual upside-down way of the Kingdom of God, we see what real authority is in the person of Jesus. Someone once said, “Real authority is the power to serve.”
4. Jesus healed NOT with magic BUT with true power
As 21st century readers of the Gospel of Mark we don’t realize that the idea of exorcism, casting out demons, was an accepted practice in those days. So too the healing of the sick with incantations and spells or herbal remedies or such like. That Jesus cast out demons and healed then is not unusual in itself. What was unusual was the way Jesus healed – with authority.
The events we are covering today in the Gospel of Mark span exactly one day. So when we read, “News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee,” (1:28), news really does travel fast. For the next thing we know people are seeking him out on this very same day.
Jesus and his new disciples leave the synagogue he was speaking in and go to Peter’s house. His mother-in-law is sick in bed with a fever – how bad we don’t know, but when you have a fever you can’t host or entertain very well. Jesus went to her, took her hand and helped her up. “The fever left her and she began to wait on them” (1:31b).
Think of the power and authority Jesus had to simply touch the older woman and heal her. She gets up and starts making dinner! You all know that when your fever breaks from a flu that your energy is still gone and it takes a day or two to get back on your feet. Jesus healed her, really down to the core of her being – healed her! That’s power and authority.
I remember trying to get home in a hurry from our church in Winnipeg. Sharon was locked out of our house by two-year-old Katy and had no way to get to our daughter. I was in a bottle-neck on Ness and seriously thought about tramping the gas pedal and speeding past some cars on the wrong side. Problem was I was driving Sharon’s work car, a Ford, and what I was planning was against the law. So I had neither the power nor the authority to do what was in my mind.
Jesus had the power and the authority to speak for God, because he was God, and to heal the sick and demon-possessed. It was this authority that impressed some and threatened others. It was this authority that, as will see later, caused some to plot Jesus’ death. Such was the authority of Jesus that it spoke to who he was and demanded a response.
Where does Jesus get the authority to command us and to change our course in life? Later on in Mark at the Transfiguration, we’ll hear God say, “This is my Son. I love him. Listen to him.”
C. S. Lewis said, “Believing things ’on authority’ only means believing them because you have been told them by someone you think trustworthy. Ninety-nine percent of the things you believe are believed on authority. I believe there is such a place as New York. I could not prove by abstract reasoning that there is such a place. I believe it because reliable people have told me so. The ordinary person believes in the solar system, atoms, and the circulation of the blood on authority--because the scientists say so. Every historical statement is believed on authority. None of us has seen the Norman Conquest or the defeat of the Spanish Armada. But we believe them simply because people who did see them have left writings that tell us about them; in fact, on authority. A person who balked at authority in other things, as some people do in religion, would have to be content to know nothing all his life.”
Come, follow me, Jesus says. Follow me because I am the King you’ve been waiting for. Follow me because I have authority over the physical and spiritual elements of life. I have humbled myself to serve you, even though I have authority over you. I died on the cross for you when you didn’t have the right beliefs or the right behavior. I bring you good news, not advice. I’m calling you to live your life with your true love – me. Follow me on this journey – don’t look to the left or the right. Put me first – trust me – stick with me – don’t give up. I’m going to take you places that will make you say, ‘Why in the world are you taking me there?’ Even then, trust me.
That’s what it means to respond to the authority of Jesus – Trust. So when he calls, we will go. Have you given Jesus the authority to speak into your life?
AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment