To Whom Do We Look?

A child might look to a schoolmate with a cross face and say, “You are not the boss of me!” An adult too, might ask wryly, “Who died and made you Monarch?” Two things play within us, the wish to enjoy independence and the hope for benevolent, effective authority in our lives.

Who are the authorities in your life? For sure, we are all under the authority of the law. The people place into governance figures that stand as authorities in various offices. One might work in a system that has employers and managers in authority over him or her. I work with a ministry team that looks to Fr. Bates, our Rector, as our leader. Episcopal clergy have, as authorities, their Bishop, and the Constitution and Canons of the Church. We also hold the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to contain all things necessary for our salvation. Authority takes many shapes.

This Sunday we absorb an experience of Jesus, early in his ministry, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God. People who experienced Jesus saw his actions, and he was shown to be a figure of remarkable authority. His teaching and works of mercy made manifest just who Jesus is and what he ushers into the world.

Jesus went about teaching and healing on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee and people responded to him. What was the situation in life for the residents of Capernaum, a fishing village of fewer than 2,000 people? What was their sense of authority?  About thirty-five years before Christ the region of Judaea had been taken from the Hasmonean dynasty and set up as a Roman client state. Herod the Great, from Idumea, was installed as king. The villagers, therefore, are under Roman rule, under Herod, and religiously they are under the Jewish authorities. You can go today and see the ruins of the ancient synagogue there with its fine columns and stone benches. The religious authorities, therefore, were the teachers in the synagogue. Mark reports: 

Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. —Mark 1:21-22

It would not be unusual for the synagogue to hear from a visiting rabbi. What was unique here was he was teaching as one having authority, not as the scribes. This is likely to mean Jesus was teaching from his understanding of the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Perhaps they were more accustomed to the ways of the scribes, who cited notable, authoritative interpretations from the historic tradition. By contrast, in his very person, Jesus demonstrated something very new was going on here. What they were experiencing was a showing of God’s glory, an epiphany of Jesus’s divine nature.

What happens next is startling. A man in the grip of an evil spirit appeared in the synagogue. When we baptize, we ask the candidate, “Do you renounce evil?” and the person is free to respond, “I do.” We ask the question three times with different aspects noted. The understanding is we might face evil from three different categories. Two of them are well known to most of us: evil powers of the world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, and sinful desires that draw us from the love of God. We are all familiar with evil systems that come into influence in the dynamics of life. We are aware too of how we contend with decisions and actions that are harmful. I hope none of us ever personally experience anything from the third category. I hope never to encounter something like the Reagan MacNeil character in The Exorcist.  That is just a frightening prospect: facing a cosmic level of evil, manifested as wickedness personified.  At Baptism, therefore, we renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God. Look at Jesus’s first miracle recorded in Mark, after his Baptism:

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.  —Mark 1:23-28

The evil spirit shouts out aggressively, but Jesus cuts him short and speaks sharply, “Hold your tongue and get out of him.” Both things happen. The people see it as an act of authority; what Jesus says goes. This reinforces, once again how the glory of God is manifest in his actions. The whole Galilean district fills up with reports of this.

There are many aspects of authority in our lives. The best forms are to bring about order and well being for people and the world. This is certainly true in the case of the Authority most critical for us to recognize. Perhaps today we can renew our personal sense of love and respect for Jesus our Savior. Perhaps this is a time for us to sharpen our deliberate obedience to him and yield to be formed after his image and likeness.