Authority - Rev Allister Lane

READING: MARK 1:21-28

They were astonished at his teaching, for unlike the scribes he taught them with a note of authority, and not as the scribes. (v22)

Jesus’ teaching surprised people – with his note of authority. It seems to speak with authority was evidently something rare in religious circles at that time.

Today, we seem to be surrounded by so-called ‘authorities’. we’re always having some authority wheeled out to comment on their specific area of expertise:

  • Sport

  • Diets

  • Music

  • Gardening

  • Economics

  • Politics

These are the so-called authorities of expertise.  

Then there are the authorities with power. Have a think for a moment: Who do you recognise as someone in authority in your life…? …boss, supervisor, teacher,  …wife !

Does their authority over you give you a helpful understanding of good/proper authority? Or is this an unhelpful experience of authority?

My oldest child started high school this week. The same high school I went to when I was 13. As he ventured out on his first day, naturally, I had plenty of advice for him!

I warned him that some students who have worked there way up to the senior year have been waiting five years for their turn to be the ‘top dogs’. And they may feel they are the ones with authority. Don’t take it personally son, it’s just ‘their turn’, and they may take it out on you!

(Actually he’s had a wonderfully positive experience, with peer support from senior students.)

When we look at human history, the desperation to have authority has generated great turmoil and cruelty. The Protestant Reformation (from which our Presbyterian tradition emerged) was reacting against abuses of power by the Catholic Church.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions is looking into physical, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse by those who were most often in positions of authority.

Such abuses give rise to the questioning of authority. People have questioned the authorities putting in restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Here in Aotearoa we have seen less extreme reaction, but around the world, where the Public Health restrictions have gone on for longer, people have challenged authority.

This has been fuelled by the debates over the actions (and inactions) of government, as well as differing scientific understandings and interpretations and conflicting predictions. For example,

  • Did the virus start with human consumption of bats, or was it generated in a Chinese laboratory?

  • What is the consequence of taking only one of the recommended double vaccine shots?

  • Will the new virulent strains of the virus that are more transmissible also be more deadly?

  • Are here sufficient precautions and vigilance with people arriving at our border to adequately prevent the virus infecting our community?

It is not easy to know who to trust.

In our reading today we hear from the start of Mark’s Gospel. We are presented with someone who is different. A compelling figure who is quickly getting a reputation in the communities around him.

Mark introduces an authority who is one-of-a-kind:  Jesus the Christ.

On the Sabbath in the town of Capernaum, he taught in the synagogue:

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (v22)

Then Jesus healed a deranged man, and they were more amazed:

What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. (v27)

Have you wondered what it might have been like to encounter the human Jesus? Would it have been a delightful experience, or a discomforting one?

The Gospels suggest there were many people who recognised there was something special about Jesus. Lots of different people were attracted to him.

  • Men and women

  • Children and tax collectors

  • The physically handicapped and those with mental illness

  • Lepers and labourers

  • Roman soldiers and prostitutes and devout religious leaders (Nicodemus)

How do we understand what was happening? What was this note of authority Jesus had? What did people recognise in Jesus?

Let me suggest four features from the Gospel record.

1. JESUS’ WORDS AND ACTIONS MATCHED

What he said and what he did were in harmony. We would say today “He walked the talk”. With Jesus there was no credibility gap. He taught what he lived and lived what he taught.

There was a humble confidence about Jesus which came from his complete integrity.

That generated wonder and attraction. And still does – in a world of competing pretentious authorities.

2. JESUS’ VOICE WAS GOD’S VOICE (WORD OF THE FATHER)

Jesus comes from the Father, and prayed to him regularly. The Son and the Father are one.

His ‘specialty subject’ is: knowing God. He relates directly to the Truth, and our hungry soul recognises it, and is drawn to it in hope.

This fellow Jesus knows God like no one else. He shares God’s love like no other. Whenever he speaks, his authority comes from the Father.

There is a lovely story about Pope John 23rd. One day the Pope was meeting with a group of people, including a family with young children. And he said to the children’s mother:

Would you please tell me the names of your children? I realise that anyone in this room could tell me their names, but something very special happens when a mother speaks the names of her own children.

I suspect we know what the Pope meant. And maybe it was something like this that the people sensed about Jesus. Maybe this is what they meant when they said he had a note of authority.

The teachers of the law were good at teaching about God. They drew off their book learning and seminary training, they employed their various gifts of oratory and enunciation.

But not so with Jesus.  He didn’t just have knowledge about God, he knew God. And he spoke as one who knows God. Like the way a mother says the name of her child.

3. THEIR SOULS RESONATED

When Jesus taught, something deep within people was stirred. Something put there from the beginning, something about who they were always meant to be.

Jesus is heard and seen as the person of authority because he awakens an echo of God that lies deep inside us. He is the ‘real thing’, and our souls exclaim “Yes!  Yes! This is it!”

In some desert places, where it hasn’t rained for years and years, barren sand hills scorched by the sun, little seeds lie hopelessly. Then one day monsoon rain pushes inland and the sand is soaked. When that suddenly happens something deep within is stirred. The hopeless seeds leaps into life.

4. THE SPIRIT SAYS “YES!”

When Jesus taught, or embraced, or dined with outcastes, or healed, the Spirit of God said “Yes!”

Scripture tells us:

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. (Acts 10:38)

People recognised Jesus had authority because he relates directly to the Father, and because he was empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.

These four points help us recognise the authority Jesus spoke and moved with. Was Jesus’ authority unique because he wasn’t wielding the sort of power we are used to? Was it because his authority was exercised to draw us into relationship?

Paradoxically, his authority is fulfilled in the weakness of the cross. The authority of his words and actions reach a crescendo on the cross, and his self-giving death fulfils God’s purposes.

Evil and death are defeated and no longer hold us separate from God.

Jesus’s authority now ‘authorises’ us, as belonging to God. Jesus’ authority draws us into relationship with God.

Finally, what this reading tells us is that: we mustn’t forget (when we read all Scripture) our need for humility. In this story the learned experts in holy texts and theology depended on inherited traditions and understandings – Jesus alone is the only who speaks with direct authority.

When we acknowledge our own limitations, and that Jesus speaks and acts with authority, we are open to hear the Living Word; the Truth of God stirring our soul in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Will you listen this way? Will you listen for the note of authority in Jesus’ teaching? Where what might you need to have greater humility, in order to accept and apply what Jesus is saying to you?

Trust Jesus to speak God’s truth. He teaches with authority like no other.

Thanks be to God! Amen.

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