Speak With Authority

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The Gospel

Mark 1:21-28


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. 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.

The Sermon

We discussed a lot of things in bible study this Tuesday. We talked about food of the gods, possession by evil spirits, and speaking with authority

In this reading from Mark the author says Jesus spoke in the synagogue with authority. What does that mean? I taught in schools for 32 years and one of the first things I learned was that for students to believe me I had to sound like I knew what I was talking about. You need to sound confident in what you say.

This reading tries to clarify Jesus' speaking with authority by saying this was not like the scribes. So, what was the difference between these two. Here is how it was explained to me. When a scribe would read from scripture and interpret he would say things like 'it says here' or 'I believe'.

Jesus said things like 'this is what it means' and 'truly I tell you'. These statements are profoundly different from a qualified statement like 'I believe'.

Then, after what must have been an amazing session, Jesus casts out an unclean spirit. I am sure at that time Jesus became the spiritual equivalent of a rock star.

Are there any spiritual rock stars in our world, in your world today? The problem with many rock stars is that they become larger than life and then when their humanity is exposed, when we see they have warts too we become disappointed. We are all works in progress. We are all flawed. We all sin. The reality is that we must all turn our attention to Jesus, our true guiding light. He is the one who speaks to us from the pages of the gospel. He is our rock and our strength.