Mark 1:21-28 With Authority
Mark 1:21-28 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
21Then they went into Capernaum. On the next Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22They were amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them as one who has authority and not as the experts in the law. 23Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit in their synagogue. It cried out, 24“What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
26The unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions, and after crying out with a loud voice, it came out of him. 27Everyone was so amazed that they began to discuss this with each other. They said, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him!” 28News about him spread quickly through all the region of Galilee.
With Authority
I.
Perhaps its human nature. You just want someone to tell you. That’s it and that’s all. Give me the definitive explanation so I know exactly what I should do.
There are people who like to fill that void. They are called “experts.” In our highly specialized world you can find experts on nearly every topic. They put lots of time and effort into a particular field to learn everything there is to know about that field. That’s how they are able to give their analysis with such conviction.
But do you believe the experts? Sometimes experts fabricate their results; sometimes they are under pressure from one particular source to give answers that are favorable for a chosen outcome.
Courtroom experts make a perfect example. Both the prosecution and the defense call in their own experts. To those sitting in the juror’s box, the conclusions of the experts seems to depend completely on which side is paying them—or at least which side has called them to the stand. One piece of expert testimony is diametrically opposed to another piece of expert testimony. Which is true? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between? Or did neither expert get it right; both missing some crucial piece of information? The job of the jury is to sort it all out and come to a verdict.
Each week the Jewish people went to the synagogue. There a worshiper could find “The experts in the law” (Mark 1:22, EHV). The experts spent a lot of time in study. But somehow they couldn’t put together God’s own summary of the law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5, EHV) and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18, EHV). Instead, they focused all their attention on all the outward works required by the law. They poked and prodded and searched and came up with all kinds of rules to follow. Any deviation was to be condemned and dealt with as harshly as possible.
What if there is expert testimony from only one side? With only one set of experts to listen to, only one conclusion is able to be drawn. Sometimes, it seems, that’s the way the experts want things to stay. After all, their reputation—and even their income—is derived from people believing and following their expert testimony.
II.
Centuries had gone by with their “expert” testimony being heard and believed and followed without question. One day everything changed. Mark reports: “Then they went into Capernaum. On the next Sabbath day, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach” (Mark 1:21, EHV). “Then” points you back to what Mark reported immediately before today’s Gospel. It was last week’s Gospel, where Jesus called some of his disciples and told them he would make them “fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). Since it was so early in Jesus’ ministry, there hadn’t been time for his reputation as a rabbi to develop. Undoubtedly, the experts in the law weren’t anticipating what came next.
“They were amazed at his teaching, because he was teaching them as one who has authority and not as the experts in the law” (Mark 1:22, EHV). Jesus’ teaching was different from that of the experts in the law. In fact, those listening in the synagogue that day had never heard anything like this before. They must have hung on every word. I can see the parents in the synagogue shushing their children even more intently than they did on any other week. They didn’t want to miss anything.
What usually happens when some new and unexpected authority contradicts what the self-proclaimed “experts” have said? “Just then there was a man with an unclean spirit in their synagogue. It cried out, 24‘What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!’” (Mark 1:23-24, EHV). Efforts need to be made to discredit the new authority.
Satan was completely comfortable with the experts in the law and their testimony to the people week after week. The little snippets of God’s Word mixed in with cavernous errors as presented by the experts in the law were exactly what Satan wanted. He knew Jesus had come to put his empire under attack, and everything had to be done to thwart that. Discredit. Obfuscate. That was what must be done.
Satan is conniving. He decided the best way to discredit the authority of Jesus was to speak the truth, but from a source that no one would see as reliable. The man who was known to have an unclean spirit fit the bill perfectly.
III.
“Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’” (Mark 1:25, EHV).
Could the “unclean spirit” be explained away as mental illness or perhaps some physical ailment that could be diagnosed rather simply by today’s modern medicine? There are many instances of Jesus healing diseases elsewhere in Scripture. When healing diseases, he doesn’t speak to the disease, but to the person with the disease. In this case, Jesus doesn’t speak to the man with the unclean spirit, but to the spirit directly. “Be quiet! Come out of him!”
“The unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions, and after crying out with a loud voice, it came out of him” (Mark 1:26, EHV). Now that is authority! Jesus addresses a minion of Satan himself and Satan has no choice but to flee.
“Everyone was so amazed that they began to discuss this with each other. They said, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority! He even commands the unclean spirits, and they obey him!’” (Mark 1:27, EHV). The synagogue-goers had heard the Word of God before. They had heard all about the miraculous deeds God had done among his people in the past.
When they witnessed what happened with the unclean spirit, perhaps they even thought of the words of today’s First Reading, when Moses said: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites. Listen to him” (Deuteronomy 18:15, EHV). This Jesus was doing the kinds of things they had only heard about and read about—things similar to, or even greater than, what Moses himself had done. They were actually witnessing the Word of God himself in action.
The Jesus who spoke to them with authority was, indeed, the Messiah they had been waiting for. The “experts in the law” had many people convinced that Messiah’s purpose was to throw off Roman oppression and restore the earthly kingdom of Israel.
The authority of Jesus gave a hint that there was so much more. All the penalties the experts spoke of in the law would be paid in full by Jesus. Casting out an unclean spirit pointed to the fact that he had the authority—and the power—to totally defeat Satan, himself.
IV.
“News about him spread quickly through all the region of Galilee” (Mark 1:28, EHV).
It was three years or so later when Jesus displayed his ultimate authority over sin, death, and Satan on the cross. There he announced that God’s plan of salvation for the world was finished—completed.
The news of Jesus’ authority that spread that day into all of Galilee grew and grew until God’s plan of salvation could be seen in full.
“He was teaching them as one who has authority and not as the experts in the law” (Mark 1:22, EHV).
To this day there are experts in God’s Word. Pastors put in a lot of time to study God’s Word and become so-called “experts” before they are ever ordained into ministry. There are many Bible scholars who devote even more time and effort into digging into what God’s Word says so deeply that they write commentaries, or systematic theology resources that look for every Bible passage that speaks to a particular doctrine of Scripture.
Some scholars are better than others. Just like the experts in Jesus’ day, some let their own human expertise and logic sneak in to what they write and teach.
How do you know which are true and which are false? True biblical scholarship always points ultimately to the Bible, not to logic, not to any expert.
You don’t want to hear what I, or any Bible scholar or any pastor, thinks. Always go back to the One who speaks with authority. Always listen to what Jesus himself says. Amen.