Authority Comes from God Alone

This weekend, our Gospel is from the Gospel of Mark. A little background may help us understand its power and meaning for us.  

The Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel written. It is commonly thought to have been written about 70 CE. Mark was probably an associate of St. Paul and a disciple of Saint Peter. Mark’s Gospel is the shortest and was written for the Gentile converts in Rome. It was written for those who did not hear Jesus preach but were transformed by the power of the preaching of St. Paul and the Apostles. Mark’s Gospel emphasizes the power and authority of Jesus as the One sent directly from God. 

Authority is a powerful thing. In this Gospel reading, Jesus is said to speak with authority and not like the Scribes and the Pharisees.  

The word authority in the Bible means the power or ability to do something as designated by a higher power. Saying Jesus spoke with authority means that His words and actions were “authored” by God himself.

Jesus spoke and acted with authority; He was speaking as one who was directly inspired and reflecting the thoughts and will of God. The Scribes and Pharisees spoke of law, history, and expectations. What made Jesus different was His emphasis on the people rather than the law. Jesus addressed the people’s concrete needs. He spoke to their hearts.

The Jews at the time of Jesus were under Roman rule. In addition to the Roman government laying huge burdens on them, the scribes and Pharisees added to the weight of the burden in their lives. Jesus steps into their heavily burdened lives and speaks of hope, healing, love, and God. Jesus does not talk with the threat of doom, gloom, expectation, and condemnation. Jesus does not threaten damnation like the Pharisees. Instead, He speaks with an attitude that pulls people out of the trenches of their lives and values them as cared for and loved by God. 

In Mark’s Gospel, the cure of the man with an unclean spirit is Jesus’ first healing. On the Sabbath, Jesus casts out the evil that possesses the man and makes him whole.

That is a lot of background. Hopefully, it helps us see what this Gospel as a living word means for us today.

Jesus comes with the authority of God not to burden but to free us. He comes today to each of us to lift the burdens that hold us down and free us from the power of evil that tries to make a home in us. With the authority that only God can give, Jesus’ words of hope and healing are spoken to us just as they were to those heavily burdened in Jerusalem and to the man with the unclean spirit.  

Jesus stands ready to cast out any evil that tries to take root in us. If we but ask him, Jesus will free us from evil. That sounds a bit “out there.” But, it is no more uncommon today that an unclean spirit possesses us than it was at the time of Jesus. Our unclean spirits have names like selfishness, callousness, bias, bigotry, disregard, disrespect, and a legion of others.

The Gospel of Mark, through this very first miracle, assures us that Jesus comes to make us whole. Not even the Sabbath law will stop Him. Jesus comes to make us better, to free us from anything that holds us back, from anything that demeans and disrespects the gift God created, the gift that is us.

This Gospel asks us to step into the story and hear Jesus with our own ears speaking with authority to us today. It invites us to be overwhelmed with the sense that Jesus is not a story from history but a presence real and concrete with us. This Gospel invites us to recognize Jesus and allow him to cast out the unclean spirits that have niggled their way into our lives.  

And so we stand with bated breath, listening to Jesus speak with authority. Willing Him to come and free us from the burdens that hold us back from wholeness and holiness.

In God’s Unending Love,

Gwen