Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - Tuesday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Sam 1:9-20 and Mark 1:21-28]Jesus came to Capernaum with his followers, and on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. [Mark]
After his "debut" at his baptism by John the Baptist and his temptation trial int he desert, the Gospel According to Mark tells us that Jesus began his ministry. "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." His preaching began to attract some followers and he chose his first collaborators, two pairs of brothers, Simon(Peter) and Andrew, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee. With all of this in hand, we are now introduced to some important features of his ministry at the synagogue in Capernaum, a fishing village by the Sea of Galilee, which became a kind of headquarters for him.
The first important feature is that Jesus does not derive his authority from anyone else, as the scribes did. They would quote other authorities to make their points. Jesus did not. He was his own authority. This immediate contrast with other religious authorities begins the tension that exists throughout the Gospel According to Mark. The second feature is Jesus' power over unclean spirits. The gospel records the reaction of the people: All were amazed and asked one another, "What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
There is a challenge here for us. What is attractive to us in Jesus' teaching? Perhaps we are so "familiar" with it, that it doesn't seem new and fresh to us. Can we think about his power over unclean spirits and consider what our own "unclean spirits" might be that he can heal? The Gospel According to Mark has a kind of "in your face" challenge to it. It's like a "wake-up call." Can we be newly attracted to Jesus' teachings and ask him to heal us? AMEN