Word to the Wise
Tuesday, January 12, 2021 - Tuesday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 2:5-12 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......"What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." [Mark]
There are always three "audiences" for any scripture passage. There is the audience in the story, the audience for which the story was originally written, and ourselves. Dominican that I am - a member of the Order of Preachers - I tend to view the Bible and each part of it as a "preaching." Yesterday, we learned the essential kernel of Jesus' teaching and his attraction to the first disciples who left everything to follow him. Today, we learn of the way he struck a larger audience in the synagogue. There were plenty of wandering teachers in Jesus' time, but they always taught what their teachers taught and cited them each time: "As Rabbi So and So says, etc.") Jesus did not do that. He spoke on his own "authority." We might say, "Well, of course he did!" but our perspective is different 2000 years later! To demonstrate his authority, Jesus then drove out an evil spirit on his own authority - again different from other "exorcists" of the day who would invoke another authority. We are told then that his "fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee."
What authority does Jesus have in OUR regard? We know there were plenty, including his own disciples, who admired him for his teaching and were wonder-struck at his miracles but were unable to see beyond these to his identity as God's Beloved Son. Ultimately, in the Gospel According to Mark, his disciples would come to complete faith only at Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and even then had doubts. What authority does Jesus have for us? AMEN.