Mark 1:21-28

Georgetown Presbyterian Church

Rev. Stephen H. Wilkins

January 29, 2006

A young second lieutenant at Fort Bragg discovered that he had no change when he went to buy a soft drink from a vending machine. He flagged down a passing private and asked him, "Do you have change for a dollar?" The private said cheerfully, "I think so, let me take a look." The lieutenant drew himself up stiffly and said, "Soldier, that is no way to address an officer. We'll start all over again. Do you have change for a dollar?" The private came to attention, saluted smartly, and said, "No, sir!"

Somewhere in that story there is a lesson about authority, both in the way authority is used and in the way authority is received.

The concept of authority plays an important role in this morning’s scripture lesson from the Gospel According to Mark. You simply can’t come away from this text without some kind of consideration of the concept of authority. At the beginning and at the end of the passage, Mark tells us that the people are astonished by the authority of Jesus. Even the demons that possess the unnamed man in the story recognize a new kind of authority in Jesus, for they acknowledge that Jesus is the "Holy One of God."

There’s something different about Jesus.

The passage is framed by expressions of amazement at the authority of Jesus. Mark tells us that "[The people in the synagogue] were astounded at his teaching, for he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The passage ends when we are told that "They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching--with authority!’"

There’s something different about Jesus. The people recognize that there is in Jesus an other-ness that sets Jesus apart from the normal teachers of the law. They recognize that Jesus brings something to the table that no one else brings to the table. There’s something different about Jesus. He has a special kind of authority.

The authority of Jesus was not at all like that of the scribes. Whereas the scribes were the scriptural experts and quoted the Old Testament law in their sleep, the teaching of Jesus was unlike any the crowd had ever heard before. He wasn’t merely quoting the word of God – it was as if God himself were speaking.

That’s what was so different about Jesus; his teaching was so wholly other, so holy, so divine.

The difference between the authority of the scribes and that of Jesus is like the difference between hearing somebody quote an original source, and hearing the original source in person. It would be like the difference between when I quote Billy Graham, and having Billy Graham stand in this pulpit before your very eyes. The scribes were quoting the word of the Lord; Jesus was speaking the very words of God.

That’s what is so amazing about the authority of Jesus. Jesus is for us the voice of God, the Word made flesh. Jesus is the One who mediates the person and character of God. Jesus communicates God to us. He doesn’t just talk about God; he gives us God.

Jesus conveys a wholly other sense of authority, because Jesus conveys to us the person and character of God. And while we can never achieve that level of authority--nor should we even attempt to achieve that level of authority for ourselves--Jesus does offer us the model by which we are to view authority in the life of the church and in our own lives. For often it is the case that authority in the Christian church is not very Christ-like. Often it is the case that authority is exercised in the form of control, that authority is an issue of power. But Jesus demonstrates his authority as greatness through humility, as leadership through servanthood.

All of our elders have had to go through a period of training before they serve on the Session. And part of that training includes the reminder in our Book of Order that while elders are set apart for leadership, and they are called to exercise authority, the model for their leadership and exercise of authority is to be Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to offer his life as a ransom for many.

That goes for us pastors, as well. Ted Wardlaw, the President of Austin Seminary, told the story the other day of a seminarian who was shopping for his first preaching robe. The seminarian chose the fanciest one he could find, with all sorts of embroidered adornment on the robe. When the seminarian was asked why he chose the fanciest robe, his reply was, "because I want my robe to reflect the authority of the pastoral office." He couldn’t have been any farther from the correct position. For you see, our preaching robes are not supposed to lift us up as some exalted figures; instead, in their simplicity they’re supposed to take away all the trappings of the appearance of power. The stoles we wear aren’t supposed to be worn like captains’ bars or generals’ stars; the stole is a symbolic reminder of the foot-washing towel used by Jesus as he served his disciples. The authority of the pastoral office has as its model the authority of our Lord Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And just as Christ in his exercise of authority conveys to us the person and character of God, so should we exercise Christian authority by conveying Jesus to those over whom we have authority, inasmuch as our finite human minds are capable of understanding and conveying the character of Christ. Leaders in the church exercise authority by conveying the character and person of Christ. Leaders in the home are to exercise their authority by conveying the character and person of Christ. Leaders in the workplace are to exercise their authority by conveying the character and person of Christ. Authority and leadership in the name of Christ is about conveying Christ.

Henri Nouwen was a world-renowned theologian and author, and he had served on the faculties of the prestigious institutions of the University of Notre Dame, Yale University, and Harvard University. Yet he put all of that aside in order to become a caregiver in a home for mentally handicapped people. And at that home for the mentally handicapped, Henri Nouwen discovered that all of his scholarly achievements, all of his great intellectual ability, all of his prior experience as a leader in the church--all meant nothing to the residents of the home. Nouwen discovered that leadership in the name of Jesus meant putting aside all of those trappings of power and prestige, and to empty himself for the sake of those he was called to serve. He went on to write a book about his experience, in which he said,

"The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus? Perhaps another way of putting the question would be: Do you know the incarnate God? In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal. In that heart there is no suspicion, no vindictiveness, no resentment, and not a tinge of hatred. It is a heart that wants only to give love and receive love in response. It is a heart that suffers immensely because it sees the magnitude of human pain and the great resistance to trusting the heart of [a] God who wants to offer consolation and hope."

A heart that longs to know the heart of God; a heart that longs to convey the love of Jesus Christ to others--that is a picture of authority after the model of Jesus. It’s greatness through humility; it’s leadership through service.

In today’s text, there’s another reaction to the authority of Jesus. It comes from the demons that possess the unnamed man. The demons recognize that the uniqueness of the authority of Jesus is in his divine power to bring about change. One of the ironies in Mark’s telling of the gospel is that it is the demon-possessed ones who recognize the authority of Jesus. Why do you think that is? Why do you think that throughout the telling of Mark’s gospel, it is the demons who recognize Jesus as the Holy One of God, while it is the upstanding citizens of the day who put Jesus to death?

I think it’s because the demons are the ones who recognize that Jesus has the power to threaten their existence. I think it’s the demons who see Jesus as the one who carries with him the divine power and authority to conquer evil.

I don’t know how you feel about demons and the demonic. And we don’t know that the man was possessed by a bunch of little red men with horns coming out of their heads. I suspect that we all have our own demons to wrestle with. We think of them as manifestations of mental illness, like depression, or rage, or substance abuse. However you want to look at it, the fact is there is something that takes control of us, something that takes us captive. And it’s when we encounter Jesus in all his divine authority that those parts of us rebel and freak out, because Jesus represents a threat to the very grip that those forces have on us.

You see, as the mediator of the person and character of God, Jesus brings with him the power to change, to cast out, to renew; and even as he offers hope, so does his arrival at the doorstep of our hearts threaten to throw our world into turmoil. The strange truth is, as much as we say we want to be rid of our demons, there’s a part of us that doesn’t really want to let go of the depression, or the rage, or the substance abuse, or whatever demon it is that has a hold on us. We don’t want to let go, because we’ve learned to exist with those demons, and to let go means that we have to find a new way of existing. And so, ironically, Jesus represents a threat to a way of life that, though it is far from perfect, it is a way of life to which we’ve grown accustomed.

And so we are left with the choice: Do we submit to the authority of Jesus, and let Jesus deal with those demons, even if it means that we’ll have to learn a new definition of normal? Or do we run away, content to continue wallowing under the bondage of those demons that have taken up residence in our lives?

Do you fear the authority of Jesus in your life, or do you trust the authority of Jesus? You know and I know that none of us can predict with any true certainty what tomorrow will look like. None of us can promise that life will be any easier tomorrow than it is today. Faith in Jesus doesn’t mean that we know exactly what our future holds; if it did, it wouldn’t really be faith would it?

But faith in Jesus trusts that the life that Jesus offers us is better than the life we can live apart from Jesus. And so an encounter with the authority of Jesus demands a response from us: will you run and hide, because Jesus represents a threat to a way of life that you currently manage to live? Or, can you trust that Jesus will set you free and offer you a new way of life?

When confronted with the authority of Jesus, how will you respond?