“As One Having Authority”
“As One Having Authority”
Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Psalm 111 Mark 1:21-28
Year B, Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
January 28, 2024
Pastor Andy Kennaly, Sandpoint, Idaho
I gave this morning’s reflection the title, “As One Having Authority” for a couple of reasons. The first is simple. It’s part of the scripture from Mark’s gospel talking about Jesus as he teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum. Verse 22 says, “People were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” One having authority just stood out last Wednesday when I put the bulletin together and needed a sermon title. But why it stood out leads to a second reason that is more complex and subtle, and has to do with consciousness and connection.
In that verse we hear a play on numbers. Jesus “taught them as one having authority.” He taught them. One, many. He, them. He’s a person with authority, and he speaks as a person with authority. This is singular. He’s one with authority. Authority is not only a possession, a thing Jesus has, but an aspect of identity, who Jesus is. Also contrast this with the scribes. Mark says Jesus speaks as one with authority and “not as the scribes.” This, again, is plural, there are many scribes.
Scribes are like translators, they write or speak what they are told, or simply copy or repeat the tradition they’ve inherited. They regurgitate the same old teachings assumed as truth. They hold power and control because they are the educated elite, but this is different than authority because they don’t use license to be original. Jesus speaks with authority because he’s providing original interpretation, shares new paradigms and perspectives, and opens their minds not only to traditional truths, but to deeper layers of meaning that give rise and shape to those traditions and truths.
Another reason “As One Having Authority” stands out is illustrated in the healing story that follows. Even as it’s described, the scene is set in an “us and them” format that plays with the fullness of time encapsulated in a moment. “Just then, there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit.” Lots of distinctions: their synagogue, a man, unclean spirit; themes of us and them, a mix of material and ethereal; it’s an amazing little sentence, and like the rest of the story, is a pull from subject-object duality into unitive consciousness. Unitive, One.
The Greek language this is written in points to deeper meaning using the word for man. “A man with an unclean spirit.” This is like a mirror with a splatter that obscures the true reflection. Jesus heals the man, cleans the mirror, and shows us that this is not just a man as in a gender label, not just a man in the indefinite sense of someone or somebody in general, but specifically “a man,” Anthropos, in the fullness of what human being entails. Jesus shows us what it is to live a fully human life.
Dualism, constant judging and labeling good or bad, in or out; this is the same old news, the mentality we deal with every day. We do need it in order to make it through the day in all the complexities of modern life. But dualistic thinking carries deficiencies, like getting stuck in our head, so much so that we assume our bodies are only transportation devices for our brain. Dimensions of mental structure involve concepts, especially about time and distance, and our ego becomes the reference point. One Mental Structure deficiency involves the concept of separation; especially that the eternal God is separate from us, not present within finite creatures, and we assume we are separate from each other and the rest of the Earth, all of which are objectified and stripped of their inherent divinity, sacredness, and unity.
Jesus shares good news, what to the people in Capernaum seems like a new teaching. But really, he’s just cleaning the mirror, and reveals and reminds all of us of what we’ve forgotten. Jesus teaches and embodies unitive consciousness, reveals God with us.
“He taught them as one” indeed does stand out. It is foundational to the core of religious tradition in a way the scribes had forgotten. The Shema, which is central to the Jewish faith, shares Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Now, we can see why they are astonished. [read it fast] “He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” Let’s play with this verse. Let’s add a pause.
Where will you put the pause? Do you need it to read, “He taught them as one having authority [pause] and not as the scribes”? Maybe your image of God needs authority, especially if God is assumed to be separate, up there, so holy that we cannot approach, like the temple in Jerusalem that had a curtain, a divider, a gap that is fixed between us and God.
Or what if we move the pause and say, “He taught them as one [pause] …having authority and not as the scribes.” Jesus taught them as one [pause]… having authority and not as the scribes. This pause has two main aspects. The first involves As One, Jesus taught them as one…echoing and embodying the LORD as one, God with us. The Shema. Jesus claims the efficient, foundational quality of traditional faith.
And a second aspect focuses on having authority and not as the scribes. This unitive oneness carries an authority the scribes do not have because the scribes are caught in the deficiencies of dualism. Their teachings are trapped within the same old stinkin’ thinkin’. They are stuck in the moment.
Jesus liberates the moment, unfolds a whole new state of consciousness, one not stuck in the head but also transforming the heart, one that unifies, connects realms, dimensions, time and space. This is good news, a full body experience, as Mark is about to show in the story that follows that illustrates a very important truth.
Jesus shows us how to do our inner work. We must deal with our own shadows, wrestle with our demons, face the traumas and sufferings of life, and trust God for healing, release, and true freedom. Jesus shows us kenosis, the path of letting go. Even the controlling tyranny of our own thoughts does not have the authority to name who we are as one with divinity for we, and all creation, reflect the image and likeness of the Divine.
In the drama of this story, Jesus doesn’t destroy anything, but through non-violent, active resistance, he commands silence. Silence.
There’s a reason it is after the command for silence that the man convulses. The cleansing of the conscience, shadow boxing deep in our unconsciousness, spirit work is hard work. Transformation of Unitive Consciousness is not a clean process, nor is it ever complete. What Jesus teaches is dynamic, alive, and ongoing. Discomfort, a form of suffering, is inherent along this mystical path, yet in having a taste of unity, of oneness, nothing else will ever satisfy nor come close to the peace beyond understanding shared through surrender as we fall into God and are held in the abyss of love that has no end. Once you know, you can’t not know.
In the dialogue, the demons use plural language, wondering, “What have you to do with us, Jesus?” The passage, with all its drama, shows us what Christ continues to do: Epiphany. Christ reveals the fullness of God’s love that builds up, creates abundant life, restores relationship, and strengthens community. Love builds up, God is with us. The LORD is One.
Look at what Love does! When this man is healed, there is restoration of society, his family is delivered from shame, the people are amazed, and Jesus establishes authority as a religious leader who doesn’t just talk about God like the prideful, powerful scribes, but lives to reveal God as One, through compassionate action. This healing story reveals God with us through social justice, restored relationship, and the power of the living Christ that gives itself away in love.
Christ’s redemptive presence gives this troubled man healing and wholeness in the synagogue on that Sabbath day, and even the demons are invited to remember who they really are at their core as created beings, created good, desiring existence. “Be silent.” This is an invitation to trust, to let go. Rather than destroy them, Jesus tells them, shall we say teaches them, invites them to “be silent.” Jesus offers love, God alone, as a way for the demons to remember their inherent goodness as divine, angelic beings.
Jesus heals this man on the Earthly plane and offers hope to the demons in celestial realms. Silence is the solace Jesus offers them, in which they can remember and embrace God’s love and claim hope. The unclean spirit cries out with a loud voice and comes out of the man. Did they reject Jesus, or were they redeemed and freed as spiritual beings? Mark doesn’t say but leaves it open-ended.
Much of the violence and struggles in our world stem from people who hold deep pain and have not done their inner work. It is easy to allow delusions and deficiencies to falsely claim authority as we transmit our pain, deny our own core goodness and that of others, and view the Earth as a resource to be exploited, dominated, or destroyed. All kinds of distractions obscure our original blessedness, our True Self in Christ.
But Jesus helps us break this cycle, nurtures our soul in silence, gifts us with hope that empowers, and builds up such that we can remember who we really are and look in the mirror and say, “I know who you are, you’re a Child of God, heir of God, heir of the covenant, co-heir with Christ.” We can breathe deep the awareness of our inherent goodness as creatures, blessed and loved by God.
To do our inner work, we need the help of others, and contemplative, spiritual disciplines help us detoxify and rest in the sustaining Presence of the Holy Spirit, who heals us from the inside out, teaches our soul the power of hope, the building of love, the redemption of our spirit. This is God’s gift of grace, new life in Christ, and this is why Jesus enters and begins to teach.
May we open to the One, and through silence, become active as love proclaims this Jesus whom we follow, marked as Christ’s own forever.
And may God be glorified, now, even as forever. Amen.