Day Seventy Five - Not quibbling and quoting

Read Mark 1:21-28

21-22 (The Message) Then they entered Capernaum. When the Sabbath arrived, Jesus lost no time in getting to the meeting place. He spent the day there teaching. They were surprised at his teaching—so forthright, so confident—not quibbling and quoting like the religion scholars.

I don’t remember much about my school days but I do remember some of the good teachers. When I think of them, I don’t remember people who were particularly powerful, but they were. I think of individuals like Miss Auchterlonie, who was such an encourager and had this unique gift of communication. She taught me how to memorise information and I remember her smiling when I recited a poem word perfect at the end of term assembly. Mr Streets was a pure gentleman, one of the very few male teachers who actually made learning maths fun - if that was indeed possible. Mr Watt the science teacher was something else. He used his lesser-known experiments that looked good on paper but never worked. It was his appearance that drew attention, especially his hair. It was pure white and resembled that of an explosion in a mattress factory.

It is amazing though how good teachers continue to feed us long after we’ve left their presence. What power they had. I also had some power-crazy teachers who used their influence the wrong way.

Our reading today brings us into the company of powerful teachers. Mark looks in on the early ministry of Jesus, beginning with John the Baptist preparing the way with his preaching. He appears at the baptism of Jesus, but then jumps immediately into Jesus calling the disciples and the beginning of his ministry. Interesting to note then how the ministry of Jesus begins - with teaching, but not just any type of teaching, he teaches with authority.

I find it interesting that we don’t know the content of his teaching then, but what makes His teaching authoritative is his person; his teaching is commanding because of who he is. It is maybe like those good teachers in our past where we don’t remember the details of what they taught, but we do remember the power of their personality.

The people automatically respond to Jesus’ teaching with both what they know and the experience they’ve had. There is however something different here. In other words, Jesus brings something extra to the situation, he has something the scribes don’t have. Looking at what happens next as we read on through the chapter, Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit, now that could be scary but in this particular gospel there’s no distinction between Jesus’ teaching and his healing. It’s all part of the same deal. So, when the people hear Jesus teach with authority and see Jesus heal with authority they’re astounded, absolutely amazed because this is something new. This is not at all like what they’ve experienced with the scribes. Jesus was different from the scribes because He taught with authority.

Jesus’ authority comes from above. He is rightly identified by the demon as, “the Holy One of God.” Jesus’ authority comes directly from God and it’s this divine authority that we see unfold in the gospel of Mark.

As we go about our business today let us follow the light out into the world and speak with the authority we’ve been given, and live in ways that feed a hungry world.

Enjoy your day!

Tom Bonnar