There was something about
Jesus’s teaching in the synagogue.
We read that “They were
astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not
as the scribes.”
The word used here, the word for
authority is a word that in Greek, exousia,
literally means power,
The English word used here,
“authority” makes us think of another word like “expert”
Both these words are used in
the news to support some interpretation of the events that have happened.
“Experts say that the economy
is etc.”
There is a kind of power in
having this status – expert.
But I don’t think this is the
kind of power that Jesus was showing.
And so I don’t know if
“authority” is the best word
I think it gets us thinking
about experts,
those people who really know what they’re talking about
versus the rest of us
who just have to take their
word for it.
Now I do think we need people
who are trained in a very specific field.
I think this is a necessity
in our modern world.
But so often “experts” are
used to intimidate rather than instruct.
It was actually the scribes,
the teachers of the law,
that operated much more like
the modern experts that the word authority brings to mind. They reserved the power to officially
intepret the law for the people.
The scribes would interpret
the scriptures and would be extremely careful to say everything with reference
to other experts who came before them.
So and so said this, and so
and so said this.
This is one of the things
that was missing in Jesus’s teaching.
And so he wasn’t teaching as
an expert citing experts,
But as one who had power.
But what kind of power?
We can think of different
kinds of power.
And I imagine at least two
kinds of power.
One is the power that aimed
at taking agency, ability from others –
The other is the power that
gives agency and ability to others.
This was the real problem
with Jesus according to the leaders of his day.
He didn’t play the game
right. He didn’t follow the rules that
were designed
to preserve the hierarchy in
the religious and political order.
Instead he again and again opened
up the reservoirs of power
challenged every power
structure that served to take away from the people rather than build up or give
to the people.
This is what I imagine the
difference was in that synagogue in Capernaum.
The people were used to
hearing things that made them feel less powerful.
And Jesus’s teaching made
them feel empowered,
Jesus made them feel like
they were somebody,
Like God cared for them and
their needs and desires.
When Jesus confronts and
casts out the unclean spirit from the man in the synagogue,
we see this different kind of
power in action.
Here Jesus uses what power he
has for the sake of liberating others.
Jesus’s teaching and his life
was aimed at empowering people who are oppressed.
And this meant using his
power to confront those forces that oppress.
Sometimes that was a
confrontation of a spiritual nature –
Sometimes – and pretty soon
in Mark we’ll see this –
it was a confrontation of political
or religious authorities.
Jesus gave power back to the
people,
He called upon them to have
faith in their God and to not submit themselves to the spiritual, political,
and economic forces of oppression that kept them down.
They were freer and more
valuable in God’s eyes than they were made to believe by the teaching they
received.
The kingdom of God inhabits
this different power.
It’s not expert power, where
one or a few maintain control over the many.
It’s empowerment of as many
who will believe,
As many who become able to
see themselves as God sees them:
Children of God, sisters and
brothers in Christ.
Made in the image of God and
loved more than they can imagine.
The conflict between Jesus
and the spiritual and political powers of his day is a theme throughout the
gospel.
But I think this is the main
reason for the conflict.
Two kinds of power – the
power that serves the powerful and the power that builds up the powerless.
The power that gives to the
powerless will always be a threat to the powers that exist to keep themselves
in control or in privileged positions.
We are all given power and
privilege to various degrees.
What we have in the bank, the
possessions we own – these are a kind of power – they enable us to do or to buy
things that we might not be able otherwise to do.
What kind of job or education
you have, where you’ve been and who you know – that’s another kind of power,
what people call “social capital”
Suffice it to say, to the
extent that we own or possess things that we own or possess, we have power.
Power in itself is not wrong.
It’s in the using of power
that we are confronted with the choice.
How do we use what privilege
and power we have in our material goods in our social status?
Jesus had power – he was not a
wealthy person materially – but he was intelligent, and as the gospels show, he
had a way with people.
But how did Jesus use the
power that he had?
He gave of himself for his
brothers and sisters – he taught, he healed, he fed.
He created community to be a
force for good in a society dominated by powerful people who used their power
for themselves and to keep others down.
The call to love is a call to
consider how we might use the gifts, the privilege, the power that we’ve been
given in order to empower our neighbors,
Paul’s words in Ephesians get
at this:
We’ve all been given gifts by
God, he writes, but these gifts are for a purpose:
“to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12)
It’s like the image in Isaiah
that we heard Martin Luther King quote two weeks ago:
“Every valley shall be lifted
up, and every mountain and hill be made low”
This is not a description of
a longing for remodeling the landscape for development purposes.
It’s an image of equality in
God’s love.
That power would be shared
among the people, where all people might be able to see themselves as
“somebody” as able to give to their neighbors,
Many of you may have had the
words of Peter Parker’s uncle from Spiderman come to mind: “With great power
comes great responsibility.”
That’s true enough, but I
think Jesus would push this further.
The power of the kingdom is a
power given to all people by the Spirit of God.
May we work as students,
retirees, nurses, parents,
grandparents, educators,
public servants,
as fellow members of the
household of God,
To realize in ourselves that
we are somebody,
that God’s love can course
through our veins,
and to then use what we have
to encourage and empower others.
Amen.
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