By Whose Authority?
Mark 1:21-28
How do you respond to authority?
For most of my upbringing, I really struggled with authority. I could take coaching because I saw how it could and would benefit me. When it came to actual authority, following rules, or abiding by a certain standard I always found myself attempting to skirt those standards.
I regularly attended church and youth group during my upbringing. I had even been baptized at a young age. I was supposed to live under the authority of Jesus, yet my affections drove me to seek that irreducible minimum. I did enough to appear that I was following the perceived standard even though my heart wasn’t totally in it. It seemed that while I wanted to appear good that I wholly wasn’t ready to live the way of Jesus.
When I fully came to Christ I was forced to deal with my rebellious attitude and actions. The deep patterns of rejecting good authority had to be unraveled. For the chains in my mind and heart, as a result of rejecting God’s authority, needed to be broken by learning my true identity rather than a self-created one.
I imagine some of this attitude and internal struggle is the same for the man in Mark 1:21-28. Heck, this guy was sitting in the synagogue when Jesus entered and began to teach. Meaning, he was in a religious place and around religious instruction, yet was indwelt with something that was evil. It wasn’t until this man came face to face with the authority of Jesus that the evil inside was confronted. The man knew who Jesus was! The spirit inside could not deny it.
The word that Mark uses for authority literally means “out of the original stuff.” It comes from the same root as the word author. Mark means that Jesus taught about life with original authority, rather than derived authority. Because Jesus taught with authority, He really believed what He was saying, in comparison to the scribes who must have been teaching half-heartedly (Mark 1:22). He didn’t just clarify something that they already knew. His listeners sensed somehow that he was explaining the story of their lives as the author, and it left them in awe.
What was Jesus teaching? Mark has already summed it up — Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, therefore, people need to repent and believe the good news that the kingdom has arrived. Evil and selfishness were being confronted in a new way, a way that God had long promised. The evil attempted to protect itself by naming the identity of Jesus, thus causing a distraction from Jesus’ real power.
Being around church or people of faith doesn’t guarantee we encounter the authority of Jesus. Our selfishness and the evil within will always attempt to pre-determine who Jesus is as a way to distract us from truly encountering Jesus’ power. When we do encounter Jesus, by Jesus speaking directly into our being, the evil within is challenged. In fact, it doesn’t just challenge, Jesus’ word cleanses and frees us. When we reject God’s authority we build our own prison. We enslave ourselves to desires that can never be fulfilled. Under Jesus’ authority, broken people are restored to health and wholeness. Today, the authority of Jesus isn’t something you should shirk. Today, the authority of Jesus will restore you to wholeness.
Begin your restoration process by naming who Jesus is–the Holy One of God.