These winter Sundays our lectionary proceeds resolutely through the early parts of
Mark’s gospel: the appearance at the Jordan of John the Baptizer with is bath of
repentance and forgiveness, Jesus’ baptism by John, and the descent of the Spirit like a
dove, Jesus’ testing in the desert and the call of his first disciples in Galilee, and today
his mastery of the unclean spirits in the lakeshore town of Capernaum which would be
his Galilean headquarters.
From one week to the next we are carried forward swiftly in this season of Epiphany:
God’s manifestation to a believing people in the person, as Mark calls him from the
outset, of “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus taught with “authority,” we are told and
people were spellbound by his teaching. The authority in question is not that of a well-
informed teacher, a layman who, although without rabbinic training, discourses like a
master. For Mark it is rather the divine authority of the son of God.
Reading and hearing the gospel publicly confronts us with the power of the gospel,
which is the power of a person. The unclean spirit in the shrieking man who is
convulsed violently is a symbol of all that threatens us as a victimized humanity. The evil
that besets us is the polar opposite of a God of unspeakable holiness who is calm and
peace in the lives of all who resist chaos, division, and the rest of the host of ills that
threaten us.
But first, there must be acceptance of this holiness, acquiescence in the authority of
Jesus the only son.
Centuries before the man of Nazareth there had been a promise. The book of
Deuteronomy, the work of Levitical priests, went back to King Josiah’s reign in the 600s
B.C. Chapter 17 spelled out the duties of a king, then early 18 those of priests before
turning to the function of prophets (18:9-22). It is from here that our first reading comes.
The part given for this Sunday is set in a polemic against Canaanite priests and their
magical rites. The LORD is to be trusted, the LORD alone. Israel’s prophets are the
voice of God but even they can speak presumptuously, uttering oracles in the name of
LORD that they have not been commanded to speak. And so a criterion is spelled out.
You will know that an oracle is spoken in the name of the LORD if it comes to pass, if it
is fulfilled or verified in the event. From the prophet who speaks presumptuously there is
nothing to be feared.
The promise is this: in the future, that is subsequent to Moses’s day, a succession of
teachers like Moses shall be raised up. They are to be listened to if their utterances are
godly and true. Later generations of Jews took this to refer to one man, not a collective.
That is why the gospels are shot through with the inquiry, “Can this man be the
prophet?” meaning the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:18. The evangelists and the Church
ever since answer, “Yes!” This Jesus who speaks with authority is the trustworthy and
truthful speaker on whom we can rely. He is, as even the unclean spirits acknowledge,
the holy one of God.
We call out gathering “the church,” from the Greek adjective kyriaké, “that which is the
Lord’s.” This community which we are speaks with a prophetic voice, the voice of Jesus
himself. It does so, of course, if we remain true to him in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Parents, bishops, classroom teachers, simple folk and theologians, all speak
authoritatively in this community if they stay true to the spirit of Christ. Authority is not
telling another person what to do. It is doing what you must do out of fidelity to the Lord.
That makes the deed authoritative.
In all the Christian churches there is a tendency to claim the authority of office, to say
that a thing must be done or not done because the teachers have the authentic spirit of
Christ. With the passage of time, this sometimes turns out to be true and sometimes
not. Even St. Paul whom we hail as the apostle was such an incurable bachelor that he
could not foresee that pleasing one’s wife might be identical with doing the Lord’s will.
The Church provided the corrective by never going in Paul’s direction, never teaching
that you either remained single and did God’s will or married and were unable to do so
perfectly. At time, however, it came perilously close to doing so. Only the corrective of
the consciences of millions of married Christians set Paul straight. But it was a near
miss, so powerful is the claim of the Lord’s authority when it is lodged in holy zeal. We
must be aware of it, and be much more aware that what we decide is good to do is
thereby the authoritative position. In all things, all of us must constantly seek out what is
the will of Jesus, the Lord – then do it, driving help from any prophetic voice that seems
authoritative and true. Of these, the whole community of the Church is the most
dependable, for Jesus said that he would be with it always, even to the end of the age.
Kevin+
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