Deuteronomy 18: 15–20 / Psalm 111 / I Corinthians 8: 1–13 / Mark 1: 21-28
This is the homily prepared for St.
John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker for Sunday, January 31,
2021
“A QUESTION OF AUTHORITY”
(Homily texts: Deuteronomy
18: 15–20 & Mark 1: 21–28)
The design of the lectionary readings is usually
one in which the Old Testament reading tracks with the Gospel reading. That is
to say, there is some thread that binds the two together. (By contrast, the
epistle reading often makes its way through a specific book or letter. In the
case of our current lectionary, we’re reading our way through St. Paul’s first
letter to the Corinthians.)
The theme that binds our reading from Deuteronomy,
which is the last of the first five books of the Old Testament which are
ascribed to Moses, and our Gospel text from Mark, chapter one, are tied
together with the theme of authority.
Before we look at each text more closely, let’s
consider the matter of authority.
Much of what we do in life is governed by the idea
of authority, authority being defined as the ability to govern the actions of
the members of society or of a group in one way or another. To illustrate the
reality of this, consider the matter of speed limits on our roadways: A section
of roadway is designated with a certain speed limit, that speed beyond which
drivers are not to drive. The authority to set a speed limit is governed by a
set of laws, which are established by a government at some level or another.
The same could be said of laws regarding the paying of taxes, or laws which
govern the transfer of some type of property or another. You get the idea.
In the living of our lives, and in the process of
growing up, we encounter authority figures of various types. For example, our
parents ought to constitute authority figures, bringing us up to become mature,
productive people when we are adults ourselves. It is our parents who influence
us the most in our formative years (in most cases), and it is they with whom we
associate the most and for much, if not most, of the time as we grow from
infancy through childhood to maturity. Other authority figures might be a
teacher, a coach on a sports team we were a part of, or some other mentoring
figure, to cite a few.
Authority, properly understood, is derived from
somewhere or someone else. Oh yes, down through history, there’ve been those
who’ve declared themselves to be authorities. Dictators fall into this
category. We know what happens to many of those. But those in authority whom we
hold in high regard make it clear that their leadership and their position in
the scheme of things was due to some source outside themselves. And, they
usually made it clear that their authority was exercised for the benefit of
others, and not for themselves.
Continuing with the idea just articulated, authority
can come in more than one form.
One form of authority is the type that says, “I’m
in charge” or “I’m more powerful than you are”.
For although there might be occasions for asserting that sort of power
or leadership, that sort of authority isn’t always the most effective type, for
it can breed resentment and even rebellion in those who are being governed or
led. In my humble estimation, authority of this type is best exercised with
extreme care and sparingly.
Another form of authority, the much more effective
type, is the type that exemplifies concern and care for those being governed or
led. We could call this type of authority the “servant-leadership” model. Good
governmental leaders are those who abide by that sort of exercise of their
offices. For example, elected officials usually take an oath to abide by the
Constitution of the nation or of the state in which they serve. They do this
because the Constitution is meant to govern their actions, for the welfare of
all the citizens or residents. In the secular realm of government and
governing, the operative principle is one of “consent of the governed”.
Let’s return to the second model of authority, the
one that is of the “servant-leader” variety, for this is the model we see in
Jesus Christ. It is on display in our Gospel reading for today, and we sense it
in Moses’ words, recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.
In Deuteronomy, Moses tells God’s people that God
will raise up prophets like he, himself, has been. Moses’ authority stems from
God’s call, and it is confirmed in his faithful leadership of God’s people, leadership
that imposed burdens on him, and which often brought him into some form of
peril or another. (Oftentimes, we see servant-leader form of authority in the
risks and the burdens that such leaders are willing to undertake for the sake
of those being led.)
Now, we can turn to our appointed reading from
Mark.
We read that Jesus is in the synagogue in
Capernaum, where He is teaching. Notice two things that Mark tells us about
this aspect of Jesus’ activity there: The first thing we notice is that He is
teaching. Teaching is given for the benefit of others, those who listen and learn.
We also notice is that His teaching has a unique ring of authority about it, an
authority that isn’t like that of the scribes. We’re not exactly sure why
Jesus’ listeners would have come to the conclusion that His teaching was
different from that of the scribes, although we can guess that it was because
Jesus didn’t continually refer to the teachings of Moses, as they are found in Torah. Jesus may have referred, instead, to the Father’s
authority (if we are to evaluate the record of Jesus’ teachings as they are
recorded in the four Gospel accounts).
The second thing we notice is that Jesus
demonstrates authority over an unclean spirit, for the spirit says to Him, “I
know who you are – the holy one of God.” Jesus commands the unclean spirit to
come out of the man, and it does, in deference to Jesus’ authority. This
incident tells us two things: The first is that the forces of evil that are
opposed to the things of God recognize God’s power and authority. (This is, I
believe, an enormous source of comfort to us as Christian believers, that we
know that God’s power is sovereign in all things, even over the powers of
evil.) The second thing to notice is that the evil spirit has taken control of
the possessed man not for the man’s own welfare, but for the benefit of the
evil spirit. That sort of possession is of the abusive authoritative model we
considered a little while ago.
How then do we relate to an authority figure, one
of the “servant-leader” model, one that we see in God the Father, and in God
the Son, Jesus Christ?
Perhaps one thought would be that it is the Father
and the Son who invite us into relationship. They do not command us to come
into relationship. Another thought might be that they each have demonstrated
their love, care and concern for us: The
Father, by his creation of the world, and in upholding it, so that we might
enjoy the blessings of life; and the Son, in His coming into our human
existence to take up our humanity, even to the point of sharing in a death that
we each will experience at some point or another.
For all the authority, power, majesty and might
that God possesses, and which the Father has delegated to the Son, it is they
who voluntarily will to relate to us human beings, now and for all time, and
into eternity.
Hallelujah!
AMEN.
