A New Teaching – Mark 1:21-28

Perhaps I am a person who thinks too much about things I read but more and more I am aware that we have four accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus and that each one has chosen a different way to begin their account. Matthew focuses on the genealogy of Jesus and calls him the Messiah - the Christ.  He then ties Jesus to the house of David outlining Jesus’ lineage through Joseph back to the king of Israel himself. But he goes further and gives the lineage back to Abraham – the one who became the first father of the nation that would come to be known as Israel. He then tells us that the period from Abraham to David, from David to the deportation in Babylon and the time from the deportation to Babylon and the birth of Jesus were each fourteen generations.  Matthew loves his numbers!

Luke begins his account with a preface addressed to Theophilus. Not much is known about him but it is believed that he was an official, possibly a Roman involved in Paul’s trial. And so the gospel of Luke is really an extended letter written in what Luke describes as an orderly account so that Theophilus might know the truth concerning the things about which he had been instructed. From the sound of that, we can imagine that Paul’s teaching about Jesus made an impression on him and Luke wants to build on that teaching and ensure that Theophilus does not lose faith. Since we rarely – if ever – read those first verses of Luke, we no doubt have missed this.

John’s account is even different again. He begins his gospel by going right back to the creation of the world by God and reminds us that everything that was ever created was created by the spoken Word of God, a Word that was in the beginning with God and that now has come into the world in the person of Jesus Christ. And throughout his account, John will keep drawing us back to the beginning of creation while connecting Jesus with the pivotal events in the history of the people of Israel. God’s declaration to Moses: I am who I am will be echoed as we hear Jesus say I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and when met by the soldiers in the Garden at his arrest he answers their question about his identity by saying, I AM – am answer that causes them to fall back. John reminds us that this Jesus is the Son of God but is truly God himself. One proceeds from the other but they are truly one!

This leaves us with Mark’s account. He is no theologian, no deep thinker. He is not writing to convince someone of who Jesus is nor is he interested to ensure that the lineage of Jesus should be a convincing fact. He gets right to the point. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God starts with the one sent to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John’s whole purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus and so he comes out of the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. So different from any other prophet before him was John. The Spirit of God that had been promised for ages was about to come to the people. And they came to be baptized with water in expectation of meeting the one who would baptize them with the Spirit of God.

Mark then records the two pivotal events that mark Jesus’ preparation to begin his ministry: his baptism and his temptation. His version is short and to the point. For his baptism, Mark notes the presence of the dove and the voice from heaven declaring to Jesus: You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased. Jesus is then driven out into the wilderness by the Spirit of God to face temptation from Satan for forty days but the specific temptations that he faced are not mentioned at all.

We need to remember that the people of Israel had gone through a long period during which the word and presence of God seemed to be absent. But the coming of Jesus changes that. Note that in Mark 1:14 and 15 the good news of God that Jesus brings is this: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news. Of course, it is Jesus who is bringing the kingdom of God near and it is he who will be the bearer of the good news. And so Jesus calls his first disciples inviting them to discover how they can be part of this new thing that God is preparing to do.

And so Jesus comes with his disciples to Capernaum and on the Sabbath enters the synagogue and begins to teach. What he actually teaches is not recorded by Mark but he tells us that the people who heard him were astounded at his teaching and that he taught with an authority that they had not seen from their own leaders.  Of course, Jesus was speaking with authority for the words he was speaking were not an interpretation of what people believed God was saying but his words were coming right from the heart and mind of God – an authority that no other could ever hope to match.

Next Jesus is confronted by a man with an unclean spirit. The spirit in the man speaks for all spirits and declares that it knows who Jesus really is – the Holy One of God. Such a declaration so early in the account is out of place in the other gospels but Mark wants to get the point across right from the beginning that this Jesus is the one sent by God who can command even the spirits that plague us and cause us distress and pain and misery. And so not only is it revealed that Jesus can teach with authority but he even has the authority to cast out the demons within.

For Mark it is clear. If even the demons obey Jesus, why should anyone doubt his teaching or his authority to teach. The new teaching that Mark will reveal in later chapters is a teaching that will touch the lives of those most in distress and bring peace and hope, forgiveness, and life; and it will come through the hands and heart, the touch, and the voice of the one he declares to be the Son of God, the Beloved.

AMEN