“Listen to him!” (Sunday, Jan. 28th, 2018; Dt. 18.15-20; Ps. 95; 1 Cor. 7.32-35; St. Mark 1.21-28)

Make it happen!  When I was at military boot camp last summer, I had the opportunity – on a daily basis – to witness just how authority works.  Of course, part of the boot camp experience is to develop one’s leadership.  Each day, one of us would have the opportunity to be the “course senior”, a type of liaison person between the instructors and the other members of the platoon.  Naturally, playing this type of role came more naturally to certain people than to others.  I remember one particular day when we were on an exercise at a “forward operating base” in the forest.  At that point, we were 3 weeks into our training; we were tired, disoriented and were not functioning as a unit; to make matters worse, that day’s “course senior” was unable to get us to carry out our orders.  Now, there was one member of our platoon that had distinguished herself early on in the course as being a natural leader.  This young woman serves as a nurse in a reserve army unit.  She had more military experience than any of us and was very adept at giving orders.  In fact, many of us found her to be quite bossy.  However, on that morning at the forward operating base, as our course senior was failing to communicate our mission to us and as we were spending a lot of time getting nothing done, the instructors turned to this young woman and gave her a very simple, direct – and loud – order: “Make it happen!”  And she did.  This nurse got our attention, told us what to do, and worked alongside us.  We listened to her and as a result, we were able to accomplish our task.  True authority makes things happen.

Who does he think he is?  As the narrative of St. Mark’s Gospel gets under way, the first thing to strike people about Jesus is his authority, his power.  Jesus’ authority is a major theme for St. Mark; it is challenged and questioned from the beginning of the story all the way to the end.  In today’s reading, Jesus goes into the synagogue in Capernaum and teaches the Scriptures, without citing other “authorities” – Jesus didn’t quote previous interpretations by Rabbi so-and-so; he merely said, “This is the way it is, period”.  Jesus made sense of the Bible the way that only an author can make sense of his own book.  And yet, Jesus had no credentials.  No one – or so it was assumed – had authorised him to teach God’s people how to understand God’s word or how to behave, or what to believe.  No one had given him permission to do …anything.  And yet, wherever Jesus was, things happened.  People’s minds were enlightened; people were liberated from demonic oppression, were cured of various illnesses, were forgiven their sins; even nature itself was obedient to Jesus.  In Mark chapter 4, as Jesus and the disciples are crossing the lake of Galilee, a storm blows up and threatens to sink their boat.  Jesus commands the wind and the waves to “Be quiet!” …and then, Mark tells us, “there was a dead calm”.  The disciples in the boat, like the people in the Capernaum synagogue, are amazed and ask each other, “Who is this?” (cf. 4.41).  That is indeed the question.  Who does this guy think he is?  Jesus got under people’s skin.  He didn’t respect “the way things are supposed to work”, “the way it’s always been”.  He acted as if he answered to no one …besides, perhaps, God himself.

Satan or God?  In Mark chapter 2, Jesus declares to a paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven.  The theologians in the crowd – the “scribes” – are outraged and say amongst themselves, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (cf. 2.7).  Exactly.  Jesus hadn’t said to the paralyzed man, “God forgives you”.  That would have been audacious enough.  No, Jesus had simply told him, “Your sins are forgiven”.  Jesus isn’t claiming to speak for God.  Jesus speaks as if …he is God.  Jesus speaks and acts in such a way that people are forced to make a decision about him – the man from Nazareth is either seriously deluded (or worse), or else he is who he is implicitly claiming to be.  In chapter 3, Jesus is accused of acting with the power of Satan.  That’s how high the stakes are concerning Jesus.

The challenge for all those who heard Jesus speak and saw him act was to discern whether what was happening around Jesus was what one would expect to happen if the kingdom of God was being established.  What would it look like if God was in charge?  When John the Baptist was wondering if Jesus was indeed the One God’s people were waiting for, Jesus replied:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Mt. 11.4-5).

When the scribes complained that Jesus had told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven, Jesus told them, “I will offer you evidence that I have authority to forgive sins” …and then proceeded to heal the man (cf. 2.10-12).  That’s the challenge – if what is happening around Jesus is what would happen if God was using his power, then what do you conclude?  If you believe that when Jesus acts, God acts; if you believe that when Jesus speaks, God speaks – then the natural thing to do is to follow him, to trust him, to obey him, to surrender your life to him.  If you don’t believe that, then the logical thing to do with Jesus would be to get rid of him.  Of course, if you read all the way to the end of Mark’s Gospel, that is precisely what happens when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem – his authority is questioned by those in power, they come to their conclusion, and then arrange for Jesus to be killed.

A prophet like me.  Our first reading today is from the book of Deuteronomy, which is Moses’ farewell address to the nation of Israel.  Moses tells God’s people that at some point in the future, God will send “a prophet like him” to speak his words to the people.  Moses was the prophet par excellence.  When Yahweh had revealed his glory and given his law to his people at Mt. Sinai, the Israelites had been so terrified of God’s presence that they begged Moses to go up the mountain alone, converse with God and then transmit his message to them.  Now, Moses tells the people that after he is gone, someone else will come and be Yahweh’s spokesman.  Moses urges God’s people to listen to that prophet.  The New Testament is clear that Jesus is the one whose coming Moses had promised (cf. Ac. 3.22; 7.37; Jn. 1.45; 5.45-46, etc.).  In the Gospel story of the transfiguration, Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain and then begins to radiate the glory of God; as the three disciples cower in terror, a voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him!” (cf. Mk. 9.7).  The message is clear – Jesus is the one to whom God’s people must listen.  He is “the prophet like Moses” – in fact, Jesus is much greater than Moses.  Moses, as the book of Deuteronomy claims, spoke with God “face to face” (cf. Dt. 34.10); Jesus, says St. Paul, is the very face of God (cf. Col. 1.15).

Jesus in charge.  Jesus is a very strange character.  He doesn’t fit into any of our categories.  Every time we think we’ve got him figured out, he manages to surprise us.  In the Gospels, Jesus re-interprets even those categories that his followers put him in.  Yes, I’m the Messiah; No, I’m not the kind of Messiah you were expecting.  Jesus was the kind of person that children were attracted to; yet he didn’t mince his words when he denounced hypocrisy and corruption, especially among the leaders of God’s people.  Jesus was – at least on one occasion – so full of anger that he went into the Temple courts and overturned tables and chased people outside with a whip; yet he was the kind of person that inspired such love and devotion that people would wash his feet with their tears and pour perfume over them.  Jesus could repel and attract people in equal measure.  And through it all, one thing remains constant – Jesus is “in charge”.  He is establishing the kingdom of God.  The Creator is ruling through – as – Jesus.

No other stream.  Jesus is in charge.  His claim over our lives is absolute.  This might strike us as being, at the least, unreasonable, and perhaps even dangerous.  Surely, we are in charge of our lives.  We are fully capable of making do on our own, aren’t we?  Surely, we are “the masters of our fate and the captains of our soul”.  It might be helpful at this point to read an excerpt from C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair (volume 6 of the “Chronicles of Narnia”).  A girl named Jill finds herself in the land of Narnia, face down in the grass within sight of a stream.  Jill realizes that she is not alone.  There is a large lion lying right next to the water…

“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.

“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.

“Then drink,” said the lion.

“May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.  And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.  The delicious rippling sound of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

“Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.

“I make no promise,” said the lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

“Do you eat girls?” she said.

“I have swallowed up girls and boys, women and men, kings and emperors, cities and realms,” said the lion.  

It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry.  It just said it.

“I daren’t come and drink,” said Jill.

“Then you will die of thirst,” said the lion.

“Oh dear!” said Jill, coming another step nearer.  “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

“There is no other stream,” said the lion.  Amen.