By Whose Authority?

As one who attended high school and entered college in the late 1960s, I well remember the bumper sticker that epitomized the sentiment of that era: "Question Authority." In the wake of the Watergate scandal nationally, the Vietnam War internationally, and civil rights movements that challenged the authority of unjust, discriminatory laws and practices, the United States experienced a revolution against blind acquiescence to authority from which it has yet to recover. Indeed, the very term "authority" is still suspect in many circles today, signifying the kind of heavy- handed, insensitive, top-down leadership that robs people of joy, freedom, and autonomy, and that imposes the will of those who govern upon the governed.

In the late 1970s, I lived for a year in a country whose then dictatorial government of the right made it illegal for its citizens to question authority. During that year I watched as a number of people of faith boldly and forthrightly broke that law in the name of freedom and paid dearly for their courage - some even with their lives. To question authority in that context was a risky and dangerous business, not a right to be taken for granted. Yet what united the two contexts was that once again, authority was seen as an enemy to be countered, not a friend to be embraced.

In the world of Mark's Jesus, people of faith were certainly cognizant of what it was like to live under false and oppressive authorities. Politically, the Jews were living under Roman rule, denied the right of self-governance, and subjugated to many Roman laws they considered unjust and discriminatory. Some Jews, such as the Zealots, were so furious about living under Roman rule, that they openly advocated its violent overthrow.

Economically, the rural people of Palestine were living in a context of increasing disparity between the rich and the poor. As with most colonial powers, Rome siphoned off the best of the wealth and resources of the land, leaving the people who actually worked it with little. And, of course, those leaders who were loyal to Rome were well rewarded financially, while those who were not suffered increasing debt and poverty.

Religiously, the people of Palestine had also fallen upon hard times. Jewish authorities of the day (such as the Pharisees, Sadduccees and scribes) enforced strict holiness codes that deemed many people - including the sick, the possessed, and women - to be "unclean" in the eyes of the larger worshiping community. The boundary lines between insiders and outsiders to cultic worship practice were drawn with great specificity, so that many ordinary people found themselves relegated to outsider status by virtue of life circumstances over which they had no control (such as gender, physical or mental health). Given their experience with other, far less benevolent authority figures, is it any wonder that the people who witnessed Jesus in the Capernaum synagogue marveled at his authority? Twice in these verses we are told about their astonishment. First, after Jesus stands and teaches them: "They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (v. 22). Second, after Jesus encounters the man with the unclean spirit and calls the spirit to come out of him: "They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, 'What is this? A new teaching - with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him' " (v. 27).

But what exactly is it about Jesus and his brand of authority that causes them to be so astonished? What makes his authority different from that of other leaders of the day? Several possibilities come to mind when we consider the scene Mark paints.

First of all, Jesus seems to have astonished the onlookers by the nature of his teaching and by the correspondence they witnessed in him between his teaching and his healing action. The scribes were certainly known for being knowledgeable in things of God. But Jesus comes across as being more than knowledgeable. There is something about his teaching and his healing and the consonance between the two that cause them to marvel. Jesus not only says; he does. Jesus not only knows; he is. Jesus not only proclaims; he brings into being. In Jesus they are confronted with the very inbreaking of God's coming reign, and such an inbreaking brings with it a very different kind of authority than they have witnessed before.

Second, I can well imagine that these worshipers were astonished by Jesus' own blatant disregard of the holiness codes of his day. Instead of avoiding the man who approached him with an unclean spirit, Jesus stopped and engaged him in conversation - and therein not only risked contaminating himself (by his association with one considered ritually unclean), but also validated this man and his presence in the synagogue. By breaking through the boundary lines of who was considered an insider and who was considered and outsider, Jesus posited a different kind of authority, an authority in which the unclean and disenfranchised are seen and heard and even healed.

But perhaps most importantly, the onlookers that day in Capernaum went away shaking their heads in wonder because in Jesus' encounter with the evil spirit, they saw a large, cosmic battle played out on the small Capernaum synagogue stage. And in that drama they actually witnessed the outcome that people in oppressive, authoritarian contexts often dream of but too rarely see in this life: the forces of God and sound defeat of the forces of the demonic and of evil.

An unclean spirit confronts Jesus, rightly perceiving him to be "the Holy One of God," and taunting him with the words, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" (v. 24). And Jesus, rather than being intimidated or fearful or quiescent in the face of this powerful, demonic force, responds with the same words he uses later in Mark's gospel when he stills the wind and the waves (). "Be silent," he commands, "and come out of him." And the unclean spirit, after sending the man into convulsions and crying out with a loud wail, actually obeys Jesus' command and departs.

No wonder the onlookers marvel. No wonder they go away shaking their heads, and telling everyone within earshot what they've seen and heard. For in Jesus they have witnessed the very power of God breaking into their midst in word and in deed; breaking down the socially- constructed dividing walls that separate the clean from the unclean, and breaking the demonic grip of the evil itself, so that a man once held captive is free for life and service.

If in the Christmas season we are prone to sentimentalize the Jesus who comes into our midst wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, the Epiphany season shakes us into the startling awareness that in this self-same Jesus we are also confronted with the very power and authority of God made flesh. While some healing stories may point us toward the Jesus of compassion and tender care, this story brings us face-to-face with a boundary- defying, demon-exorcising Jesus, whose authority - while certainly grounded in God's love and justice - is also coupled with God's power to conquer every other force that threatens to undo us.

Authority, then, becomes radically redefined in the teaching and healing of Jesus. Instead of being used to reinforce and uphold oppressive societal structures, or to mask and cover over truth, Jesus uses his authority to boldly proclaim the whole truth of God, to break down false boundaries that separate clean from unclean, to cast out demons from those possessed, and to proclaim God's victory over all demonic forces. Teaching in the synagogue "as one with authority," Jesus, through his very being, also sends a warning to all other false prophets and despotic leaders: "Beware, for the time of your control is coming to a swift and certain end. The reign of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel."

In a world such as ours, in which many despotic powers still hold people captive, such news is good indeed. The day of dictatorships - whether of the left or of the right - is coming to an end. The day of leaders whose authority is grounded in lies, cruelty, or deception, is coming to an end. The day in which people are possessed by forces that control, manipulate, and enslave them is coming to an end. The day of exclusion and ostracization on the basis of mental illness or other debilitating disease is coming to an end. The day of evil gaining an upper hand over good is coming to an end.

The end has begun in Jesus. And the end is certain. God will win the victory, whose kingdom, even now, has broken into our midst with power and with authority.