Mark writes in a rather concise style and he moves quickly through events without spending as much time detailing them as do the other gospel writers. It’s almost disconcerting to notice how often he uses the word “immediately.” But I guess it’s emblematic of his style to keep moving and give highlights, rather than a lot of biographical details.
I think the thread that ties this next passage together is found in another word used twice in this passage, but implied more often than that, which is the word “authority.” In verse 22, “And they were astonished at His . . . authority”. And then in verse 27 of chapter 1, you find the word “authority” given again. And I suppose that it is an appropriate idea for Mark to propose considering that Jesus has been heralded by John the Baptist to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord and King of the kingdom of God. The supreme King of the universe must have authority over His subjects and over everything in this world.
After Jesus was raised from the dead, just before He ascended into heaven, He said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” And so it’s appropriate that He demonstrates His authority at the beginning of His ministry. So there are four events in this passage where He illustrates His authority.
The first one is His authority as a teacher. Look at verse 21, “They *went into Capernaum; and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and began to teach.” In Jesus’s day there may have been probably 450 synagogues in that region. According to the law, they were allowed to establish a synagogue for every ten men who were followers of God. And so, those ten men and their families were formed as a synagogue with a priest who would oversee or be the ruler of the synagogue, as he was called, a minister of the synagogue. There were no sacrifices, a synagogue was designed to be a teaching tool in that society. The children were taught there or catechized. The adults were taught as they worshipped on the sabbath day. And the pulpit was basically open to any rabbi who would be available to teach. That’s why, when we study the life of Christ and the apostles, we find them constantly teaching in the synagogue. It was a great opportunity to present the gospel of the kingdom.
We find Him in Capernaum, the hometown of Peter, teaching in one of the synagogues. Notice verse 22, “They were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Luke, chapter 4, elaborates on this story, and he tells us that Jesus was preaching from Isaiah, chapter 61. So He stood and He read Isaiah, chapter 61, verse 1. And this is what it said, ““THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”
Then He closed the book and said ““Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
“And they were amazed at His teaching ; for He was teaching them as one having authority and not as the scribes” Now, we need to answer the question, what made Him so authoritative? Well whenever the scribes preached or a rabbi preached they always said, “It has been said,” and they would always quote other scribes or rabbis for their authority. They would always go to some other tradition to give validity to their point. Why was it that Jesus Christ spoke with authority? Because when Jesus stood up and He preached, He didn’t quote a scribe, He quoted Himself. John says that He was the Word made flesh. He was the word of God and spoke the word of God, and that’s the source of His authority. Jesus is the supreme authority. He didn’t need to quote some other man for He is God/man. And so they were astonished at His authority.
You know, the word of God is authoritative. That’s why people really don’t like the Bible, because they want to be the authority. But that’s why I preach the word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. My teaching is not due to some authority that I have as a theologian, or from a seminary professor. But my authority is the word of God. If you think about it, Jesus is the source of the word of God. He was the author. And yet He quotes the word again and again as He preaches. He quoted the word in His temptation. He quotes from the word on the cross. He quotes from the word constantly, and yet He is the author of the word. When you speak the word of God you speak with the authority of God.
The next exercise of this authority that Jesus exhibits is His authority against the demonic world. Look at verse 23, “Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy One of God!" And Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!" Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
Demon possession, in that culture, was not an uncommon thing. Perhaps it was due to living in close proximity to pagan peoples that in effect worshipped demons. And so, when Jesus Christ manifested His authority, one of the first arenas whereby He must exercise that is in the realm of the spirit world and authority over the demons. Notice first of all that the demons recognize Jesus for who He is - the Son of God. How does a demon recognize Jesus and yet those people around Him do not? I would suggest because being spirits themselves, they recognize HIs Spirit. If you have the Spirit of God in you, then the demons recognize the Spirit of God in you and they know that they cannot possess you, because you are already possessed by a much mightier Spirit who has authority over the spirit world.
Notice what Jesus Christ does, there was no incantation, there was no formula, there wasn’t any exorcism ritual. He simply says, in verse 25,"Be quiet, and come out of him!” Notice what happened, “Throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him. They were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” Not surprisingly, verse 28, “Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee.”
Now before we move on, I want to point out something to you, that there was a man in the synagogue a man who was demon possessed. He’d remained undetected until Jesus Christ arrived on the scene. He was worshipping. He was reading. He was hearing the scriptures. Who knows, he might have even preached the message on a different occasion. You know, it is possible to sit in church and belong to Satan. It is possible to be a member of a church and not a member of the kingdom of God. It’s possible to come here on Sunday morning and sing about heaven and yet, have a reservation waiting in Hell.
I will go one step further with that. It goes to show you that everything that happens in church, just because it’s church, does not mean that it is of God nor of the Holy Spirit. This man was thrown into convulsions by the evil spirit. Have you ever seen a person slain in the Spirit at some of these Pentecostal services? They are being thrown all over the floor like a rag doll, no control, not perhaps even aware of what they are doing. And yet we are told to believe that this is evidence of a mighty work of the Spirit. I will say what James said on that account, “Test the spirits to see if they are from God, for there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world.” And you test them by the word of God. There is no example of a work of God looking like that in the Bible. The only time you see convulsions and acting like a maniac was when there were demons involved. So don’t be deceived by some spiritual counterfeit.
Notice the next incident whereby Jesus Christ exercised His authority. Verse 29, “And immediately after they came out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever; and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her. And He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and she waited on them.
Luke, who was a doctor, indicates that this fever was severe. A high fever in an adult can be fatal. But I think that this healing indicates Jesus’s authority over physical life. He has demonstrated His authority over the spiritual world, and now He demonstrates His authority over the physical world. He is able to give life to that which is dead or about to die.And notice that her response after being healed was to serve the Lord. When the Lord gives you new life, even eternal life, it should go without saying that you would serve the Lord with your life.
Another small point to make here is that this is Peter’s mother in law. Peter is considered to be the first pope of the Catholic Church and they believe every pope since is appointed by divine succession from Peter. I’m sure Peter has rolled over in his grave a few times over that one. But the point I want to make is that Peter was married. And yet they forbid priests to marry.
Now the Catholics would try to say to that, well Peter may have been married at one time, but she had obviously died before he became the pope. Well then, if that’s true, they might try explaining what Paul says about Peter (Cephas) in 1Cor. 9:5 “Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” Peter was obviously married and taking his wife on mission trips with him.
Now all of this happens on the same day, the Sabbath. Jesus is working on the Sabbath, preaching and healing and delivering people from demonic spirits. And it continues after dark. The Jewish Sabbath started at nightfall on Friday and ended at nightfall on Saturday. So once the Sabbath restrictions on travel had expired, everyone from the surrounding area wanted to see Jesus to be healed or delivered from demonic spirits.
Vs32-34 “When evening came, after the sun had set, they [began] bringing to Him all who were ill and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city had gathered at the door. And He healed many who were ill with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He was not permitting the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.”
Jesus wasn’t ready to announce to the world who He was at this point. And when He is, He doesn’t want it to be by a demon. But what is evident in this account is the compassion of Jesus. He said in John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” He has the authority to save all that come to Him. There is no mention of the people’s faith, just the sovereign authority of the King of Kings to heal and deliver.
Then, the source of Jesus authority is seen in vs35-39 “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left [the house,] and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there. Simon and his companions searched for Him; they found Him, and said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You." He said to them, "Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for." And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.”
Jesus’s authority came out of His being One with the Father. His prayer life was the source of His authority and the means of His communion with the Father. If anyone had an excuse not to get up early to pray, it should have been Jesus. He must have been up until very late the night before, healing the whole town. They hadn’t been able to travel to him until after sundown. And He had already had a very busy day. But HIs prayer time was a priority. We see that again and again in the gospels, that Jesus went out by Himself to pray, many times all night.
We wonder why we have little power over temptation, or little results in our ministry, and yet I wonder how many of us make prayer a priority. I think Jesus knew that being alone early in the morning He would have undisturbed time to commune with His Father. You may say well I’m not a morning person. But I suggest that you become one. Because if you wait around until mid morning to pray, you’re likely to get sidetracked by everything that starts to happen as the day goes on.
Abe Lincoln is reported to have said, that if you only have eight hours to cut wood, spend 7 of it sharpening your axe. Or something like that. Prayer is our preparation. It must be our priority. It is the source of our power. Not praying some formula or prescribed prayer. But earnest communion with God our Father.
Prayer is the means by which our will is aligned with the Father’s will. A lot of people get that backwards. They want to align God’s will to their will. It would seem more logical that Jesus should have had a week long healing campaign. But He doesn’t. He goes out to a lonely place by Himself to avoid the crowds. And the result of that communion with the Father directs His ministry. Jesus says the priority of His ministry was not to heal, but to preach the gospel of the kingdom throughout all of Galilee.
“Simon and his companions searched for Him; they found Him, and said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’ He said to them, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for.’” What He came for, what was the primary purpose of His ministry, was to preach the gospel. The world wants physical healing. The world wants physical blessings. God’s priority is spiritual.
You know, a close examination of the scripture reveals that Jesus did not heal everyone. But He healed in the context of manifesting His deity as the King of Creation. And those people who tell you that it is God’s will that everyone will be healed of every disease and sickness are simply not basing that on scripture, but on their desire to force God into their own will.
Now having said that, we return to our text to see another example of Jesus healing, on another day, in another town. And this is the fourth illustration of His authority. Vs 40 And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”
Leprosy was a terrible disease that was prominent in Jesus’ day. Moses had prescribed a system for determining if someone had leprosy, which was done by the priest, and he had also prescribed what to do if you had it and you were somehow healed of it. But no one was ever healed. It was a progressive disease, starting with small white scales, but eventually covering the entire body. Not only was it progressive, it was a death sentence. These poor people were really the walking dead. And as the eventual end came, more and more of their skin and body parts, nose, ears and so forth, were eaten away by the disease.
Moses had established a quarantine and protocol for lepers, but the Jews had taken it even further. The leper had to constantly announce himself in public by shouting “unclean, unclean.” Jews were forbidden to touch them, or even get near one. And what was even worse, perhaps, was that they considered these poor lepers as deserving of this vile disease because they were somehow worst sinners than everyone else.
So this leper, who was in the advanced stage of the disease according to Luke, breaks protocol and prostrates himself before Jesus, saying, “if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”
Jesus was moved with compassion. That’s such an interesting phrase. Compassion comes from a word in Latin, I am told, which means to suffer with. We think of it as sympathy. But it’s more than sympathy. It’s a willingness to take their suffering on yourself.
What I think this is picturing is Jesus’ authority to cleanse from sin. And He did that by taking our sins upon Himself and bearing our punishment. I think that’s why Jesus did the unthinkable and reached out and touched this decaying, rotting flesh. He was showing His willingness to suffer for us, so that we might be given life.
You see, sin is a lot like leprosy. It starts small, but it’s progressive. It spreads. Once Adam and Eve had committed just one little sin, they had caught the disease of sin, and it would not stop until it destroyed them and killed them. Sin corrupts, it infects, it’s communicable, it’s deadly.
But thankfully, Jesus came to save sinners. He came to forgive and be the substitute for our penalty of death, that we that had the sentence of death upon us, would be given new life. You know, when Jesus healed this leper, I imagine that his features were restored, his skin became new like a baby, his nose and ears reappeared. He was a new creation. This wasn’t some symptomatic illness that no one could see the results of, it was evident to everyone who had previously been acquainted with him that he was a new man.
But Jesus doesn’t really want that kind of publicity. Too much of that kind of fame would interfere with what He had come to do, which was to preach the gospel of the kingdom. So in vs 43 we read, “And (Jesus) sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”
Moses had said, if a leper were supposedly cleansed, somehow, he brought two birds to the priest. They would kill one bird and they would shed his blood in a little basin. They would take another bird, they would dip him in the blood of the deceased bird and they would let that living bird go free. I think the symbolism that in relation to Jesus’ atonement should be obvious. And while Jesus didn’t want him to broadcast being healed, He did want him to obey the law of Moses, and also be a testimony to these priests who had to admit something supernatural had happened.
We can assume that the leper did what Jesus asked in regards to the priests, but he could not help himself from broadcasting the good news of how Jesus had saved him. To be fair, he couldn’t really hide it. You know, this should be a challenge to us. Here’s a man told to keep quiet and he blazes it abroad. And you and I have been commanded to broadcast it abroad and yet we keep quiet. He had been commanded to be quiet, not to spread the news yet we’ve been told to share the news and we’re quiet, we say nothing. I wonder, if we had been a leper or sick with a serious fever or one of these individuals whom Jesus Christ touched, could you keep us quiet? We too easily forget that we have been touched by the grace of God. Can we keep quiet? Can we do anything less than shed abroad the news that Jesus Christ has forgiven our sins and given us new life?
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