For Sunday, February 1, 2015 – Mark 1:21-28
Jesus is a good teacher. Good enough, the scriptures say, that he “astounded” those in attendance at the synagogue, “for he taught them as one having authority.” Not as one having been given authority by another, but as one having authority. Something in Jesus’ manner carries an authority beyond self-confidence, beyond having a thorough command of the material, beyond trying to make a good impression. His authority emanates from his inner still point, his central being, where he knows himself to be God’s beloved.
It is no great surprise that speaking with authority, from a deep awareness of love, brings forth competing voices mired in fear. All those urges that seek to possess us, bind us, keep us from being known as God’s beloved, rise up when our true self rises up. They crave only self-preservation, crying out, “Have you come to destroy us?” Great is their fear that we will embrace our deep belovedness, that we will find purpose for our lives beyond self-serving desires. In the presence of the truth—that we are greatly loved and greatly inspired to share love in concrete ways—voices of fear and rancor always arise. In places of acceptance and love, brokenness naturally emerges because the “unclean spirits” are also parts of us; they, too, long for release and for love.
I have heard it said that the demon-possessed man was in that religious setting, as opposed to out on the streets, in order to give Jesus a provocative teaching moment, like a politician planting a heckler so as to appear commanding when he casts him out. But don’t we all show up, inside the religious settings as well as outside, possessed by conditions and mindsets at conflict with love? Don’t we all suffer the wounds of possession? Each of us, individually—all of us, collectively—are broken in ways that are both unique and universal. The oppositional voices are within us and among us. To know our unique belovedness leads us to be able to acknowledge our unique brokenness, and to begin to live from a place of true authority. Which means to come into our own, ready to step boldly into God’s next callings.
