Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we continue through the season of Epiphany, we ask what aspect of Jesus revealing Himself to us is our focus today? Looking at our collect prayer, we see how God’s Word for our worship this morning is summarized:
Almighty God, You know we live in the midst of so many dangers that in our frailty we cannot stand upright. Grant strength and protection to support us in all dangers and carry us through all temptations;
In our worship today we are celebrating that Jesus has the power and the authority to rescue us from countless dangers and perils, and He is the only one who can give us strength to carry us through the many temptations of this fallen world. Jesus reveals Himself to us as the one who has authority over this world and its many dangers.
Most of us get a sense of the importance of authority through family life and other aspects of the fourth commandment such as teachers, police, or government.
It is in the home where authority can be communicated through the simple phrase: “Because I said so.” But the real reason children are to listen and follow instruction is not because their parents are so great and mighty, but because of the office parents are given from God to care for their children. Children can recognize that parents are given to them as a gift from God.
I have heard a many stories about how common it was in previous generations for a pastor or a policeman to have quite an influence on children because of the respect associated with the position or office. It was not uncommon in the past for parents to use police officers to scare teenagers straight, even to the point of pretending to arrest that teenager who is pushing more and more boundaries as of late.
A congregation member once shared with me a time when she was working at a veterinary clinic while still living with her parents. A friend of her parents saw her getting out of a police car in front of the clinic and called her parents to report this information. This person in calling neglected, however, to share the details that the police car was in front of the clinic and she was in her work uniform getting a stray dog out of the police car that was brought to the clinic.
The phone call must have been particularly impressionable to her mother at this time as she confronted her daughter with a very hostile tone when she got home from her work shift: “Is there anything you want to tell me?” Are you sure there is nothing you need to tell me? Nothing to say at all? Did you have any interactions with the police today?”
Parental authority has its limitations, including making mistakes and failing to recognize when children are becoming independent and responsible on their own. Any human authority is always going to be imperfect. We cannot rely on human authority to guide and direct us through our life. We need to have the authority Jesus brings.
Our gospel reading early still in the 1st chapter of Mark introduces us to the authority which Jesus carries to us through his birth among us. A central pillar of this authority is in teaching the truth of God’s kingdom.
Immediately after Jesus called his first disciples Jesus was teaching in the synagogue. He was amazing them with His teaching, because of his authority. Jesus revealed himself as someone who has authority in teaching God’s Word- as if God Himself were speaking to them.
Moses taught with authority because God spoke to him and gave him the law. In our Old Testament reading Moses speaks about a prophet from among the people who will come after him, who God will put His words in His mouth. Moses also warned about the dangers of a prophet who presumes to speak in the Lord’s name but actually does not.
‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’
We face dangers because we live in a world where countless people presume to speak in the Lord’s name, but they are not speaking God’s Word, they are speaking man’s word.
As Jesus was visiting the synagogue the scripture reveals that immediately a man with an unclean spirit cried out at Jesus. Even in a synagogue, in God’s house and evil spirit dares to approach Jesus.
Even though the unclean spirit confesses Jesus is the holy one of God, Jesus rebukes him with the authority he has from the Father. “Be silent and come out of him!” Jesus is that prophet from among the brothers Moses promised, who speaks with authority.
Jesus has the authority to cast aside whatever evil comes into our lives just the same. When we confess our sins at the start of worship, Jesus gives the pastor the authority to release those sins, to free us from the bondage our sins hold us in.
We may never have the experience of an unclean or an evil spirit taking us over- yet we certainly walk in spiritual danger every day of our lives. We carry in our fallen nature the potential to reject the authority Jesus has in our lives, if we should let our own sinful nature rule our hearts.
When people go astray in their faith and depart from their relationship with God, it is rarely an instantaneous or impulsive decision. Instead, it often comes through those thoughts such as:
“Well maybe if I just this once take this shortcut, tell this small lie to myself, allow for this indulgence.” In time then the conscience is hardened and what we once would not consider doing we now do without much thought.
Yet even when our sinful nature has begun to rule our hearts, the Holy Spirit works in us and invites us to feel sorrow and regret for our sins and leads us through God’s Word on the road of repentance. At Mt. Sinai the people did not have the ability to hear from God without trembling. The people saw they could not be in the presence of God, lighting and earthquakes convinced them of the danger of unholy people trying to stand before a holy God.
That is why God became man as a prophet like us from one of our brothers. In Christ we are able to hear from God directly in a way that we can survive. And Jesus speaks to us in a gentle way where we can hear. The words Jesus gives to us have the power to strengthen us in our fight against temptation.
In our Epistle lesson we hear about how Christians should handle an issue like food sacrificed to idols. Imagine what the thought process would be if we lived in a time when meat sacrificed to false gods was regularly served in homes or dinning spots. If we lived in that time we could say that we know there are no other gods besides our God.
We know that that if someone thinks they are sacrificing an animal to a god of their choosing that they are really just imagining a god is receiving their sacrifice. If they cook this food we can see that it is just food that has been cooked. We would be in no spiritual danger from such food.
Yet part of our faith is that we are sensitive to how our actions look to those who do not have faith or do not have a strong faith. What if eating this food sacrificed to an idol makes one of our neighbors think we as Christians believe in such a false idol and as a result someone thinks less of our faith? We do not want to be a stumbling block for others in how we live our life. We do not want to give people the impression that other things in this world have authority besides Jesus.
And more importantly, we need to remind ourselves that nothing else in our life can compete with the authority Jesus has. As you read the news or read from any number of media outlets, you will come across view points that have a different perspective about the meaning of the authority of God’s Word in our culture today. One emerging difference that is particularly significant in our culture today are views of the meaning of marriage and even the meaning of male and female.
And we may expect to hear more pressure now than we ever have before- to make exceptions about what we believe to be true in God’s Word in order that we please the sensibilities of our time about the meaning of marriage and family.
And even though we can expect to face scorn and cause offense to others for affirming traditional values about marriage as found in God’s Word- we must remember that the views of the world have no authority on what we as the church believe.
Nor do values in the world that say we should get prenuptial agreements before marriage, or that our financial security is more important than our faith. Or values of the world that say you should pursue what you desire to do- even if it is at the expense of other people in your family- that your self fulfillment or identity growth is what matters more than your faith and love toward one another. These values of the world do not have authority over us.
And yet we live in this world. We are not secured away in a secluded religious community where we can avoid all contact with the views and beliefs of unbelievers. We are so immersed in our modern world that we cannot help but see our faith challenged in everything we do.
We need to look to Jesus and seek his authority over the challenges of this sinful world that seek to pull us away from the truth of God’s Word just as much as the unclean spirits did long ago in that synagogue in Capernaum.
Indeed, without Jesus we cannot stand upright. Without Jesus we are at the mercy of our fallen nature. As we sang in our hymn of the day: “Come O Christ and reign among us, King of Love and Prince of Peace; hush the storm of strife and passion, Bid its cruel discords cease. By Your patient years of toiling, By Your silent hours of pain, quench our fevered thirst of pleasure, stem our selfish greed of gain.”
We pray for Jesus to reign among us, our source of life and truth and grace. We pray for contentment to only want His authority in our life and not those types of authority born out of imperfection and sin.