How does mark emphasize the authority of jesus

Here Jesus confronted a demon while teaching in the synagogue. Mark says, Jesus and his companions went to the town of Capernaum. Jesus and a few of his new disciples go to Capernaum. They did not do sacrifices there, that was over at the temple.

In some ways, the synagogue is like one of our church services today. My guess is it had something to do with the Kingdom of God, faith, and repentance because of what we are told back in verses Notice what Mark says next, The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority—quite unlike the teachers of religious law.

Regardless of what Jesus taught that day, His content was reliable, His reasoning irrefutable, His theology impeccable, His presentation flawless, and His insights penetrating.

Most of all, His authority was compelling — even astonishing. In every sense of the word, he was awesome! We now understand that Jesus taught with full authority and perfectly in the power of the Holy Spirit. The evil spirit knows Jesus has the authority to judge them this way. Let me make an observation here: It is very possible to recognize Jesus for who He is and hate him all the more. Let me make another observation: Evil spirits find it very easy to hide in false religions and churches that do not exalt Jesus Christ and His kingdom.

As is their nature, demons disguise themselves as angels of light 2 Cor. But when confronted with the authority and holiness of Jesus in His teaching the demon could not remain hidden in the man any longer. Unable to restrain himself, the demon erupted in a fit of rage in response to the truth of Jesus. Another observation: I believe there are people today just like this demonized man who sits in church able to tell you who Jesus is and even trembling with fear of judgment — yet lost!

Who knows how many church services this demonized man had sat through? Now we see the authority of His power over the demonic world. Mark goes on to say in verse 25, But Jesus reprimanded him. Here is one observation: We are not told anything about this man. He could have been married. Had kids or grandkids. What we do know is this man was in the synagogue the day Jesus arrived. We are the Church, the Body of Christ, which by definition has to do with those who have been indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Not only that, but as the Church of Christ we are to be involved in deliverance from sin. Christ calls his followers to minister in his authority. Jesus dies on the cross in darkness, rejected by his own nation, mocked by bystanders, and abandoned by his closest followers.

Yet for those with eyes of faith, this is no tragedy. Victory comes through sacrifice, suffering, death, and resurrection. They are shocked to discover that the stone is rolled away and the tomb is empty. An angel announces that Jesus has risen from the dead! Yet the women are bewildered and leave the tomb in fear and silence Mark —8. There are no resurrection appearances described.

Later copyists were clearly disturbed by this ending and added a longer one, which summarizes a series of resurrection appearances. This longer ending appears in our Bibles today, though most versions mark it off with footnotes stating that it is not in our earliest and best manuscripts. Before attempting to answer this question, several clarifications are in order.

First, it is not true that there is no resurrection in Mark. Jesus has repeatedly predicted the resurrection Mark , , , , and told his disciples that they would see him again in Galilee Mark The angel, who is also an absolutely reliable character, also announces the resurrection and the resurrection appearance in Galilee Mark , So for Mark, the resurrection and resurrection appearances are facts of history.

Some scholars think that Mark did describe them, but that the last page of his Gospel was lost. While this is posible, it seems more likely that Mark intended to end his Gospel this way. In many respects, the whole Gospel is a call to faith in the face of trials and suffering. In this way, they are in the same position as the women. Will they respond with faith or with fear?

Strictly speaking, though all four Gospels are anonymous, early church tradition identified the author of the second Gospel as John Mark, cousin of Barnabas Col and son of Mary, a prominent woman in the church in Jerusalem Acts This attribution of authorship is probably accurate.

Mark is a minor character in Acts, and it is unlikely the church would have invented a tradition in which a relative unknown authored a Gospel. According to church tradition, Mark worked not only with Barnabas and the apostle Paul Acts , , ; 2 Tim , but also later, with Peter in Rome. This makes sense for several reasons. First, 1 Peter suggests that Peter and Mark worked together in Rome. Third, the church in Rome was suffering severe persecution under emperor Nero about this time AD The Gospel is a call to faithful discipleship in the face of suffering and even death.

Some Christian communities have privileged traits such as extraversion, mildness, reticence to use power, or — more darkly — abusiveness, intolerance, and gullibility.

Some Christians find that the traits that make them good at their jobs — decisiveness, skepticism about dogma, or ambition, for example — make them feel guilty or marginalized in church.

Trying to be something we are not, in the sense of trying to fit a stereotype of what a Christian in the workplace ought to be like, can be highly problematic and can leave others feeling that we are inauthentic.

We may be called to imitate Christ Philippians and our leaders Hebrews , but this is a matter of emulating virtue, not personality. Jesus, in any case, chose people with a variety of personalities as his friends and workers.

Many tools are available to help individuals and organizations make better use of the variety of personality characteristics with respect to decision making, career choice, group performance, conflict resolution, leadership, relationships at work, and other factors. While on one level this needs to be related to a theology of wealth or property, on another level it needs to be related to the point at which the theologies of church and work meet.

It is always tempting, and in fact can seem like an obligation, to maintain a network of Christians within the working environment and to seek to support one another.

While laudable, there needs to be a certain reality injected into this. Some of those who present themselves as followers of Jesus may, in fact, have misplaced hearts, and this may affect the opinions they advocate. At such times, our responsibility as Christians is to be prepared to challenge one another in love, to hold one another to account as to whether we are truly operating according to the standards of the kingdom.

The Gospel of Mark, more than the other Gospels, highlights the ignorance, weakness, and selfishness of the disciples. The last boat scene is closely followed by the unusual two-stage healing of a blind man Mark , which may function as a kind of narrative metaphor for the only partial vision of the disciples regarding Jesus. They continue to desire power and status Mark ; ; and Jesus challenges them several times for their failure to recognize that following him requires a fundamental attitude of self-sacrifice.

Most obviously, of course, the disciples desert Jesus at the time of his arrest and trial Mark Yet Peter and the others will go on to lead the church effectively. The angel who speaks to the women following the resurrection Mark gives them a message to the disciples and Peter is singled out! The disciples will be very different following this encounter, a fact that Mark does not explore but that is well developed in Acts, so that the resurrection is the key event in effecting such change.

What relevance does this have to work? Simply and obviously, that as disciples of Jesus with our own work to do, we are imperfect and in process.

There will be a good deal that we will be required to repent of, attitudes that will be wrong and will need to change. Significantly, we must recognize that, like the disciples, we may well be wrong in much of what we believe and think, even about gospel matters. On a daily level, then, we must prayerfully reflect on how we are embodying the reign of God and prepared to show repentance over our deficiencies in this regard.

Our witness is then to invite our co-workers to grow along with us in the ways of God, rather than to become like us. Of course, we need to exercise ourselves rigorously to growth in Christ. A major block of material Mark takes place on the Sabbath, the day of rest. Within this block, some of the action is located in the synagogue Mark In our own age, where such a practice has been greatly diminished, it is important to remind ourselves that this weekly rhythm was endorsed by Jesus.

Of course, it is also significant that Jesus does his work of both truth and healing on this day. This will later bring him into conflict with the Pharisees. It also highlights that the Sabbath is not just a day of rest from work, but also a day of active love and mercy.

As well as the weekly rhythm, there is also a daily rhythm. His first priority of the day is to connect with God. The emphasis on the solitude of Jesus in this time of prayer is important, stressing that this prayer is not a public performance, but a matter of personal communion. In this sermon based on Mark 6, George Cladis argues that we should link the tasks we do at work to prayerful activity, meeting needs for our God of extravagant love.

You can make a difference for the Kingdom of God in your home, your cubicle, your office, your trade—wherever you conduct your work as prayerful activity. Daily prayer seems to be an extremely difficult practice for many workplace Christians. And later in the day is harder still. Nowhere does Mark depict judgment against those who do not or cannot pray daily about the work that lies ahead of them. But he does depict Jesus — busier than anyone around him — praying about the work and the people God sets before him every day.

Regular time set apart for prayer is a good thing, but it is not the only way to pray. We can also pray in the midst of our work. One practice many have found helpful is to pray very briefly at multiple times during the day. Even briefer examples include a one- or two-sentence prayer when moving from one task to another, praying with eyes open, offering thanks silently or out loud before meals, keeping an object or verse of Scripture in a pocket as a reminder to pray and many others.

David Shepherd, Seeking Sabbath: A Personal Journey Oxford: Bible Reading Fellowship, is a helpful and thought-provoking reflection on the significance of the Sabbath for the contemporary world and highly recommended for further reading. In this daily reflection from The High Calling Mark Roberts considers how the teaching of Jesus about the purpose of the Sabbath speaks to us today: "In a world so filled with busyness, where electronic communication invades every moment, where people are running ragged and neglecting their most important relationships, we need the gift of rest.

We have noticed already, in our discussion of Mark , that the Sabbath is integrated into the weekly rhythms of Jesus. The clash that takes place between Jesus and the Pharisees is not over whether to observe the Sabbath but over how to observe it. For the Pharisees, the Sabbath was primarily defined in negative terms. What, they would ask, is prohibited by the commandment to do no work Exodus ; Deuteronomy ? They regard their own interpretation of the law as authoritative and binding, and do not consider the possibility that they might be wrong.

Read more here about a new study regarding rhythms of rest and work done at the Boston Consulting Group by two professors from Harvard Business School. It showed that when the assumption that everyone needs to be always available was collectively challenged, not only could individuals take time off, but their work actually benefited.

Harvard Business Review may show an ad and require registration in order to view the article. By contrast with the Pharisees, Jesus regards the Sabbath positively. Moreover, the Sabbath affords opportunities to exercise compassion and love. Such a view of the Sabbath has good prophetic antecedent. The juxtaposition of compassion, justice, and Sabbath suggests that the Sabbath is most fully used as a day of worship by the demonstration of compassion and justice.

The disciples were probably absently picking at the seeds and nibbling them. The defence that Jesus offers when challenged by the Pharisees seems a little strange at first, because it is a story about the house of God, not the Sabbath. Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.

Mark — A place set apart for God fundamentally is a place of justice and compassion. This makes explicit the point that we see with more reserve in Mark.

In this daily reflection from The High Calling Mark Roberts considers how the question and the action of Jesus make it clear that the Sabbath is a day for saving life, not just in the particular sense of rescuing someone from a life-threatening situation, but also in the larger sense of bringing people to wholeness. The same point emerges in the second Sabbath controversy, when Jesus heals a man in a synagogue on the Sabbath Mark How does this apply to our work today?

The Sabbath principle is that we must consecrate a portion of our time and keep it free from the demands of work, allowing it to take on a distinctive character of worship. This is not to say that the Sabbath is the only time of worship, nor that work cannot be a form of worship itself. But the Sabbath principle allows us time to focus on God in a different way than the working week allows, and to enjoy his blessing in a distinctive way.

Crucially, too, it gives us space to allow our worship of God to manifest itself in social compassion, care, and love. Our worship on the Sabbath flavors our work during the week. The topic of Sabbath is discussed in depth in the article, Rest and Work at www. Recognizing that there is no single Christian perspective about the Sabbath, the Theology of Work Project explores a somewhat different point of view in the section on "Sabbath and Work" in the article Luke and Work.

Rabbinic traditions on this point are widespread. Most obviously, see m. Sabb and m. Besa Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? The underlying Greek tekton refers to a builder or craftsman in any kind of material, [1] which in Palestine would generally be stone or brick. Did he help construct a fence, dig a wine press, or build a tower in a vineyard, and observe the strained relations between the landowner and the tenants Mark ?

Did one of his customers run out of money halfway through building a tower and leave an unpaid debt to Jesus Luke ? Did he remember Joseph teaching him how to dig a foundation all the way to solid rock, so that the building can withstand wind and flood Matthew ? Did he ever hire assistants and have to face grumbling about pay Matthew and pecking order Mark ? Was he ever supervised by a manager who asked him to join in a scheme to defraud the owner Luke ? Ken M.

Mark contains only two parables that are not also found in the other Gospels. Both of them concern work, and both are very short. The first of these parables, in Mark , compares the kingdom of God to growing grain from seed. It has similarities to the more familiar parable of the mustard seed, which follows immediately afterwards, and to the parable of the sower Mark Although the parable is set in the workplace of agriculture, the role of the farmer is deliberately minimized.

While he is away, each servant is charged to keep doing his work. The kingdom is not like a master who goes to a far country and promises to eventually call his servants to join him there.

No, the master will be coming back, and he gives his servants the work of growing and maintaining his household for his eventual return. We will not discuss the other parables here, but refer instead to the extensive explorations in Matthew and Work and Luke and Work at www. But Jesus states that the one thing he lacks is treasure in heaven, obtained by sacrificing his earthly wealth and following the vagrant from Galilee.

This presents an obstacle that the rich man cannot pass. It seems that he loves the comforts and security afforded by his possessions too much. It is far better, we may believe, always to hedge our statements with affirmations of individual choice, the right of each person to determine their own good, and deflationary qualifications reducing our words to the level of private opinion.

Even though obligation is not the same as compulsion, we would not want to trespass upon the right of people to determine their own course of action. However, on those shocking occasions when someone dares to speak authoritatively—firmly, yet without hectoring, acquainting others with their obligation to act in a specific manner—many may still experience it as a form of weighty liberation.

The Church does not just dispense advice, but declares the word of Christ which obliges us to follow and by which one day we will be judged. The authoritative word of Christ furnishes lost and disoriented people with truthful ways of life. Our willingness or unwillingness to speak in an authoritative manner will be one of the most critical determining factors for the shape of Christian social and political praxis. Alastair Roberts is the contributing editor of the Politics of Scripture.

If we find that we cannot afford to keep our schools open to the poor, the Church should be ready to use its resources for something else which can be kept open to the poor.

We cannot allow our Church to become a church primarily for the middle-class and rich while throwing a bone to the poor. The priority should be given to the poor even if we have to let the middle-class and rich fend for themselves. Practically speaking, the Catholic Schools must give up general education in those countries where the State is providing it. These resources could then be used to help society become more human in solidarity with the poor.