(Sunday IV, OT B) Teaching with Authority

The fourth Sunday of OT (Year B, 2009) gives us the image of Jesus and his four new disciples in a synagogue at Caphernaum. The reading from Deuteronomy 18 points out Jesus as the prophet like Moses who can speak God’s words because he is able to speak with God face-to- face. In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI explains to us that the prophet like Moses draws his authority from the intimate relationship he has with God. The prophet like Moses does not only give sound to God’s voice, he also shows us His face.

Relevant Links

The Authority of the Son
(Sunday IV, OT — B) The Prophet Like Moses

Guide for Reading

1. Make a sentence flow of Mark 1:21-28 paying attention to the locality, the place where the exorcism is carried out, the people involved and the words that are said.
   1. Who are the main protagonists in the story?
   2. As you read from the beginning of the story until the end, is there a change in the way you see the person of Jesus?
   3. How does the title “Holy One of God” relate with the titles already given previously to Jesus?
2. For a better grasp of the text…
   1. What is a synagogue? What is it for?
   2. Jesus came proclaiming the kingdom/reign of God. Is his encounter with the demoniac relevant to his mission? Is there a relationship between the fact that he exorcises the demon and his previous meeting with Satan? (see previous verses)
   3. What is a scribe? How do they teach? Why are they compared with Jesus?
   4. The people wonder about the authority of Jesus. On the basis of Jesus baptism, where does the authority come from?

Comparing the Readings

The first reading and the gospel reading are related. The key word is “teaching”. The prophet like Moses which is mentioned in Deuteronomy 18 is one who speaks in behalf of God. Moses spoke with God face-to-face and so was able to stand for Him and even feel like Him. Jesus whom the Voice from heaven has called “My Son, My Beloved” is the prophet like Moses who now fights for God’s people menaced by demons in the synagogue, the place of their gathering together as Israel. As Jesus met Satan in this latter’s homecourt (the desert) and won, so now he meets Satan’s minion in the homecourt of God’s people and not only gets introduced to Israel but also cleanses the place of the demon’s filth. Highlighted in this victory is Jesus’ “new teaching”, a teaching “with authority.” The responsorial psalm, taken from Psalm 95 underlines how the prophet like Moses should be heeded: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts”. Psalm 95 ends with the invitation to enter into the rest that Yahweh provides. It is a rest that is reserved for those who obey the Lord in His prophet.

The second reading from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians underlines the advantages of being unmarried with respect to the service that should be rendered to the Lord. When one is unmarried, one can serve the Lord with one’s whole heart.

Suggestions for the Lesson

The gospel reading for the 4th Sunday focuses on Jesus’ authority. Popular preaching attributes this authority with what is seen as the correspondence between Jesus’ words and actions. As a consequence the gospel becomes a launch pad for a moralizing sermon on making one’s words correspond to one’s actions. The problem with this however is that it is not based on the text. The gospel text highlights Jesus’ identity as the “Holy One of God”, an identity disclosed by a non human entity just as the Voice at his Baptism — a non-human voice — introduced him as “My Son, My Beloved”. The “new teaching” that is mentioned at the end of the narrative is contrasted with that of the scribes who taught quoting the teachers they have had. Jesus does not teach like them; he teaches on his own authority, the authority of the Son, the Holy One of God. Given this premise, one can concentrate on Jesus’ role as teacher — the Interior Master, as Augustine calls him, and invite the faithful to listen to his words. As can be gleaned from the reading from Deuteronomy, one’s attitude towards the prophet like Moses can be a question of life or death.

The fact that the venue where Jesus’ new teaching was seen and heard is the synagogue, can also be a prompt for the idea that the Word of God is meant to be heard in the assembly of God’s people. The synagogue service is similar to the Liturgy of the Word of the Eucharist. Here readings from the Torah and the prophets are listened to and commented on. Jesus’ words not only opened the Torah to his listeners, it also gave him the occassion for driving out a demon. The Word of God drives out evil. In the Eucharistic celebration, the liturgy of the Word enlivens our faith preparing us to receive the Lord’s Body. When the Word of God is rightly heard, then the Bread from Heaven will be rightly received. When the faithful rightly receive both, then all the evil in the world will not stand a chance.