Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading     Deutronomy 18:15-20


Responsorial Psalm     95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9


Second Reading    1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Gospel   Mark 1:21-28

A New Teaching Authority: Word as Deed

The word “authority” has a close relative we are all familiar with: author.  The word authority dates from around the 13^th century and originally meant the passage from a book that settled a dispute; in a sense, you were appealing to the force of the author’s reputation to end the argument.  It is in this sense of the credibility of the author that Jesus’ teaching seems so remarkable as compared to those of the scribes.  The scribes were also teachers of the Law.  They studied Torah, interpreted it and the Jewish community invested them with the authority to interpret scripture.  Because the people in the synagogue where Jesus was preaching responded to his interpretation with "What is this?
A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." suggests Jesus’ authority came from his personal power to heal and use of scripture to reveal that the Kingdom of Heaven is present, not anticipated.  Eduard Schweitzer referred to Jesus’ authority as “His word is deed”.  Jesus is God’s word to humanity, God’s deed.

Too often we would be described as our deed being word; that we delve into the Bible in order to make it serve our need for law and order.  Condemnation is only “good news” for those who use it to condemn, and our history as a Christian people is full of “scribes” whose interpretation serves the deeply pathological need to divide and conquer rather than to unite and heal.  Jesus as God’s word was good news to the poor, the tax collectors, prostitutes, gentiles and everyone else who wasn’t worthy of God’s salvation.  God didn’t send a book to save humanity; he came himself, and offered healing not a diatribe with textual footnotes.  God calls us to follow him, not to read about him.  The life of the Spirit was given to us to live the Gospel, to give life to the deeds of the Word, to allow our words to become the healing Word, our actions to speak with the authority of one who has suffered but still can love because of God’s breaking into our broken world.

We have this new authority, God’s authorization to heal, and sacrifice, to be humiliated and condemned, and to be raised many times from our many deaths to continue God’s great and unending act of salvation.