No violent gesticulations required

Rebel against it, respect it, heed it, ignore it...  People have all sorts of responses to authority.

It's an unusual quality. An intangible that carries with it some very tangible results.  Forced authority is harsh, uncaring, brittle.  True authority is deep, strong, quiet.  It doesn't have to make an issue out of itself. It just has to speak.

Too often, I think, people assume a mantle of authority to which they have no right.  You'll hear them in front of classrooms and boardrooms, on the field and in front of cameras. People who have to try -- and they do! -- to convince you they do indeed have authority.

Yet these people do not truly possess that intangible quality.  If they have to proclaim they possess it, they don't have it at all.  No, it is the quiet look, the firm hand, the decisive acceptance of a task or position and following through on all implied ramifications that make for authority.

Authority.  How did Jesus teach that was so very different from how the usual scribes taught from Scripture?  He did not, likely, shout or sweat a lot or use violent body language in order to get his point across.  He taught as one having authority. As having the right and responsibility to share what was in the Scripture with those who were listening. And they did listen. They were amazed. 

I imagine he spoke in love. Compassion. And when his eyes met the eyes of the congregants, they could tell he was sincere.  Did they see the profound wisdom in his  eyes? I don't know. But I do know they sensed it. 

They weren't the only ones.

Mark relates here, in this ever-active gospel, that Jesus was confronted by a possessed man. The "unclean spirit" within the man knew Jesus.  Knew him well.  Proclaimed his identity, in fact, before the entire congregation.  Instead of bowing, smiling and saying, "Yep, that's me, you just tell the people, here,  who I am so they'll listen and support me and my friends," Jesus told the unclean spirit to be quiet and to leave the man alone.

Of course, his authority was absolute and the spirit left. Loudly.

Again, the people were amazed.  First, Jesus had taught as if he were utterly familiar with the material, without making an issue of it, and then he told an unclean spirit to leave.  No hokus-pokus.  No fancy ritual. Just the sheer  authority of who he was -- whom he was recognized to be! -- was enough.

Jesus got to be really popular. But this wasn't always a good thing, as we'll read later.

Authority.  Those who saw Jesus in the flesh knew he had it.  Those who heard him speak.  Those who did not wish to obey him were still compelled to do so, simply by that intangible quality.  Thing is, we are given free will, as human beings.  Freedom to choose to follow the definite authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  We can still read what he said.  We can pray and seek to feel his authoritative presence in our own lives.

But do we submit to that authority? 

Jesus will not scream and shout and wave his hands around and sweat and promise happiness and health and peace and safety in your life as a bribe to get you to heed him.  His authority is the quiet authority of a gentleman on his own property -- unquestioned by him and his servants. 

Are you a servant of the Lord?  Have you encountered that authority before? Have you accepted his authority with your will free to choose?