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On Authority and Astonishment

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body  to you, as a living sacrifice

Jesus, We belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Luke 4:31–36 (NIV)

Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”

CONSIDER THIS

I thought we would get further yesterday, but here’s the so far:

Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people.

Then we get this:

They were amazed at his teaching because he told such good stories, and he was funny, and he was so relatable to the people, and oh yes, he was so sincere and animated and excited about what he was saying, and yes—practical and down to earth, and wow—so smart! And he even cried at one point. Nope. None of that. I mean, maybe it was all true, and all of that is probably worthy of a a few dozen, “Good sermon, Preacher,” after the service, but that’s not why “They were amazed at his teaching.” So, the question remains: Why were they so amazed at his teaching?

They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.

Answer: Because his words had authority

What does that mean? Is that a certain style of preaching or teaching? No. Is it a particular approach to biblical exposition? No. Is it a quality of insight or an incisive sort of clarity or relevance? No. Does it come from a lot of experience or education? No. 

Authority is the physically embodied presence of God in the person of Jesus Christ declaring, delineating, and demonstrating the kingdom of heaven in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

It is readily and freely available to anyone who would deign to become an agent of Jesus. Yes, anyone. This is not the domain of the ordained, though we most desperately need it. The authority of Jesus is readily and freely available to anyone who would deign to become an agent of Jesus. The world, alas, the church, is desperate for the agents of Jesus. Watch this:

In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Perhaps the three most sobering words in this whole story are these three: In the synagogue. This is another massive and disruptive departure from the bulletin. Other than the surprise at the wedding at Cana, the first miracle of Jesus’s public ministry happened in a synagogue. It was not the cleansing of a leper or the healing of a sick person. It was an exorcism—the deliverance of a member of the synagogue from an impure spirit (a demon, an agent of Satan). 

“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

This is real, my friends. This is authority—the physically embodied presence of God in the person of Jesus Christ declaring, delineating, and demonstrating the kingdom of heaven in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Now, before we get sidetracked by all the phenomenology of this scene, or diverted by all the questions it raises, or worse, before we start naming people at our church we are sure need deliverance, we need to assume our “beholding” posture and simply take it all in. That’s what they did. 

All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”

Don’t think of what you need to do or not do. Just behold the authority of Jesus and be astonished. 

THE PRAYER

Our Father, thank you for this particular story on that particular day in a particular synagogue in Capernaum. What must that oppressed man’s life have been like the day after that day. What was Jesus thinking and feeling at that point? No one had seen anything like it. Most of us haven’t either. Would you awaken our astonishment today? In a world all around us seething with demonic outrage, awaken our astonishment at Jesus. Awaken our appetite for this very different kind of authority; one that would strip us of all pride and restore our deepest humility. We need more love, Jesus. Come Holy Spirit. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen. 

THE QUESTION

What do you see in this scene today? What do you hear? Are you awakening to astonishment? Or is this just another lap around the field? Are you ready to step into real agency? What is the level of your desire to become a bona fide agent of Jesus? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing the great Methodist standard, hymn 1, Charles Wesley’s “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” And yes, it is hymn 1 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

4 Responses

  1. Here’s my take on this event in the life of Jesus, and what it means for me personally. After His return from from his temptation in the wilderness experience, Jesus gave an outline of what the mission he was sent to accomplish here on earth would entail, when he read from the scroll of Isaiah and told the folks at that synagogue, that “today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing .” One of those tasks was, “to set the oppressed free.” This act of exorcism along with the various healings that he would perform was confirmation of His proclamation that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. When at the conclusion of His mission here on earth, right before His ascension, He gave this same authority to those, and us who would believe through they’re teaching, that same authority and proclamation through the power of the Holy Spirit.

  2. Wow! I posted this on FB yesterday afternoon: “The daily news demonstrates how demons working in and thru people say and do cruel things to people. As humans we need to learn to recognize, refute, and resist the voice of demons when they insert their wrongful thoughts into our mind.”

    In today’s story I see Jesus exercising authority over a demon to bring freedom to an individual in bondage. It also reminds me of the tormenting demons Jesus has driven out of my life (some suddenly and some gradually) and I am re-astounded — amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene! As astonishing as that is, it’s also astonishing that Jesus gives us, His agents, authority over impure spirits both to drive them out of our mind and heart and to set other people free from their torment. One practical way we can drive out demons is to openly, spontaneously, and honestly pray out loud together and allow our heart-felt, Spirit-led prayers to bring us into deeper intimacy with the living Jesus and cause the demons to begin to flee.

  3. Fred Matthew, Curator of a monument for Christ - Destroyed, minimized, marginalized and said to be "delusional and irrational" by the destroyers. says:

    Good comments on individual realization of how to start as a
    Disciple of Jesus. However, it is just the start to recognizing the field of play in the battlefield of this existence. What do I mean? Jesus had it all, generally speaking, His Disciples as individuals did not. “All Authority” is given to the “Many members of One Body.” What does that mean? While one member of the Body of Christ may be able to do “Great and Mighty things, which Thou knowest not,” we miss the demonic “us” “What do you want with us Jesus?” As there are demons in the plural, so it is needed Disciples with Authority in the Plural to “Overcome evil with Good.” That means that there must be many, many, many Wake Up Calls with the Mind of Christ to overcome evil with Good to realize the Shalom (full presence of completion in Christ with God). “For you died and your life is now hidden in Christ with God.” (Colossians 3:3) Check out to see if that “you” is singular. In fact, just about every time there is a reference to the second person pronoun – It is plural. Without the Oneness of Christ in God, one must question whether one is hidden with Him in God. That should be taken to heart given the warnings made by The Christ about an individuals claims and the response: “I never Knew you!” Just saying, I’ve seen great and mighty things because God showed up that others in the “know” said could never be. And I’ve seen all that work dedicated to God in Christ Jesus – be repurposed of evil. Not unlike the boldness of evil with all the Holy instruments of the Temple.

  4. Fred Matthew, Curator of the Jefferson Museum NonProfit whose Light has been destroyed from generations for generations says:

    Well, I am disappointed in the refusal to acknowledge the enemy’s legion against the individual unit of Light forced to shine alone. I suppose this comment also will be deleted.

    In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

    The point made was to acknowledge the “us” in the demon statement and why it takes “Us” as many members of One Body in Christ. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “If we don’t hang together, surely we will all hang.” That’s from memory, but it makes the point. He also lamented not spending more time in Church in his younger days not realizing the necessity of a dependence on God concerning the affairs of men.

    As I listened to a sermon Sunday morning, my bridge across the front of my upper jaw fell out. It was the result of a dentist making an ill-fitting partial that introduced infection to my bone. After 3 attempts to grafts that failed to take I was urged to settle for a bridge for the one tooth that broke off due to a bad crown placement. When the bridge came out, it took the teeth on either side. So now there is no base for attachment. How Jeremiah must have felt in Lamentations 3 with teeth like gravel. What a picture for those who hear the Word from my mouth to see! God’s Will Be Done on earth as It Is in Heaven.

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