4th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B - Hearts Burning Within

The Lectionary and Scripture Interpretation during Ordinary Time

This week’s theme is all about authority – who has it and where did they get it from?

Deuteronomy 18:15-20

18:14-21 are all about the office of the prophet.

For a Jew, there’s God (top) and then there’s Moses, only slightly below God. Everything came from God but Moses was the one through whom it came. In Israel, every scribe, every rabbi, every teacher would trace the lineage of their teaching back to Moses. It’s very similar to the Catholic notion of apostolic succession.

Authority… who has it? Moses. And he got it directly from God.

One of the problems in ancient politics (and even today!) was that of succession: who takes over when the previous ruler can no longer rule? At this point, Moses is the only one through whom the people have ever known God. So what’s gonna happen when he dies? With the words in v15, Moses is assuring the people that divine election will ensure the continuity of prophecy and teaching.

Moses says “a prophet like me.” We don’t normally call Moses a prophet so we might ask: what is the job of a prophet? To mediate God’s word to the people by calling them to live up to some standard, such as the Torah. This is what Moses did. The sense of the Hebrew is not that one prophet will be raised up (as in singular) but rather that a line of prophets will be raised up as the occasion requires. Throughout Jewish history, we’ll see a gradual shift from this view to a view that says “We’re looking for a particular prophet” which they will call “Messiah.” As time goes on, this takes on an eschatological tone: we’re looking for a particular prophet that God will raise up to usher in the end of time. Remember when John the Baptist was preaching and they asked him “Are you the prophet”? They were referring to this notion – are you the particular one God is raising up to usher in the end?

Verse 16 refers back to chapter 5 when the people wanted Moses to stand in mediation between them and God. In verse 17 we see that God thinks this is actually a pretty good idea. These verses are parenthetical to the main narrative of this passage.

Verse 18 brings us back to the main idea by listing the qualifications of a true prophet:

Called or raised up by God
A native Israelite
Continues the prophetic office of Moses

How would Israel know if a prophet was speaking the truth or not? Verse 20 says that a false prophet would die. You can see an example of this in Jeremiah 28:12-17.

A prophet is someone who mediates God’s word to others. Who are some prophets you know? In what ways are you a prophet?

1 Corinthians 7:32-35

Background of the book

Last week, the Corinthians passage had almost an Advent flavor – the idea that Christ’s coming is imminent. In that passage, Paul talked about how living in this time of waiting for Jesus’ return causes us to live differently than if we weren’t waiting.

The verses today are a continuation of that same thought. In these verses, Paul is still expecting Christ’s imminent return, and this is how he suggests Christians live in view of that.

Paul starts this passage off in v 32 by saying “I should like you to be free of anxieties.” In the previous verse, he says the world in this form is passing away – very quickly; and he wants us to live in a manner that doesn’t create anxiety about that idea. He wants our focus to be on Christ’s return, not on the things of the world that are passing away. He’s observed that people who are married may not be able to achieve such a singular focus. It’s much easier to do if you’re single.

Remember that all of this is Paul’s advice born out of his own experience – maybe he had a demanding wife?! And it was colored by expecting Christ to return very soon, within his lifetime. I think a good analogy is Paul thought he was in a sprint when he was really in a marathon.

How could you argue that your own state in life (married or single) is superior for living out the Gospel? What advantages do you see from the opposite state of life?

Mark 1:21-28

Background of the book

Last week we read about the launching of Jesus’ public ministry and the call of his first disciples. Today the theme is authority – who has it and where did they get it from?

One of Mark’s favorite words is immediately. The New American Bible, on which the lectionary is based, tries to edit that down because it does get repetitious. In the previous passage, we see that the disciples dropped everything immediately and followed Jesus. In today’s opening verse, they immediately go to the synagogue where Jesus teaches. The other gospels will expand much more on this opening of his ministry and what he said, but Mark doesn’t seem interested in what exactly he said.

One way to read Mark is to note the reactions of people. Usually it’s one of astonishment or amazement. In verse 22, Jesus teaches and he teaches with an authority that was like nothing they’d ever seen before. And they were amazed.

In that culture, a man took his identity from his family – it was an inherited status. Jesus’ identity was that of an artisan, a woodworker. But here he waltzes into the synagogue and starts teaching. His father wasn’t a rabbi or a scribe; he apparently wasn’t trained under a famous rabbi, so where the heck did he get the authority to teach? It didn’t make sense to them; it didn’t fit in with their worldview. And then on top of that, he taught with an authority that was different than that of the scribes. They were astonished at him. They didn’t know what to make of him.

Verse 23 begins with another immediately – there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit in that culture was anything that caused a person to act outside the norms of conventional behavior or in a way that couldn’t be explained. Even Jesus would be accused of having an unclean spirit – acting outside the expected way of being.

I find it interesting to ponder this question: where is the first face of evil that Jesus encounters? It’s not outside – it’s in the walls of the religious community.

In ancient magical practice, one means of protection against a spirit’s power was to call out the name (and hence the identity) of the spirit. This evil spirit in verse 24 is trying that against Jesus; the evil spirit is trying to protect itself by calling out Jesus’ true identity, seeking to thwart Jesus’ power. In the Old Testament, Holy One is a common term for God, so this was tantamount to calling Jesus God.

In verse 25 Jesus silences the evil spirit. We’ll see throughout Mark’s gospel that Jesus is always telling people not to say who he is. Why didn’t Jesus want the message to spread? One possibility is that Mark shows us a profoundly human Jesus, one that can only be understood in light of the cross. Perhaps here we see the very human reaction to that cross – avoid it as long as possible. Another reason could be that Jesus knows he can only be understood in light of the cross. Without the cross, people will make him out to be all sorts of things but they won’t have the complete picture. What we do get is a picture of Jesus establishing the reign of God in a disordered world by driving out evil.

In verse 27 the response is amazement. In that culture, people could make a living by expelling demons, but it had to be done with showmanship – loud noises, strong smells, etc. The fact that Jesus does this simply with words is a source of amazement to the crowd. Jesus doesn’t even have to name the evil spirit to have power over it.

It’s undeniable that Jesus has authority and power – the only question is where does it come from? Does it come from God? In which case they better pay attention to him. Or (more likely in their minds) does it come from an evil source?

Authority – who has it and where did they get it from?

A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kindred; that is the one to whom you shall listen.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kindred, and will put my words into the mouth of the prophet; the prophet shall tell them all that I command.

Mark’s gospel presents a portrait of a very human Jesus. But at the same time, he gives us Jesus’ divinity in no uncertain terms. Mark is painting a picture of Jesus who wields authority, both in words and deeds. The lectionary is making the connection that Jesus is the prophet that Moses foretold; the one who would be raised up to teach and to lead and to be that mediator between humanity and God.

The men in the synagogue wonder where Jesus’ authority comes from. Mark doesn’t give us the content of Jesus’ preaching; rather, he demonstrates the authority that Jesus has in this concrete action of being pitted against the force of evil and overcoming it in a way that no human could do.

In what ways does Jesus exercise authority in your own life?

Pray this passage with imaginative prayer. You might do it several times from different perspectives. How does this help you more deeply understand Jesus’ authority?

Connections of the readings