Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 1/31
In our first reading we hear one of the more important prophesies of the Old Testament: Moses spoke to all the people, saying: A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin; to him you shall listen. The Gospels go to great lengths to show that Jesus is this prophet of which Moses spoke. We see in today’s Gospel passage two ways in which Mark portrays Jesus as a new Moses. First is the simple fact that there is something different about the way Jesus speaks. It was so special that Mark says something very strange: He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. This is strange because the scribes did have authority when it came to teaching the scriptures. But Christ’s teaching was different. It is a different kind of teaching, and a different kind of authority. Mark is trying to open our eyes to a truth that they experienced. Jesus was not like other teachers. He was Not like other rabbis. He was different. He spoke as one having true authority over the scriptures. And who is the only one who has true authority over the scriptures? God himself. And thus, they listened to Jesus who brings about the fulfillment of the law, just as they listened to Moses through whom God revealed the first covenantal law.
The second part of the Gospel relates a shocking scene. In the middle of his preaching in the synagogue a possessed man—a man with an unclean spirit—begins to shout out to Jesus making a huge scene before all of the people. Imagine if Father Carlos was preaching and someone began to make a similar scene. We would probably lower our heads in embarrassment hoping that it would stop. But not Jesus! Jesus isn’t afraid of any reality. Our messiness, our sins, our scandals and embarrassing realities are not something Jesus is ashamed of. He sees all of it as chains binding his beloved brothers and sisters. He comes forth not to express his goodness in contrast to our brokenness, but rather, as the new Moses, he comes to set us free from the slavery of sin and brokenness that we may share in the eternal freedom of love.
Michael Gokie, SCV