He taught them as one having authority; and his fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee. In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus is presented as having hit the ground running. And it did not take long for Jesus to make an impression upon those he encountered. Following the calling of his first four disciples by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus proceeded to Capernaum where he not only taught in the synagogue but also worked his first healing miracle. The Gospel accounts report that those in the synagogue were amazed at the words that issued forth from Jesus’ mouth. In their own words, unlike their own scribes, Jesus was teaching as one having authority. As far as we can tell, Jesus was not reading from some experts on religion or morals. They were his own words. Neither was Jesus using some big, complicated terminologies. On the contrary, his words were simple and easy to understand. Yet, the words sounded very authoritative. What, then, made the words to appear so different? What lent Jesus’ words their authoritative aura?
For us to understand why there was a difference between Jesus’ teaching and that of the scribes, we turn to today’s First Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy. The Book of Deuteronomy is a series of discourses given by Moses to the children of Israel reminding them of their special relationship with God. The passage we have read today concerns the promise which God had made to the children of Israel about raising for them a prophet who will be like Moses. Now Moses was no ordinary prophet. He was a friend of God who conversed with him face to face, often acting not only as a mediator between God and his people, but also as the community’s intercessor before God. He was the one through whom God gave the Law that came to occupy a central place in the lives of the Hebrew people. And although he did not enter the Promised Land with the community, he led the community out of slavery in Egypt. In a sense, he was their “savior.”
When God was promising the community to raise from among them a prophet like Moses, God had in mind someone who would DO as Moses had done. After Moses, God raised several men to serve as prophets and God’s messengers to the people. But none of them came close to being like Moses. None of the prophets showed the people the face of God as Moses had done. It was only in Jesus of Nazareth that this promise of God came to be fulfilled. For as Jesus continued to minister to preach and minister, it became clear to the people that he was no “ordinary” rabbi. After raising the widow of Nain’s son, those present remarked that “a great prophet had risen among them and God had visited his people” (cf. Luke 7:11-17). And in the Gospel account we have read for today, those in the synagogue are left in awe after noticing that even the unclean spirits are obedient to Jesus’ commands. There was definitely something NEW in how Jesus was going about his business. Something great was taking place in the ministry of Jesus. People’s hopes were being revived even as their lives were changed for the better. In Jesus Christ, God had indeed come to visit his people.
According to those gathered that day in the Synagogue, Jesus’ teaching differed from that of the scribes because he taught with authority. There was no deceit in how Jesus carried himself. He was very authentic. It was an observation that was based on the healing that Jesus performed. You see, the good news of God visiting his people has to be made incarnate, that is, it has to be visible (it has to touch the lives of the people). The claim that God had come to be with his people had to be felt and beheld. The teaching of the scribes lacked this authority because, while it was true they were also proclaiming the good news, that good news remained mere words. The scribes’ proclamation of the good news did not affect the lives of the people. From the accusations Jesus leveled against them (cf. Matthew 23:1-32), the scribes had lost touch with the people and had neglected their responsibility. They were not living their call.
Jesus’ teaching was authoritative because he was authentic. He was preaching what he himself was living. Jesus Christ was the embodiment of the good news he was proclaiming. He was true to his identity as a prophet because he revealed to the people the face of God. In him was met the people’s longing for a prophet such as Moses had been.