...Who do you listen to?...

“21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, Jesus entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, ‘Be silent, and come out of him!’ 26 And the unclean spirit, throwing him into convulsions and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching — with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee” Mark 1:21-28.

Two nearly identical comments stand out in this text above:

1. “Jesus taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” 1:22.

2. “What is this? A new teaching — with authority” 1:27!

According to Mark, the scribes appeal to traditions from the past.

In 7:6-9 “6 Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,’This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me,teaching human precepts as doctrines.’”

But Mark points out that Jesus announces new things on the horizon:

“14 Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’” Mark 1:14-15. Jesus also taught, “21 No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins” Mark 2:21-22.

Mark’s point here is that the Pharisees and Scribes appeal to other scribes who have gone before them. But Jesus speaks as one commissioned by God, endowed with the Spirit, and ready to challenge the status quo:

“10 And just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. 11 And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’ 12 And the Spirit immediately drove Him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’” Mark1:10-15.

A few things here stand out for me:

1. We need to listen to the voice of God, not others. This means that we must be in the Book! We must be reading and thinking deeply about (meditating on) the Scriptures every day. That is a part of our life or we are just “a noisy gong and a clanging symbol” (see 1 Corinthians 13:1). We cannot live our life like others who listen to other voices.

2. What God says to us in our life is always something new and refreshing, and always so very different from what we hear from others, or from the press or internet. And how do we hear the voice of God? I know only of persistent daily prayer and daily reading and meditating on the Word of God.

Don’t kid yourselves. There is no other path to living life except through Jesus Christ. When we step away from this, we sink. Fast! So today, join me in asking God for forgiveness for spending so much time listening to other voices, voices on the internet, voices of friends and acquaintances who are glued to social media. Pray! Read the Scriptures. Sit quietly before God in utter silence. At the perfect moment, a moment created by Almighty God, you will hear His voice.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner!