Writings: Obeying Jesus

By: Dr. Gregory S. Neal

Mark is sometimes called the “Sergeant Friday” of the Gospels: “Just the Facts Ma’am. Just the facts.” The shortest of the canonical Gospels, Mark gives us the “who, what, where, and when” of Jesus’ life and ministry, telling us where Jesus went, what Jesus did, some of what Jesus said, how people responded to him, what happened to him ... and that’s about it. While Mark tells us that Jesus was a teacher and preacher, it is much less interested in the content of Jesus’ preaching than in what he was doing around his preaching: like his healings and other miracles.

For instance, it is generally known that Jesus loved to tell parables, which are short allegorical stories told to make a point. While in John’s Gospel Jesus is depicted as teaching in mostly lengthy dialogues, in the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – a very large percentage of his teaching come to us in the form of parables. Depending upon how you classify them, there are about thirty-six distinctly different or unique parables found in all of Jesus’ teachings. Mark has eight of them, with only two being unique to that gospel. The rest of the parables are found in either Matthew or in Luke, and in several cases both. Most of the rest of Jesus’ teachings in Mark are brief, to the point, and often articulated as metaphors. It’s almost as if Mark was written as the CliffNotes version of what Jesus’ did because what Jesus taught was much easier to remember: Mark gives us a little of what Jesus taught, along with some commentary on what it all means, but not nearly as much as we find in Matthew or Luke.

Today’s reading is a good example of that: we are told that Jesus teaches in the Synagogue in Capernaum, but we don’t get to hear what he actually says; instead, we are told that the people who heard his message were astonished by how he preached:

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)

The Scribes and the Pharisees taught by citing example. They would read a passage of scripture, then they would explain it by quoting what the great rabbinical scholars had taught about the passage; preachers do the very same thing these days, quoting scholars and other preachers to support some point we’re making. We all do that, and that’s how the scribes taught, but that’s not how Jesus taught. Rather, Jesus explained the scriptures, and the concepts he taught, as if the authority to understand and apply them was seated within himself and not in the writings or teachings of others. That astounded the people. Indeed, some have suggested that the reason Jesus was rejected at his home Synagogue in Nazareth was because he spoke as one with authority but the people there, who knew Mary and Joseph well and remembered him from his childhood years, refused to accept that from him. The people in Capernaum were astonished by his method of teaching and by what he said, but they also appear to have accepted it. And, while Mark tells us this, Mark doesn’t tell us what he actually said that astonished them; rather Mark tells us what Jesus did when a man, who was possessed by a demon, confronts him.

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 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.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. (Mark 1:23-26)

It is no surprise that the response of the people to what Jesus had done was much the same as their response to what and how he had preached:

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.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. (Mark 1:27-28)

I find it amazing that Jesus had very little difficulty handling the demons and getting those demons to obey him, but that he doesn’t have nearly as much luck with us. Think about that for a moment: the demons knew who he was, they knew what he could do to them, and they are rightly afraid of him and beg him to leave them alone. And, when Jesus orders them to “be silent, and come out of” the man, the demons readily obey him. We know who Jesus is, we know what he can do, we know what he did for us, how he loves us, heals us, forgives us, died for us and was raised from the dead for us. We know what Jesus taught, what he said, and how he said it ... we know Jesus. At least, I hope we all know Jesus! We know that Jesus is “The Holy One of God.” Indeed, we know that Jesus is God ... and yet, we often don’t obey, or are slow to obey, or will argue with Jesus.

It’s what I talked about last week: When Jesus called his Peter and Andrew, James and John to become his Disciples, they immediately left their work and followed him. But we don’t ... or, at least, not easily, not without a lot of struggle, a lot of hesitation, and a lot of arguing with God, ourselves, and others. If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we’re slow to follow Jesus.

Here, we see that the people were astonished at Jesus’ authority to teach and preach and command demons to come out of a man. We don’t have the luxury of being astonished because we know who Jesus is and what he did for us; we know “the rest of the story” and we worship Jesus. Yet, unlike those demons, who didn’t worship Jesus and were terrified of him, we don’t readily obey Jesus.

“Of course we follow Jesus!” That’s one of the responses I got after last Sunday’s service from someone – a good friend, actually – who watches our service on the internet from the other side of the country. "Of course we follow Jesus!" And I would love to think that we do, but do we really? Certainly not as easily as the first disciples did. Right now you may be saying to yourself: “of course we obey Jesus!” But do we really? These demons knew and were terrified of Jesus, and they obeyed him when he ordered them to be silent and come out of the man. Do we obey Jesus just as readily?

Some people have challenged me when I’ve outlined Jesus’ commandments as being exemplified by: “Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.” Some have responded: “But that’s not all Jesus said!” True. But all of Jesus’ teachings do trace back to that primary, central, easily articulated, all-encompassing theme: loving God and loving each other. Did you know that even just a quick survey of the New Testament will reveal at least thirteen instances where we are commanded to “Love one another”? Four of these come straight from Jesus, six are statements made in reference to what Jesus said, and the other three are interpretations and applications of what Jesus said. And, if you expand the phrasing to include parallel ideas, like “Love one another” and: “love your neighbor as yourself,” there are at least a dozen more commands? Indeed, there are even more examples of this if you include Jesus’ directives to forgive: they are found in all four gospels and come to us through multiple teachings and with multiple examples from across Jesus’ life and ministry. But, sadly, we’re often very slow to love; and, we’re equally slow to forgive.

The demons obeyed Jesus immediately: he ordered them to be silent and come out of the man, and they did so. Similarly, the people were astonished with Jesus’ authority, yet they believed him and flocked to him for teaching and healing, for spiritual and physical sustenance. They, too, obeyed Jesus.

Will we?

© 2021 Dr. Gregory S. Neal
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