Mark 1:22 - No Authority?...Try Grace

The Verse

Mark 1:22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

My Paraphrase

The people were amazed at the authority of His teaching, because it wasn't like their normal bland teachings.

My Thoughts

This verse always perplexes me. How could there have been, prior to Jesus' arrival, teachers teaching anything if they weren't being authoritative?  Doesn't teaching, by definition, naturally carry authority?  I mean, can it even be called teaching if it doesn't?  On top of that, these teachers had the Torah!  From God's own mouth!  So. . .what were they wasting time saying??  I mean, we find out later in Mark that the Pharisees had added thousands of rules and regulations to the law. So. . .how did they foist these rules onto their congregations if not authoritatively?  

I've always wonder what the teachings were like before Jesus showed up.  

I grew up in a church environment and I have heard my share of bland, lifeless sermons (as well as many good ones, don't get me wrong), but. . .in the end, even the tritest, most boring messages still proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus along with whatever else they were saying, so there were still things to quicken your heart into an "Amen" agreement. . .

So. . .I always wonder what these lackluster teachings sounded like.  Social reform?  Behavior modification?  Slaps on wrists?  I mean, even a rote, monotone reading of Scripture is still the Words of a Holy God, right?  So these Pharisees and rabbis must have been so way out in left field, it took the preaching of The Author of Creation only once to get the people excited and interested again!  

Anyway, this is obviously to show that Christ was God, and Life-Giver, in all respects.  He healed, did miracles, and even raised people from the dead; and in addition, He taught with authority--bringing souls back to life.  But what made Him so different as a teacher (besides being the Son of God and all)?  I think, it is because, unlike the other teachers, He taught with Grace.  

See, the concept of Grace naturally has more authority than mere law.  This is why: People, believers and non, will always question a rule with, "But why should I follow it?"  That is just human nature.  A law-slave can only answer, "Because God said so."  The most authority a law-slave can experience is guilt.  Which isn't a very strong selling point to an unbeliever (nor a believer like me, frankly).  However, Grace answers the "why" question like this: "Because God has paid a way for sinful souls to enter holy heaven and therefore calls us all to walk in newness of Life."  

Even if you reject that statement, or even if you don't quite understand it, it does give you pause.  It makes you think.  It changes your heart.  The question is no longer "why should I do....(fill in the blank)?"--which is easy to ignore. Instead, it becomes, "But why would a Holy God do that for me?"  There is something wonderful, awe-inspiring, and terrible in that statement.  And isn't authority much deeper and truer when it is based on love and empowering rather than guilt and force? 

God Saves the Sick

Did God save you from something, or did you become a Christian because that's what good Christians do?

Mark 2:13Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

17On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

I've been going through a study on the book of Mark. (The entire study can be downloaded at: http://www.xenos.org/teachings/nt/mark/dennis/index.htm). The pastor through his exposition pointed out just how radical this calling of Levi (Matthew) was.

Tax collectors were hated by their own people. First of all, if you were walking down the road, and a tax collector saw you, they would make you pay. But you could run into another tax collector 20 minutes later and he would make you pay too. There was no checks and balances on this system. Furthermore, tax collectors were allowed to keep everything above the Roman quota they were required to collect. That means, they would cheat their own people in order to make money.

So you had these cheating low-lifes taking money from their own people; of COURSE the Jews hated them. Therefore any self-respecting Jewish religious person would not let a tax collector buy any of their merchandise. But that wasn't all. The Romans resented them for the same reason. Any person who could do this to his own people was not fit to buy from the Romans either. Think of the name "Benedict Arnold" and you start to get the feeling associated with publicans.

So here you have these guys who are getting filthy rich off their own people, who are not only forbidden to spend money among their own people, but also among the oppressive nation for which they work. So where do they spend money? Naturally, they would only be able to buy from people who were even lower on the "sin" level than themselves: prostitutes, pimps, and sinners. I love how paintings from the Renaissance give us this picture that Levi and the "sinners" at his house were these pious-looking scholarly male inquirers rather than the drinkers, revelers, and party animals they really were. Some of these pictures I find for this blog . . . they just make you laugh.

Jesus even going to Levi's house was a huge deal because of the "sin" he was infecting Himself with by being there. In that day, it was thought that after breathing the same air as a prostitute, you would have to undergo a full religious bath. Not for hygiene's sake, but because you might catch some of their sin through the air. What a terrible view of humanity, right? That there are "good" people and "bad" people? But we do the same thing today.

So this is the context of just where the Pharisees were in their spiritual dilemma. When they saw Jesus sitting there, they were appalled to the highest (or maybe lowest) degree. How could someone calling Himself equal with and a person of a Holy Godhead POSSIBLY think that this was appropriate behavior. Obviously, God wants all of us to live holy, pristine lives, right?

This is why Jesus brings up the point (I love when Jesus talks. He's just so dry and to the point.) If you are so healthy in your "goodness" then you can't be helped. When people realize their sin is the only time God can fix anything because they know they need fixing. If a person has a broken leg and they refuse to see it as broken and they continue to walk on it without medical help, they will never be fixed.

Blessings to God. If He is able to raise even Himself from physical death, He can surely save a spiritually dying people.

Anyways, as I listened to this teaching a rhetorical question popped into my head:

Did God save you from something, or did you become a Christian because that's what good Christians do?

Grace: The Narrow Way

Matthew 7:13-14

13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (KJV)

If you are anything like me, you get the following picture in your head (especially with words like "leadeth" and "thereat"):

There are two roads. One is huge and red colored and dark and has multitudes of debased prostitutes, sodomites, liars, cheaters, and thieves almost dancing down it with evil grins on their faces till they suddenly fall off a cliff into a lake of fire and, at that point, their faces become horribly grotesque as they burn to a fiery crisp. Then you have a second road (usually shaped like a cross)--painfully thin--with a scant few saintly blond people all carrying their Bibles in white robes and pious expressions barely balanced--one foot in front of the other--up to a sun-like village far in the distance.

Okay, so...maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I was listening to a sermon on Hebrews the other week and the pastor was talking about the culture of Christ and the apostle's time period. He was pointing out that false teachers of the time were really pushing this idea of legalism. I began to think about the legalism of that day and then the legalism of today's religions.

And then I thought about the words "narrow way" again. Okay...now...i'm not saying I got some extra-biblical revelation...but...those words didn't seem to point to "goodies get heaven and badies get hell" anymore. Like,...I know that those who choose the "dark path" and never turn to Christ are really damning themselves to hell. I realize that. I also realize that those who choose Christ and to walk in His ways belong to Christ and will live with Him one day in heaven. I'm not contending that.

What I want to bring up for discussion is this point: Christianity is the only grace-based "religion" out there. Every other religion, faith, cult, movement...how do they solve ultimate questions? "Live to your potential." "Seek the divinity within." "Tap into the Life source." And then they give you a list of ways you can do that and feel good about yourself. Rules.

Now I know that it really seems like, of all the people on the planet, the ones not having any fun are the Christians, (Watch an episode of the Simpsons if you don't know what I'm talking about.) so...how can you say that Christianity doesn't have rules?

Okay, for one thing, most Christians try to have fun based on this crazy notion that you shouldn't hurt others or yourself when you have fun b/c we are all created in the image of God. They ask themselves the question, "Is my two seconds of fun going to cause years of consequences?...'Cause that's just not cool."

Now...if the Christian in question is being ridiculous in his list of "I shall not's" maybe that Christian is having a hard time understanding "grace". It's possible. Grace is hard to accept. Hold that thought.

I believe that these verses 13 and 14 are saying that grace is the narrow road and that works are the broad road. Why do I say this interpretation as opposed to the renaissance painting version of "whores go to hell and saints go to heaven"? B/c look at the following verse:

15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

And then it goes on to talk about how to spot a false teacher...

But what were the false prophets of the day (and today) teaching? Works. What was (and is) the Spirit teaching? Grace. The context of the verses have nothing to do with whoredome versus Christendom, actually.

Broad vs. Narrow.

But why are there only a few that find it? Okay...I think this should come as a warning to Christians especially. Especially in light of books like Galatians and Romans where Paul is SCREAMING his warnings about falling back into the legalism of the day. Especially in light of the entire Sermon on the Mount and verses 1-12 where Christ is teaching us exactly how to guard ourselves from our "Christian-y sins" of not judging and obeying the golden rule. Do those sins bring to mind whoredom and sodomy? Um. No. Context.

Our logic as humans says, "You give; you get. You put into; you get out. You are nice to me; I am nice to you." Christians fall into this trap all the time. How do I know? B/c I am a Christian and i fall into it. B/c my friends are Christians and they fall into it. "Few there be that find it" Grace? What's that? Grace is the most foreign concept imaginable to reward-hungry creatures such as we! No wonder the metaphor is a narrow road! We make it practically a tight-rope!

This may be an inaccurate picture, but...humor me for a second. I picture grace like this: God creates a nice sturdy bridge of grace across a wide road of destruction. Nothing fancy. Not huge, but plenty of room for us to walk across safely. No chance that we will fall off, in fact, b/c He is going to help us across. However, we see it and what do we do? "Oh, Sir, that bridge is just far too nice and my feet are dirty and besides, I don't deserve it, and I'm sure I'm keeping You from something important--You being God and all...Thank you very much, Sir, I really appreciate it, but....um...if it's all the same to you I'd much prefer walking on the railings instead."

Hey! Great idea! We're still headed in the same direction, right? And the plus side is, the trip won't be that easy, so we can still pat ourselves on the back once we get across! Yes!

The railing actually puts us one step closer to the road of destruction beneath which is where we end up when we don't accept grace.

Okay, it's not a perfect analogy, but...I am convinced grace and works makes more sense than debauchery vs. piety. Or at least it's an acceptable interpretation.

First, A Testimony

Sanctification--the process of a Christian growing closer and inevitably becoming more like Christ--is something I feel I've, sadly, only recently understood or cared about. Oh, I've been a Christian all my life, but only up till the past few years, I feel I've been in this stunted "milk of the Word" phase. I had all this Bible knowledge, b/c I'd grown up memorizing verses, but I really only knew how to apply them to the surface. This was my own fault.


Honestly, I believe I was a Christian ever since I was five years old in the back seat of the family car. I always knew I was a sinner, and especially since Dad was a pastor and Mom was a Sunday School teacher...I remember thinking when I was in that car seat, "Man, I really need to accept Jesus, or else I'm gonna be in trouble."

I probably was a Christian from that point. As far as the Scripture says, all I needed to do was repent, believe, and trust. I prayed to God all the time. I read my Bible the way they tell you to do. But, I will tell you, I never found any enjoyment in it. Oh sure, I found amazing things in Scripture that benefited me spiritually and physically...but...I never had that feeling like I was communing with the God of the universe "mano e mano" the way missionaries and pastors talk about. I figured they were just making it up to sound pious and authoritative.

I also had a HUGE fear. I knew in my heart that the Bible was God's Word, but...I was PETRIFIED at the thought of telling others about it. I was constantly reminded that the world hates God and as a result will hate me. If they like me, there is something wrong. I was extremely scared...b/c...what is a teenager, let alone a *gasp* GIRL going to say to convince anyone? I mean, I knew that the Spirit would help me...Whoever that was...but...maybe I should just hand the non-Christian person a tract and call it a day? I'm sure the guy in the tract could say what I wanted to say ever so much more eloquently than I could, anyway. Even then, something rubbed me the wrong way about that. Who am I to hand a paper to someone and tell them to read it? The only people who hand out papers are people who are selling something...and cults.

As you can see, I was kind of a mess.

I remember thinking, "shouldn't we be helping the poor and needy or something?" I mean...that's what they did in the Bible, but conservative church authorities always shun that kind of thing b/c of "social gospel". Still, the alternative--passing out a piece of paper...how is that better? No one in the Bible handed out papers. They were bold and actually talked to people. That is not to say that the people I went out "tract passing" with didn't talk. Some of them did. I didn't.

And we come back to the fact that I was petrified of defending my faith, so...I guess hiding behind a paper was the best alternative if I was to be any use to the gospel.

better than nothing.

So after high school, I went off to Christian college in Florida. I got a lot more Bible there. We were required to have a minor in Bible. They taught us to think critically about the Bible we'd grown up believing. There was a spirit of discipleship and caring. While college was really the beginning of my awakening--even after all the doctrines classes and surveys--I still wasn't sure what to say to someone who didn't believe what I believed. We even went street preaching and I remember I would just kind of stand there while the boys talked. I always felt I should say something, but there was still that idea of women being quiet and not usurping authority.

Once again. I was a mess.

The easiest thing to do to feel like I was contributing to "the Kingdom" was to sit around in numerous Bible studies and just pontificate with other Christians about all the stuff we all already agreed with. But...'Maybe God will see that at least I WANT to talk about Him, right? I'm trying desperately to be sincere and that should count for something, right?'

After my freshman year, my parents got divorced. I think probably if there was a period in my life where I might have discarded my faith, it would have been then. Everything I thought was true about my family wasn't true anymore. My parents broke their promises, so...does God break His? Of course He doesn't. My parents are human. God is perfect. I even tried to force myself to be mad at Him--the way they do in the movies--I just couldn't. It wasn't God who made my parents divorce. It was God who helped me through it--even though I barely read my Bible or prayed during that time. I felt like: What was I going to say that He didn't know? He knew everything I was thinking anyway, right?

My first job out of college was in a Christian theatre, so...fortunately...I could just sing about Him and act out characters from the Bible and then afterwards have old ladies tell me how I'd blessed them, and I wouldn't have to actually confront anyone about their souls. Whew. However, that job didn't last, b/c acting jobs only last a few months.

I got another job in a family resort theatre and found out that there were more Christians in my cast than non-Christians...so it was really just a Christian environment all over again. I tried explaining the Bible and things to my non-Christian friends...but I failed miserably, I have to say. I prayed every night that I would get the right words to say and then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I hadn't really read my Bible since college. I'd done tons of praying, sure...but I hadn't really seen what He had to say about anything in awhile...how could I have the right words to say if I didn't let Him put the words in my head? How can I expect tomatoes if I never water the plant?

So after that job I determined to get better at Bible reading. I may have failed at that theatre, but I would make up for it...and then I got a temp job at a bank headquarters...

I hated temping...do you really think I opened my Bible? Plus, where am I even going to start? There are 66 books in the thing!!! I could start in the Gospels...but...I know those already. Jesus, right? I could start in Romans--Logistics. Know it already. Hebrews--Ughhh...too deep to start with. Galatians--God's grace. Yeah, it's amazing. Whatever...excuse after excuse after excuse...

I'm not sure if any of you have ever temped...but it's like the worst job ever. Here you are with a degree--all your teachers and professors had all these high hopes for you; you made the dean's list; you were a class officer; you were in plays and ensembles--the spotlight...and then you get out in the real world....where you actually have to work for a living and no one cares about that! They treat you like you have the IQ of pencil lead and pay you like you don't have a school bill to pay. Okay, I'm exaggerating, kind of...but it's a terrible pedestal to fall from.

Anyway--strangely enough--the year I temped proved to be a turning point in my life. I was feeling really crappy and worthless all the time. I wanted to be used of God, but I didn't feel like He wanted to use me. I cried and prayed a lot before falling asleep.

For some reason C.S. Lewis came up--I think b/c I'd just visited Oxford, England with some friends--and I remembered that I had an old copy of a Christian philosophy book he'd written called "Mere Christianity" that an ex-boyfriend had given me b/c he owned two copies of it. I picked that book up and it changed my life. Now...let me be clear here...when I say changed my life, I mean--in an exaggerated way--that it changed my entire outlook on Christianity and God and the Bible. I'm not saying it's the 67th book of the Bible or anything...but it was earth shattering to me that my faith could be defended so boldly in a time other than the Apostle Paul's. In a post-modern era. All this time, I'd thought that my faith was just my faith and it was true...b/c...well...it was true. I hated that I thought that way. Why couldn't it be easier to tell people? If it's really true, then...why is it so hard to defend?


What I learned was...it WASN'T hard to defend. Partly, b/c it's not "a faith". It's faith in a God with whom I have a relationship. Part of what I'd always disagreed with "witnessing" was, people always wanting to defend the Bible with the Bible. B/c, listen, I even tried doing that a few times, and every time they'd say, "Of COURSE you are going to use a Bible verse, b/c you believe the Bible!" And then I'd feel like an idiot and wish I'd never said anything. But when I realized that God can be defended from literally every angle, and the Bible simply explains it all, b/c God loves us and desperately wants us to love Him, then things started to make sense.

I downloaded the complete dramatized version of the NIV and burned it onto Cd's and listened to them in the car to and from work until I'd listened to the entire Bible. (Hint: it only took 8 months. That's less than a Bible-in-a-year plan!) It was amazing. It was alive. I knew it was great from verse to verse,, chapter to chapter, but I'd never experienced it cover to cover! It was the same book, but I was growing.

The Bible was like a whole new book to me. Tired old Bible verses started jumping off the pages in ways my cobwebbed brain had never thought possible. I started getting excited to tell others about God. I really felt the presence of God in the way those missionaries and pastors said. I could see Him work. I found that I didn't care as much about what people thought about me or when "bad things" happened to me. I could see God working in those things now. I wanted to share that experience with others, b/c...God wanted them to share it. People I thought would hate me, were listening.

God wants everyone to come to Him, b/c this is our purpose in life. If you don't believe me, call out to Him and see what happens. This is coming from a girl who has been a spiritual scaredy cat all her life: Do it. I dare you.