He taught them on the sabbath,
and they were astonished at his teaching
because he spoke with authority.
Those who heard Jesus were used to hearing from those who spoke based on the authority of others. They would carefully source their statements in what had been said previously by Moses or one of the prophets. But Jesus was different. He spoke with an authority that was unique. The law and the prophets did in fact bear witness to Jesus and pointed toward him. But he surpassed them. Regarding even what Moses had taught Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said", but went on to say, "But I say to you". In his disputes with the Pharisees and others he would reference what David did, or what Moses said, but never in order to circumscribe his own limits. Rather he showed the veiled way in which David foreshadowed his own coming. He demonstrated that what even what Moses taught was provisional, for a time when the hardness of their hearts did not allow for anything more. We see this surpassing authority of Jesus' word in particular during his transfiguration when Moses (representing the law) and Elijah (representing the prophets) bore witness to him and then disappeared, leaving only Jesus.
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name (see Acts 10:43).
The authority of previous revelations was provisional, meant for a specific people in their own time and place. It acted as a tutor, or a guardian until Christ came (see Galatians 3:24). But it was not the case that Jesus came to do something entirely different, or to set aside the moral dimension of the law in any way. The law itself did contain something that can never change: moral truth. The ten commandments are still valid today as they were when Moses received them on the mountain.
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill (see Matthew 5:17).
Jesus was not dependent on the authority of the law or the prophets. But his authority transcended them precisely because he knew their truest purpose, since he himself was the God from whom the truth and purpose originated. He would not replace them with something new and different but recast them according to his original intention. If hardness of hearts had been a problem that prevented this from happening earlier in salvation history, Jesus' own authority would now even have the power to transform such hearts into hearts of flesh, capable of receiving and even desiring what he desired to reveal.
Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet! Come out of him!"
Then the demon threw the man down in front of them
and came out of him without doing him any harm.
Jesus showed the intrinsic order in the law and its original purpose. But in addition to showing the true shape of the teaching he would also demonstrate the authority to reshape the hearts of those whom he desired to teach. His power was sufficient to remove any obstacle, to reshape wounded and oppressed hearts into hearts like own. His power was present in the teaching, radiant with truth, and in the heart of the one being taught, in a wonderful synergy. This is why when we discover the truth Jesus reveals it may sometimes feel as though we had been waiting our whole lives to discover it even if previously we had had no hint of it.
"What is there about his word?
For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits,
and they come out."
There are two particular points we may commend to ourselves today about the authority of Jesus. The first is that we ought to trust in his teaching as it has been vouchsafed to us through the Church and her deposit of faith. This truth is eternal and unsurpassable, although it new dimensions of it are revealed history progresses and new challenges are faced. The second point is that we are not meant to hammer this truth into our hearts or those of others with a mallet. Rather, we need Jesus to work within us to welcome Jesus present in his word. If we are unprepared, even if he had been heretofore entirely absent from our hearts, we needn't worry. He is not limited by the conditions in which he finds us. His word itself prepares us from within if we only welcome it. We see this nowhere more clearly than in the story of Zacchaeus.
"Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. ... And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (see Luke 19:5-6, 8-10).
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