The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
The people were used to others who had to reference the authority of tradition in everything. The expertise of these others was built on what still others had said because anything original would be extraneous. They didn't have the authority to add or subtract from God's revelation. They were eager to avoid the Lord's command that a prophet not presume to speak in his name an oracle that he had not commanded. No doubt they were quick to provide the citations for the points they made, noting, for example what Moses said about a variety of topics.
Jesus was different. He was the prophet like Moses whom God promise to raise from among his kin. Because his mouth would be filled with God's own words it was appropriate to listen to him in whatever he said, not only when he was quoting a figure from history. But Jesus was greater even than Moses. Moses received the law from angels (see Acts 7:53) and conveyed it to the people. But Jesus had God's own words in his mouth. Even Moses deferred to the words he had received. But the words of Jesus were more his own than were those of Moses, because he himself was the word of God. But his incarnation served to make that word understandable and sympathetic. No longer a voice of thunder or a great fire such as the people at Horeb begged never to hear or sea again, but instead, a Jewish rabbi with a face like our own and a voice filled with compassion spoke God's words directly and without mediation. He was the word of God, but also a "from among their kin". The people were used to authority being constrained to static written texts. But now they were face to face with the same person who spoke in those sacred writings. It was shocking to say the least. Only such a voice could refer to the writings of Moses by saying, "You have heard it said" and then continuing, "But I say to you", as he did in the Sermon on the Mount.
The authority in the voice of Jesus was different from presumptuous and prideful individuals who assume that what they say is true. There was a reason that the teaching structure of Israel leaned heavily on Scripture and Tradition, and that those facets gave it solidity and trustworthiness. There must have been something so compelling about the very person of Jesus and of the content of his words, a credibility arising from the fact that whatever the voice of truth said would of necessity by true, that inspired the people to be drawn to rather than repulsed by his way of teaching.
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
It was not only in his teaching that Jesus demonstrated his authority. It was also consistent with the works he performed. He spoke. Things happened. We understand that Jesus was not the only one in that time who attempted exorcisms. But Jesus did not need a long litany of prayers. Nor even, if we look at this text, a prayer at all. He commanded and the demons fled at the sound of his voice.
The rebuke of Jesus was the same rebuke that drove back the waters of chaos at the beginning of creation (see Psalm 104:7). It was the same rebuke by which the Red Sea was dried up, allowing the people to pass through, and saving them from their Egyptian pursuers (see Psalm 106:9). With this same authority Jesus would later rebuke a storm on the Sea of Galilee (see Mark 4:39). Why all this rebuking, and not a more neutral language? It's because the demon who feared that Jesus had come to destroy him was right on the money.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil (see First John 3:8).
What does all of this mean for us? Is this just meant to get us excited and inspire us to cheer from the sidelines? Excitement and cheering is certainly valid, but there is more. The psalmist captures what this entails when he says that "[i]f today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts". For the voice of Jesus is not relegated to the past in the way that the voice of Moses was. The Holy Spirit continues to bring his words to us, in a vibrantly living and dynamic fashion. The authority of these words means that we do well to listen. And when we bring our lives under the auspices of this authority we too partake of it in a smaller way. We too begin to learn rebuke the chaos in our lives and in the world in order that order, light, and beauty, may supplant them. This is only possible with "adherence to the Lord without distraction" which is no easier than it sounds. It is the practice of a lifetime. But it begins in the moment, every moment, when the Lord speaks, and we offer him hearts of flesh, ready to listen.
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