Vision
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. So, who you got? Who is going to win?
And how do we come to such a prediction? We look at the teams – at the experience and the genius of the players and their coaches, what they’ve done this year. And we look further back over their histories to develop a vision about what may happen.
But what if you knew? What if you were given a glimpse of Patrick Mahomes hoisting the trophy? Or Christian McCaffrey holding the MVP trophy? What if you saw a vision of Travis Kelce sobbing on Taylor Swift’s shoulder? Are those tears of joy or tears of sorrow? We don’t know. We will have to tune in tonight if we want to see what happens.
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Quiet with God
The first chapter of Mark’s Gospel functions almost like a preview that we might see for a movie. There are two kinds of previews. Sometimes, previews deliberately mask the point of the movie. Take Jerry Maguire. The previews made it look like it was a sports movie. You remember the catchphrase, “Show me the money!” That made guys want to go. But that’s not what the movie was about, was it? It was the second catchphrase that sums it up, “You had me at hello.”
But most previews give you a taste of the movie, a setup of what you’ll see in more detail and depth. Mark’s first chapter is like that, and we’ve been working our way through it. Today we continue the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at Capernaum. Jesus began by calling his first disciples, then teaching in the synagogue where he cast out a demon.
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Truth in Jesus
Today’s gospel picks up right where we left off last week. Jesus has called his first disciples and now he is starting his public ministry by teaching – or we might say preaching – in the synagogue at Capernaum. Capernaum was a fishing village on the north/northwest shore of the sea of Galilee. They began excavating it in 1968 and found a synagogue from the 4th or 5th century, and underneath it the much smaller one where Jesus taught.
Mark tells us the people were “astounded at his teaching,” because “he taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” What does it mean to teach with authority and who were the scribes?
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