Mark 1:27-28

Passage

The people were all amazed and asked what was happening.  Jesus had a new teaching with authority.  They were impressed because Jesus could even command evil spirits and they obeyed Him.  Immediately His fame spread everywhere in Galilee.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

Notice the difference between how the people in Capernaum react to Jesus versus how the people in His own hometown react (See Mark 6:1-6).  The people in Capernaum are not questioning Jesus’ character but rather they are amazed at His teaching.  They don’t question the man; they allow themselves to witness the power of God!  They don’t ask, “Who is this?”  Instead they ask, “What is this?”  As disciples, we can look upon this passage and realize that we should be looking for the power of God in our lives regardless of who it is that God uses to bring that power into our life.

How often do we get caught up in “whom” when we should get caught up in “what?”  Why do we put so much emphasis in people rather than God’s work?

Second Thought:

Jesus’ teaching was “new.”  This word in the Greek means, “significant while being previously unknown.”  The people in Capernaum had every opportunity to know the power of God before Jesus came on the scene (They had the Law and Prophets, after all!).  The people in all over Israel had that same opportunity to know God.  But they had missed out on that opportunity.  Had Christ not come, they would have continued to miss out on that opportunity.  It is important that we understand just how “new” Christ’s teaching is and why we should be careful not to miss our opportunities to draw close to God.

What is “new” about Jesus in your life?  How have you been in danger of missing God’s power in the past?

Third Thought:

Again we have the word immediately.  Immediately Jesus’ fame spread everywhere in Galilee.   Contrast this verse with how many times in the rest of the Gospel we’ll hear Jesus command people to not speak about what has happened.  It is easy to wonder why it is that people talking about Jesus could ever be a bad thing.

Human nature is what it is.  We like to gossip.  We like to talk about the amazing and the miraculous.  Thus, there is a fine line between genuine proclamation of Jesus as one of His disciples and unfortunate gossip.  The difference is the motivation.  When we encounter other people, do we truly desire that they become disciples of Jesus or do we want them to be impressed at our ability to tell the tale?  We shall see as we progress through Mark just how many of these people who are talking about Jesus’ amazing ability actually want to be His disciple versus how many are just interested in the gossip.

Why is it easy to gossip about amazing and incredible things?  Why is it difficult to truly speak about faith on a personal level of commitment?  Does it make sense to you that proclamation of Jesus under the wrong attitude could ever be a bad thing?

Passage for Tomorrow: Mark 1:29-31