Today's Gospel

Are You Clear About Your Mission?

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Mark, 1:21-28. And they went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught, and they were astonished at his teaching. And he taught them as one who had authority and not as the scribes. And immediately, there was, in that synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent and come out of him." And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying with a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, "What is this, a new teaching? With authority, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him." And at once, his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

What is it that jumps out at you today? We have the Sabbath. We have Jesus acting on the Sabbath. And of course, Pharisees hate that. But what jumped out at me was this phrase.

They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them with one who had authority and not as the scribes. The scribes had plenty of authority, right? In a worldly sense, they had position of power. They had position of influence. They had position of privilege. They had positions of authority. But they didn't speak with authority. Why? Because there wasn't that authenticity. I think we live in a world more than ever before where people are looking for authenticity. And they don't want to be led by authority. They want to be led by authenticity. And this is what Jesus had. He had this authenticity. And when he spoke, people believed him. And what did they believe?

They believed what he said. They believed who he was. But they believed that what he said was an extension of who he was. It wasn't, "Okay, this is what Jesus is saying over here, but this is who Jesus is over here." No, that wasn't what they sensed from Jesus. They sensed just this overwhelming authenticity, and that's why they followed him, because that was rare. It was rare 2,000 years ago. It's rare today. That's why we call this Radical and Relevant, because that kind of authenticity was radical 2,000 years ago, and that kind of authenticity is radical 2,000 years later. And of course, as relevant today as ever before.

And so we all play roles of leadership in different ways in our lives, formal and informal. The question is, are we leading with authority? Are we leading with authenticity? And if we discover that there's a gap between the way we're leading and who we are, what we're proposing, and who we are, then today's gospel is an invitation to close that gap. Have a great day and remember, don't just be yourself, be the very best-version-of-yourself. All that God created you to be.