Making an Impact (Hunch 11)
Chapter 1:
21-22
They settled into Capernaum, and Jesus taught from the synagogue every Sabbath. What he taught amazed them, because it was not at all like the teachers of the law. He taught them as one who had authority.
In a Nutshell
Jesus took His first disciples home to the village where He lived. That is where He began to teach. The people in Capernaum appreciated this teacher who knew how to teach.
Questions
Right from the start there was something about the way Jesus taught. Do you have any ideas of what that might have been? What kind of teacher was He?
We don't hear about John the Baptist in any synagogue. But Jesus became known when He began teaching where people gathered to hear God's law. He taught that the time was right, that the Kingdom of God in its fullness had now come. Now He began teaching, week after week, in his home town, Capernaum.
A week or so earlier in Nazareth, He had read from Isaiah and then sat down to teach. The questions came thick and fast. He knew what He wanted to say and at first the Nazarenes were glad to hear Him, but after a while they wanted Him out of there. So Jesus left the village of His childhood (Luke 4:12-30). All the same, He was known as the Nazarene, Jesus of Nazareth.
From there He settled in Capernaum where His own family lived. From there He began work with His disciples, His students. He went to where people were. He lived with them. He and his disciples travelled around the countryside, visiting people where they lived, talking and eating with them, day by day. It was the custom to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath day and off they would go with all the people to hear the Law read and explained. Jesus went to the synagogue with a clear purpose in mind. And when He taught there was something that impressed people. He stood with the others while God's law was read. He was different from the scribes. This was clear to those who heard Him when he sat down to teach. It was the custom for the teachers to sit down when they taught.
Mark tells us Jesus helped the people understand the law so that they were amazed by it. The scribes did not teach in that way. My hunch is that the "authority" the people experienced from Jesus' teaching had to do with the fact that Jesus listened with the people to the reading of the law. They listened together to what God wanted of them. He was now a Capernaum Rabbi, and this was where His family lived. Jesus joined them when they gathered to listen to God's commands. He shared their ritual. He was a great Rabbi. He invited those He taught, to join Him in listening to God's law and obeying it. God's law became the basis of their life together.
This made the scribes sick with jealousy. Right from the start that looked for ways to stick their boots into Him. Mark tells us that those who want to use God's Law for their own power trip, will see Jesus as a threat. Ordinary people who wanted to hear God's law were amazed by Him.