Jesus did from time to time quote the Old Testament. Whenever he did quote, he used the scriptures for their intended purpose which was to set people free, and not to tie them up, writes Bishop Paul Donoghue of the Catholic Church.

“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. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, ‘What is this? A new teaching – with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.’ At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.” (Mark 1; 21 – 28)

When reading this text for my Sunday sermon the words “He taught them with authority”, enabled me to reflect on my own preaching style and to ask the question “Do my people say I preach with authority?” Given that I preach at least once every day and on some days two or three times, I hope that I am not wasting my people’s time because I lack authority.

Jesus’ audience was comparing his way of preaching to that of the Scribes. What was different about Jesus’ style? The Scribes for example had the tendency to appeal to the authority of an important rabbi or to another author when preaching. Jesus’ preaching had its own internal authority. What he said went straight to the hearts of his listeners. He did not stray from his topic by dropping important names. Such practices distracted the listeners from the thrust of the teaching.

Parables

The use of Parables was what was particularly appealing and different in the preaching of Jesus. In using a parable Jesus was using a fresh way of looking at ordinary experiences taken from the life of the people. His parables were drawn, for example, from the daily experiences of farming, fishing, working in the vineyard, cleaning the house, cooking, and attending feasts.

This approach of using everyday life experiences as a pathway to approaching God was revolutionary to the people of the times of Jesus. Their learning of Scripture by heart was so well engrained in them that it had become the only way of speaking to God.  This was highlighted in the wearing of pouches containing scripture texts which they attached to their forehead to help them use the correct language in addressing God. In the mindset of the Scribes over many ages, only using sacred texts had become the preferred way of approaching God in prayer. No wonder the people were astonished with the way Jesus used everyday experiences and parables to teach, and it appeared to them as so unusual.

Jesus as a teacher was in touch with the daily reality of his students. This is the world that Jesus himself had been raised in Nazareth. He did not assume that he was above them. Nor did he assume that he was better than his listeners. Nor did he look down on them as being mere peasants. Pope Francis has an appealing expression which he uses from time to time, “Preachers, know the smell of your sheep.” The one who preaches must be able to identify with his people if he is to know their “smell”!

His authority was seen in action

Jesus back up his preaching with an action. In the case of the text I am using, he cast out a demon. In other cases, the action was giving back sight to a blind man.  He healed a person who was lame, enabling him to walk again. In another example, he enabled a deaf person to hear again (Luke 7:22). There were occasions when Jesus healed those who had the incurable disease of leprosy. And most staggering of all, a widow when burying her son was to see her son brought back to life (Luke 7: 11 – 17). Not surprisingly the fame of Jesus began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Casting out of demons

From time to time, I get asked the question, “Bishop, are there demons in the Cook Islands?” Or another way it is put is “Bishop I saw a demon in my home last week. Do you think I saw a demon?”

I begin to answer this by first looking at what a demon is. A demon is a power that takes possession of our thinking, in order to tie up our souls in chains. When speaking of demons, we need to identify chains that suffocate our freedom, those things which give power to the devil to take away our freedom. I quote Pope Francis in naming some of the chains that can tie up our hearts.

Pope Francis names first the addictions that can snare us which constantly make us dissatisfied and which devour our energies, goods and relationships. Pope Francis did not name particular addictions in this regard. However, I will name a few. There is the misuse of alcohol. How often this year have we seen a vehicle in the small hours of Sunday morning wrapped around a power pole or overturned in a stream. Recently I was astonished to read in the New Zealand News about a 7-year-old being addicted to vaping. Then there are drugs. Just how many of those in prison are addicted to drugs?

I was taken by the words of the late Queen Elizabeth II when speaking at the opening of the Rarotonga airport 50 years ago. She cautioned the nation to reap the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of modern world communications. I should not have been surprised that the celebrations appeared to be all about the benefits of the airport but there was no mention of the possible “demons” or pitfalls it might have brought over the 50 years of its existence. E.g. Has tourism introduced a culture of heavy drinking? Is the airport a road for bringing illegal drugs into the country? Speakers seemed to be silent on the pitfalls of the airport. I wondered what Queen Elizabeth would have seen as pitfalls when she used these words?  Knowing the values she esteemed, if she were alive today, I could imagine her asking the question: “What has been the effect of the airport on the faith life of Cook Islanders? Has it increased or decreased?”

Other addictions named by Pope Francis were the pursuit of impossible perfectionism, often displayed in advertising e.g. attaining the perfect body, or the expectation that every child must attain first place. There is the excessive consumerism set by businesses; the worshipping of attaining earthly pleasure as being more important than worshipping God himself. One of the damages of advertising is to appeal to our self-esteem. Advertising that undermines our sense of inner peacefulness by creating desires in which there is no true happiness is a pitfall to avoid.  I hear on the news this week as New Zealand school children go back to school; teachers are asking for more counsellors/psychologists to deal with the poor self-image many children have of themselves. A concern is that there are some children who are pessimistic about the future of the world and that education has nothing to offer them. What alarms me in this is that more of our children are in danger of being slaves of powers or “demons” which take away healthy options that we once took for granted.

A demon that I don’t see signs of in the Cook Islands but it is of concern to me is that how many of world leaders whom we would have previously looked up to are now caught up in the ugly chain, which is the idolatry of power. This generates conflicts such as we have today between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised as recently I have been reading of the misuse of power by King David and King Herod. It is demon that has been around for a long time.

Did Jesus disrespect the scriptures?

Jesus did from time to time quote the Old Testament. Whenever he did quote, he used the scriptures for their intended purpose which was to set people free, and not to tie them up.

There is a well-known Scripture commentary used in many churches today known as the Jerome Scripture Commentary. St Jerome wrote. “To be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ.”  Could we also say, “To be ignorant of Christ is to be ignorant of the Scriptures? If we do not read the Scriptures in the spirit of Christ, we are certain to misuse them.