Then
they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the
synagogue...
It is only a matter of time. It is only the factor longevity. It is only the ingredient of age that transforms a piece of architecture into being classified as timeless. No doubt there are some works of architectural grandeur like the Pyramids of Egypt and the Taj Mahal that immediately classify as timeless because of the sheer audacity of their perfection or the enormity of the designer's vision but then there are others that are fairly normal structures that lie on partial ruin but the longevity of the remaining portions and the insight that they give us to an earlier era make them timeless. The synagogue at Capernaum is a case of the later. When tourists and pilgrims traverse the Israeli terrain on which it stands they walk on the sacred grounds of a sort of time machine. As they walk through the ruins the traverse through a real life biblical illustration. This was in fact the same ground that Jesus stood upon in today’s Mark 1:21-28. It is where Jesus to worship one Sabbath and shared with the congregants there the timeless truth that God had been preparing for them since the foundation of the world. It is building that God had been preparing for those who gathered to worship in the synagogue in Jesus’ day and for those who tour its ruins in the present day.
Scriptural Authority
...Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes...In the New Testament we are told that both Christ and the Apostles maintained a certain custom. They visited synagogues on the Sabbath. We see this in the life of Jesus, we see it in the life of St. Paul and others. This was not an unusual practice in that they were observant Jews and rabbis. When the practiced this custom they would participate in the liturgy and rituals that occurred in these houses of prayer. Being that they were rabbis they would be offered the opportunity to read the Parashah (Scripture reading) for the day and then offer a biblical exegesis on the passage. Historically this process had developed alongside the institution of the synagogue itself. Since the time of the original destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem and the subsequent Babylonian captivity, Judaism had been increasingly developing into a textual religion. The Jews had always valued the Word of God, even when it just consisted of the two stone tablets of the Ten Commandments that they housed in the sacred Ark of the Covenant. However, since that point the Word of God had been revealed to a greater extent and documented on scrolls in what we now know as the Tanakh, Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. Soon the reconstructed Second Temple in Jerusalem would meet the same fate as the first and Judaism would make the full transition away from a sacrificial religion. The religion of the Jews would be a purely Scriptural one. So Jesus, the Pharisees and their contemporaries stood in this period of transition. The place of this transition would be where they gathered each Sabbath: the synagogue. The means of the transition would be the very Word of God that that they read each Sabbath and practiced during the week. Like their ancestors they held this revelation of God’s Word in an ark. This wasn’t a mobile one that they carried around but rather an enclosed case within the wall of the synagogue. Yet as the stone relief that illustrated the synagogue at Capernaum shows, they fully appreciated the parallels between the two arks. This Torah ark, like the one in the ancient Tabernacle, was sacred because of what it housed. The Ark of the Covenant was holy and seen as carrying the presence of God because it carried the Word of God. The Torah ark also house God’s revealed Word and in this it carried the communication of God’s will for Mankind. So when Jesus stood to read the Scripture in the synagogue at Capernaum he would have had an assistant hand him the scrolls of the sacred text that were housed in the Torah ark. Then after reading the Parashah for the day he would have sat down to teach (an ancient preaching custom). Rabbinic teaching and literature was (and still is) based on the precedent of earlier great rabbis. Tradition is valued highly in biblical interpretation. The collective wisdom of the great sages of the past was authoritative. What was astonishing to those who sat and listened to the sermon that Sabbath was that Jesus didn’t reference the past rabbinic authorities (as the scribes and Pharisees did). Jesus taught as if he were the authority. And in truth he was. Christ was not only an authority on the Word of God but rather he was the Word of God. Jesus was the culmination of God’s revelation. All of Scripture pointed to him and all of Salvation History is filled with types and shadows of his incarnation. The body of Jesus Christ was an ark that in the truest sense housed the Word of God. So Jesus spoke with authority when discussing Scripture because he spoke of himself.
Spiritual Authority
...Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him...
Judaism is a
religion of light. From the beginning of the story in Scripture we are shown an
all powerful God that creates light. After this Sovereign creates
light he considers it and declares that it is good. The rest of Scripture
springs from this foundational reservoir: Good is more powerful than evil and
Light is stronger than Darkness. So then the religion that espouses this
belief, Judaism, and the religion that offshoots from Judaism, Christianity,
are not belief systems like Zoroastrianism in which a Good Deity battles an
equally strong Evil Deity. There are many different beliefs about the Devil of
Judeo-Christian tradition but they all share the same disbeliefs: Satan is not
a deity and he is not as powerful as God. Judaism and Christianity share this
conviction with our Monotheistic neighbor Islam: there is no god but God. If
you really pay attention to the amount of coverage that the Devil gets in
Scripture, he is an active character but not a central character. The evil that
is documented more often in the Jewish tradition is the evil that lies in the
hearts of men: those that may not have been fully possessed by an evil spirit
but rather motivated by the evil within their own hearts. But Light and Good
are intertwined as one in the power of the Almighty God that pierces the heart
of Darkness and Evil. The relief of the Menorah (the Jewish seven branched
candelabra) in the synagogue at Capernaum is a reminder of Light's triumph over
evil. In the days before it's ruin it would have held its own menorah like all
synagogues up to present times. The inclusion of this ornately crafted
candlestick in the Tabernacle was commanded by God. So when the Israelites
built the Temple at Jerusalem as a permanent Tabernacle in stone (since the
original was a traveling tent) they naturally included a large Menorah. As
synagogues were constructed in the Diaspora after the destruction of the first
temple, they too would include their own menorahs along with the Ark of the
Torah. These two holy furnishings would remind them of the day that they could
return home and rebuild the temple. This sets the backdrop for the most
familiar use of the Menorah in popular culture: Hanukkah. This holiday actually
uses a nine branched menorah. Hanukkah itself is known as the Festival of
Lights (which the New Testament documents Jesus as celebrating). It celebrates
a time long after the construction of the second temple, when the Seleucids (a
Greek-Syrian empire) conquered the Judea and attempted to force Pagan worship
in the temple. Their king Antiochus IV Epiphanes brought a pig (a highly
un-kosher sacrifice) to sacrifice to Zeus (which would be anathema to the
monotheistic Jews). The evil lust for power that resides within Antiochus'
heart sought to extinguish the Light of Judaism. The Maccabees successfully
defeated the Seleucids, established an independent Jewish state and rededicated
the temple in Jerusalem. This rededication was symbolized in the lighting of
the Menorah at the temple and the legendary miracle in which a small quantity
of oil lasted for eight days. The Jews of Jesus' day knew that Good had always
triumphed over Evil. Even though they now cowered under the oppressive Darkness
of the Roman Empire, God had sent His Light into the World. This was the Light
that was the Life of Men. This was the Life that resided in the Word of God
made flesh. The Word of God that now sat amongst them and taught in the
synagogue in Capernaum. The Word of God that read from the scrolls that Sabbath
and expounded upon the great deeds of the Good of Goodness and Light. Even
though Jesus' authority to expel demons astonished the congregation at the
Capernaum synagogue, it should not surprise us. For the Goodness of the power
of Light will always overpower the Evil powers of Darkness. The hoards of Hell
are powerless in comparison to the solitary Sovereign of Heaven. So Jesus acted with authority when he exorcised demons because he was all spiritual
authority.
Organizational Authority
Synagogues are primarily designed as spiritual gathering places. The word's Greek meaning is "an assembly." They were places of worship like the temple of Jerusalem, but unlike the temple no ritual sacrifice occurred within the facility. The primary worship that occurs in a synagogue is that of prayer and the reading/study of Scripture. The liturgical acts and mitzvot that are carried out are an expression of the congregation's acting out of the tradition started in Scripture. Now there are plenty of practices and beliefs that developed in the post biblical, rabbinic period but they are still centered around the concept that was established in the Torah: the God of Goodness and Light that has gathered a people, a congregation of the faithful, to Himself. This can be seen in the bicameral construction of the synagogue at Capernaum. By "bicameral" I am not referring to two legislative bodies but the literal meaning of the word: two houses or chambers. In one section if the overall synagogue there is the prayer room. It is what Christians would think of as the "sanctuary" area where the majority if the worship and preaching occurs. The second section is the courtyard which could be used for various purposes. Some historic synagogues used them for outdoor summer worship while others used them for a social area. Still some do not even posses a courtyard since there is not one specific architectural style for building a synagogue. Aside from Scripture scrolls, the Ark of Torah cabinet, the Menorah and various other utensils and furnishings housed within the synagogue the overarching aim in synagogue architecture is that it houses the needs and purposes of the congregation while remaining Kosher to honor God's Word. A synagogue is a gathering place to house the worship of God's people whose hearts house his Word. God's desire has always been to be a spiritual sanctuary for His people. He is their refuge, their holy place, their Sabbath, their promised land, their Kingdom. The Lord speaks of longing to gather his wayward city in his wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks. It is that desire to be the shepherd of the congregation of The Lord's sheep that establish his congregation. He used a different Greek word, "ecclesia." It was a political word that denoted an assembly or congregation of citizens. You may know the concept of ecclesia in its English expression: Church. So when Jesus spoke of founding his church on a rock he was not introducing a new concept but was conjuring the image that had always been spoken of throughout Scripture. This gathering that Jesus presides over is older than the Christian Church or the Jewish Synagogue. It goes back to the congregation that Moses guided in the wilderness but God led as a Fire of Light by night. It is both the Body of Christ and the Bosom of Abraham: the Kingdom if God and the resting place of His Children. Jesus was bringing to full fruition the gathering place for those who longed for communion and community with God. Jesus' influence over the congregants in the synagogue at Capernaum was an expression of his spiritual authority over all of God's congregation of believers throughout history. God was acting though out history through the truth of His Word and the power of His Light to usher His children into His presence. He employed His Holy Spirit to speak His Word to the ears of the prophets, spiritual shepherds of old, but now He would implant that same Holy Spirit, the messenger if His Word, within the hearts of his flock. So Jesus presided over the liturgy at the synagogue that day as an illustration of the cosmic authority that he possessed in all of Eternity.
Foundational Authority
...And immediately His fame spread
throughout all the region around Galilee.
"Immediately" it's a word that frames the beginning and end of the episode of Jesus in the synagogue at Capernaum. Actually in some translations the Greek word that it is translated from (eutheos) occurs a third time in the middle of the story during the description of the possessed man. And if we are going to be really honest the writer of the Gospel of Mark repeats it ALL OF THE TIME!!! But before you write the writer off as a bad writer, consider that he might be intentionally trying to communicate something through the repetition of this one word. The repetition of "immediately" is an echo of the overall theological refrain of Scripture. "Immediately" is a word that speaks of time. "Immediately" is a word that speaks to intention. It is the image of using time as your tool to exert your will. It is "seizing the moment." Jesus is shown to be doing things immediately because there is an immediacy about God. The testimony of God's revealed will is a matter of time. At a certain point in touring the ruins of the synagogue at Capernaum, tourists and pilgrims discover that they are indeed standing on the ground that Jesus once stood upon but the structure is not the same that he taught within. The synagogue ruins of the grand, intricately carved white stones were built in the fourth century, hundreds of years after Jesus. Yet if you look down to the black basalt foundation of the structure then you will find of the foundation of the synagogue that Jesus once worshipped in. It's all a matter of time. Like all of God's authoritative works, whether they are His Word, His Light or His congregation we eventually discover that Jesus is at their foundation. Jesus is the anchor if God's enterprise on earth. He shows us that the intentions of the Almighty have been working through and with time to build a future dwelling for His congregation where Grace resides. This structure was known as the temple, the synagogue and the Church... But it's most accurate name is Jesus. God is an architect and he is building you a home. He has been patiently waiting for His children to come home. For God knows that it is only a matter of time.
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