Mark 1:7 And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
I don’t know if you have ever met a famous person, but oftentimes when you do the experience is a little bit disappointing. You find out that she is not as attractive or he is not as tall as you thought. The closer you get to famous people, the more you realize that they are just people. When I think about the life of Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Man, I realize how disorienting it must have been for those who saw Him, confined in a human body and in a particular time and place.
Here is the Son of Man in humble garments with dirty feet eating the common fare of that day. It would be easy to look at Him and to take Him for granted or to deny Who He is. Yet, your power for life will come from your recognition of Jesus’ authority in every area of your life. Let me give you four places in the first two chapters of Mark where we see the might, power, and authority of Jesus and how that might affect your life.
In Mark 1:7 John the Baptist says, “There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to…unloose.” Here is John and here is his ministry. John’s power for ministry came in his recognition of who Jesus is. Verse 2 tells us that John was the one preparing the way for Jesus. John’s very power for ministry came in his recognition of Jesus’ authority.
Today, I don’t think any of us thinks that he is in competition with Jesus, yet it is easy for us to be focused on ourselves, glamour-shot our lives, and forget that Jesus is the reason we have ministry. He is mightier than we are, and we don’t have to worry about other people, only about serving Him. So, our power and ministry come from the recognition of Jesus’ authority.
In Mark 1:22 the Bible says of Jesus, “He taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.” He had authority. With His authority, He commanded the unclean spirits, and they obeyed Him. These people recognized Jesus’ authority and that Jesus was greater than their problems. The more you can tie your life to the Lord’s purpose, the more you realize that your problems are taken care of by Jesus’ authority.
Mark 2:10 tells us that Jesus healed a man who was sick of the palsy. Jesus forgave his sins and healed his body. He had power over both sin and sickness. In verse 10, reading the very thoughts of a religious leader who said “Who can forgive sin but God only?” Jesus said, “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins…take up thy bed, and go thy way.” “Power” here is the same word as “authority” in chapter 1. Jesus has power over both sin and sickness, and we need to recognize that.
The last example is in Mark 2:28 where the religious leaders were taking Jesus and His disciples to task about what they were doing on the Sabbath day. Jesus said, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Jesus is the Lord of the day and of the customs of the day. Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
The bottom line is that your power for life comes from recognizing the power of Jesus. Do you recognize His authority, and do you have that power in every area of your life today?