“What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.” – Mark 1:27
The people who heard Jesus and saw what he was doing asked this question. As Mark shares the question with us in his gospel, he raises the same question for his readers – both those in the first century, and those of us who read it now.
The things Jesus taught, and the things Jesus did – what is this? Who is this?
The sound of the words is almost as ugly as the sound of the nails being driven in: bound. accused. scourged. stripped. thorns. mocked. spit. struck. derided. reviled. forsaken. crucified.
It’s the morning after his betrayal. Condemned by the chief priests and the elders, he is delivered to the governor – a Gentile – for the final sentence. Their recommendation is death.
