Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.09.2008, Page 34

not so much telling a history of the conflicts of Jesus as using “scribe” as
a current narrative symbol for a religious leadership that is skilled in writ-
ing, copying, and debating the significance of texts. Indeed, it may be that
there were Christian communal leaders, knowledgeable about texts, who
were engaged in the very things that the Gospel book is criticizing. In any
case, when the narrative has Jesus himself exercising authority exactly by
forgiving sins, casting out demons, restoring life, welcoming the outsiders
and sinners, and speaking for the poor, and when this very authority is then
given to the disciples (3:14-15; 6:7), it becomes clear that a contrary role
for leadership is being imaged.
If the Christian community also has something like “scribes” — Is not
the writer of the Gospel one? Do not arguments from the scriptures play a
role in the text? And does not the Gospel of Matthew speak of scribes in the
church and scribes sent by Jesus (Matt. 13:52; 23:34) — then they are to be
scribes who are not scribes, scribes in another way. Christian leaders are not
simply to know the texts and then give lectures on various possibilities for
religious meaning. Nor are they to find their primary work in drawing or
debating the lines between the insiders and the out, the righteous and the
sinners, the pure and the impure, the rich and the poor. The leaders in the
community are to speak the gospel of Jesus Christ, as if Jesus himself and
the Spirit that is upon him and from him (Mark 1:8; 13:11) were present
and acting in the words. They are to enact this gospel — known in the
text of the Gospel book itself and testified in the ancient scriptures — in
announcing forgiveness, in welcoming the excluded, in healing and acting
for the sake of life, in resisting and testifying against evil, and in attending
to the lot of the poor. The living voice of this “new teaching” (Mark 1:27)
actually casts out the unclean spirits that possess people. This authority
actually gathers human beings, like fishers gather fish (1:17), rather than
dispersing, cataloging and alienating them. The leaders are to act and speak
with authority. But it is not just any authority, not simply the authority of
their office or their learning, not traditional religious authority. It is rather
the quite specific authority for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ for
forgiveness, gathering and life.
But besides being scribes who are not scribes, the leaders of the assembly
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