Sunday 29th June 2025

 • [Jesus] got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet!  Be still!’
• Jesus had said to him, ‘Come out of this man, you impure spirit.’
• [Jesus] said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you.  Go in peace…’
• [Jesus] took her by the hand and said to her … ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up!’
Mark 4:39; 5:8, 34, 41 (NIV)

Absolute Power
“If you want to find out what a man is … give him power.”  So said Robert Green Ingersoll of Abraham Lincoln.  We’re perhaps more familiar with the saying of Lord Acton that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  But surely Ingersoll is closer to the mark.

It’s not that power itself corrupts, but rather that it reveals.  Power reveals what’s really in a person, including the corruption that lurks there already.  Having power merely gives you the opportunity to do the things you really wanted to do all along, but haven’t had the power to do.  Sadly, countless dictators, political leaders, sports coaches and even parents have demonstrated the truth of Ingersoll’s words.

It’s one of the striking things about Jesus that he walked about on this earth with absolute power in his hands, the power of God incarnate, and yet he only ever used that power for good and not for ill, for the sake of others rather than himself.

The miracles of Mark 4:35-5:43 are a telling demonstration of absolute power used for good.  The disciples are powerless before a raging storm.  The citizens of Gerasa are powerless before a demon-possessed man.  A religious leader is powerless to save his daughter from dying.  A woman is powerless to do anything to stop the bleeding that makes her an outcast.  Until Jesus steps in.

Then Jesus calms the wind and the waves.  He drives out the demon and restores the man to his right mind.  He raises the girl from the dead and restores her to life and to her parents.  He heals the woman and restores her to health and to society.  He does it with a word, with a touch.  There’s no contest.  He uses his extraordinary power to rescue, to liberate, to restore, to heal.

Jesus is the one man who can be trusted with absolute power.  The rest of us can use whatever power we’re given, indeed we’re required to, but we should do so with great care, knowing that it will reveal what lies within us.

Prayer
Lord, thank you for those who use power well; may I be one of them.  And thank you for Jesus who used absolute power perfectly; help me to trust him absolutely.  Amen.

Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)