Notes from the Wayside: Perspective: The Point of Authority

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The Point of Authority

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Matthew 28:18-20 (NRSV)

And I will give

With the life that I've been given

And go beyond religion

To see the world be changed

By the power of Your name

From "The Power of Your Name" by Lincoln Brewster

Rehoboam, the fourth king of Israel, was a corrupt and oppressive ruler. Inevitably, the people rebelled, and the kingdom was riven in twain. A former taskmaster named Jeroboam suddenly found himself in a place of great authority when the people made him the first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.¹

Sometimes, with great power comes great paranoia. Jeroboam feared that a common religion with a common place of worship would ultimately lead to a reconciliation with the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Control of a reunited kingdom would revert to Rehoboam, causing him to lose his newfound power. Naturally, Jeroboam decided to start a new religion for his kingdom with its own holy places, its own priestly order, its own holy days, and its own images for God. He forged two golden calves and said, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."²

Jeroboam's actions should have raised a bunch of red flags for the Israelites. Shortly after the Israelites were saved from slavery in Egypt, a priest named Aaron forged a golden calf and said basically the same thing Jeroboam would say hundreds of years later, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" Had Jeroboam's subjects remembered their own history, they would have realized that some very bad things were about to happen.³

Like Jeroboam, a later king named Ahab fell in love with his own authority and sought to increase his power. To forge an alliance with another kingdom, he married a princess named Jezebel who brought with her to Israel the worship of the false gods Ba'al and Asherah. Under their reign, idolatry spread throughout the land.⁴ The problem with idolatry is not just that it diverts attention from the one true God: it also causes people to do some very inhuman things. The worship of false gods makes demands of us that the God who is Love itself would never make of us. One prophet indicted the people of Judah, who also fell into idolatry, for sacrificing their own children to such gods.⁵

Ba'al and Asherah were weather and fertility gods, meaning that they were thought to have authority over the success of people's crops. When the prophet Elijah appeared on the scene to speak out on behalf of God against the people's idolatry, he announced a drought, showing the people that their false gods did not have the authority they thought they had.⁶

After generations of bad leadership, both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah were conquered by foreign powers, and the people of both nations found themselves as captives in faraway lands. Though many of the exiles were eventually allowed to return home and rebuild, they always remained under the authority of a foreign power. By the time of Jesus, the Jewish people were subjects of the Roman Empire.

Jesus did not seem to have a lot of fans in His own hometown, but He was apparently well liked in the town of Capernaum, even by the elders. On one Sabbath day, not long after He delivered the sermon that got Him run out of Nazareth, He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. While He was speaking, a demon-possessed man started making a scene in the synagogue. Jesus silenced the demon and then commanded it to leave the man. The demon then knocked its host to the ground and then left him without doing any further harm.⁷

The people in the congregation were impressed with Jesus' authority. They were impressed that Jesus spoke with authority, meaning that, unlike other teachers, He did not feel the need to quote those who came before Him ad nauseam. The people were also impressed that Jesus cast out demons with authority, meaning that He could simply command demons to leave, unlike other exorcists who relied on bizarre rituals.⁸ Jesus performed numerous other healings in this town in a similar manner.⁹

Later on, when Jesus returned to Capernaum, He was met by some of the town's elders who begged him to heal the ailing servant of a certain centurion. This centurion, despite the fact that he was an officer in the Roman military, was loved by the people of Capernaum because he loved the people. It was he who was responsible for building their synagogue.

The centurion did not feel worthy to have Jesus come into His house or even to be in Jesus' presence, so he sent people to speak on his behalf. He understood that, in the same way that his superior officers had authority over him and in the same way that he had authority over his soldiers and servants, Jesus had authority over demons and illnesses. He knew that Jesus had a kind of authority that his superiors could only dream of having. It was then Jesus' turn to be impressed, for Jesus had not seen such faith even among His own people.¹⁰

The corrupt kings of the Northern Kingdom selfishly used their authority to solidify and increase their power. On the other hand, Jesus, the King of Kings, used His authority to help people. When we become addicted to whatever authority we have, it becomes an idol, an object to be worshiped instead of God; however, when we use our authority in the service of others, it becomes an object for worshiping God.

At the end of one Gospel account, Jesus tells the Disciples that all authority has been given to Him and then commands them to travel throughout the world, inviting others to be His disciples. Jesus had given them the authority as Disciples to take part in His redemptive work and the authority to invite others into the same work.

So how did these early followers of Christ use the authority they were given?

On one afternoon, while heading to the temple for prayer, the disciple Peter encountered a crippled man who was begging for money. He said to the man, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." He then pulled the man up to his feet, and then the healed man headed off, walking, leaping, and praising God.¹¹

Later on, a Christian named Philip encountered an Ethiopian official who was reading the words of one of the ancient prophets, words about the Suffering Servant. This man wanted to know who this Servant was, so Philip told him about Jesus. The man decided that he wanted to be a follower of this Jesus, so, when they approached some water, he asked, "What is to prevent me from being baptized?" The rules of Philip's own religion could have prevented the man from being baptized, as the man was a eunuch. The Scriptures clearly stated that "he who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord,"¹² but Philip disregarded this rule and baptized the man anyway.¹³ Nearly two thousand years later, Christians in Ethiopia still trace their roots back to this eunuch.

Authority is often cast in a negative light. For example, it has been said, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."¹⁴ Power is only an evil when we use it selfishly; however, when we use our power to serve others, as Jesus used His authority, it is a great blessing. Peter used the authority vested in him to lift a person up. Philip used his authority to break down barriers.¹⁵

How will you use whatever authority you are given?

Notes:

1 Kings 12:1-24
1 Kings 12:25-33 (NRSV)
Exodus 32
1 Kings 16:29-33
Jeremiah 7:30-31
1 Kings 17:1
Luke 4:31-37
William Barclay. The Gospel of Luke, Revised Edition. 1975, Westminster Press. pp. 50-51
Luke 4:38-41
Luke 7:1-10
Acts 3:1-10 (NRSV)
Deuteronomy 23:1 (NKJV)
Acts 8:26-40
Wikipedia: John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
For more about the early Christians' breaking down barriers, see Acts 10:1-11:18,15:1-32.