Authority
Read Mark 11:27-12:12.
When I was ordained (so long ago!), Bishop Woodie White laid his hands on my head and repeated the traditional words: "Take thou authority as an elder in the church to preach the Word of God and to administer the Holy Sacraments." In 1995, I was twenty-eight years old. We were expecting our first child in the fall and I had been serving a church as an associate pastor for two years. Even though I took Bishop White's words seriously, what did I know of authority?
Well, I knew this: in this world, authority is something you earn, and it's not something that is often given easily. The church (the larger church, not the local church) may have conveyed the office of elder on me, given me certain privileges and rights as a clergy person, but true authority was going to have to be earned. It is not something I possessed on my own, even after ordination. It's something given to you or me by some other person or place—for instance, when a church agrees that they will follow where a pastor leads. In the church, though, authority is not lording it over others. Authority is seen, according to Jesus, in serving others.
The question of authority is coming up repeatedly in this last week of Jesus' life. Remember what has come before: he cleared out the Temple courts and established a place of prayer once again for Gentile believers. In other words, he challenged the authority of the religious leaders to put the marketplace anywhere they wanted to, wherever they thought was best. Jesus comes in and acts like he owns the place, reclaiming it as a center for worship. So the gathered leaders come to Jesus and ask him, "By what authority...?"
The difference between Jesus and the religious leaders (then and now) is that Jesus possesses his own authority. He is the standard. The religious leaders have had to earn their authority, through hard work, study and proof of their ability. Jesus has not done any of that. He didn't study at any of their schools. He has been teaching without any particular rabbinical tradition backing him. He has just shown up on the scene and the people have been following him. Underlying every healing, every teaching, every word of opposition that has come before is the question of authority. It's the question of who Jesus is, the question Mark has been asking us from 1:1. What authority does Jesus have?
He claims to be the cornerstone—the rock on which everything else is built. He is the source of all authority. Without him, the whole building will collapse. And it's that claim, among others, that set the religious leaders once again against him. They cannot believe he is his own authority. They will not accept his authority in their lives. They do not see God in him.
Do we? Will we accept that Jesus is the authority upon which we build our lives? Will we allow him to supersede (to replace) our own power and authority? Will we submit to his leadership? He alone is the only one who stands alone, and so he alone is the only one we can trust.
When I was ordained (so long ago!), Bishop Woodie White laid his hands on my head and repeated the traditional words: "Take thou authority as an elder in the church to preach the Word of God and to administer the Holy Sacraments." In 1995, I was twenty-eight years old. We were expecting our first child in the fall and I had been serving a church as an associate pastor for two years. Even though I took Bishop White's words seriously, what did I know of authority?
Well, I knew this: in this world, authority is something you earn, and it's not something that is often given easily. The church (the larger church, not the local church) may have conveyed the office of elder on me, given me certain privileges and rights as a clergy person, but true authority was going to have to be earned. It is not something I possessed on my own, even after ordination. It's something given to you or me by some other person or place—for instance, when a church agrees that they will follow where a pastor leads. In the church, though, authority is not lording it over others. Authority is seen, according to Jesus, in serving others.
The question of authority is coming up repeatedly in this last week of Jesus' life. Remember what has come before: he cleared out the Temple courts and established a place of prayer once again for Gentile believers. In other words, he challenged the authority of the religious leaders to put the marketplace anywhere they wanted to, wherever they thought was best. Jesus comes in and acts like he owns the place, reclaiming it as a center for worship. So the gathered leaders come to Jesus and ask him, "By what authority...?"
The difference between Jesus and the religious leaders (then and now) is that Jesus possesses his own authority. He is the standard. The religious leaders have had to earn their authority, through hard work, study and proof of their ability. Jesus has not done any of that. He didn't study at any of their schools. He has been teaching without any particular rabbinical tradition backing him. He has just shown up on the scene and the people have been following him. Underlying every healing, every teaching, every word of opposition that has come before is the question of authority. It's the question of who Jesus is, the question Mark has been asking us from 1:1. What authority does Jesus have?
He claims to be the cornerstone—the rock on which everything else is built. He is the source of all authority. Without him, the whole building will collapse. And it's that claim, among others, that set the religious leaders once again against him. They cannot believe he is his own authority. They will not accept his authority in their lives. They do not see God in him.
Do we? Will we accept that Jesus is the authority upon which we build our lives? Will we allow him to supersede (to replace) our own power and authority? Will we submit to his leadership? He alone is the only one who stands alone, and so he alone is the only one we can trust.
I'm so glad He's in total control and things aren't left up to me.
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