From the Rector…
The question arises to Jesus regarding what authority he is doing these things and who gave him this authority. This is a question we continue to ask, even today, not simply of Jesus but of those around us. What is authority?
Authority is a human construct that we have created in order to define expectations, meet standards, define some sort of ordering in the world, especially in our socio-political settings. We establish authority so that we then have justification for actions. Typically, those actions get defined as good or bad, but I believe that a better qualifier might be whether our actions harm or heal. How does what we do “under authority” cause us to harm or hurt others? How can authority help us to heal one another?
When we live under authority, the consequences of authority are the true qualifier for what authority really is. If the consequences of living under a particular authority are harmful to others, then maybe that is not the authority we would want to choose. Jesus’ authority is always about healing others. He doesn’t hurt or harm, not even the pharisees or the chief priests or the scribes. He asks them tough questions and he doesn’t allow them to have easy answers, but it is not harm that he does to them—it is accountability done in love.
Jesus responds to the Temple authorities’ questions, with questions of his own. He asks those questions out of a desire to heal their relationship with God and to heal their relationships with one another—not to make them look silly. When we follow authority, are we following it to heal the world? Or are we following it to control, to manipulate, to justify, and thus harming the world? I think that is why he really doesn’t answer the question, “By what authority are you doing these things?” To answer it, allows them to remain in ego, instead of inviting them into the divine mystery.
The authority of the Temple—the Pharisees, chief priests, and scribes—are focused on the construct of authority that humanity would define in which rules and order are prescribed to determine behavior. When Jesus steps outside of that order, he elicits fear—fear of the unknown, fear that the world would devolve into chaos, fear of a loss of power, fear that things might be different. At the most basic level of human fear is the fear of suffering—this is what authority is established to prevent. To defy authority is to invite the potential for human suffering, or so we believe.. No wonder the Temple authority was disrupted by the mere presence of this teacher, miracle worker, and prophet.
Jesus is the ultimate authority. How often do we deny his authority in our own lives, much less the world around us. When we are placing authority into the hands of politicians, judges, lawyers, bankers, doctors, administrative officials, principals, police officers, even priests and pastors, we may well discover that we are harming and not healing the world. Question authority, not as a method of defiance, but as a way of waking up to the world—waking up to the call Christ has for your life.
By what authority do YOU do these things?
Light and Life,
Candice+