"For those who struggle with a more jaded view of power, the attribution of authority applied to Jesus’s teaching ministry might cause even the skeptic to sit up and pay attention; for even someone not familiar with the intricacies of Christian belief or theology would be reticent to compare the authority of Jesus with the way in which authority is often demonstrated in the world today. Jesus never held political office nor did he have a high-ranking leadership position in the temple or synagogues of his day. He would ultimately be crucified by those in authority over him. Instead, authority is attributed to Jesus at the end of a sermon he preached. The multitudes listening to that sermon “were amazed at his teaching; for he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” What was it about Jesus that caused such amazement, and that made his teaching authoritative? Many commentators note that the scribes cited other teachers and leaders in their teaching, but Jesus cited himself and his own words as a sign of authority. This is borne out in the repeated phrase throughout the Sermon, “You have heard it said…but I say.” Jesus’s authority comes from issuing his own teaching and his seemingly new understanding of the Torah. But is Jesus’s authority simply attributed to his being smarter or more learned in his interpretive skills than the religious and legal authorities of his own day? Did he use better logic or cleverer argumentation? Or does his authoritative teaching demonstrate something greater than clever turns of phrase and charisma? Jesus’s authority comes not simply from his teaching, but in the way he revealed God’s authority as he lived his life. Indeed, the Gospel of Matthew sandwiches this great sermon of Jesus in between accounts of miracle stories. In fact, eight miracle stories immediately follow the sermon and give witness to Jesus “as one having authority,” and before he begins to preach, Jesus was healing “every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.” The authority of Jesus was not simply a demonstration of power or influence in the way we normally think of authority. Rather, the authority of Jesus brought healing and restoration. Illness and disease kept people away from community, away from temple worship—indeed, and away from God. Jesus released individuals from sickness, delivered them from principalities and powers, and thus restored them to their communities and to worship. In his ministry of teaching and healing, he brought those on the outside in." Slice of Infinity
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 11:43:59 +0000
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