Thursday, September 28, 2023

Answer with Authority

 


God’s grace, peace and mercy be with you. … My sermon is entitled Three A’s: Acts, Authority and Answer, and my focus is our Gospel (Mt 21: 23-27). Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Now that our feet are within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.

When I think of Three A’s (or AAA), what comes to mind is the American Automobile Association. But did you know that there are 170 definitions for AAA, including Antique Automobile Association, American Accounting Association, American Accordionists' Association, Atheist and Agnostic Association, Area Agency on Aging, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Anti-Aircraft Artillery, a college degree (Associate of Applied Arts) and a battery size.

My Three A’s – Acts, Authority and Answer – all have to deal with our Gospel, that is, the acts that occurred before Jesus is confronted, the meaning of authority, and the answer of the chief priests and elders.

First, Acts. Chapter 21 opens with Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey. As he did, people spread their cloaks or leafy tree branches on the road, while shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when some asked “Who is this?”, the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee” (21:1-11).

The chapter continues with Jesus entering the temple where he expelled buyers and sellers, overturned money-changers’ tables while declaring, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers” (21:12-13).

Meanwhile, Jesus healed the blind and the lame as children shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” When confronted by indignant chief priests and scribes who saw and heard these wonderful things, Jesus cited the psalm which reads, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise” (Ps 8:2). After that, Jesus left Jerusalem. The next morning, after he cursed a figless tree, he returned to the temple. That brings us to today’s passage.

The chief priests and elders confront Jesus about “these things.” They are the acts entering Jerusalem: expelling money changers, healing blind and lame people, and the acclamations by babes for the Son of David.

Up to this point, these chief priests and elders of the Temple would not have had much occasion to clash with Jesus in the Galilean countryside, and their question had only to do with these acts within Jerusalem. And so, as he is teaching, he is confronted, which fits beautifully into the scope of the passage as Jesus is Teacher. That concludes point one, acts, and begins point two, authority.

The word authority means power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior. At times, it is given by another person in authority such as the president or some local official. Authority also means grounds or warrant, as in an excellent authority for believing the claim. An expert may be called as an authority to testify in the court as an authority.

Although our text translates the word used in our passage as authority, the Greek word used, exousia, actually means power. Authority without real power is illusory. Exousia is God’s power given to Jesus, or the power Jesus gave his disciples.

This power represents the absolute possibility of action that is proper to God alone as the source of all power and legality.[1] For example, while God gives power to Jesus, He also enables others to exercise power. In Luke we read how the devil took Jesus “up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will’” (4:5-6).

God also gave power to those who arrested and killed Jesus. “Jesus said to the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders, who had come out against him, ‘Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs? When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness’” (Lk 22:52-53).

Power is given by God to the beast in Revelation, where we read, “The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. … Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation” (7:5,7). Yet, God’s will encompasses Satan’s sphere of dominion. And the final mystery of evil is not its power but the fact that this hostile power may still be encompassed by God’s overruling.[2]

In addition to possessing divine power, Christ also possessed the divine right to freely share his power. In the Great Commission, Jesus said to the Eleven, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18), and he gave it to them.

Now, lest you think that this power was simply to make church law, know that it is much more than who can receive Communion or be married in the Church. The power that Christ gave to his disciples and the Church is cosmic. We read in John, “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:11-13). And later, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (17:1-2). Several weeks ago, we read in Matthew, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (11:27).

Christ used his power to forgive sins (Mk 2:10), expel demons (Mk 3:15) and teach (Mt 7:29; 9:8; Mk 11:28; Lk 4:36). As a believer, you have received this power, for you are children of God possessing the promise of everlasting life (Jn 1:12).

With this understanding of the divine power that Jesus possessed and shared, we turn to our passage. By what authority was Jesus doing these things, and who gave him this authority? We already know that His Father gave him authority, but his confronters are blind, and to them Jesus poses a counter-question.

Now, to us, this may seem like Jesus is employing an evasion tactic, like 99% of elected or appointed government officials use, but this is a rabbinic question and counter-question conversation used to establish the truth of a matter.[3] So, Jesus appeals to a recent example, John the Baptist, and waits for his accusers to answer.

The question showed the lack of honesty of Jesus’ enemies. For Jesus, John’s baptism came from God for He himself was baptized by John. On the contrary, they did not accept the message of John and did not consider his baptism from God.

That brings me to my third point, answer. The priests and the elders were aware of the importance or significance of Jesus’ question. After some discussion regarding John’s authority to baptize, they answered, “We don’t know.” This shows that they were incapable of recognizing authentic authority. We know why they answered Jesus as they did. The Gospels tell us that they feared looking foolish or being stoned. Yet, this did not prevent them from taking part in the death of Jesus.[4]

Their response is a pretense. Their only interest was not to lose their power over the people. As a group, they already decided that Jesus should be condemned to death (Mt 12:14). Their total lack of honesty made them unworthy to receive an answer from Jesus.

Without sounding presumptuous, as believers we know by whose authority John and Jesus acted. We also believe that Jesus rose from the dead and lives eternally. Furthermore, we believe that we too will live eternally because Jesus promised that to his believers. But what bearing does that belief place on us today? How are we to live not only as individuals but also as community, as church?

We not only say we will do what God asks, but we do it daily. Jesus says repent, we repent. He commands us to carry our cross and follow him, we follow. He instructs us to let others see our good works, we show them. We love our enemies and forgive without counting the number of times. We pray, fast and give alms to the poor. We do all this because Jesus is Lord, Savior and Master. We learn from him, obey him and love him. To us, nothing matters more than doing what our Lord commands; and, we do all things without disputing or grumbling (Phil 2:14).

Friends, we are equal brothers and sisters in the Lord. We are not equal to God, and we do not grasp at being equal to Him. Even if we can’t physically get down on our knees, I ask that we recognize in our hearts, minds, lips and acts that Jesus Christ is Lord, and humbly obey whatever He commands us. And when we do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.



[1] Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, 238ff.

[2] TDNT, 239.

[3] Albright and Mann, 260.

[4] JBC, 664.

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