By What Authority


Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, You are the Lord of my life and the King of my salvation. To You alone belongs all honor, worship and praise. Please fill my study time with a deepening of my faith and a strengthening of my love for You. Thank You for providing for my every need and for giving me Your Word so that I might know Your story and receive Your truth. Help me to embrace what I learn today and apply to my life. In Your name I pray. Amen.

Read: Luke 20:1-8 
http://www.esvbible.org/Luke 2:1-8

Think about It: Most of us can remember a time when our parents told us to do something (we probably didn’t want to do) and their only reason was “because I said so.” That’s authority. As children, we may have argued, but we would have been wrong. Now as parents, we know that the “because I said so” holds weight. In fact, while they often get one, children are not owed an explanation; they are simply to obey because the person in authority “said so.”

Jesus faced His children as well, with the same problem. He takes His stand in the temple, an act which in and of itself declares that His authority is of God Himself; so naturally, He is questioned by those who think they are the ones in control.

The chief priests, scribes, and elders are the three groups that make up the Sanhedrin, the chief priests representing the Sadducees, the scribes the Pharisees, and the elders the laypeople. From the beginning of Jesus’ teaching in the temple, the hearer knows that the religious establishment wants to kill Jesus and that this establishment is the very council of God’s people that decides spiritual and legal matters of the highest importance. When Jesus claims the highest authority in Israel, this establishment resents it fiercely. 1

Jesus authority comes from God the Father. He doesn’t need earthly approval to cement His role as supreme authority. For proof of Jesus’ authority, we can harken back to two events that declare who He truly is and where His power comes from. First, at His birth, the angels declare that He is the Son of God, come to earth. Then, in an even more public and visible manifestation of authority, we see His position affirmed at His baptism. (See Luke 3:21-22). Here “the Father and the Spirit audibly and visibly affirmed Jesus’ authority at his baptism, where the heavens opened, the Spirit descended in bodily form, and the voice of the Father said: ‘You are my Son, the beloved, in you I am well pleased.’”2 When Jesus responds to the question from the Sanhedrin, he brings up this very event, albeit in a roundabout manner, and they are caught in a problem they cannot solve. Thus ends the questioning – for the moment. Jesus has already responded to their question anyway, had they been willing to hear the answer as the observed His ministry. Did He not heal the sick, cast out the demon, and raise the dead? Did He not have authority over the storm and walk on the water? They have their answer; they just didn’t like it.
1&2  Just, A. A. ©1998. Luke 9:51-24:53 Concordia commentary (755). St. Louis: CPH.

Prayer: Dear Lord God, please help me to always bear in mind that You have full authority over all of my life. When I am going my own way, please grab me up and bring me back to Your path and to obedience to Your will. When I hear Your “because I said so” help me to cast off my resentments and get back to Your side. In the name of my Master, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

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