28 Jan SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024
What is authority? The freedom to act or the right to decide without hindrance. Authority is power conferred upon or derived from a higher power. Authority is the right to control, command, or determine. It is God-given and must be received, so that, in due manner, it is exercised according to the purpose of it being granted in the first place. 
Having power isn’t necessarily the same as having authority. Power only refers to the ability or potential for an individual to influence and control the behavior of others. After watching several seasons of the reality TV show “Sixty Days In,” it seems as though prison guards have power, but that prisoners don’t recognize them as having much authority.
The guards can tell prisoners what to do and where to be when, but they don’t make rules and can’t make exceptions to those rules. Authority entails a broader scope and refers to a legal formal right to give commands and make decisions.
Prison guards enforce policies made by the higher ups, the wardens. They are kind of like scribes who can teach what they’ve learned by reading books. On the other hand, Jesus is like the warden, the boss over everyone working in the temple. He possesses both power and authority and in today’s gospel reading it is his authority that is recognized by those listening to him in the temple.
People in the temple were astounded at Jesus’ teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. What does that mean? Well, scribes were professionals of sorts, who gained knowledge through the study of documents. They were scholars and sometimes Pharisees, that is, experts in Jewish law.
You might say that scribes and Pharisees were the “academics” of their day. Did you ever wonder what that term means exactly? Going onto a college or seminary campus, you experience the effect of an atmosphere that’s somewhat intimidating. How so? Because academia is a world unto itself. Its focus lies within a prescribed system of education that recognizes and values its own pursuits. It’s a closed system with a built-in means of validation reserved for those who perform according to its own prescribed standards. In fact, the word “prescribe” means to direct or confine the parameters of a thing to that which is written. 
The difference between Jesus and typical scribes of his day might be summed up like this: Think about the difference between a doctor and patient. A patient may understand what their told and be able to follow printed instructions provided by a prescription label or insert. A patient may even possess knowledge about how a drug does its job, but their knowledge is far removed from that of the pharmacist or doctor. They possess broader knowledge like a warden. What they know is much more comprehensive. What they know is what one needs to know to diagnose problems, prescribe treatments, or implement new ways of doing things.
It’s probably fair to say that scribes were on par with nurses. They knew quite a bit. In fact, much more than most. They were qualified to teach and administer directly to folks and willing to undertake great responsibility. But compared to Jesus, what the scribe offered was somehow different. Their services were considered less-than by comparison when someone recognized similar services coming from one with even greater knowledge, one granted the esteem of having higher authority.
I’ve spent so much time establishing the difference because the difference of authority is enough to make a demon tremble. In the synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit who recognized Jesus’ authority and cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” It was an admission of fear. What do you want with us? What business do you have with us? Why do you set out to interfere in our business? Let us alone.
This past week, a gentleman suffering from dementia wanted to talk about demons. He remembered his father, a lay pastor, praying with a bunch of other church folk around a person who was suffering greatly. Claiming the authority of Jesus, they demanded that the demon turn the person loose.
As a child, that man had never forgotten the gutteral sound of the voice who replied to his father and the others present. The demon didn’t appreciate being challenged or asked to hand over its territory to the individual person. The man then said to me, “I know. You probably don’t believe me.”
I know. You probably don’t believe me.
Oh, no. I believe you.
I replied, “Oh, no. I believe you.” I’ve known other reliable witnesses to demon possession. Perhaps by virtue of the fact that the man chose to mention the possibility of demon possession was one way that he meant to say, “I’m losing control. I’m afraid, too. On the other hand, perhaps like those demons, he was really asking me and the medical establishment who was “keeping him” there in the hospital, “What do you want with me? What business have you with me? Let me go home. Why do you set out to interfere? Can’t I be left alone?
What the gospel story and that gentleman in the hospital have to tells us is that spirits speaks about knowledge acquired in another realm. They experience a world hidden from us, a realm beyond the scope of ordinary healthy human beings. In their current state they have to deal with things we do not. Something inside them knows and understand more than we do. In the temple that day, the spirits knew that one day near the end of time that God would conquer and banish every evil thing. They were upset and disappointed to learn that sooner than expected they would run out of time. They thought the end would look different than the present seemed to reveal. They hoped at least, they could do more and stay put longer. In their case, they wished for more time to wreak havoc on some poor man’s life.
Have you come to destroy us?” I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit convulsed the man, cried with a loud voice, and came out of him. How I wish persons suffering from mental illness, dementia and other brain diseases could be healed as quickly and as such.
It’s clear from the way that Jesus took immediate action, that he was not only about depriving demons of their human host, but about denying anything evil of the opportunity to ruin a person’s life. This is a clear cut example of Jesus using his authority to do more than teach.
Only Jesus has power derived from on high, only Jesus can exercise the freedom to act. Only God in the form of Jesus has the right to decide without hindrance. It is his authority recognized as such being demonstrated in the temple today that gives him alone the the right to control or command.
Jesus is unlike others who claim to know what they’re talking about or teaching. He alone is able to determine what will be so that his presence makes sense of everything that came before him or will come after him. We, along with those in the temple are to notice the reason he came and the difference his coming makes in people’s lives.
They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this?” Or as Carl Snyder used to kindly say when asking me for clarification while talking over the phone, “What’s this?” A new teaching-with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits,” adding an even broader declaration and definition of Jesus’ authority, “even they obey him,” they said. At once Jesus’ fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
Yet his fame was already known to unclean spirits. Note the fact that it instantly recognizes Jesus’ authority. In fact, it tries to dominate and subdue Jesus using rather old fashion tactics: calling him by name and disclosing his true identity before a crowd of onlookers who think he’s one of them. The unclean spirit thinks it’ll reveal something about Jesus that’ll make the crowd lose favor toward him, even possibly rid them of his presence, and do the dirty work for him. So the unclean spirit challenges Jesus like a bully demonstrating fear of what his challenger may potentially do to him.
“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” But Jesus rebuked him, not them, so evidently unclean spirits speak in unison, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsed the man and cried with a loud voice, comin out of the man. Jesus not only was able to silence him from trashtalk, he was able to order him to flee from the person in whom the unclean spirit took residence.
Recently, a patient in rehab struggling to overcome pain and delay to her healing confessed that the devil was tempting her. Exactly what she meant by that remained unclear, but was clear that the woman sensed the threat of losing control, of uncertainty with regard to outcomes, of lacking authority over forces trying to influence her behavior.
She wasn’t making excuses or failing to take responsibility. At the very least, she was admitting to feeling vulnerable, of possibly going left when intending to go right, of doing what she never meant to do, of ending up where she hoped not to go. Had she been able to claim the authority of Jesus’ name, perhaps she could have gotten the upper hand and freed herself from fear. Instead she was helped to realize the agency she had, how she was able to advocate for herself and those dependent upon her.
Authority is something God-given that must be received, so that, in due manner, it is exercised according to the purpose of it being granted in the first place.
You see, authority may be discovered through the exercise of freedom to act or decide without hindrance. Authority may be the realization of power conferred upon or derived from a higher power that is willing to share that power with you. Authority affords a person rights: to control, command or determine things that currently feel like or are experienced as threats.
Authority is something God-given that must be received, so that, in due manner, it is exercised according to the purpose of it being granted in the first place. Wherever you need to gain authority, at home, in a relationship, at work or school, go to Jesus first. Ask him what needs to be said or done. Then in his name, find your voice. Speak up and see what or who Jesus might straighten out on your behalf.
Let us pray. Jesus, sometimes we’re at a loss to recognize what needs to happen or change, what we need to learn or unlearn, hang onto, give away, let go of, or turn over to your power and authority. Help us see in you a way forward, a way to overcome or move on so that nothing overtakes our lives or the people we love. Put evil in its place. Don’t allow it to take up residence in houses of worship, homes, vulnerable people or places in need of building up. Guide decisions that effect whole populations toward wholeness and well-being. In your holy name we pray, Amen.