When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?”
As the Holy Son of God comes down from heaven to work the works He is given to do among men, the kingdom of heaven advances. As a razor blade slices one thing from another with clear precision, as a computer processes information with only 1s and 0s, as light separated the darkness on the first day of creation, as evil to this day is distinguished from the good, so this great division of all things comprehended in your Christ Jesus, the Holy Son of God, becomes manifest as He teaches in the temple.
He has set His face like flint toward Jerusalem where He will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.
Of this you may be certain: where Christ Jesus is teaching, there the heavens and the Earth are being brought into submission under His authority. All who are in His hearing are on one side or the other. There is no middle ground. The two-edged sword of the Word of the LORD does its work as it has from the beginning.
What things does Jesus teach, Who came from the bosom of the Father to reveal the Father to you and bring you to Him? He says:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.
You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.
It was these last seven words that were enough to set the Chief priests and the elders of the people into questioning Jesus’ authority. Thinking they could sit on the edge of the two-edged sword of the Word of the Lord as if sitting on a fence, they instead found themselves in the pickle of pickles. They asked two questions: “What is this authority, and who gave it to you?”
You may fast forward to the end of the Gospel of St. Matthew for the answer: “All authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to Me.”
But Jesus does not fast forward. He simply comes back at them with only one question, as opposed to their two: “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?”
And there it is again. The great divide. The razor. The judgment. From heaven, or from men? There is no middle ground.
The Chief priests and the elders of the people could not escape this dichotomy of words, and neither can you. How about the baptism you have received? Is it from what source: from heaven or from men?
Thanks be to God, you know and have been taught that the baptism you have received is by the authority of God, through Christ Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, for Baptism is not simple water only. It is not a man-made ritual or ordinance, but it is the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whereby you who were once a disobedient Son who refused to work in the Vineyard, are now one who labors though faith as God’s own child, enduring, just as your Lord Jesus Christ has and does for you, all the devil, the world, and your own flesh throws at you day by day.
“I fight authority and authority always wins,” writes John Cougar Mellencamp in his Authority Song, which charted at #15 in the Billboard Top 100 of 1983. The meatiest verse goes like this:
So I call up my preacher
I say: "Gimme strength for Round 5"
He said: "You don't need no strength, you need to grow up, son"
I said: "Growing up leads to growing old and then to dying,
And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun"
The Chief priests and the elders began by questioning Jesus’ authority. They ended by fighting His authority. They saw to it that He was secretly arrested, then publicly tried, crucified, dead, and buried. So it goes for all who do not hear and heed the Word of the LOD, who are given to fight authority.
To say dying “won’t be all that much fun” under the circumstance of refusing the Word of the LORD is an understatement, to say the least.
Dying was never meant to be fun. By the authority of God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, dying is now inextricably woven into His judgment against sin. It is a judgment made by His authority, and now taught throughout the world by His authority. As sons and daughters baptized into this authority it is best to hear from Him concerning all that pertains both to death and to life.
In hearing His only begotten Son this day, you are brought into life, but that life brings with it a kind of dying, namely a dying to all the lusts and desires of your flesh that cry out against God and against His authority. Oh, you can fight it. You can walk right out that door to be “your own man.” Go ahead. You can pretend to judge the authority of God from the sidelines and think to yourself how slick you are. Go ahead. But you will find yourself in a condition worse than the pickle of pickles, worse than a 2x4 upside the head. You will find yourself lost eternally, having loved your life in this world.
Better, dear children of God, to receive the authority of God as He measures it out to you, and bestows it upon you, in His loving kindness, as He heals your broken heart and binds up your wounds, for this is what He aims to do with His authority, and authority that has come down to you to save you from your sin and to raise you up into the highest heavens through Christ Jesus.
You see, as Christ Jesus is teaching by the authority of God the Father, He is doing so as your champion, as every movement, every moment, every breath, and every Word is a fulfillment of the Law in His body on your behalf, for He is carrying you in His body. He can do this. He alone can do this. How can He do this? Because God ordained from eternity that He would be your substitute and sacrifice in all things, so that His righteousness may be your righteousness, and He has all authority in heaven and on Earth.
It is the perfect righteousness of Christ that He delivers to you by his authority, through His servants of the Word, whom He has seen to call and ordain in this place, in answer to the prayer He has taught you: “Hallowed be thy name.”
To pray Hallowed be Thy Name is nothing less than to ask of your Father in Heaven that He would, by his pure authority, send you pastors and teachers who will administrate and deliver the benefits of Christ’s innocent sufferings and death, and His resurrection from the dead, into not only your ears and hearts and minds, but even upon your very bodies in baptism and into your mouths through the Holy Communion.
When you see this rotund, bald, bearded, bespectacled man before you in robes, speaking to you according to the world of the Lord, when you see the other, thinner, bespectacled servant of the LORD before you in robes, also speaking to you according to the word of the LORD, then know for certain that the heavens and the earth are rejoicing, for by the authority of God they are here to deliver to you in person the very fruits of Christ’s atoning sacrifice, namely the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
This is not a thing to question. This is not a thing to fight. This is life everlasting for you to receive in joy and to endure with patience under the cross, for the glory that awaits you is hidden for now.
You, who were once an exile, God has gathered to His bosom by His authority. It is He who will keep you there. It is He who will place before you every opportunity to exercise the same love and forgiveness into which you have been placed, whether it be toward your own children or toward the stranger or toward your enemies.
The authority wherewith Christ exercises His kingdom is an authority that comes down in the mercy and strength of God the Father Almighty who would see to it that all flesh may hope in this one Man, Christ Jesus, born under the law to take the place who suffer under the authority of the consequences for being disobedient sons and daughters.
By His authority you are now free from sin and death, because He has taken your sin and death into His own perfect, righteous body and given Himself up as a sweet-smelling sacrifice before the face of God. By His authority, you are now free to love and serve your neighbor.
His authority is a blessing for you in every case, whether it is your father and mother, your teacher, or the other authorities God has placed over you, these are all for your good, all set into their office for good order and discipline, and especially that you may be served in the life God has given you.
Are you someone who has authority over others? Good. Use that authority in love and service to those placed under your care. Are you under authority? Good. Do not fight or question it, but honor it as coming from Above.
The admonishment of the Holy Spirit through the Word by St. Paul pertains: Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
Yes, in this fallen world some abuse their authority, just as did the Chief priests and the elders of the people. Even then, in the wisdom of your Father in Heaven, let your words be few and well chosen while enduring their abuse, knowing that all will give an account at the last day. All souls are His; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son.
Most of all, however, know this: Your Father in heaven, in and through Christ Jesus, is intent on using His authority to teach you, to bless you, to lead you in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake, and especially to forgive your sins and bring you into life everlasting, even as in Christ Jesus He has laid down His life and taken it up again, the same life which He will now feed to your own life and body in the Holy Supper of body and blood, given and shed for you unto life everlasting.
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