“And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders, And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?” (Mark 11:27-28 KJV)
“By what authority…” That is a very revealing question. Many people question our actions by the perceived rightness or wrongness of the actions. No matter how big a figure someone may be, we tend to be much less hesitant to shake our fist at them if we perceive that what is being done is wrong. Some may even take this a step further and question based on motives. Perhaps we think that if they are not sincere that this is all superficial and none of this will last. So, what makes this question about authority intriguing to me is that it is not a question designed to sharpen the point of the law, nor an opportunity to see this from a different perspective (thus growing the total area of what we can perceive), nor even a genuine question to flesh out which member of the leadership has gone so astray as to give him the crazy liberties that he seems to be taking. When you think about this, if Jesus had given them a name of a physical person that they could in present time interrogate and walk away satisfied that, yes, that is a solid authority; then if they backed down, they would have done so based on an “authority”. Not goodness or badness. Not rightness or wrongness. Not consistent with God’s commands or inconsistent.
What a stark contrast to Matthew 8! “For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.” (Matthew 8:9 KJV) Notice what Jesus says about this in the very next verse. “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” (Matthew 8:10 KJV) Did you catch that? The man described the layers of authority. Jesus spoke of faith. The ability to recognize authority is one of the primary pillars of faith. You can’t fully accept anything without faith. This also reminds us to be humble. No matter how much authority that we feel may have been given to us, it’s trusting in his authority rather than ours that is successful. It’s also recognizing the authority with which he has things in place around us. Seek him first. There may be lessons that he has for us.
Did you ever notice that none of the people that Jesus heals or cures has the same question for him that the temple leadership did? No one is recorded as saying, you can’t heal me until you prove your authority to do so first. Yet, you can see him highlight the necessary ingredient of faith in the response that Jesus offers many.
“And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.” (Mark 5:34 KJV)