Authority

Boy did I have a rough night at work! We had an event going on tonight. When I arrived at work I could not find the other workers, then was confronted by one of the event organizers wondering why he could not get a hold of anybody for 15 minutes.  I explained that I had just gotten there and took care of his problem.  I found the worker assigned to the event doing work I was assigned to do with the new guy who got his times mixed up and arrived 4 hours early.  They were doing the work wrong so I mentioned that the boss had said not to do this or that.  A few minutes later, the event organizer called on the radio wondering why the trash had not been emptied, so I went to the worker who was assigned that duty and told him.  He got all in a hissy and started yelling and cussing.  I said, look, I was told by the boss that was your job, not mine or the new guys.  You need to go do your job.  He kept yelling and screaming and I kept repeating, go do your job.  "you aren't my boss!"  Well, actually, I was speaking what the boss had told me and on that authority, yes, I can tell you to go do your job.


Authority is interesting thing.  It is not really anything tangible like a rock or a table.  It is more invisible; spiritual even.  It can be given to you, earned, sometimes even bought.  People have two choices when it comes to authority.  They can either submit to it, or rebel against it.  I guess the latter is what my co worker was doing.  The authority I was wielding was no my own though.  I was only speaking what my boss told me, and it was on the bosses authority that I was able to give command.  When my coworker was rejecting authority, it was not mine he was rejecting, but my bosses.  In the end I had to go and call the boss and tell them I was rejected for exercising their authority.


In the ministry of Jesus we see this same concept played all throughout the gospels.  Jesus repeatedly told everyone that it was not He who was speaking, but that He only spoke the words His Father gave him to speak.  It was not on Jesus' authority that he did what he did, but on the fathers authority.  John 14:10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.  John 12  49For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. 50And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to me, so I speak.


Jesus' authority from the Father was questioned as well.  The old,  "you aren't my boss" thing came up when Jesus spoke the words and did the deeds his Father gave Him authority to do.  Mathew 21:23 And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?


Jesus points out that they were not really rejecting and questioning Him so much as they were the Father, Yahweh.  Luke 10:16,  The one who listens  to you  listens to Me,  and the one  who rejects you  rejects Me;  and he who rejects Me  rejects  the One  who sent Me.  John 12: 48He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.


There was one guy who understood authority though.  It was a Roman soldier.   Mathew 8 tells the story of the roman soldier with the sick boy.  Jesus says He would go and heal him, "8The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. 9For 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."   To this Christ replies, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."


 I guess that authority works under the same principle whether it is authority from God through Jesus, or if it is authority from a boss through an employee.  We can either submit or rebel, or like the Israeli's often did, submit to the task, but grumble about it, not having their heart in true submission.  I suppose I should not be surprised when people puff their chest out in pride and reject the words of the boss through me, because people also puffed out their chest in pride and rejected Gods word though his only begotten son too.  It just comes with the territory of having authority.