Sunday, February 2, 2025, Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
“Love and Authority”
Jeremiah 1:11-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31b–13:13; Luke 4:31-37
Divine Service III with Holy Communion
Hymns” #412 “The People That in Darkness Sat”; #525 “Crown Him With Many Crowns”; #528 “Oh, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus. Amen.
Among the hundreds of psychological disorders and conditions listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s big book of such things, is a condition called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or ODD. That is described as a condition where children (or even adults) display a pattern of angry, defiant, and uncooperative behavior towards authority figures. (They used to just call that “being a brat,” and we had a remedy for it!)
Do you know anyone who has a problem with authority? Authority, by definition, is the right of one person or group to rule over another. Authority, folks, can be good or bad, depending on whether one’s authority is used for good or for ill. Maybe the reason people have such a problem with authority is because it’s been so often abused in this world. Most likely the problem is just sin – both those in authority using it to abuse those under them, and those under authority rebelling or rejecting those in authority over them. Maybe that word ‘authority’ has lost or changed its meaning and somehow become misunderstood. Maybe that’s why so many hackles are raised at the mention of the word.
My question today is, “What is authority?” Where does authority come from? Who has a right to it? Who has a right to tell all of us what to do? Where does the buck stop? The answer, of course, is that genuine authority truly does come from the top down – all the way up from God in Heaven, all the way down to us here on earth. God is the ultimate source of authority, owing to the fact that’s He’s the Creator of all things. He rules all things, and all things are His – including us. He has a divine right to rule over us. His authority is holy and divine authority, whether His subjects will acknowledge the fact or not.
Now, in order that there be order in this world, God gives or delegates authority in this place to those whom He chooses to give it. God in His wisdom grants authority to governments, to supervisors and bosses and overseers, and to pastors and teachers and parents. Luther in his Catechism goes so far as to apply the commandment to “honor your father and mother” to anyone who may be in authority over us. St. Paul tells us to obey whatever government is in power, even if it happens to be rotten at any given time. (Paul wrote those words when the really awful Claudius Nero was emperor of Rome). We’re bound as Christians to be obedient to authority, because we know that whoever has power and authority has been given it by God, for whatever reason God sees fit.
Now, here’s the rub: If God has seen fit to put you in a position of authority, as a king or a governor, or a boss or a parent, you have a responsibility to exercise your authority in a way that pleases the God who gave it to you. No matter how high a position you may have, you have an ultimate Higher Power over you to whom you’ll have to answer. That means if you have authority, you have an obligation to govern by God’s Word, and to exercise your God-given authority in a just and fair and loving way, without abusing or misusing or otherwise taking advantage of the people in your care. (And God will know if you do!) That’s a good thing to remember if you have little eyes looking up at you. The flipside of the coin is that if you’re the one under authority, you’re also obligated be obedient to those God has placed over you – as if they were Him!
In an ideal world, those in authority would be so loving and trustworthy and kind, that we’d all be glad and happy and unafraid to obey them. Then we’d have a peaceful country, and happy families, and our work together would be a joy. (How big a difference does a good boss make in a workplace?) St. Paul writes in Ephesians 3 that “honor your father and mother” is the first commandment with a promise: “That it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
Love and authority were meant to work together. Authority without love isn’t good; that leads to tyranny. But neither is love without authority; that would be anarchy. In a world that seems to be afflicted with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, everywhere you look, Jesus Himself shows us how love and authority are such a blessing when they work together as they should.
In our Gospel in Luke, Jesus “went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people.” What gave Him the right? The Pharisees would later ask Him, “By what authority are You doing these things?” Capernaum was His adopted hometown, the place where He’d chosen to live. And He walked into their synagogue, pretty as you please, and sat down to teach, just like He belonged there. That was either audacious as audacious could be, or something else was going on. Some in His hometown said, “Who does this guy think He is? We know His mother Mary, and His brothers, and His sisters.” And they were offended at Him, for claiming authority that way. The scribes and Pharisees and authority figures in Israel were offended by Him, too. He wasn’t one of them. He hadn’t been to school to be a Rabbi, He wasn’t a certified and approved teacher, He had no credentials.
Yet Jesus claimed all along that His authority came from the Father Himself, and that the Father had given Him authority to say what He said. (In the end, that claim is why the Jews accused Him of blasphemy and had Him crucified). “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me,” He said. Jesus claimed to be, and truly was and is, “The Word Incarnate,” God in the flesh, the Son of God come down from Heaven above. He was and is the Power above all other powers, the Name above all names, “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God” – both the God of love, and the source of all authority and judgment and truth. But sitting there in the synagogue, He looked to them like an ordinary man. So prove it, Jesus. Give us a reason we should listen to You.
Now His teaching was amazing, our Gospel says, “because His message had authority.” I suspect Jesus’ teaching wasn’t what they were used to hearing. Their usual teachers had laws for them to keep and rules for them to follow, along with a long list of penalties for those who failed to keep them. Jesus taught them about God’s Law, too- but also about how the Law was tempered with love and mercy and grace. He taught the people what they needed to know, and told them what they needed to hear, both Law and Gospel - not because He wanted to rule them or manipulate them or control them, but because He really did love them. Authority with the love of God behind it is a powerful, wonderful thing.
Now gracious words are good, especially if they’re the words of God Himself; but in the end, words are just words. Jesus goes on to show in our Gospel that His authority goes way beyond talking, to actually doing something. Not only does His Word have the power to change hearts and minds, it extends to changing the very shape of the physical world. He’s not just a God of words, but a God who can touch these bodies of ours and heal them. It’s more than God just speaking from heaven, or speaking to us through His Word (which would be marvelous enough), but God reaching out to touch us in our sorrow and our pain and changing our hopelessness into grace.
“In the synagogue,” says our Gospel, “there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit.” No one can say what kind of demon it was, whether it was a mental condition, or a neurological disorder, or just the devil himself come to torture the poor man – but exactly what it was doesn’t really matter. Jesus has authority over all evil and hurtful and troublesome things, whatever their cause or source may be. The man cries out in a loud voice (or maybe it’s the demon inside him crying out), "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God!" The demon, whoever or whatever it is, is mocking Jesus, defying His authority, saying, “Here I am, Jesus; I dare You to try and do something about it!” The demon knows exactly who Jesus is: He’s the Holy One of God, the Holy Lord God of Sabaoth, the Sovereign King and Master and Creator of the Universe – and yet the demon chooses to defy Him. (Clearly a case of Oppositional Defiant Disorder on the part of the demon!)
We might have been expecting an almighty tussle or fight, some kind of spectacular exorcism with shouting and fire and sparks flying, like happens in the movies; but it didn’t happen that way at all. Authority can be quiet; it doesn’t have to make a lot of noise. Jesus said to the demon, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” And that was the end of the fight. The demon let go of his hold on the man, dropped him, and let him fall to the floor. And the man was unhurt, and nothing like that was ever going to hurt him again. Jesus healed that man because He loved him, and the proof of what His love could do was standing right there for everyone to see. The people who’d been amazed by His teaching were now a thousand times more amazed. What is this teaching? What’s going on here? This isn’t just words, but a Word that has the power to drive away every evil thing!
So why should we listen to Jesus? Why should we listen to the voice of His Spirit? Why should we open His Word and not just read it, but obey it and do what it says? And why should we spread the news about Him everywhere? Because He loves us – He really does love us. And because His Word is truth, and His power is real, and everything He does for us if for our good.
Jesus, having all the authority in the world, and all the power in the universe, loved us so much that He laid down His life for us on a cross. He didn’t come to rule us, but to save us. We love and follow and listen to Jesus, because He alone has authority over sin and hell and death itself. He alone has the authority to unlock the keys of life and death, and to bring us up from our graves. He alone has the love and authority, the grace and the will, to put His own self in the bread and the wine of our Communion for the forgiveness of our sins. He laid down His life for us because He loves us; and we’re obedient to Him and live our lives for Him because we know He loves us, and because we know we can trust Him (which is a good a definition of faith as I can think of). “Lord, where else shall we go?” Peter said. “You alone have the words of eternal life.”
Lord Jesus, we bow down to You, we bend our knees to You, we give our hearts and our very lives to You, for You alone have the power to save us. Help us, O Lord, to walk in love and to walk in obedience to Your commands, that we may, as St. Paul says, “live peaceful and quiet lives” until You come for us at last. In Jesus’ name; Amen.