Authority

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

AUTHORITY

Luke 20:1-8

20:1 One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 2 "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things," they said. "Who gave you this authority?" 3 He replied, "I will also ask you a question. Tell me, 4 John's baptism — was it from heaven, or from men?"  5 They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Why didn't you believe him?' 6 But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet." 7 So they answered, "We don't know where it was from." 8 Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." 

NIV

The question of the chief priests and the teachers of the law along with the elders was based on the fact that Jesus was changing the way of temple life. He had chased out the money changers and all those who sold sacrifices, and instead of a place of business, he was teaching the gospel in the outer courts. They wanted to know by what authority he made these changes in the temple. As far as they were concerned he was not a priest, in fact he was not even from the tribe of Levi. They were making the case that he did not have the same authority regarding the temple as they did. But Jesus, being divine, knew their intent as well as being far wiser than any man, turned the tables on them with a question they could not answer. This is a great illustration of the divine wisdom of God. But how do we relate to this today? What can we learn from this? Is it just learning more about the divine wisdom of God? Is there a lesson as to how we live? We need to key in on the word authority. Certainly after all the miracles, all the healings, all the teaching Jesus had done, all the people who witnessed all this and were looking to him as the Messiah, the chief priests and the teachers of the law as well as the elders had more than enough evidence to know by what authority he did these things. But they did not want to yield their authority. This is our lesson. Although we confess that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior have we yielded all the authority over our lives to him? Do we want to maintain some of the authority for ourselves? Do we still want what we want when we want it and that is the prime portion of our prayer life, asking for what we want? Jesus has come into our temple, into our being, and he is making changes. Do we ask, by what authority? Of course not, but still it seems we hang on to some portion of authority in our lives. We resist some of those changes, we want some authority, and we want to keep some of the old ways of doing business in the temple. Jesus has the divine authority to make any changes in us as he desires and we need to simple allow those changes to occur. He has all the authority in our lives, absolute authority. His authority even applies to what we do, where we live, what kind of work we do, in this world as well as in the kingdom world. If we make choices based on our desires, our wants, our goals and ambitions we have rejected his authority in our lives. We know by what authority he makes changes in us. It is by his own. We merely need to submit to his authority.