Daily Good News – By What Authority?

Aug 16, 2015 1370

 

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me'” (Matthew 28:18).

Matthew begins his Gospel with the information that Jesus is David’s Royal Son (Matthew 1:1). The Magi call him the King of the Jews in the Nativity story. As Matthew builds his account of Jesus’ life, he focuses on the authority of Jesus; an authority which mounts as the narrative proceeds.

When Jesus was crucified, the disciples’ confidence in the authority of Jesus was murdered too. All the signs of kingship which had attended Jesus’ ministry till that day seemed to be a trick. They had entrusted themselves to One whom they believed would save Israel from its disgraceful bondage to a heathen power.

But the story of the gospel is that story that Jesus did not let them – or us – down.

To all who feel thwarted or disenchanted, burned and gutted by people or events, Jesus makes an announcement and an appeal. It is a very powerful one because it comes after he has shown himself alive to his disciples, after his death. If his statement is a lie, all is lost. Truth, justice, innocence and virtue are value-neutral. The universe respects them no more than indecency, impurity, cruelty, vice and greed.

But if Jesus is telling the truth, there is every reason, to live, to strive, to trust again, because the highest and finest values the world ever saw have been endorsed and vindicated by God Almighty. The will of evil in its collective menace and strength has been overturned. The world is indeed under the authority of One who has triumphed over death—not through deception, cunning, artifice, murder and mayhem, but with patience, truth and long-suffering love. These are what guides the world, and it will arrive at its desired haven.

(from Levi James)

 

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