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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text is from the Gospel reading. You may be seated. So I have a question for you. Do you recall the Great Declaration of Independence that was spoken long before 1776? Now this Great Declaration of Independence has been spoken, not just by famous people, but also by not so famous people, by adults and by children, but probably more so by children. You’ve heard this Declaration of Independence said when you’re not the boss over me, or you’re not my boss, especially a younger brother and sister to an older brother and sister. Or even if you were an only child, it still was acted out in actions and thoughts, even if you may not have said those words to your parents.
We heard from the Scriptures about the fourth commandment, which is honoring those who have been placed over us in, oh, it’s a despicable word for most of us, authority. In fact, it was John Cougar Mellencamp who wrote that song, “I thought authority and authority always wins.” Yeah. God’s authority does always win. Unfortunately, we fight authority; not just against God, but primarily against those people placed over us. We fought it with our parents. We fought it with our teachers. We fought it with our bosses. We fought it with our supervisors. We fought it with our spouses. We fought it with our fathers.
Now, it’s interesting in this text because the authority of Jesus is very clearly made known. How? Well, my goodness, he had authority over the demons. But in that text, if you look at it, nobody in that text believes in Jesus’ authority. Only the demons actually even recognize Jesus’ authority. Because all of these people who are so entranced by Jesus’ words and even say, “Wow, he speaks as one who has authority; he doesn’t speak like our scribes,” these people may be praising Jesus up one side and down the other, but not all of them; in fact, most of them do not believe in Jesus’ authority over their life.
Because the same people who are enthralled with His preaching and teaching are also the same ones who shout “Hosanna to the Son of David” when He marches in on that donkey. And yet within just a matter of days, they also are spun up by the Jews and the Sanhedrin to shout out “Crucify, crucify.” So simply becoming infatuated with the teachings of Jesus doesn’t make one who trusts in the authority of Jesus in their life.
The demons recognize Jesus for what he is, and they are the only ones in this text that actually declare who Jesus is. They declare him to be the Holy One of God. The people don’t declare it. Jesus doesn’t declare it. Only the demons do. The problem is, the demons only see Jesus through one set of lenses, which is what most unbelievers see Jesus as: one who comes to punish, one who comes to condemn, one who comes to reveal our hypocrisies, one who comes to enlighten all of ourselves and others about our hidden sins.
In fact, isn’t it an interesting statement that the demons shout out? “What have you to do with us?” Because they don’t want anything to do with Jesus, do they? But not you. You, as a believer, do want to have something to do with Jesus. But the problem with us as believers is that we aren’t always ready for His authority to be in our life over all things. But Jesus, from the very beginning, has exhorted us to submit to His authority.
Do you remember the words that He spoke? You heard them last Sunday right up here in the front of the church: “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Now, though I use the example of a child or children to be the great declarers of independence from siblings and from parents, you do know that beautiful special time with your children when they did trust you, and they did submit to you, and they knew you to be wiser, and they knew you to be more powerful, and they knew you to be the giver of all good gifts.
It’s just as time goes on, they begin, they want to think that they can stretch their own wings, which is the same thing that we do with our Lord Jesus, thinking that we know more than He. But God has always invited us to be under His authority. From the very beginning, His authority came into our lives as our God in our baptism. He made us His child. He made us to call upon Him as our God and Father. That’s authority. And for the most part, we like that authority in our lives.
It’s just when we get a little confused about what authority really is, we think of authority as something that usually contains us, binds us, oppresses us, controls us. That’s looking at authority, and that’s not Jesus’ authority. The law came through whom? Moses. Grace and truth came through whom? Jesus Christ. The authority of which Christ speaks, His authority in your life is by grace. And he will never force his authority by grace in your life, but he will humble you, stretch you, turn you upside down and inside out so that you see your great need for his authority in your life. His authority of grace, not of law.
The demons in this morning’s text understood Jesus’ authority according clearly to the law. They only expected from Jesus punishment, condemnation. Is that what you expect from your Lord? Or do you truly expect from Him exactly what He has promised to bring in His authority of grace, which is forgiveness? You see, the authority of Jesus in your life is at the heart of your discipleship with Jesus.
Because to be a disciple means you follow someone, and their authority over you is willingly and joyfully submitted to. And it is authority that does not contain, corral, control, or cudgel. It is an authority that serves you, His authority of grace. It is an authority that heals your brokenness and binds you up. It is an authority that restores you. It is an authority that forgives you and reinstates you. It’s an authority that makes you whole. That’s the authority of Jesus Christ in your life.
You remember what Jesus says: “Whoever wants to be the greatest among you must be the servant of all.” To serve is a symbol of authority—Jesus’ authority. So let’s translate that into the commandments we read. If Jesus has authority in your life to serve you with forgiveness, if Jesus has authority in your life to make you whole and bind up your wounds, if Jesus has authority in your life to make you whole and reinstate you, then he’s given you authority in other people’s lives not to control them, nor to corral them, nor to cajole them, but to serve them with forgiveness.
You know that passage in Ephesians where it says women must, or wives must, submit to their husbands? That sticks in the craw of a lot of women—and rightly so—because a lot of men misuse the authority given to them. But if we look at the authority given to us as husbands as the same kind of authority of which I am speaking that Jesus has in your life, who would not want to be ministered unto? Who would not want to be forgiven? Who would not want to be made whole? Who would not want to be reinstated? Only someone who doesn’t believe that that’s what they’re bringing.
All who receive Jesus’ authority, a grace in your life, receives the gifts that Jesus earned because He was totally submissive to the Father’s authority over His life for you. He obeyed all of those commandments for you. He died for you, that then He may have authority to forgive you, serve you, minister unto you, and make you whole.
So the Old Testament reading was about the prophet that comes from one among you that you must listen to. That’s obviously talking about Jesus. In the second reading, it seemed kind of confusing about not hurting your brother. Boiling it all down, it says to love your brother whom you have authority over. Serve them with your authority. Don’t control them. Don’t cajole them. Don’t corral them. Don’t turn it into law. Turn it into gospel. Serve them. Minister unto them.
We can’t turn Jesus into a lawgiver. He comes with authority to bring forgiveness. That has authority in your life. It is not a law. We submit to Jesus’ authority in our life because without it, we are empty. Empty vessels. Nothing to offer anyone. But submitting to the authority of His forgiveness, the authority of His ministering to us, the authority of His making us whole, the authority of Him reinstating us, the authority of His grace in our lives, we can love our wife and love our husband and serve them. We can have authority and not control them, but minister to them in the name of Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
