Sermon for September 28th

“When Jesus entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” It is an important question I think. “By what authority?” The chief priests and the elders want to be sure that they are listening to someone worthwhile? Jesus was teaching from the Torah, but why should he be believed over and against a someone else? Over and against a religious authority? What gave Jesus the right to forgive sins when sins could be forgiven by God alone? By what authority was he doing all this?

It is an important question, “By what authority? By what authority do you do these things?” but it becomes very clear in the story that those asking this question have already made their decision. The chief priests and elders believe that they are the religious authorities and have already passed judgment on Jesus.
Jesus responds to his inquisitors by referring to John the Baptist. Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, if you remember when we read about this a few months ago, the chief priests and Elders didn’t listen to John, they didn’t like him or what he had to say. In contrast to this, Jesus proclaimed that John was a messenger sent from God, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Jesus asks, “Did the baptism of John come from heaven or was it of human origin?” If the chief priests and the Elders said that John the Baptist had divine authority then their own human religious authority would be undermined. But if they said that John was speaking only on his own they might get in trouble with their constituents—the common religious folk so to speak. So what did they do? They found a third answer. “I don’t know.” “We don’t know.”

Granted, there are many times when you or I don’t know things. We really, honestly, just don’t know. Perhaps, we haven’t had the time or done enough research to make an informed and responsible decision about an issue. However, there are other times when “I don’t know” is an answer in itself. In today’s lesson, we are witnessing an example of one of these “other times.” When saying “I don’t know” means “I know only too well.” When there are only two roads to go on, right or left, we sometimes believe that walking in between will keep us out of trouble, leave our options open, be a good compromise. But the truth is that saying “I don’t know”, often leads you down a path all its own.

Jesus says this, “Those who are ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” On the last day, when you stand before Jesus, you must make a confession. You must make a confession of faith or of unbelief. Every time you hear God’s Word in life you end up making a confession. You agree with it, disagree or say “I don’t know if it’s true.” Saying “I don’t know” might be an honest answer, but it is still an answer all the same.

Jesus sees that the Elders and the chief priests don’t need more education and they don’t need to see more signs and wonders—they simply need faith. This is not a matter of ignorance but of unbelief. Some people are ashamed of Jesus because they don’t want anything to do with him, others are ashamed of him because they just aren’t sure what to do with him, but, either way, there is a trust problem at the heart of the issue.

“By what authority” do you live your life? The Lutheran church has always said that the authority for your life and faith is scripture alone; the words of law and the words of gospel from the Bible. Unfortunately, no matter what church or denomination you belong to, if any, you and I have the same problem with scriptural authority . . . we don’t like it. We don’t want it. We are all, finally, anti-authoritarian when it comes to God and his words.

It is the original sin for goodness sake. God says, “Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Seems pretty straightforward, right? Pretty authoritative? And yet, it only takes one little question, “Did God say? Did God really say that you would die?” Once there was a choice between God’s words and other words, humanity has had a problem figuring out who we should listen to. We like to trust other words.

The chief priests and the Elders weren’t sure what to do with Jesus and the things that he did and said. Now that those things that Jesus did and said are written in the Bible, we still aren’t sure what to think. Is it simply a historical document? Should you accept everything you read from the Bible literally? Should you take everything you read in it with a grain of salt? Is the Bible a book of morals? Is it a book of salvation? Many people and churches have tried to discover the answer to these questions, but when pressed, most everybody just says, “I don’t know” and moves on. Yet, in the midst of all this, we are still living and making choices according to some authority aren’t we. Just saying, “I don’t know” doesn’t get any of us off the hook. Saying “I don’t know” means that we have a trust problem. We need to be given faith.

We are not so very different from the chief priests and the Elders. They were unsure what authority Jesus had and we are also unsure of what authority Jesus has today. So, what are you to do when you can’t be sure of the authority in your life? What if you just don’t know? You might read books about the Bible and determine whether it is authoritative yourself? You could read Lee Strobel’s book, “The Case For Christ” and make your final verdict. You could study other religions and see if you feel more at home following some other way. But even doing this, we find ourselves acting just like the chief priests and the Elders; we set ourselves up as the authorities. We think that we get to decide whether Jesus has any authority and if his words are up to snuff.

At the last national convention, the ELCA commissioned a study on the authority of scripture. It is called the “Book of Faith” initiative. The question on many people’s minds and at the heart of the church is, “By what authority should we do what we do?” “By what authority do we say what we say?” But I think that it is important to consider one perhaps overlooked facet of this discussion.

The chief priests and the Elders don’t believe that Jesus has authority. That is pretty obvious I think. They certainly don’t believe that he is working and speaking by God’s authority. In the Jewish tradition, you needed to be ordained by a rabbi in order to authoritatively interpret the Torah and Jesus was not. When the chief priests and Elders ask Jesus, “By what authority are you doing these things?” they are pointing out that they do not authorize what he is doing. They are the religious authorities and they do not authorize what he is saying. The question is this: does God’s Word, does Jesus Christ, does the Bible need to be authorized by another authority? Does it need to be authorized by us in order to be authoritative? Does it need to be authorized by religious leaders or is scripture its own authority?

An old professor of mine at Luther Seminary wrote this, “Church studies . . . on the authority of Scripture . . . are as close to an admission of emptiness as one can get. It is like the emperor who had no clothes commissioning a special royal panel to investigate whether clothes in fact exist at all. If one could successfully doubt the existence of clothes, then perhaps being a naked emperor would not be such an embarrassment—it would simply be a sign of the times. Being naked, then, might make me cold in inclement weather, but at least I would be ‘relevant’ and fit with my time and context, would I not? When Scripture’s authority needs to be authorized by the church, then all is lost, since church is the child of the Word, not its mother.” The church is wherever believers are gathered around Word and Sacrament. God’s Word does not need our stamp of approval. We are the ones who need and yearn and wait for the good news, for God’s approval, “I love you. You are mine.”

God creates faith through the Holy Spirit where and when he pleases. That is what makes God an authority, not our opinions or decisions or verdicts or votes. When the words of scripture create faith in your heart, when it is the author of your love for God, that is when scripture becomes your authority, your author. God’s Word is powerful. It is living and active. It makes itself an authority over you and doesn’t need you to slap a label on it for it to be effective.

In scripture, Jesus promises to listen to your prayers, to carry your diseases, to cast out your demons, to forgive your sins, to give you faith and to raise you from the dead. By what authority does he do these things? By the authority of one who does what he says and keeps his promises. For those of you who believe you are strong, healthy and in charge, this will sound scary, like something is being taken from you or forced upon you. But for those of you who are weak, sick, sinners—the lepers, the tax collectors, the prostitutes that Jesus talks about today—having God as your authority is a very blessed thing for he chooses to give you the kingdom of God.