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Holy Tuesday
I have a problem with authority. Rules, policies, laws, speed limits: you name it, I chafe against it. The utter indignity of going through security at the airport? The maddening frustration of filing taxes each year? While I dutifully follow all of these dictates from authority, I confess I have never liked it when somebody else, more powerful than I am, tells me what to do.
I wonder how many of you share my condition. Most people seem to. Something deep within us resists and rejects the claims of authority that come from above us. Biologists might trace that instinct to the struggle of smaller creatures to survive and thrive without being consumed by predators. Psychologists might argue that it is rooted in our fight to find out who we are and differentiate ourselves from our parents. Even in sports we see coaches and players rage — to no avail — against the dictates of referees and umpires. Where does that drive come from?
It seems to me that two apparently contradictory factors are at play. On the one hand, we are actually creatures who crave authority. We were made to honor and obey the One who formed us in His own image. We are not right, in the depths of our being, until we are in right relationship with God and acknowledge His authority in our every word and deed.
But, on the other hand, every experience of authority we find in this fallen world is corrupted by Sin. The people who exercise authority over us — whether presidents or parents, baseball umpires or bishops, judges or junior TSA officials — are all imperfect human beings themselves. Very often, and sometimes disastrously, the dictates of human authority fail to meet the standard for which our hearts long.
And even if we were to be blessed with the perfect human authority, we would still chafe against it because we, too, are corrupted by Sin. We are creatures made to live under God’s authority, and we are also creatures who have rejected and turned away from that authority. So, our “problem with authority” runs even deeper than we might first have thought.
We see this fundamental human struggle today in the Daily Office lesson from Mark’s Gospel. The chief priests, scribes, and elders of the Jewish people — themselves men of authority, very often corrupted for earthly ends — challenge Jesus’ authority to cleanse the Temple and do deeds of power. “By what authority are you doing these things?” The perfect human authority is there in their midst and they refuse to recognize Him. How very like us!
But Jesus has come to deal with our problem with authority. Not by answering their quibbles and complaints in the continuous contest for dominance, which is the sinful human exercise of authority. Rather, Jesus has come to deal with our problem with authority by setting aside His true authority and submitting to all the unjust authority that earthly and spiritual power can muster. He will be rejected by the authorities of the Jewish people and executed by the authorities of the Roman Empire. And in so doing, He will finally shatter the authority of Sin and Death over this cosmos.
This day, yield your life to the authority of the King of kings and Lord of lords. The vestiges of Sin in you will chafe against it, but the deep longing of your heart will rejoice to receive it.
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