April 4, 2007

Holy Week 2007

By What Authority?

Mark 11:27-33

Mark 11:27-33 ²⁷They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. ²⁸"By what authority are you doing these things?" they asked. "And who gave you authority to do this?"

    ²⁹Jesus replied, "I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰John's baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!"

    ³¹They discussed it among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' ³²But if we say, 'From men'...." (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

    ³³So they answered Jesus, "We don't know."
      Jesus said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things."

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.

"Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"
"Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."
"But I'm starved," the governor said.
"Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer."
Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.
"Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."
"Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."

Who are the authority figures in your life? When you were young the authority figure in your life was your parents. When you entered school the author figure in your life was your teacher or your school principle. When you got older and got a job you discovered the authority figure in your life was your employer. Gentlemen, when you fell in love you discovered one shocking day that your authority figure in your life was the little woman. On April 15 we are reminded annually that is authority figure in your life is the Internal Revenue Service. Who views you as an authority figure in their life? Perhaps this is the best question on this Holy Wednesday. How much authority do you give Jesus in your day to day living?

The question of authority runs through all the scripture readings you heard this evening. However, in Mark 11:27-33 the question of authority is stated orally. In the text Jesus is walking in the temple courts when the chief priest, elders and teachers of the law confront him with the question, “By what authority do you do these things?” That is verse 28. They are not speaking of the activities of the past three years. They are speaking of his activities of the past few days. In particular, they are speaking of Jesus’ actions in the temple. If you want to get people’s attention then talk about money. If you want to get people mad then touch their money. They wanted to know by what authority he turned the tables over and scattered the funds. They were looking for documental. They were looking for certification but Jesus had none! Through the eyes of the world he was a no body. The only authority he had came from his popularity. His only authority came from the people of his generation who believed in him. The only authority Jesus has today is from us, people who still believe in him. So on this Holy Wednesday let me ask you the most important question you will ever be asked. Who is Jesus to you?

Who is Jesus to you?

Don’t be too hasty in answering that question. Did you know that it took the institutional church five hundred years to answer that question? It wasn’t under the Council of Nicene and the Council of Calcidon that the church announced to the world the Jesus was both fully God and fully human. In other words, Jesus was God! Yet, Jesus was also human. Jesus cried. Jesus wept. Jesus laughed. Jesus knew hunger and thirst. Jesus was fully human yet Jesus was also fully God. That is how the institutional church answers the question. How do you answer the question of the ages? Who is Jesus to you?

On Sunday evening we hosted the final Lenten service of the year. In the middle of that service I asked people to share their testimony. How did people come to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Former pastor of the Canfield United Methodist Church George Lee told about be a boy. An Army Chaplin was the first person to tell George about the grace of Jesus Christ. From that discussion two things happened. First, George accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Second, that Army Chaplin was a Methodist so George decided to become a Methodist. If you were here you could see the emotions swell up inside George. Later, when everyone else was enjoying cookies George and I sat in the sanctuary and talked. It was in that discussion that he remembered it had been exactly fifty years sense his conversion. As a matter of fact, it was on Palm Sunday 1957 that George was baptized. In those cold waters George confessed to the world that he had given total authority in his life to Jesus.

Your testimony may not include an Army Chaplin or being baptized in Palm Sunday but your testimony is important. Your testimony tells the world that you have surrendered authority for your life to Jesus. The world looks at Jesus and looks for documental and certification. Jesus doesn’t have those things. The only thing that Jesus has is the authority we give him. There are two billion Christians in the world today. Each one has surrendered authority for their lives to Jesus. We know Jesus is more then historical figure. We know that Jesus is more then a wise teacher. We know that Jesus is more then a good moral man. We know that that Jesus is God incarnate. We know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our only hope of salvation. Augustine once said, “Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.” And all of God’s people said, “Amen!”