All Authority
Matthew 28:16-20[1]
Many of us grew up in a time when authority was either
being questioned or flat out rejected. The scandals that broke open during the
1960’s and 1970’s rocked our confidence in all authority figures, from top to
bottom. The “Pentagon Papers” demonstrated that the US government had secretly
provided funding for the Vietnam war going back to the time of President
Truman. And they proved that President Johnson had lied to Congress and to the
American people about the level of US military involvement. Of course, all of
this led up to the Watergate scandal, where President Nixon conspired with
those who organized the burglary of the Democratic National headquarters.
Needless to say, in the wake of all that, people’s confidence in authority
figures—all authority figures—was shaken.
Fast forward to the present time, and the pace of change,
along with a fear of unknown “threats” in our world is driving people in this
country to seek safety at the hands of authoritarian figures. This is a global
trend, as people all over the world are putting their faith, their hopes, and
their longing for security in the hands of leaders like Vladimir Putin, Xi
Jinping, Recep Erdogan, Viktor Orban, and Narendra Modi.[1] Having lived through both eras—the time of questioning authority, and this time
of turning to human authoritarian figures for security—has been more than
ironic to me. I have to wonder at people’s ability to so quickly forget their
own recent past.
That might seem like a strange way
to introduce a sermon on Trinity Sunday. The reason is that I want to call
attention to the way that our lesson from Matthew’s Gospel concentrates God’s
authority in the person of the risen and living Jesus. When he appeared to his
disciples on a mountain in Galilee, he said to them something that would have
been startling for them. And it should still catch our attention today: “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18). We’re used
to hearing that language because it’s part of the “Great Commission.” But in
that day, “all authority” belonged to God. Any human being claiming “all
authority in heaven and on earth” would have been viewed as directly
contradicting God’s authority.
I think what made the difference is that it was the risen
and living Jesus who made this startling claim. They had seen him die, and they
had seen him alive more than once after he rose from the dead. It was the
resurrection that confirmed that it was God who had given him this authority. I
think Matthew means for us to remember the “tempter” had taken Jesus up on a
“very high mountain” and offered him “all the kingdoms of the world and their
glory” (Mt 4:8). As I mentioned earlier when we looked at that passage, I don’t
believe they were the “tempter’s” to give. But here, in response to the fact
that Jesus had “fulfilled all righteousness” as Matthew’s Gospel puts it, in
other words he had carried out God’s plan to “set right” all things and all
people by his death and resurrection, God himself had given all authority to
Jesus. And there is no contradiction whatsoever between the biblical
affirmation that all authority belongs to God, and that God has given that
authority to Jesus Christ.
One reason for that is because Jesus uses that authority to
carry out God’s purpose in the world. Of course, that goes against the norm in
our day. In our world, “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”[3] But Jesus
used the authority given to him by God not for his own ends, but to promote the
peace, justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom. And he continues to use the
authority given by God to “unite all things” (Eph 1:10, RSV), to “make
peace with all things” (Col 1:20), and to fulfill God’s work of “making all
things new” (Rev 21:5). And at the end of it all, Paul said that Jesus would
surrender all authority back to God, so that God “will be utterly supreme over
everything everywhere” (1 Cor 15:28, NLT), bringing the new life of
God’s kingdom to everyone and everything!
All of that may seem overwhelming to us “normal folks.” But
I think that Matthew wanted those who would read and hear his Gospel to come
away from the story of Jesus with complete confidence that they had entrusted
their lives into the hands of one who would not only be “God-who-is-with” them,
but also one who had God’s own authority to empower them to carry out the task
of making disciples of all nations. You may remember that in my sermon last
week I said that it is the Spirit who empowers us. But we should note something
about the way the New Testament speaks about God as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. Here, all of God’s authority is concentrated in Jesus; elsewhere we see
it concentrated in the Father, or in the Spirit. And again, the first
Christians could affirm all three without any contradiction. As John Calvin
says it, (but not quite this succinctly), Trinity is how God operates in the
world![4]
I think the point of all this was to inspire confidence in
those who would follow Jesus in a world that remains set against the peace,
justice, and freedom of God’s kingdom. And part of the assurance lies in the
promise that “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). We can
be confident because Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord is the one to whom God
has entrusted “authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the
world” (Dan 7:13, NLT) as well as over “everything in heaven and on earth,
everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and
authorities” (Col 1:16, NLT). And the promise is that “His rule is
eternal—it will never end” (Dan 7:14, NLT).
In this world where we see so many people looking to authoritarian
figures to provide them with safety, hope, and confidence about the future, I
think we would do well to remember what the Psalmist said, “Don’t put your
confidence in powerful people; … . When they breathe their last, … all their
plans die with them.” (Ps 146:3-4, NLT). Rather, we look to Jesus, to
whom God has entrusted “all authority.” We look to him for our confidence,
because the one with “all authority in heaven and on earth” will empower us to
carry out the work of God’s kingdom. We look to him for our ultimate safety,
because his rule is eternal, and his kingdom will have no end. His rule is
God’s rule, and he works to accomplish no other kingdom than God’s kingdom. In
this world full of people who would claim our hearts and minds with their empty
promises, their selfish use of power to benefit themselves, and their
inevitable personal corruption, we can look to the one who rules with true
authority, all the authority of God.
[1]
© 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/4/2023 for Hickman
Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2]
Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, “Why the World Is Attracted to Neo-Authoritarian
Leaders,” INSEAD, 26 Sep 2022; accessed at https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/why-world-attracted-neo-authoritarian-leaders
[3]
Famously penned by Lord John Dalberg-Acton, Letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April
1887), referring to the declaration by Pope Pius IX of the Roman Catholic dogma
of papal infallibility. He said, “I cannot accept your canon that we are to
judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a
favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any
presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the
power increases. … Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts
absolutely. … There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the
holder of it. That is the point at which … the end learns to justify
the means.” Cf. Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward
Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere
Laurence, Appendix, p. 504. Accessed at http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Acton.
[4]
Cf. especially John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.13.17,
where he quotes Gregory of Nazianzus (4th Century), “I cannot think
on the one without quickly being encircled by the splendor of the three; nor
can I discern the three without being straightway carried back to the one.”
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