We live in an age where obedience to authority is no longer taken for granted. This is one of the lessons which past experience has taught us, and one which is very much a live issue today. An army can hardly function without discipline. But suppose a soldier is commanded to commit a breach of the conventions of war? The choice between obeying orders and being shot for desertion is an agonizing one, and "obeying orders" is no defence to a charge of genocide or atrocity.
Authority is a word with a wide range of meanings. There is a big difference between what is "authoritative" and what is "authoritarian". The former settles a dispute, the latter must be obeyed. The Greek word used in the New Testament, exousia, has a similar span of meanings (similar to the English words "may", "make" and "might", which stem from a single root). In German, Luther chose two words, Herrschaft and Gewalt, to translate exousia.
Luther's words suggest domination and violence, and the possibility of exercising authority in an evil way is in the Devil's mind when offering Jesus authority "over all the kingdoms of the world". But for Jesus this is not what authority is about. "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, ... just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28) This is the nature of Jesus' authority, and he has it already: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18)
This aspect of authority is not authority in the sense of government. It is not authority over someone, but authority over something. The two are connected, as the centurion in Matthew 8 notes when he sees Jesus as having the same kind of authority as himself: "I say 'Go' and he goes." And for the epistle writers, all governments derive their authority from Christ (Colossians 1:16, 2:10). "The powers that be", "those authorities that exist have been instituted by God" (Romans 13:1).
Jesus' authority is the authority to cast out evil spirits (Mark 1:27), the authority to heal (Matthew 9:8), to forgive sins. It is authority "over all flesh" (John 17:2) (meaning human nature, rather than individual people), "to give eternal life to all whom you have given him." It is an authority that comes from the Father, directly from who Jesus is, to the wonder and consternation of the Jewish authorities, who see their own authority challenged. It is an authority that Jesus passes on to his apostles when he commissions them to teach and baptize in his name (Matthew 28:19), an authority "for building you up, and not for tearing you down" (2 Cor 10:8).
People who came into contact with Jesus recognized this authority. Even when Jesus apparently rejected the authority of the Bible, as in the Sermon of the Mount, "the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes."
There is a problem here. For Jesus' authority came from his ministry - who he was, a servant for all. Yet at the same time Jesus is our master - one who is over all. When he committed his authority to his apostles, they too acquired a dual role, to teach and to serve. In the past, this has created tensions between the church's magisterium, its teaching role, and its ministerium, its serving role. But only when the two are combined can Christ's work be done. For teaching comes not just by word but by example, and it is in serving that we show what God is like.
HD