Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 28:14
I have a brother-in-law who is a racing car fanatic. As a member of the Canadian Automobile Club, he received numerous perks, including access to the pits before races. As a teen, I attended many races with him and was able to see many of my favourite drivers, such as Jackie Stewart and Emerson Fittipaldi, up close. During the 1971 season, a race was held at Mosport Raceway (in Ontario), he was asked to work security, and as his right-hand man, I was invited. Our security uniform consisted of a pair of white overalls, a white hat, and a whistle. Our role was to prevent people from jumping over the fences and attempting to sneak onto the track. I was taken to an area with a broken wall that overlooked a parking area. Within seconds of arrival, I had seen a few people trying to evade payment, so I ran towards them, blew my whistle, and shouted “STOP!”. And stop they did and returned over the wall. I stopped over 100 people from illegally entering during that shift, without incident. The irony of this scenario is that, despite being 5’6” and weighing just over 100 pounds, people respected the authority I represented. I believe that if I had the same appearance, trying to do security today, within minutes of my shift, my overalls and hat would have been thrown in a tree alongside me, with a whistle stuck in my ear.
“Authority is the freedom to decide or a right to act without hindrance. All such authority begins with God, for there is no authority except from God” (Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology). Now I’m not going to say that we’ve lost all courtesy and respect for authority, but it has gotten to be a very concerning issue. There seems to have been a slow erosion in our values. With each generation, there has been a gradual decline in teaching respect and common courtesy within the home. In the workplace, you can hear people talking about their superiors with such disdain and disrespect. When asked by their boss to do something (a duty that is actually part of their job description), they act like it is an inconvenience to be asked to do their job. Employees joke about being fired and share stories on social media of how they did something so stupid that they got canned for it, as if it’s a badge to be proud of! Taking pride in our work, going the extra mile for the customer and treating others as if they are important are lost arts in our culture.
We have become a “Me First” society – when was the last time someone opened a door and invited you to go through ahead of them? Or when was the last time someone voluntarily let you merge into their lane when in heavy traffic? When “Me First” is your mindset, then authority becomes empty. Jesus tells us that all authority in heaven and earth is His, and yet this generation seems to think otherwise. In this world, the more authority you have over others, the greater you are thought to be. But it is not to be so in the kingdom. Instead, it is those who serve who are greatest. And Jesus, the one who had all authority, demonstrated this by washing the disciples’ feet, and by dying on the cross on behalf of a lost and dying world.