How to Think about Kingdom Authority

This is a continuation of my thoughts on Mark 1:21-3:19. How should we think about authority in the kingdom of God? First, we should understand that the word that we translate as “authority” from Mark’s account is akin to power. Here’s a snippet of from a Greek study:

(From: http://greattreasures.org/gnt/main.do)

It’s important to recognize that the authority that Mark is talking about is akin to the idea of “power.”

Second, I think it’s critical to point out that Jesus was, in all of this display of authority and power, operating as a human being. He was operating as the kind of human being that could be mimicked. I opine that Christians too often look about the amazing things that Jesus was doing and say, “Oh, well, I guess that was an instance of him working through his own divine power.” Just because you have failed to wield authority and power on this level does not mean that it is inhuman to do so.

The story of human authority and power suggests that a truly human human would be wielding said authority and power as the norm. So, yes, I’m saying that “you are probably not normal.” Jesus is the normal human, or, we might say, the epitome of a truly human human. He was a human that obeyed God’s original commandment without the sin that devastated Adam and Eve's normal human potential, that devastated their opportunity to live the truly human life. The command that I’m thinking of follows:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28 ESV)

Jesus was doing this kind of stuff when displacing evil and dominating natural events. He wasn’t necessarily doing Jesusy stuff, he was doing truly human stuff.

Understand that authority wielded by a truly human human is not his own. We see that in the example; Jesus did not wield authority and power as it were his own--though he could have. He wielded it like humans are supposed to wield it. Consider these three passages and contemplate how he wielded authority and power:

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” (John 8:28-29 ESV)

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. (John 5:19 ESV)

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. (John 5:30 ESV)

Now contemplate how you should wield authority and power for the sake of the kingdom present and coming.

Humans were created to wield authority and power in the world. They were to do it in conversation with God, not as their own. Adam and Eve’s decision at the tree of knowledge was to choose for themselves what was right and wrong without the conversation with God. God limited human potential after that with a curse on the earth (Gen 3) so that the earth was subject to futility (Rom 8) rather than subject to man.  

Authority and power should not be feared. It should be sought after in the context of a relationship with God. The true purpose of authority and power is to make sense of our lives in the world we live in. Evil, sickness, hunger, oppression, broken relationships, and exploitation are types of senselessness that kingdom authority and power resolves.

Andy Crouch’s comments about power (in Playing God: Redeeming the gift of power. InterVarsity Press, 2013.) resonate with this passage in Mark:

“Power is the ability to make something of the world.” and “power is simply (and not so simply) the ability to participate in the stuff-making, sense-making process that is the most distinctive thing that human beings do.”

We should not be content without the authority and power it takes to turn senselessness into sense. This is a kingdom of God function. This is something that truly human humans do. Jesus restores our power to subdue and take dominion in the context of right relationship . . . to be truly human.