There are some people we meet who have an air of authority. We can tell they deal with grave matters and have great character and weight to them. When such people speak, we listen. When they meet other powerful people with resources and make big decisions, they do it with ease and expertise. We sense their authority.
Who in your life comes to your mind as having authority, especially good authority? (You and I know that some authority is wielded by those who have power but poor motives and goals.) When you interact with a person of authority who has integrity and good motives, you sense that you are in good hands. You trust that whatever advice is given or whatever course is suggested will be the best one. It gives us confidence to be in a group or organization (or church) led by those persons whose authority is grounded in Godliness.
The centurion in our story is one of three good centurions in Luke-Acts. (The others are Cornelius in Acts 10 and the centurion at the crucifixion in Luke 23:47.) This centurion talks about authority knowledgeably because he is both a man with authority and one who is under the authority of his commanding officers. He knows what it is to give orders and have them carried out. He knows what it is to receive an order and carry it out. What he has heard about Jesus leads him to believe. He has authority and is known for being willing to use it for others. (And if you look at what the Jewish elders say about this centurion, he also uses his authority to bless others!) So the centurion asks Jesus to heal his servant, knowing that Christ has the authority to command it and that it will happen just as He orders it. This centurion trusts in Jesus’s ability, power, and authority. Jesus, who is amazed at the perceptiveness and faith of this centurion, then heals his sick servant.
What kind of authority do we value? What kind of power? Jesus’s power was used for others. He did not use His power to enrich himself or to assume political or military power. With His power and authority, He poured out healing, satisfied hunger, and opened the Scriptures to deeper understanding. He raised the dead and returned them to their loved ones. Jesus used his authority at the end of His earthly life to defeat the cycle of sin and death, of despair and meaninglessness. He bowed His head, accepting the authority of the Father, and said, “Thy will be done.” He gave Himself up to secure salvation for us. Such was His authority.
We can fill our minds and hearts with worldly authorities on everything from politics to wealth to health. We can worship fitness, allure, intellect, or beauty. We can even begin to worship these authorities, religiously tuning in to hear their teaching, following them in the way we should follow Jesus alone. Tim Keller says, “You don’t get to decide to worship. Everyone worships something. The only choice you get is what to worship.” David Foster Wallace has observed, “The compelling reason to worship a God is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive... If you worship power, you will end up weak and afraid.” The authoritative One whom we worship used power to bless, heal, feed, teach, and save others. Let us worship Him alone, and let us show Him honor by using whatever authority we have to bless others.