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23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?" 24 Jesus said to them, "I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?" And they argued with one another, "If we say, "From heaven,' he will say to us, "Why then did you not believe him?' 26 But if we say, "Of human origin,' we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet." 27 So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And he said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 28 "What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, "Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29 He answered, "I will not'; but later he changed his mind and went. 30 The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, "I go, sir'; but he did not go. 31Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. (Matthew 21:23-32 NRSV)
Happy Monday to you, dear Friend! I pray the weekend was nice to you, and you to one another. As we spend time with God, let's take advantage of prayer time with Him. A couple of updates; Ms. Elizabeth Alegria Riley's oxygen levels have stay strong at 60% and that's a good sign, but still on the ventilator. Please pray for her to recover quickly. The Rev. Emerson Villegas was admitted and intubated at a Corpus Christi hospital; pray for his healing as well. I had a good eye surgeon whose nurse told me as she prepped me that he is a man who does not like to do surgery on my type of condition without not being the only option because the risks are very high, so after my exam, the doctor said my condition was the same as last year and that was a good thing and he would check me again in six months to be sure it didn't worsen. My cataracts will be up to my ophthalmologist to decide when those would need to be tended to, so I consider that answered prayers. Thank you all for your faithfulness to prayer. Please pray for yourselves. Pray for each other.
Authority. When I was first hired in a paying church job, I was the summer youth director for St. Matthew's UMC in Houston. And it was a great summer for me, but the crowning moment of the first days was getting handed the keys to the church's office building and to my office. St. Matthew's was a very significant church in terms of its size, location, etc for that day and time. And it was also very interesting to me that the outgoing senior minister, who hired me, was the son of the minister who baptized me when I was a baby in Kingsville. A small world indeed!
The second question regarding authority was in Preaching class, when our professor spent one class session speaking about having authority to preach. His question for that first day, "By what authority, or whose authority, does one have to preach?" That stumped the class, as did most first-day questions of any class in seminary. The answer was when people show up for church, they are giving you permission to preach to them. That made sense. Now, consider the question asked of Jesus regarding His authority. Jesus arrives in the Temple and begins to teach, The chief priests and the elders already know of His teachings and miracles and all He was doing in the region and thus they ask. Jesus replies he will ask them a question and if they can answer it, He will answer their question about authority. Jesus is never one to be out-smarted. His question immediately puts them on guard, because He asks about John the Baptist's baptisms in the Jordan River; "Did it come from Heaven or was it from human origin? They know there's no way to answer that question because either answer they gave would put them in jeopardy. Their only safe answer was, "We do not know." Jesus then can say, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." Then a story; a man had two sons; the man asks the first one to go and work in the vineyard. He answers that he won't. But changes his mind and goes and does the work. The dad goes to the second son and asks the same thing, and this one says, "I will go, sir," but doesn't. "Which of these two did the will of their father? They answer, "The first." Jesus then shocks them by saying "the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. Because John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him." Bam.
The question then comes to us; Do you give authority to God to allow Jesus to be your Lord and Savior? Will you surrender your will and personal authority to He who gave it to you? The so-called righteous of the day rejected the man who came to do the way of righteousness, and stuck to what they considered a better righteousness, and kept leading people away from God and God's Holy way. The ones who believed are precisely the ones everyone has already condemned and rejected, the tax collectors and the prostitutes. We as humans tend to grant authority only to those things that benefit us and leave the God-things far behind. If we are not careful, we can be just like the chief priests and elders of the temple. And authority given to the wrong persons leads us not to the place of righteousness, but to alienation. Today is the day to make a decision to give your authority to the Almighty, if you haven't done so already.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, as we pray today, we start by asking healing for those mentioned above, and those whom we carry in our hearts, minds, and spirits. Bless us with whatever needs we have, the burdens we carry, and the obstacles we face. We pray that we might give You authority to bless us. Receive our confessions as we pray them in silence, and grant us forgiveness; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Show someone the authority that God can have on us by living a life that glorifies Him.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
