Defining Authority

But he answered them, "He who made me well was the one who said to me, 'Pick up your pallet and walk.'" (John 5:11)

I am starting to see another major thread throughout the book of John besides the main issue of true belief. That is the issue of true authority.

As I think back over the stories that I have already studied it becomes clear that each one has this issue somewhere in it as well as other main lessons. When Jesus cleansed the temple in chapter two the issue of authority came to the surface very intensely. When Nicodemus came to converse with Jesus at night so he would not be seen by the other authorities this concept was very present in the discussion that ensued. Then in the dialog between John the Baptist and those who were questioning him the issue of authority again came up.

It is not quite as clear in the story of the woman of Sychar until we note that instead of an issue of earthly authorities within the politics of the Jews alone, now Jesus was dealing with who is more correct in their ideas about supernatural authority. The Samaritans insisted that their version of what God wanted was at least if not more legitimate as to how to serve God than were the practices and doctrines of the Jews. We see the same intense struggle today between various denominations dueling over who has more 'truth' or who has a better version of what God intends for people to experience in His presence. But just like the Jews and Samaritans both missing the main point, we too often fail to really grasp the true nature of our problems both in knowing what real belief looks like and how real authority functions in our dealings with each other.

The Jews, like most people even today, insisted that their rules and regulations and traditions were to be viewed as having the authority of God behind them. They had many religious arguments in place to compel people to obey their authority and laid guilt trips and imposed punishments on anyone who dared to think or act differently from the mainstream conformity. Every church and culture tends to enforce uniformity in this way from a desire to compel and force those around them to come into line with the ideas of those who are stronger in various ways.

This sick man had been completely immersed in this culture and beyond that had been living among many other sick people who not only were compelled to conform to the rigid regulations of the Jewish culture but also were heavily influenced by the negative patterns of thinking often seen among those who are poor and sick. Far too often it is so easy to slip into an entitlement mentality when things are not going well for us. We feel, and are even taught that the government somehow owes us many things and we elect people into positions of power to do just that for us. In the process the government itself becomes filled with people like-minded to us who increase taxes and impose all sorts of fines, fees and other controls to extort more and more wealth away from those who work hard or own more than the average. As time goes by the incentives for honest labor are eroded away and the entitlement mentality becomes the norm as the country slips into deeper and deeper debt and social enslavement.

Even in our churches I see the same pattern of entitlement and slave mentality. We actually end up looking for people who will do our thinking for us, to study the Word of God and then regurgitate it back to us pre-digested so we don't have to do much work for ourselves. Then we think that if we just show up in church once a week we can somehow survive on the spiritual fast-food diet prepared for us by those we hired to know God for us, everything will be fine.

In turn, those who are drawn to want power and control over others gravitate toward positions of leadership and learn to manipulate religious ideas and Scripture to vindicate their methods of control and influence as they seek to extract more wealth out of their congregations for personal benefit and exercise more and more mind control over those under their influence. All of this is assumed to be the norm for religion as we slide deeper into co-dependency and we rely on others to teach us and even have a relationship with God vicariously on our behalf.

As soon as a person begins to encounter the real Jesus for themselves things suddenly seem to go wrong. Everything goes well as long as the sick remain sick and dependent on others and retain a certain amount of hopelessness. But when a person begins to see that a direct connection with God is available to every single person and that God desires to invade human institutions and reorder our priorities and challenge our power structures, then there is always going to be conflict and suspicion and accusations as a result.

The Jewish leaders insisted that their idea of Sabbath observance was fully backed by God's authority. Thus they reasoned that they were something like God's policemen who's duty it was to make sure everyone stayed in line so that God's curses would not fall on them. So when they spotted a man violating their rigid rules about Sabbath they immediately confronted him over the issue of authority. Never mind the fact that this man had just been healed of 38 years of debilitating sickness. Their rules were far more important than the well-being of a fellow human.

"It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet." (v. 10)

What starts to become clear here is the mingling of human kinds of authority with the way God intends for us to relate to Him. When a person really begins to understand the true meaning and purpose of the Sabbath that God made as opposed to man-invented ideas about Sabbath, they start to perceive the enormous difference between the crazy notions and legalistic ideas imposed by those desiring to control others in the name of religion and the true Sabbath rest designed by a God who is intently desirous of spending intimate time on a specific day each week cultivating a closer, life-changing relationship with His bride.

Many people get very worked up about the external things that should be allowed or forbidden during the Sabbath hours. Other people get very intense about demanding that people know which day is the true Sabbath but completely miss the main purpose of the Sabbath in their desire to control and force others to conform to what they know to be true facts about that day. Still others mistakenly feel that it makes little difference which day is the Sabbath as long as we put in our time going through some form of religious activities to keep God happy.

But when a person truly encounters Jesus for themselves and experiences His healing power in their lives, then their concept of the real meaning of the Sabbath is soon going to change from the assumptions of those around them. That is because they quickly realize that one of the underlying issues involved is this issue of who and what constitutes true authority and how is real authority actually carried out. For not only is there a counterfeit Sabbath that is widely accepted in this world, but also there is a counterfeit idea of what authority looks like and how to live properly in relationship with authority.

This man had suddenly moved under the authority of the very Author of the Sabbath day without even realizing it. As a result he was obeying the instructions of the God who had created the Sabbath as a celebration of life and love and restoration to wholeness. This clashed severely with the concepts of both authority and Sabbath observance by those who had very different ideas about what is truth and the stage was set for a showdown over who and what defines real authority.