The Power of the Word of Authority

So, I have been puzzling over this passage for nearly 12 years.The story is found in two places, in Matthew 8:5-10 and Luke 7:1-10. It is the story of a centurion, a Roman military commander of 100 soldiers, who comes to Jesus concerned about his servant who is lying at home paralyzed and deeply tormented. Jesus says to the man, "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said, "Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, "Go!" and he goes, and to another, "Come!" and he comes, and to my slave, "Do this!" and he does it." And Jesus marvels at this, and he responds to the centurion -- and this is what I have not understood -- "Truly I say to you, I have never found such great faith, no, not even in Israel."

And so what is it about this story that demonstrates great faith? What is the connection between an understanding of authority and great faith? I have puzzled over it and wondered. I had noticed the sense of unworthiness, and for a while I thought that this was the key to the great faith, that one needs to realize that thy are unworthy of Jesus' compassion and sympathy, that they must come to the understanding that one must recognize their unworthiness before they can truly receive anything from Jesus. But that did not explain this authority issue. What was the connection between the command of the centurion, and his understanding of authority? And what did the centurion mean when he said that he was a man under authority? And, once again, what does authority have to do with faith?

Well, the other day, I think I figured it out. It is understanding the power and authority of the spoken word. Great faith is found in understanding the nature of authority, that it is carried in the word of the one in authority, which in this case was Jesus, and that which is under his authority is everything in the entire, created universe. I had heard this stated in euphemisms such as , "his word goes," "we will have to see whose word will carry the day," and "he is the one who has the final say in the matter." But it has never connected with me -- and now I say to myself, "No, duh!" -- that the power of authority is in the spoken word, in the command. That is all that matters, that is all that needs to be said.

I immediately got to thinking that this is how God -- and Jesus -- exercised their authority. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He spoke and it was done. Jesus calmed the storm by His word, He healed the sick by His word, He raised the dead by His word, He cast out demons by His word. That is all that was needed. He spoke and it was done. And that is what demonstrated great faith in the centurion, he understood this, and he knew where he fell in the authority struggle. He was a man under authority, carrying it, and administering it by the power of his word; but his authority was limited, and so he went to the One who had the authority over his situation and problem.

We have raised six children, and how I wish now that I had understood this 20 some years ago. There is no need to reason with children. There is no reason to negotiate. There is no reason to listen to backtalk, to rationalization, to justification of disobedience, to this, that or the other. All that is needed is the power of the word of authority. Usually, after all the struggle, after all the argument, after all the backtalk, after all the defiance, we finally realized this in some fashion, for we would finally end the discussion by saying something like, "I have spoken; now do it." And lo and behold, most often it was done. Not necessarily happily so; but then again, the demons did not go willingly, neither, can we presume, did the sickness and disease. But it had to go, for it was under authority, under the command, and Jesus was (and is) the Sovereign and Supreme Commander of the universe. All things are under His authority, as He is the source of all authority; it all starts with Him -- or with the Father, actually, as even Jesus was a Man under authority. Jesus understand this perfectly, when He states that He did not come to do His own will but the will of the Father.

My wife and I were talking as we went to bed last night about what our home would be like if we could start over, knowing what we know now. We agreed that if we had understood this early on, and put it into practice early on, that there would have been significantly less conflict. There would have been less rebellion. There would have been little, if any, defiance, at least in those early years. But we did not understand; or rather, I did not understand (my wife did much better at this than I did). I simply, when I was parenting, did not think this was fair. Cutting the children off in this way, without listening to them, and to their struggles, seemed to be out of line, to be disrespectful to the child. We had come under the teaching that you have to explain things to children, to help them to understand your adult perspective -- but I see now that they cannot do that, they do not, and cannot understand adult perspective. But they recognize the command, and they recognize they are under authority, and they will obey, and they did, when it finally came down to the "I have spoken."

I recognize now that the reason why I felt that this kind of parenting was wrong was that inwardly I was (and am) a rebel. I have millions of reasons within myself to justify and to explain why it is that I just don't have to obey. But it is interesting, rebellion also manifests itself in words, in defiance, in refusal to listen, in refusal to hear and obey. I had to call my parents the other week and apologize to them for 47 years of rebellion. Never had I really listened, never had I ever submitted, never had I truly learned to obey. And now that this outright rebellion is gone, I do not feel like I have to compromise anymore; I can stand my ground, as I have legitimate and God-given authority in my own home.

And it is amazing. Since it set forth this principle, I can sense a new-found peace. There is peace in understanding authority, and the boundaries, and how things are to be, and in being submissive to that, and not resistant. This is what I found in my workplace as well, to which I have spoken above; when I stopped rebelling, my soul was at peace. I am going to try to live the rest of my life this way; and I trust that I will be able to do so, by God's grace, apart from the rebellion.