Chapter 8

When we do basic Christianity courses such as Alpha or Christianity Explained, one common theme that we need to tackle is the authority of Jesus.

If you are struggling with this concept, you could do worse than to simply read Luke 8.

But be warned – it will strain your credibility to breaking point if you read it correctly.

Jesus is asserting authority over an amazing array of things – death, nature, illness, demons. A synagogue ruler (you’ve probably never thought of that one). His MOTHER (I hadn’t though of that one either until right now!).

This is actually quite hard to accept in a lot of ways. I don’t know if you have ever considered this, but to simply assert one’s authority is not a normal thing you do.

Oh, we DEFY established authority regularly. But to simply and confidently assert your own authority over something is completely different. What Jesus does here is unusual.

To be fair to Him, He backs up His claim with evidence. To claim to have authority over death doesn’t do much unless you can demonstrate such a thing.

Jesus does.

I don’t know about you, but that would scare me. It’d rock my nice, neat and explainable world to its core.

There’s the thing, right there – how do we feel about this authoritative Jesus?

If you find it hard, spare a thought for those who are there. For us it’s just hearing stories about Jesus’ activity. For THEM, of course, it’s right there right now.

How do you react when the nice normal friend you’ve spent so much time with nonchalantly heals a serious illness? Or worse, what about if he walks up to a dead kid and commands him to get up – AND THE KID DOES!