Power

With authority (1:27) 

'Someone needs to come in and strip out the excess' my friend said. He had asked me where a vicar came in the hierarchy of the church, and, when my answer failed to satisfy him, decided to look it up. Unsurprisingly this left him even more confused. 'It's a right old mess!' he opined, 'but that's what happens in all old organisations.' It seems that management like to have someone to manage so 'of the creation of new levels of management there is no end', as someone might put it.

Jesus' authority is not this kind of structural authority. He didn't order his disciples about to show off his importance. Nor, more surprisingly, did he demonstrate his great wisdom and understanding, or at least not here. Here his authority is raw power. He defeats his enemies, driving out unclean spirits with a word, healing the sick with a touch. I wonder what the equivalent is today? In parts of Kenya you become a bishop when you have planted at least 30 churches. Now that would be an interesting test of religious authority. It's certainly one way to show that God is with you.