True Greatness
What do people think of normally when they hear the word authority? In a fallen and broken world authority structures have often been misused- parents and children, teachers and students, bosses and employees, tyrants and the enslaved. The word authority conjures up images of brute force, power, despots, and greed. Despite the fact that authority is often viewed in a negative light in our current world, contrary to what most think, authority and power structures do exist in God’s Kingdom. Jesus speaks of John the Baptist as the greatest person born of a woman. Moreover when the disciples argue about who is the greatest, Jesus does not deny that such hierarchy exists in heaven but rather flips their understanding of greatness to state that those who intentionally choose to become the least and servant of all for the sake of His kingdom are truly great in God’s eyes (Mark 9:33-35; Luke 22:24-26). It goes without saying than that authority and hierarchy in heaven is exactly opposite of what they represent in this fallen world. This is made all the more poignant in what Jesus chooses to do next. He brings a little child and says “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me: and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me” (Mark 9:36-37). To understand Jesus’ statement better, it helps to know that children were on the very bottom of the social ladder in those days, beneath women and slaves; they counted for nothing. Yet Jesus brings this little child and states that welcoming this little one is welcoming Him and thus welcoming the Father. As the disciples argue about greatness with a focus on how they would like to be served, Jesus rather speaks about how they are to serve the other who is least in the world’s eyes. In other words, true greatness does not lie with your stature and power, but whether you are able to receive a little child, the least of the least in His name. Will you view the those whom the world sees as valueless as God’s sees them and treat them as you would treat Christ? This is true greatness in the kingdom of God. That’s where true authority lies.

Establishing Their Authority: Kings of This Earth vs. Jesus
Let’s think for a moment at how the kings of this world establish their authority. Usually in the olden days kings would establish their kingdom by taking over another’s land through the use of force. He would bring armed soldiers on chariots and war horses  to wipe away the enemy and force them into submission. This was accepted means of conquest. In contrast let’s reflect on how Jesus establishes His authority and His kingdom. Instead of coming on a war horse with chariots and soldiers, He comes to Jerusalem on a donkey, sending His disciples, unarmed, ordinary beggars to announce His Kingdom. To be truthful Jesus does come in authority but that authority is solely the authority to heal, to bring to life, to set free (Matt 10:1, 8) all done to bless and serve people. Ultimately He establishes His kingdom through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross by which He cast down all the powers of darkness, sin and hell. This was the most paradoxical way to build a kingdom if any. Jesus chose to build His Kingdom through the show of extravagant love. In other words, God comes to conquer His enemies, but He conquers through love.

The authority in the Kingdom of God has to do with the authority to serve others, more simply put, the authority to love. There is an interesting passage in the Gospel of John, “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under His power, and that He had come from God and was returning to God…” (13:3)
meaning  with all of heaven’s authority behind Him Jesus knew that this was a crucial moment, that what He was about to do next was the exact purpose for which He was sent by the Father. It seems by the magnitude of this prelude that the next verse should be Jesus doing a mighty miracle like walking on water, or calming a raging storm, raising a few dead people, but what is written in the next verse is so surprising: “…so he got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist… and began to wash His disciples’ feet” (v. 5). In other words, with all of heaven’s authority this is what Jesus chooses to do, to take on the form a lowly slave and wash the feet of those He loves. This is God’s awesome power displayed in love.

God’s Power is what Enables Us to Love
Before Jesus sends the disciples out to the nations to fulfill the Great Commission, He commands them to wait to be clothed with power from above (Acts 1:4, 8). What was this power for? It was essentially the power to cause men who were unable to love to love radically. Remember what the disciples did after Jesus was crucified. They huddled in a room with locked doors by themselves fearful of their lives. In contrast what was the result of them receiving the Holy Spirit? They went to the ends of the earth to proclaim the love of God and even to the point of laying down their lives for the sake of others. This was what the power of the Holy Spirit enabled them to do. He enabled the disciples to heal, to raise the dead, to do miracles all to love and serve others. In view of this, we can see that God’s power is closely related to His power to love. In fact God’s power is always enveloped in HIs power to love. You cannot separate the fact that God is all powerful from the fact that God is all loving; they are two sides of the same coin. Just as we cannot separate God’s mercy from His holiness, we cannot separate God’s power from God’s love.

Authority Structures in the Church and in the World
Moreover we can think about Kingdom authority in viewing authority structures in the Church. Firsthand, when we look at the role of pastors, they are ones given authority, not to rule and reign over people by force, but to love and serve people as Jesus did. They have a greater responsibility and greater authority because they’re given the responsibility of serving people. To take it a step further, in the fivefold ministry structure in the Church- apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers-  the ones with greater authority are the ones with the greater responsibility to love and serve more people. Here I take liberty to imagine for a while what it means to rule and reign in God’s kingdom. Christ says that in heaven we will also rule and reign with Him and that we will sit on His throne with Him (2 Tim 2:12, Rev 3:21; 20:4, 6). What does it mean that we will rule and reign with Him in eternity? I don’t think heaven is going to be us floating around in white clouds drinking martinis. I imagine that we’ll have work to do just like on earth. Jesus did say that those who are faithful with little in their lives on earth will be entrusted with much in the Kingdom to come (Matt 25:14-30). I do believe that depending on how faithful we have been on earth with the measure of love that was given to us to serve and love people, so we’ll be given a proportional measure to serve and love His people in heaven. Yes we will rule and reign with Christ, but like Christ, in sacrificial love not with brute force.

We can see this same principle even in structures God has placed in the world. Most simple being parents and children. Parents are given authority over children to raise them up, to nurture them,  discipline them, all in all to love and serve them. Bosses, teachers, presidents, these are all given greater authority for the purpose of serving and loving people under them.

Authority is Given When We Love
Not only is authority given through structures, but authority is actually won when we love. Loving someone means that we love them as they’re now, just as they are with all of their faults and imperfections. You don’t love someone for who they will be later. But if you truly love them and are able to accept them now, you can expect them to change. You’re given a right, or an authority to speak into their lives and inspire them to change, because you love them. You want them to become better persons for their own sake, not for you to fit them to some standard of your own, but because you want them to grow and mature and achieve their full potential. Authority to speak into someone and demand change comes when you love someone. As a parent you can speak into your child and scold them, if they’re hanging out with the wrong crowd or doing something unlawful. Some stranger who has nothing to do with that child doesn’t have that same authority to speak and demand change. We will listen to a friend tell us not to waste our lives on alcohol, because we know that friend cares about us. But we won’t listen to a stranger preach to us. Authority is earned through love.

The Message of the Cross
God established His kingdom through the show of love. Through self-giving sacrifice of the cross. When the Jews were taunting Jesus to come down from the cross if He really was the Son of God, He could have just snapped His fingers and it would have been over…a  display of hundred thousands of angel armies in flaming chariots would have appeared in front of them and they would have  all believed in awe. But that’s not the way God did it. He hung there silent. Rather He prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” It was not subduing His enemies to submission through force, but through the show of extravagant love. God conquers through love. And He rules through love.

If we love we can lay down our pride. If we love we can give up insisting on our own way. If we love we can die to ourselves. Like Jesus we will go and die for that person. Then there needs to be no miracles or power displayed. Like Mother Theresa when she visited the thousands of sick people and prayed with them there were no miracles; many remained in sickness and died, but all were touched by the warmth of her hand she offered. On the cross Jesus did not do any miracles. Rather He was completely stripped of His power and glory. In death He laid down everything and gave up His authority, all of it, but it was also in the giving up of His authority, His very life where He gained the greatest authority and His name became the name above all names (Philippians 2:6-11).

Authority in the Kingdom heaven is the authority to love, modeled by Christ. God becoming man, not man but a slave, not a slave, but a criminal,  to lay HIs life down and to suffer violence. Paradoxically, In giving up of Himself voluntarily, in giving up of His authority He was able to take it up again. It was in the extravagant show of HIs love that Jesus’ authority was most clearly displayed, in washing the feet of the his followers, in healing the sick and raising the dead, in feeding the poor, in accepting into His kingdom those who are outcast and downtrodden, and ultimately in laying down His life for His loved ones.  May we also give up ourselves in love daily, for therein lies true greatness.