Follow The RabbiSample

Do you know what it means to have authority in Jesus?

Around the world, the place of government authority in a city is usually a beautiful, ornate building. This is Philadelphia’s town hall—one of my favorites—which has a 37-foot statue of the city founder, William Penn, on top. But did you know that in the Bible, authority was not found in a building, but in a person? Let me explain.

The Hebrew word for “authority” is “s’mikhah”, which was a title given to a small number of rabbis in Jewish history. You see, there were two types of rabbis in ancient Israel; rabbis who had memorized the entire Hebrew Bible were called “teachers of the law”, and then there were a rare few who had such a deep knowledge of scripture that they had authority to introduce new teachings. These were the rabbis with “s’mikhah".

Now, Jesus’ followers AND his enemies agreed that he had “s’mikhah”. One of his followers named Matthew even wrote that Jesus taught as “… one who had authority, quite unlike their teachers of the law.” And Jesus himself said; “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Not just some authority—ALL authority!

What does this mean for us today? Well, Jesus “... gave AUTHORITY to his servants”, which means he passed down his “s’mikhah” to you! This means that you have the authority, through Jesus, to deal with whatever situation you're facing today! 

For reflection:

"One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority" Luke 9:1