Trusting in Authority

These are strange and tangled times; across the world, leaders and people in authority seem to have collectively lost their minds — and their accountability, if not to people then to God.

If our leaders cannot objectively look at persecution and murder, and condemn it — can we still trust in their authority to lead us?

The question is not as easily answered as we may think. Remember that scene of Pontius Pilate washing his hands before the crowd that wanted to crucify Jesus? We may have heard that account too often for it to have truly settled in our minds for the spectacle that it must have been. We ourselves may have so often metaphorically “washed” our hands off things that we forget that this is where the idiom came from.

Pilate didn’t find it enough to simply say “I will have no part in this” — he literally called for a basin to be brought out, and there, in front of a huge crowd, proceeded to perform the private act of washing, in public. This was not ordinary; it was not even extraordinary — this was spectacular, in the true sense of the word. It was meant to be a spectacle; a visually impactful display.

Pontius Pilate was the governor of the Roman province of Judea, a man with all the authority to stop Jesus from being crucified, and yet we see him deliberately, vehemently, choosing to not only refrain from using his authority, but worse, relinquishing it to those he knows are commiting injustice and murder. Do we find our leaders and those in authority today doing the same? Let us enter into the mind of Pilate to understand why those in power may choose not to use it to defend the powerless.

In the moments before Pilate hands Jesus over to the Jews to be crucified, Scripture tells us of the clear understanding he had been given of the situation. In both the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, we are told that Pilate “realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed [Jesus] over.” [Matthew 27:18, Mark 15:10] And if this human realisation was not enough, Pilate was also given supernatural forewarning — “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” [Matthew 27:19]

God himself had impressed upon Pilate (and his wife, for good measure) that Jesus was innocent. We are all, especially those of us in power, given the understanding and insight we need, to recognise the truth when we hear it.

And yet, those in authority in Jesus’ time, could neither see nor hear the truth. A recurring theme through the Gospel of Matthew is that of authority — the rulers, chief priests, Pharisees, scribes and the crowds that gathered wherever Jesus went were all amazed at the authority with which he walked through the country teaching, preaching, healing, exorcising — even forgiving sins. But rather than listening to the truth that Jesus was proclaiming, those in authority were preoccupied in determining where Jesus drew his from.

Like Pilate, they were being faced by the truth that the people they had authority over were beginning to question this authority. When the chief priests and elders asked Jesus one day by whose authority he was teaching, he asked them a question in turn that they were unable to answer… because they were “afraid of the crowd”. [Matthew 21:26] Later, when they gathered together in the palace of the high priest to conspire together to kill Jesus, they decided against doing it during the festival to avoid “a riot among the people” [Matthew 26:5] Pilate himself truly only decided that he was unable to do anything to help Jesus when he saw that “a riot was beginning”. [Matthew 27:24]

When those in authority fear those that they have been given authority over, they will almost always relinquish it to them — like Pilate did. When we relinquish our authority, acting out of fear that it will be overturned, we are also questioning the authority of the one who gave it to us, effectively saying that the one who gave us such power will be unable to help us. Instead of acknowledging and turning to that higher power for assistance, we will lay down our own authority, along with the responsibility that came with it.

Surrendering our authority — the power to testify to the truth — means a lack of faith in the one who invested us with it.

Contrast this with the fearless words of Jesus before Pilate — “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” [John 18:37]

When Jesus spoke of those who belong to the truth listening to his voice, he was invoking the image he had left the Jews with earlier — that of the good shepherd. Those who belong to the Truth, Jesus himself, are his sheep, of whom he had said earlier — “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” [John 10:27]

Such is the authority that comes from knowing both the one that gives us our authority, as well as the responsibility that comes from accepting it. Jesus explains , “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. [John 10:11–15]

Even to the point of death, Jesus continued to testify to the truth because he knew and trusted the source of his authority, and had understood well his responsibility.

Today, as we question the motives behind the actions and silence of our leaders, let us empathise with them, knowing that they act out of fear; let us pray for them, that they may know God as the source of their authority, and let us fast for them, that God may give them the grace to become the good shepherds they were meant to be. As we ask the question of which leaders we can trust, let us know the One who still has all things in the palm of his hand. And as we too take up roles of authority as parents, teachers, mentors and leaders, let us trust first in the authority of God, who has given us this responsibility.

May we all be willing to be led!