Yesterday, we began with the disciples’ mixed hearts: worship and doubt in the same breath. Today Jesus responds not by demanding certainty, but by naming reality: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Authority can sound threatening, especially if you have been harmed by people who
used God to control, shame, or silence. But Jesus’ authority is not the authority of domination. It is the authority of the crucified and risen one—authority that has passed through suffering, not avoided it. The one who speaks here is the one who washed feet, welcomed outsiders, and showed compassion to all.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ authority has always been tied to healing and liberation. Jesus teaches “as one
having authority” (Matthew 7:29), and then that authority shows itself in restoring people: lepers are touched, sinners are welcomed, storms are calmed, the hungry are fed. When Jesus says “all authority,” it is not a claim for ego; it is a promise that love is not fragile. Love is powerful. Love has a throne.
This matters for the mission that follows. The disciples are not being asked to manufacture courage out of
thin air. They are being sent with a reminder: the risen Jesus is not merely inspiring, he is Lord. The powers that intimidate us—rejection, fear, failure, scarcity, violence, even death—do not get the last word.
When we are unsure how to live faithfully, we can begin not with our own capacity, but with Jesus’ authority. The church does not carry Jesus into a world where he is absent. We join the work of the one who
already reigns in compassion, already speaks peace into chaos, and already stands with the wounded.
What power or fear feels “in charge” of your life at the moment?
What might change if you trusted that Jesus’ loving authority is stronger than that fear?
