Humility vs. Authority {Luke 7}
5:54 PM
A
few weeks ago while I participated in a small group study at my church, we were
discussing authority and humility. We
were sharing stories of what we thought was holiness and a friend who is a
funeral director shared this story:
Steve said as a funeral director, you get to meet
a lot of people with different faiths.
His dad was a funeral director as well and shared this story with
Steve. The discussion between Steve’s
dad and a minister who was not Catholic were discussing the presence of Jesus
in the Eucharist (communion). As Catholics,
part of the mystery during communion is that the host and wine become the
actual body and blood of Christ. The
minister told Steve’s dad that if he truly believed that, he wouldn’t be
walking in procession to the front of the church to receive communion, he’d be
on his hands and knees.
Personally,
for many years, I have had some amazing experiences during these moments during
the Eucharist. There are times that the
overwhelming presence of Jesus makes me feel like I should be on my hands and
knees. Other times, there is a flood of
comfort that Jesus is with me, like a blanket covering me.
This
passage has always been one of my favorites.
I actually had something different written for this post, but when I sat
down to review what I had written and re-read this chapter, I returned to this
scripture.
The
time for me to write this came a day after I learned about the killing of Qassem Soleimani and there was a lot of talk going on all over the
media. But my first thought was that
Jesus has the authority. God is in
control.
This same day I heard about a woman who learned
she had stage 4 breast cancer and she wondered how it could be that far
advanced without her knowledge. Her
friend really didn’t know what to say, but prayed for something to say and
simply told her that she didn’t know why, but that God is sovereign.
That alone is something to celebrate. The authority that God has over the entire
world should bring us comfort – like the wrapping of a blanket. We all need to recognize that we are in the
presence of a King and approach Him in humility because He has the authority to
change our lives.
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