Authourity

Matthew 7:28-29

Matthew's observation of the crowd's reaction to Jesus' sermon concludes the chapter. The key words are: amazed and authourity. The crowd was amazed at Jesus' teaching because he taught with authourity. This is contrasted to the teachers of the Law that the crowd was used to hearing.
Tony Campolo spoke about authourity in the main session of CYWC in Toronto this year. He said that power is based on coercion but authourity is based on hundreds of acts of compassion. Extrapolating Tony's thinking, the crowd's reaction is because they knew from Jesus' actions and character that he cared about them and not just about the rules. The teachers of the law tried to exercise power over the people by making rules to keep them in line, with dire consequences if they did not keep the rules. Much like the historical Catholic Church that would hold threats of excommunication and eternal punishment over the heads of kings and commoners in order to coerce them to do what the Church wanted them to do.
My desire and resolution is that the force of my teaching would be based on authourity. That my students and leaders (and others) would know that I love them, that I have compassion for them and that my integrity and love would earn the right to be heard and respected. I don't want to excercise power over my students and leaders based on guilt or shame. I hope that my students will know that I love them and will want a relationship with God and with others similar to the one I have. If they see that I love them and see something in my relationships with God and others that they would like to have, then my teaching will have authourity as well.