Today's daily lesson comes from Matthew chapter 7 verses 28 and 29:
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
Jesus spoke with authority.
That does not mean Jesus preached with hell, fire, and brimstone; nor with spit. Nor with a tongue of condemnation.
That word "authority" in the Greek is the word "exousia". It means substance and being. It's the same word from which we get our word "essence". Jesus spoke "ex" (from) "ousia" (his essence).
Last night at church a friend (I call her my "sister-friend") told her story -- the story of being a survivor of suicide. She shared the journey and read the poetry she has written since her husband (a brother-friend) took his own life. It was poetry she herself "authored" -- words which came out of her own substance and being. She spoke and shared from the deepest part of herself; and she spoke with great authority.
We do not have to all be preachers or teachers or great students of the Bible to be able to speak with authority. Rather, all we have to do is find that still, small voice within us and let it speak. That's where our authority to speak comes from -- from the deep well of wisdom within us and within the pain and the hope of our own story. It is the only kind of authority that has the power to heal the world.
"And all were astonished at his teaching".
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