The Authority of Jesus
Years ago I was on a trip to Israel with my seminary. We were taking a tour of Jerusalem and the church of the Holy Sepulcher. As we walked through the section controlled by the Ethiopian Orthodox, the monks ignored us, it was as if we didn’t exist. Then our professor told one of the monks that we were a group from Princeton Theological Seminary. “Welcome, welcome, welcome”, shouted the monks as they came out of the woodwork. You see, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has his PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary. We received the grand tour, toasted with cups of coffee, took many photos and joked and laughed for quite some time. On our own, we were just American tourists, the lowest of people in the minds of the monks. But when we came in the name of Princeton Theological Seminary, the last became first. When we come in our own authority we are nothing, but in the name and authority of Jesus, the last become first.