Authority

Evelyn F. Heywood

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice," observed the writer of Proverbs. The exercise of unwelcome authority, religious or political, against which men have rebelled, to which they have sullenly submitted, is in large measure the history of the human race.

The usurpation of power was everywhere in evidence in the Judea and Galilee of Jesus' day. It was here he sought to establish the Christ-teaching, which should make men free, physically and spiritually. About him were a people dominated civilly by the cruel militarism of the Roman yoke; dominated theologically by a despotic priestcraft, cramping and darkening their sense of God.

The Master came to teach men where true authority is to be found. The liberation which he brought was not that of a temporary ruler or benefactor; it was eternal and divine. It was the outcome of his understanding of that oneness of man with divine Principle, whence alone comes law and the power to enforce and maintain it. On page 26 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy has written: "Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does for man." It is this divine authority and its infinite, ever-present availability, which is revealed in the Science of Christianity.

Christ Jesus not only spoke with authority so that they marveled at the power which lay behind words hitherto familiar, but dull and meaningless; he acted with an authority never hitherto witnessed in the affairs of men. The prophets had spoken of a new heaven and earth wherein would dwell righteousness, but Jesus came to tell men of their individual right to that kingdom.

The privileges of vested interests were overthrown and cast out of the temple by an authority which the individuals involved therein, no less than the chief priests and elders of the people, dared not outwardly resist. The hypocrisy and pride of the rich, as in the case of Simon the Pharisee; the boasted prerogative of Pilate to sentence or to set free; the claim of false material law to impose sickness and suffering, limitation and loss—all these were exposed and denounced. Multitudes came to him crippled and bound by disabilities and diseases, from which they had hitherto believed that there was no release, and it is recorded that "there went virtue out of him, and healed them all." Thus it was that, in the words of our Leader (Science and Health, p. 382), "he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine authority and having only human approval for their sanction."

Jesus recognized the duties and obligations of citizenship, as evidenced in his statement, "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's," but, in everything that he said and did, he taught men their divine right to rise above falsely imposed tyranny, whether of sin or of sickness, and to claim the liberty of the sons of God. Such authority, inherent in man's relationship with God, brings peace not conflict; it is might in partnership with meekness. It knows neither human will nor personal endeavor; it lives to bless, to sanctify, and to redeem. Authority such as Jesus exercised never needs to assert itself. It silences opposition, and subdues resistance. Neither those who were turned out of the temple nor the priests and elders defied the authority of Jesus, even while they questioned its source, for they recognized that here was something more powerful than that which they could exercise against it.

Through the teachings of Christian Science men are learning to challenge and to annul unjust so-called laws, however bulwarked in material authority and time-honored consent, which have nothing beyond "human approval for their sanction" (ibid., p. 382).

The authority with which Jesus spoke and acted, being God-bestowed, belongs to all, and must finally be proved even over death itself, as it was by the Master, whose enemies believed that their bitter opposition to him would triumph at his crucifixion. Christian Scientists are learning that where there is no duality of allegiance or of trust, there is no duality of power. In the words of Mrs. Eddy (ibid., p. 76), "Man is immortal and lives by divine authority."

In this recognition of the eternal nature of divine authority, whereby fear of sickness or love of sin are shorn of their individual and collective rights to victimize and enslave, all counterfeit authorities are forever destroyed. In the consciousness of this unchallenged reign of infinite Mind throughout its whole creation, we see the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Zechariah, "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one."

Evelyn F. Heywood

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