2026-09-24
Brooke Strong
By What Authority
Thursday, September 23, 2026
The Federated Church of Chagrin Falls
Several weeks ago, we began in with Jesus and the Disciples in Caesarea Philippi. I often describe that moment as something like a slingshot. Before turning to head toward Jerusalem, Jesus takes his disciples in the opposite direction. Away from the crowds. Away from the religious authorities. Away from the places where their answers might cost them something.
And there, Jesus asks: “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter answers: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Then Jesus turns toward Jerusalem.
And we have been walking with him ever since.
Along the way, Jesus has not simply been giving his disciples more information. He has been forming them into a people.
He teaches them about greatness and service, children and welcome, conflict and reconciliation, forgiveness and grace. He gives them the keys of the kingdom and entrusts them with the strange responsibility of “binding and loosing.”
Week after week, the road itself has become a classroom.
Now the slingshot releases, they arrive in Jerusalem, and suddenly Peter’s confession is no longer safely spoken somewhere far away. The heat is on.
Jesus enters the city. He disrupts the Temple. The chief priests and elders confront him. And the question is no longer: “Who do you say that I am?” The question is: “By what authority are you doing these things?”
Despite how it might, these are two very different questions.
It is one thing to confess what we believe when the answer costs us nothing. It is another thing to discover what that confession requires when we arrive in Jerusalem.
Perhaps that is why Jesus has spent the whole journey forming a community. Because Jesus did not come merely to give his disciples the right answers. He came to form a people capable of answering God with their lives.
So Jesus tells a story.
A father asks two children to go work in the vineyard. One says no, but later changes his mind and goes. The other says yes, but never goes.
Then Jesus asks: Which one actually did the will of the father?
Suddenly the question of authority has become a question of faithfulness.
What happens when the things we confess with our mouths finally ask something of our lives?
That seems like a good question for a church.
Eventually every congregation arrives in a place where the stakes really matter. Eventually the things we say we believe have to become practices. Welcome has to become hospitality. Compassion has to become care. Justice has to become action. Forgiveness has to become reconciliation. Love has to become something another person can actually experience.
Our first answer does not have to be our final answer.
The question is whether, when Christ calls, we are willing to go.
Read Before Sunday
Matthew 21:23–32
As you read, notice the two questions surrounding this passage: the authorities ask Jesus what gives him the right to act, and Jesus asks them which child actually did the father’s will.
Questions for Reflection
- What changes between Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi and Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem?
- When have you discovered that something you believed required you to change the way you lived?
- What would it mean for Federated Church not simply to say who we are, but to become what we say?
I look forward to arriving in Jerusalem with you this Sunday.
Following the Way,
Pastor Michael
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