Main news for 28 October 2010

Why were people amazed? After all, so much of what Jesus said echoed the words of the prophets and the instructional books of the Bible... There were other teachers in Israel in those days too; after the Qumran discoveries this is especially clear. What, then, was the difference between Jesus and them? Here the answer is given: He spoke with authority. Or, as Matthew's Gospel says: "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees." By that time there already existed a vast tradition of teaching and interpretation of Scripture, and the teachers of Israel spoke very cautiously, constantly referring to authorities, as though hiding behind their backs.

Jesus does not hide. He speaks as fearlessly as the great prophets of Israel. He does not even refer to the authority of Moses the lawgiver, and when He mentions him, He allows Himself expressions like: "It was said by Moses... but I say to you..." And the issue here is not the commanding tone of His words or His self-exaltation, neither of which is present at all, but the sense His hearers had of this Man's complete correspondence to what He says. In His preaching, love and truth were always united, and precisely for this reason people felt that He had the right to teach them.

Sometimes on our path we meet people in whom we sense the same authority, the authority of love and the authority of truth, and something responds in our heart, because in the depth of every human person lives an unquenchable thirst for both.