Jesus the Final Authority

Growing up at my house, the order of command was known by all. Dad called the shots, and in his absence, Mom was in charge. A person could push her until she had had enough, and then the pushing suddenly stopped, or a person paid the price. With both of them, my strategy was simple. I pretty well knew what would fly and what would not fly, but I often tried to name-drop in order to get what I wanted. I would name a friend or friends who were getting to do what I wanted to do. Of course, if church families were letting their kids do it, that carried more weight than a non-church family. If my teacher at school had shared an opinion that might shift the weight a bit, but once either of my folks said, “But I say,” game over. They were almost always kind (unless I had stirred the pot unnecessarily before this), but once they said, “But I say,” then it no longer mattered who had said what. This week, Jesus is going to say, “But I say” six times, about six different topics.