In our day of rising authoritarianism in many forms (both in society and the church), a timely word from one of my favorite books about Jesus (JESUS BEFORE CHRISTIANITY). Unlike all others, Jesus insisted on not using any titles for himself. Albert Nolan says this about him:
"Jesus' courage, fearlessness and independence made people of that age ask again and again, 'Who is this man?' It is significant that Jesus never answers the question. There is no evidence that he ever laid claim to any of the exalted titles which the Church later attributed to him.
"...did Jesus claim authority, any kind of authority at all, even implicitly? Would it not be closer to the truth to say that what makes Jesus immeasurably greater than any other human being is precisely the fact that he spoke and acted without authority and that he regarded the 'exercise of authority' as a pagan characteristic...
"Jesus was unique among the people of his time in his ability to overcome all forms of authority-thinking. The only authority which Jesus might be said to have appealed to was the authority of the truth itself. He did not make authority his truth, he made truth his authority...(He) did not expect others to obey him; he expected them to 'obey' the truth, to live truthfully..."
