Going through Mark's gospel in our Bible reading programme, one of the things that comes out from very early on is Jesus' authority; authority to teach, authority over sickness and the demonic, over the weather and the natural world, authority to call people to follow Him.
Even as you come into the final week of Jesus' life, whether in cleansing the Temple, or even in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is so often the one in charge, rebuking the one who struck off the ear of the High Priest's servant. Authority is a bit of a dirty word nowadays; it's there to be kicked against, rebelled against. And frankly, more often than not, my sympathies lie with the rebel, the one who stands up to authority rather than with those who exercise it. I guess it's what comes of having been born post-1960!
The thing about Jesus' authority is that it is authority of relationship, not of status as such. And it comes out of His submission - to His Father's will in Gethsemane, and to His understanding of the Scriptures (see eg Mark 14:49). The fact is, we all desire to have more authority; maybe not status as such, but the ability to take control of our circumstances, for instance. The irony seems to be that authority of that kind comes out of submitting to a higher authority - the highest authority, God's. To reign you have to submit, to gain control you have to let go.
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