27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”
29 Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!”
31 They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’ …” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
33 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Question 1
Why does Jesus seem to avoid answering this question?
Question 2
What was important to the religious leaders, pleasing God or pleasing men?
No doubt we’ve all come across people who never give a straight answer. You ask them a question, and instead of answering they ask a question back. An experience like that is very frustrating, especially if the answer affects your arrangements. This is exactly what is happening here.
Now that Jesus has entered Jerusalem as King and disrupted what was happening in the temple, the religious leaders are searching even harder for a reason to kill him. They ask what authority he had to do these things, hoping he will say something they can use against him.
But Jesus is not going to play their game. The time for his death is yet to come; He’s in control of the situation, not them. So he asks them a question first. The question is simply, where did John get his authority from? The religious leaders had rejected John, but a large number of the people had believed what he was saying. So Jesus has put a question they can’t easily answer without getting themselves into trouble (which is exactly what they were trying to do to him!). If they say that John came from God, then that would mean that everything he said about Jesus is true. But if they deny John’s authority, then all the people who believed John would turn against them. To avoid answering they pretend they don’t know, so Jesus doesn’t have to answer either.
It is important that we do not think here that Jesus was deceitful. In one way it answers the question – his authority comes from God, just like John. But they didn’t want to hear the answer. Sometimes people will ask about our faith, but they don’t really want to know the answer. All they want is to prove us wrong. At times like this there’s nothing wrong with asking them questions too, to show their hypocrisy.
Question 3
In what ways does Jesus’ attitude here help us as we face the questions of others?
Question 4
Why do you think the leaders cared so much about Christ’s authority?
Pray
for wisdom in trying to answer questions and explain the good news of Jesus Christ to others.
