Matthew 21:23-27 Mark 11:27-33 Luke 20:1-8

Matthew 21:23-27 23 When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” 24 Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 “The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 26 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” 27 And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Mark 11:27-33 27 They came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, 28 and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” 29 And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 “Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” 31 They began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ 32 “But shall we say, ‘From men’?”—they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. 33 Answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Luke 20:1-8 1 On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him, 2 and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” 3 Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: 4 “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” 5 They reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The fear of man is a crippling feeling.  When you constantly have to order your life and make decisions based on the opinions of others it causes you to question everything.  Politicians must feel like this all the time.  Since they are representatives of the people and elected by the people, they are often swayed by what they think is public opinion as opposed to their personal convictions.  In many respects, the religious leaders in Israel lived with a constant fear of man.  They feared the Roman government and they feared the general population.  It was impossible to please both the Romans and the people, so they often ended up walking a sort of tight rope where they pretended to be one thing to one group of people while pretending to be just to opposite to the other group.  Jesus stood in stark contrast to these men.  He was only concerned about teaching the truth.  The confrontation in this text reveals the contrast between the freedom of Jesus and the fear of the religious leaders.

THE TEMPLE LEADERS QUESTION THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS: The people were amazed by the teachings of Jesus, because He taught with authority.  The leaders at the temple had to try so hard to please everyone that their teaching ended up having little substance or meaning.  Jesus was different.  He boldly proclaimed the truth.  He clearly explained the Scriptures.  He confronted people with their sin.  He cast out evil spirits.  He healed the sick and raised the dead.  The leaders wanted to know who had authorized Jesus to do these things.  They knew that they had not given Jesus permission to do these things.  It was also clear that the Romans would have never granted such authority.  They are attempting to discredit Jesus by implicating that He is an unauthorized and unrecognized entity that is just causing trouble.  They are hoping to intimidate Jesus, but their real agenda is to persuade the people to stop listening to Him.  They just want Him to go away so they can go back to “normal.”  Jesus represents a threat to their authority, so they have no choice but to question His.

JESUS QUESTIONS THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE TEMPLE LEADERS: Jesus is not intimidated by their question and He understands that if He tells them straight out that He was sent by God, it will cause an even greater distraction.  Instead, He explains that He will only answer their question if they will answer His.  He asks them what authority John the Baptist ministered under.  He stays on the same line of questioning, only He takes the focus off of Himself and identifies Himself with the ministry of John the Baptist.  This puts the leadership in a very difficult situation.  If they admit that John had been authorized from heaven; meaning God had appointed him as a prophet, Jesus would be able to condemn them for not obeying a prophet sent by God.  If, instead, they decided to reject John’s authority like they were trying to do with Jesus; they would displease the people.  John was dead by this time and had turned into a national hero of sorts.  He was recognized by the people as a prophet.  Jesus is revealing that the temple leaders are not themselves authentic or authorized leaders from God’s perspective.  Out of fear that they will lose face in front of the people, they decide to back down and refuse to answer Jesus’s question.  This gives Jesus the freedom to do the same while shifting the attention from Himself to the religious elite. 

APPLICATION: Don’t allow the fear of men to dictate your life.  When those who live to please people try to cause us harm, look for ways to avoid conflict and entering into unwinnable arguments.  Learn to answer questions with questions instead of being manipulated into saying things that can be easily used to distract others from the truth.  Be more concerned about the call of God on our lives than we are about the recognition of men.