Matthew 21:23-27 Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Many people in Judea heard of John’s birth to the Pharisee Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth. They knew instinctively God was in this miraculous event, so they were open to listening to him in the wilderness. To them John was a special person, anointed by God from birth. All the neighbors were filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him. (Luke 1:65-66) Now in his 30’s John was preaching a very hard message for the people, but still they went out to the wilderness to hear him. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7-9) Their willingness to hear such words from John revealed they understood John was a prophet. His call to repent; addressing them as vipers was tolerated because they knew of his beginning. His addressing the people as vipers would dry up any ministry outside of God’s divine will. The people should have ignored John’s ministry as a plague, but instead his ministry was popular, drawing people away from their towns, even Jerusalem, into the wilderness to hear his words. John’s ministry was not in the temple, under the auspices of a priest, instead he was located in the wilderness away from Jerusalem and the temple, the center of the Jewish religion and the anointed place of God’s dwelling. The wilderness was not where the people brought their gifts and sacrifices to God. When Jesus asked the Pharisees where did John get his authority to minister, He knew they dared not answer the question wrongly, for the people believed strongly that John functioned under the direct authority of God. If the Pharisees contradicted the people’s assessment of John’s ministry, they could cause a rebellion to erupt against their authority over the people. If the leaders
said, John received his authority from God, Jesus would ask them why they were not followers of John’s words. What should we do then?” the crowd asked. John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?” “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:10-14) Jesus knew the priests were extorting money from the people by using their religious positions of privilege. They were telling the people it was better to swear on their gifts brought to God than upon the temple itself. The gifts on the altar belonged to the priests, but for the people to swear by the temple, would not garner the wealth they desired for themselves. Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath. (Matthew 23:16) Jesus knew the priests were hypocrites. They could not answer Jesus’ question. They feared they would lose their position of deference with the people, so they said nothing. Instead of being true shepherds, concerned about the people’s welfare above their own, they were concerned mainly about accruing wealth for themselves. Jesus expresses his disgust for them by saying, Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. (Matthew 23:5-7) They were living fleshly lives to honor and bless themselves, not to bless the eternal souls of the people. True shepherds protect their flock with their own lives, the flock comes first, not their own needs.
Jesus knew the hearts of the priests; their duplicity, their hypocrisy, so He would not answer their question: By what authority are you doing these things? He knew they did not really want an answer: they just wanted to trap him, make him say He had no Levite lineage to minister in Israel. The spiritual hierarchy came from the loins of Aaron. Jesus was not a Levite, so He had no spiritual kinship to say anything about God, let alone heal people. Because Joseph, his earthly father, was from the loins of David, it was a king’s heritage, but He was not a spiritual leader from the loins of Aaron and Moses. Consequently, Jesus had no right to attack the Sadducees and Pharisees or to denigrate the temple environment. He was not a part of the religious structure of the Jewish religion. But Jesus had no need to express his right to minister, for He knew they understood that He was doing things that no man from the beginning of time had done. They understood fully that Jesus was a powerful man with the validation of God on his head. He was doing acts that totally impressed them and the people, acts beyond the understanding of natural man. After Jesus healed a blind man by placing mud on his eyes, the blind man was confronted by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. They asked him about Jesus, the man who dared to do work on the Sabbath. Who had given him the authority to work on the Sabbath? The blind man did not know where Jesus went or who Jesus was. He thought this man, Jesus, might be a prophet, but he did not care who Jesus really was, for he was blind and now he sees. This was enough for him; he need not know anything else about this man who brought healing to his eyes. But the priests and the teachers of the law were not pleased with the man’s answers about Jesus. They wanted the blind man to confess that Jesus must be a sinner; they wanted the people who had seen this miracle to understand that no good man could be working on the Sabbath. He must be evil. He must come from the dark world, not from God’s domain. The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (John 9:30-33) As with the focus for today, the hypocrites were afraid that their favored position with the people would wane if they admitted that Jesus was getting his power directly from God. This would mean that Jesus was displacing the priesthood and the teachers of the law. For them, this could not be; it could not be allowed for their livelihood, their significance, would disappear in the Jewish culture. Jesus and his ministry was an anathema to the religious elite.
When Paul was attacked by the religious leaders, he defended himself by saying he had studied under the most respected rabbi in the Jewish culture at that time. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. (Acts 22) Being thoroughly trained in the law could take up to ten years under a respected authority. Gamaliel was not just an ordinary rabbi: he was the leader of the Sanhedrin. He was a rabbi of rabbis. Consequently, Paul used the name of his teacher as a way to escape death, but this did not help Paul much, for they ignored this fact and still wholeheartedly desired to kill him. Finally Paul had to appeal to Caesar in Rome to escape death at the hands of the Jewish elite. Jesus knew that the Pharisees and the teachers of the law did not seek an answer from him to follow him. They wanted to murder Jesus. Therefore, they wanted to trap Jesus with an answer that would displease the people. They desired a statement from Jesus that would cause anger to rise up in the people against him. In another scene, talking about taxes to Caesar, the hypocrites were using their hatred for Jesus by trying to trap him into saying something that would disturb his followers. But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Mark 12:15-17) The hypocrites hatred toward Jesus was unceasing; their hatred towards Paul was unceasing. The devil hates the truth; he will not accept anything that is different from his desires of evil. No matter how much light a Christian displays, the devil will confront it with disinformation, confusion, and lies. When Jesus was before the Sanhedrin, people were brought in to lie about him. When Paul was defending himself before Festus, people were brought in to lie about him. The devil hates truth, hates light—he will do everything possible to eliminated the Good News from man’s existence He disassembles, destroys, confuses the message that Jesus saves. Sadly, a religious cast system even in today’s environment will distort the truth of the gospel. As Christians we must always be alert to divisive words, words that destroy the church rather that unite. Words lacking love, portraying anger and bitterness are the devil’s tools. Teachers of the law and the Pharisees knew Jesus was love, peace, a healer, a doer of good works; but hatred consumed their hearts. They wanted to kill him. Jesus did not answer them, for nothing He said would dissipate the anger they had for him. They knew the Good News would displace their favored position with the people. For the Good News that Jesus came to save sinners would replace the priesthood. Jesus would bring God to people who sought him, not the religious leaders. They could not stand for the Good News to exist. They had to destroy Jesus, to put away this man of God. But my friends, they failed, for Jesus exists in us today because of the power of God is in us just as it was at work in the world when Jesus walked the dusty roads to the cross.
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