The people who were threatened by Jesus, who actually understood the significance of what he was saying and didn’t like it were determined to trip him up, catch him in hard questions and turn the people against him. They came on mass, chief priests and elders, ( Matthew 21:22) later in the week it was the Pharisees and Herodians (Matthew 22:15) bombarding him like a great interviewer digging for truth but they were digging for muck, blasphemy, self incrimination, an opening in his teaching through which to accuse.
Have you ever questioned someones authority, stood arms crossed or swung back on your chair answering back – then the tables were turned and you looked foolish, you were left floundering for words. ouch! That’s what happened when they questioned Jesus. They challenged his authority but he didn’t need to assert his even though he was Lord of heaven and earth. He caught them in their fear of losing their own authority, the popular vote, the applause of the crowd.
The people had loved John the Baptist, the strange prophet, because he had stood up to the Romans, he had declared a new Kingdom was coming, he had been genuine no political aspirations just a bold declaration of truth. He had been other worldly with words that rang out with a Godly authority and the religious leaders hadn’t known what to do with him either. They had breathed a sigh of relief at his imprisonment but that was behind doors as they knew the people had gone out to see him in their hundreds and no one could say a word against them.
So they had to answer with feigned ignorance ‘We do not know’ and Jesus could silence them for the moment with “neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things’
However the two stories that followed gave the Chief Priests no doubt that he saw into their hearts with all the power of a satirical cartoonist. Tax collectors and prostitutes ( the lowest of the low) would enter the Kingdom of God before them and just to leave no room for doubt Jesus concludes ‘ The kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.’
A battle of words, with blades on either side, Jesus cuts through their grasp on authority to judge their hearts. How will they react? With humble repentance or hard hearted resolution that he must go?
What hard questions would you ask Jesus?
Do you accept his authority?
Read and reflect for a moment;
Matthew 21
23 “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?”
24 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. 25 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?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
hilarydalziel 