On Palm Sunday, in the City of the Great King, the King laid claim to His Throne. Through the remainder of chs. 21-22 His claim was challenged by every one of the recognised authorities in Jewrydom in turn:
The section ends with Him pronouncing judgment on them for their faithless and defiant obstinacy, ch. 23. *
The Opposition of ...
1. The Chief Priests and Elders
21:23-22:14
Unbelief
2. The Pharisees
22:15-22
Worldliness
3. The Sadducees
22:23-33
Rationalism
4. The Lawyers
22:34-40
Intellectual Dishonesty
5. Jesus then challenged them
22:41-46
The whole section breathes the atmosphere of controversy.
Jesus has ridden in procession into the Temple like a king, inspired people to address Him there as the 'Son of David' (meaning Messiah), healed there, taught there, turned people out there and now returns there to teach ... on the chief priests' and elders' 'patch'!
They interrupted His teaching (v. 23, "As He was teaching..."). This was a planned challenge, an official visit. They had got together to hatch it. Until now He had never challenged their authority; on the contrary, He affirmed it: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do what they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach." He called in question their practice, but not their authority. (Matt. 23:2)
They had two questions:
1. By what authority do you do these things?
2. Who gave you that authority?
i. The first is the bigger question. "What sort of authority is it you claim: political, moral, spiritual - constituted or pretended?"
What right Jesus has to claim our allegiance is still a question. He has shown that He will interfere in human life, as He did in the Temple; He reserves the right to interfere in ours. The question the Priests and Elders asked is not an academic one for us; it is all too real. None of us is safe from His intrusion into our affairs.
ii. The second is the lesser question, but it is important nonetheless. Whose sanction does He have? He did these things on their patch, as we noted. They had not given Him authority to do anything in their Temple; whose authority did He think He had?
On whose authority Jesus claims the right to interfere in our life is still a question. If we have not given it to Him we will say, "My life is my own; You keep out of it." He is not deterred by that. So on whose authority does He interfere?
We know the answer to both questions if we
are Christians: it is God's authority He has. He said so more than
once:
John 12:49 "I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who
sent me has Himself commanded me what to say and how to say it.
John 7:16 "My teaching is not my own, but His who sent me. If any
man's will is to do God's will, he will know whether my teaching is
from God or whether I speak on my own authority. He who speaks on his
own authority seeks his own glory; but he who works for the honour of
the one who sent him is a man of truth; in him there is no
falsehood."
That, as we shall see, is the kernel of truth in this whole episode.
He was quite willing to answer them: "I will tell you. But first, you tell me ..." He did not challenge their right to ask but their seriousness in asking. It was their motive He called in question. He questioned their evaluation of John's Baptism, v. 25: "The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or from men?" ... "John did as I have done: challenged your constituted religious authority. He baptised, not Gentile proselytes (which is all you would allow) but born Jews." That in fact was what had made John's impact so dramatic. Before his time, baptism had only ever been administered to those converted from heathenism; it symbolised the washing away of the filth of their heathendom. But John challenged Jews by birth to receive his baptism, as though they had lived like heathens despite their Jewish heritage. It was 'a baptism of repentance.' One of the strong points he made was that our relationship with God is established, not by who our parents were, but where our heart is. "Did John do that on divine or human authority?" Jesus asked them. "He had no sanction from you, the Temple authorities, to do it. You challenge my authority; did you challenge John's?" In other words, "How sincere is your challenge? Because John was my herald, announced my coming and identified me clearly."
What Jesus did was to take them back to the last revelation they had received; for readiness to receive a new revelation always depends on how we responded to the last one. Welcome the light and it will grow; refuse it and it will dim. God always deals with us on those terms. If the Pharisees had accepted the light John had brought, they would never have asked the question; had they received his testimony, they would have recognised Jesus, for John identified Him unmistakably as the Messiah.
Jesus asks us, "What did you do with the last truth I gave you? Tell me that, and I shall know if you're ready for another. You say you want to know. Why? ... to obey? Because if not, it is not in your interest that I tell you. For if I do and you refuse it, harm will come to you - real harm. I have no wish to do you that mischief; I need to know how serious you are in wanting to know."
If we are confused about spiritual truth, the first question we may well ask is, not "Where am I lacking in understanding?" but "Where am I lacking in obedience?"
The question 'nailed' the Priests and Elders. It should not have done so; it was their business to know whether John was a true prophet or a false. Their deliberation before they answered betrays them, 25b-27a: "They discussed it among themselves and said, 'If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask, 'Why then did not you believe him?' But if we say, 'From men' ... we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet." So they answered, "We do not know." Then he said, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things." Their concern was not "Is it true?" but "What is it safe to say?" They would not give an honest answer. That way lies perdition.
No commitment means no assurance. Obedience is the only pathway to assurance. So Jesus: John 7:17, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will know whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own authority."
Jesus is not just being clever, adroitly avoiding the challenge. They say they want Him to establish His authority; but they have already ignored John's. Do they mean to obey Him if He validates His authority, or are they just looking for a way to discredit Him? If their intention was serious, they would have demonstrated it by the response they had already made to John. If they could not do that, then they had forfeited the right to make a judgment about Jesus. To demand a testimonial on which you do not intend to act is to be frivolous.
What this means for us is: Do not ask questions about Jesus if you have no intention to follow through with the answers. There is a statement in the psalms which ought to solemnise us: Psalm 18:25-26, "With the faithful you show yourself faithful, with the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure; but with the crooked you show yourself perverse." Not because God is deliberately deceitful, but because if we resist Him, He cannot change to accommodate us. Resist Him, and we shall find ourselves for ever complaining that God will not listen, that He is perverse. He appears (shows Himself) perverse, not because He is perverse, but because our own perversity reflects back from Him to us. That was what was wrong with the priests and elders. They no doubt went away and complained that Jesus was "an awkward so-and-so; you couldn't discuss anything with Him." But it was they who were the awkward so-and-so's. We see that sort of situation many times if we watch television Current Affair interviewers: a downright perversity of intent on the interviewer's part; no real honesty; no intention to discover the truth, only a determination to make his point, no matter if it be good bad or indifferent. We are prone to be like that with God.
There are times when Christ will not answer us. He appears not to hear us. We shout at the heavens, and they are brass. We complain that we have been deceived, that God does not answer prayer. We have asked, and it has not been given; we have sought and we have not found; we have knocked and it has not been opened to us. But have we really ... with serious intent?
* A magnificent day, this Monday of Holy Week. Everything recorded from 21:18 to the end of chapter 25 happened on this one day. It is a record of intellectual and spiritual output second to none in the literature of history. Jesus was an intellectual, spiritual, and artistic giant; this one day's record alone is enough to establish that.
This material is copyright; it may not be quoted, published or reproduced without the author's permission, nor preached without acknowledgment!