Mark 11:27  And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there come to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders,
28  And say unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?
29  And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.
30  The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.
31  And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him?
32  But if we shall say, Of men; they feared the people: for all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.
33  And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

It is quite common for the natural man to question authority. Children do this from a very young age. Some are more vocal in their questioning of authority than others. It is interesting to observe those who like to question authority. You find they set themselves up as the authority and some of them can be quite ruthless in their approach to life. In our text we find the religious elites being like that. The chief priests, established themselves as a religious authority.
God established the true priesthood and He appointed one high priest to lead the priesthood. The Jews had developed a new ranking within the priesthood and they called that rank the chief priests. They were corrupt men who assumed an authority they did not have. The scribes were another group that claimed authority because they were the one who assumed the role of copying out the Scriptures. Of course for this group of religious leaders, they had their own writings which they assumed were superior to the actual Word of God. The elders were to be the more experienced men of the nation who were to be trained in the law.
These people had just been put to shame by Jesus. He had entered the temple and cleansed it of the corruption that these men had allowed to dominate in that holy place. They had been profiting from the business that was taking place in the temple and Jesus had come and shut that down. He had embarrassed them. Now they came to Jesus and wanted to know by what authority He did those things. He had not been trained by them. After all, a man had to come through the ranks in order to take on spiritual authority. He had to be approved by this body of people.
Jesus knew these people better than they knew themselves. He was not intimidated by their ways. He asked them one question. If they would answer His question, He would answer them as well. His question was not complicated. It was a challenge for them because it also challenged their authority.
Jesus questioned them on John’s baptism. Was his baptism ordained of God, or not? We know from the Scriptures that John’s baptism included his teaching. John did not just go around baptizing people. He preached the message of repentance and the people needed to confess to faith in that preaching before he would baptize them. His message was one that prepared the people to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in the Gospels that many people came to John’s baptism. We read that the Pharisees also came to it and they also wanted him to baptize them. John refused to do that. He demanded that they first prove their faith in the truth.
Jesus knew the hearts of these religious leaders. He would give them an opportunity here to tell the people what they believed about John. These leaders knew that they were losing control of the people. Many people had come to John’s baptism.
These religious elites knew Jesus had caught them in their elitism. They had to stop to reason this thing out. How could they redeem themselves with the people? They needed the people on their side. They did not have a legitimate ministry and they needed to make it seem as though they were legitimate. They knew they were at odds with Jesus and they needed to turn the people against Him.
In verse 31 they knew that if they would suggest John’s message was from heaven, that He would question why they had rejected him. In verse 32 they reasoned that if they would suggest that John’s message was just developed among men, the people would reject that because the people saw John as a prophet.
When religious leaders want to be political, they put themselves into a trap. When pleasing people is the goal, then truth is not acceptable. These men were bound by their desire for power. They would not speak the truth because they wanted to be respected. They wanted the praise of men.
These men chose to plead ignorance, rather than be honest. They lied to Jesus to try to save face. Jesus stated that He would not answer their question either. Jesus had already declared and demonstrated His authority. These religious elites knew Who Jesus was. They did not want to acknowledge this fact. They were so dark in their souls that they would fight the truth at all costs.
Yesterday I heard of a ‘scholar’ who claimed it was a sin to give a child a King James Bible. This man is too big for his britches. He will regret his wickedness one day but right now he is so full of himself that he refuses to accept the truth. We as people can become quite puffed up with pride. We can set ourselves up as the authority and we can be so blinded that we just refuse to acknowledge the truth.
The Bible is the Word of God. We can stand firm upon that Book. We do not need to apologize for the absolute truth. If we accept the perversions, then we have no absolute truth. That is how most people want to live. They fail to realize that in the end we will all meet the God Who is Absolute. There is no shadow of turning in Him.
The religious elites questioned Jesus’ authority in our text. His authority was a challenge to their assumed authority. They missed a golden opportunity to humble themselves and accept true authority. I trust no one reading this is of that same mindset. Don’t substitute truth for assumed power.
Pastor Bartel