It’s been five months since we celebrated Easter and Christ’s resurrection from the dead, but today’s Gospel lesson take us back in time to the days just prior to Easter. In fact, when we piece together the timeline of Jesus’ life, it is clear that the events of today’s reading took place on Tuesday of Holy Week – two days following the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, three days before Jesus’ death on the cross, and five days prior to Christ’s resurrection on Easter morning.
Our lesson begins with Jesus entering the Temple, where he is confronted for the umpteenth time by the Temple authorities. They are long past showing any type of civility towards Jesus – they’ve had far too many run-ins in the past. They didn’t like it when the crowds cheered Jesus on Palm Sunday. They didn’t like it when Jesus took it upon Himself to cleanse the Temple, driving out those who defiled God’s house – the money-changers and those who sold animals to religious pilgrims. The Temple leaders have been trying to figure out how to solve their “Jesus problem” – how to get Him out of the way. And since they technically are responsible for the teachings that occurred in the Temple area, they come to Jesus and ask Him this question: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
The chief priests and elders of the people knew that in temporal matters of the Jewish faith, they had authority over the lives of the Jewish people. But over the centuries they had created so many man-made laws that often their authority and their demands in no way represented what God had intended for His faithful people. They went through the motions of worshipping the true God, but their hearts were full of arrogance and pride. Their authority – their status – became more important than their sacred duty of serving God’ people.
John the Baptist had represented a threat to their authority. John called people to the wilderness where he preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to John they refused to repent of their sins – they were a very holier-than-thou crowd – and John called them a “brood of vipers.” Fortunately for them, King Herod solved their problem by throwing John into prison and later beheading him. But John still had a lot of followers – a lot of disciples – a lot of people who respected and revered him as God’s prophet.
If anything, Jesus represented an even greater threat to the authority of the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus repeatedly and very publicly clashed with them. They attacked Jesus and the disciples because He did not follow all of the man-made religious traditions. They complained that He ate with sinners and tax collectors. They tried to trip Jesus up with questions that were intended to make Him look bad. But whatever they tried always backfired. Jesus told the Sadducees that they knew “neither the Scripture nor the power of God.” He told the Pharisees that they were “full of greed and wickedness.” He told parables that clearly and obviously focused on the evil thoughts and evil deeds of the religious establishment. They saw their authority, their power, their prestige, slipping away. The crowds were following Jesus and not them. The situation was rapidly going from bad to worse.
After Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the grave, the chief priests began planning to murder Lazarus because, as St. Luke tells us, “many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” After the crowds cheered the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, St. John writes: “The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after him.’” John also relates this conversation held behind closed doors: “So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, ‘What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’”
Authority, Power. Prestige. They meant the world to the chief priests and the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the elders. They saw Jesus not as the Messiah, but as a threat. They saw Jesus not as the Son of Almighty God, but as the son – of very questionable birth – of a lowly carpenter from some hick town in Galilee.
They found themselves between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The crowds loved Jesus. If the religious leaders did anything to harm Him, they ran the very real risk of totally alienating the Jewish faithful and they could lose everything. But if they didn’t stop Him – they still could lose everything.
And so they confront Jesus on this Tuesday in the Temple and ask: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Once again, they are hoping and expecting that they have trapped Jesus into giving an answer that will make Him look bad and will make them look good. But Jesus doesn’t answer them. He doesn’t give them any ammunition to use against Him. Instead, He questions them: “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
Once again, the religious leaders found themselves between a rock and a hard place. When Jesus referred to “the baptism of John,” He wasn’t talking only of the physical act of baptizing with water. Jesus meant the entire theology and preaching of John. John had preached repentance and forgiveness of sins, just as Jesus had preached. John had preached the Gospel, just as Jesus had preached. John’s baptism produced forgiveness of sins, and Jesus came for the forgiveness of sins. John was the final prophet, and Jesus was the fulfillment of all of the prophets. John saw Jesus approaching and said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” To reject John was to reject Jesus.
The words “from heaven” mean divine, while the words “from men” mean not divine. The Jewish authorities knew the answer to Jesus’ question. They had rejected John, and now they rejected Jesus. They knew the answer, but they were between a rock and a hard place. If they admitted that John’s baptism was from heaven, then Jesus would have asked them why they did not believe in Him. But they were afraid of what John’s followers would do if they said that his baptism was from man. There was only one way out – they lied. “We do not know,” they said. They knew the answer, but they lied. And later that same day their sins of arrogance and lying were compounded when they met together to plot Jesus’ death.
Our Gospel reading ends with Jesus refusing to answer their questions. Jesus is actually asserting His authority by refusing to submit to his questioners. He is above them because He is from above. He is the Son of God, the man from heaven. In just a few days He would demonstrate His authority over death and the devil by dying on the cross and rising again. The authority of Jesus is from heaven because He is from heaven.
Throughout His life, the Gospel writers repeatedly tell us that the crowds were amazed by Jesus’ teachings because He taught them as one who has authority. Jesus displayed His authority by casting out demons and healing the sick. He asserted His authority to forgive sins. And He always made it clear that His authority truly did come from heaven – from God. In John chapter 12, in the final words of Jesus’ public ministry spoken before the events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter morning, Jesus said: “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”
There is a very real danger of looking at today’s Gospel lesson as nothing more than an historical event – an account that relates another run-in between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders. But my friends, this one seemingly isolated event impacts our life and our faith on a daily basis. “From heaven or from man?” Jesus asks. The question is not one that Jesus asked merely to frustrate the chief priests and the elders. The question is asked so that we – today – can answer it.
Let’s pick a topic – for example, the virgin birth. People who don’t believe the Bible – and unfortunately, that includes a lot of Christians today – don’t believe that Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus and when she gave birth to Him. Modern science tells us that a virgin birth is impossible. Our rational minds tell us that a virgin birth is impossible. There’s no way that a woman can become a mother without a father being a part of the child’s conception.
So let’s assume that you’re having a conversation with a friend who does not believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. You hear a convincing and detailed explanation why a virgin birth is not possible. Your friend tells you that a virgin birth is absolutely not possible today, so it has never been possible. Not even once.
How do you respond? Your rational mind tells you that your friend is right. But your faith tells you otherwise. Every Sunday you confess that Jesus “was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man.” Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” When the angel came to Mary, she responded: “How shall this be, since I am a virgin?” Both Matthew and Luke tell us very clearly that Mary was a virgin.
So how do you respond? Whose authority do you believe? Do you agree with the authority of science and your friend’s very rational argument? Or do you believe and confess the authority of God’s Word, the holy and inerrant words of Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, that not only is the virgin birth possible – but that it absolutely did happen? You are now between a rock and a hard place. Do you believe what people tell you? Or do you believe what God tells you?
I pray that when you answer, your words are true to your faith and true to your Savior.
When you are asked questions like these, the simplest and best way to answer is to simply and confidently confess what God’s Word says. It’s like a t-shirt I recently heard described on the internet. On the back of that shirt – for all to see – were these words: “Jesus said it. I believe it. That settles it.”
Note: Parts of this sermon message have been adapted from the exegetical notes prepared by the late Dr. Harold H. Buls, as well as comments included in Concordia Pulpit Resources.
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