Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

¹One day as he was teaching the people in the temple courts and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ²“Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”

This event also appears in Mark 11:27-33. See my post on that passage here. In Mark’s version of this, Jesus is simply walking through the temple courts when he is challenged by the religous leaders. Here in Luke, he is interrupted by them while he is teaching the people and preaching the gospel. Whatever the circumstances, the chief priests, teachers of the law, and elders were upset with Jesus for having kicked the money changers out of the temple the day before, and wanted to know what authority he had to do that. But their question was actually a trick question designed to get Jesus into trouble no matter how he answered. If Jesus says his authority is from God, they will call him a blasphemer. If he says he is acting on his own, then he has violated God’s temple. Jesus answers by turning their question back on them and asking a trick question of his own. This was a well known and accepted debate technique in rabbinical circles.

³He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?”

⁵They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”

⁷So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”

⁸Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Here in Luke, Jesus simply asks his question and demands an answer, but in Mark’s version of this event, Jesus says, “Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” (Mark 11:29) So Jesus agrees to answer their question if they will answer his. His question is not unrelated to theirs. It’s basically the same question, except that it’s in reference to John. Where did John’s authority to baptize come from? If the religious leaders can tell Jesus where John got his authority, Jesus will tell them where his authority to cleanse the temple came from.

The religious leaders’ fear of the people is evident here, because they are afraid to answer Jesus honestly about John, and they are also afraid to arrest Jesus openly. That’s why they were asking him these trick questions to try to discredit him. If they could get him to say something to incriminate himself, they could have him arrested and the people would not turn against them. But Jesus never gave them that opportunity.

The key to Jesus’ question is that John taught that Jesus was the Messiah. If the religious leaders had said that John’s baptism was from God, I don’t think Jesus would have said, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?” I think he would have said, “Why don’t you believe what he said about me?” If what John said about Jesus was true, then he had all authority to do what he had done.

It’s interesting to me that in Mark’s version of this, the religious leaders’ fear of what might happen to them if they give the wrong answer is not spelled out (Mark 11:32), but here in Luke, they say that if they say John’s baptism was from men, all the people will stone them! And these were the chief priests, afraid of being stoned by the crowds! This further shows that it was the leadership, not the Jewish people as a whole, who had Jesus crucified. And they did it for purely selfish reasons, to try to protect their own power. They were more interested in their own agenda than in finding the truth about who Jesus was. Did they succeed in preserving their own power by getting rid of Jesus? Maybe for a little while, but in a few decades, the temple and city they thought they were protecting would be destroyed because of their rejection of Jesus. Some of them, I’m sure, convinced themselves that they were protecting the people from reprisals by the Romans by having Jesus executed. But ultimately, their plan backfired on them and their people horribly. We may convince ourselves that we have the church’s interests at heart when we promote and protect our own agendas, but when we do that, the end result is never good for the Kingdom.

I am grateful to have been able to blog today from my hotel room in Minneapolis, MN after a wonderful weekend of ministry here. To God be the glory for the things he has done!

Mark Bible authority, elders, Jesus, John the Baptist, Luke

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit

³¹Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. ³²They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil^[g]spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, ³⁴“Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

³⁵“Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.

³⁶All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!” ³⁷And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.

This event also appears in the Gospel of Mark. You can read my post on it here. You can also read my posts on other accounts of Jesus delivering someone from demon possession here and here. I won’t repeat what I said in those posts here. But a couple of things strike me about this particular passage.

First, after he was driven out of his hometown synagogue, it seems Jesus settled in at a synagogue in Capernaum and taught there for a while. The language in verse 31 implies that Jesus taught there repeatedly. It’s sad that he could not teach in his home town. All they wanted was to see him perform miracles. They had been asking him to perform miracles like they had heard he did in Capernaum (4:23). So apparently Jesus had healed at least one person there prior to going to Nazareth. After being rejected in Nazareth, he went back to Capernaum where he had been better received before. The people there were interested in his teaching, so he was able to perform miracles there. In Nazareth, all they wanted was to see miracles, so he wouldn’t teach there either. Jesus performed many miracles, but he wanted to minster to those who were interested in his teaching.

Second, there are two references to Jesus’ authority in this passage, and they both have to do with his teaching. The people were “amazed at his teaching because his message had authority”. And when he commanded the demon to come out of the man, they didn’t ask, “What miracle-working power is this?” They asked, “What is this teaching?” They ascribed the power he had to drive out demons to the authority of his teaching. He taught as one who had authority, and not as the scribes taught (Mark 1:22). Jesus’ words had so much authority that even demons had to obey him. The source of his authority, of course, was God. The words of Jesus are the Word of God. We use the phrase “Word of God” to refer to the Bible, but to those people, the Word of God came to prophets. See how many times the phrase “the word of the Lord” appears in the Old Testament. In each case, it’s not talking about the written word, but a message directly from God to a person. Jesus’ teaching had authority and he had authority to drive out demons because his word was the Word of the Lord. Where do our words come from?

Mark Bible authority, Bible, demon possession, Jesus, Luke

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

²⁷They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. ²⁸“By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you authority to do this?”

Just the day before, Jesus had cleared the temple courts of the money changers and cheats, but the the next day he was back in the temple courts teaching again. It seems like this would take great courage, but I think Jesus knew the authorities would be afraid to arrest him there, in front of the crowds. And he’s proved right, since the religious leaders’ fear of the crowds is evident in this event. The men described here are probably the same ones who tried Jesus a few days later. They had been plotting to kill him for weeks, but they were afraid to arrest him openly.

They wanted to know what authority Jesus claimed for doing what he had done in the temple courts the day before. They weren’t asking what authority he had to teach and heal, they were asking what authority he had to upset their gravy train. It wasn’t just the merchants in the courts that made money from their transactions, it was the religious leaders, too. And here Jesus had come in with his “holier-than-thou” attitude and spoiled their little side business. Except that Jesus doesn’t just have a “holier-than-thou” attitude. He really is holier than thou.

²⁹Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ³⁰John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”

³¹They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ³²But if we say, ‘From men’….” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)

³³So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

Jesus wasn’t evading their question. By asking them this, he went straight to the heart of the matter. John the Baptist had proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, and the religious leaders knew that. And I think they were wrong about what Jesus’ reply would be. If they said John’s baptism was from Heaven, Jesus may have asked why they didn’t believe in John, but more likely he would have said, “If John’s baptism was from Heaven, then what he said about me is true. Therefore, my authority comes from Heaven as well”. They would have answered their own question if they’d said John’s baptism was from God. On the other hand, they also didn’t want to say John’s baptism was from men, because they were afraid of the people. They were more concerned with what people thought of them and the loss of profits from the money changers than they were in finding the truth. If our sights are set that low, we won’t get any answers from God, either. Are we more interested in knowing who Jesus really is than in protecting our turf and reputation?

Mark Bible authority, Bible, Jesus, Mark