Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things

 

 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things?  Or who is he who gave You this authority?"  But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me:  "The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?"  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet."  So they answered that they did not know where it was from.  And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

 

- Luke 20:1-8 

 

On Saturday we read that as Jesus drew near Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!  But now they are hidden from your eyes.  For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation."  Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And He was teaching daily in the temple.  But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.   

 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things?  Or who is he who gave You this authority?"  My study bible tells us that these things refers to Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem as Messiah (19:35-38), the cleansing of the temple (19:45), and Christ's preaching (verse 1 of today's reading).  These men, the elders of the temple at Jerusalem, confront Christ since it was the priestly descendants of Levi to manage the temple.  While Christ is descended from Judah (3:33 in Christ's genealogy as given in Luke), He is also High Priest "according to the order of Melchizedek" (Psalm 110:4), which is a priestly line far greater than that of Levi, as Christ's authority is from the Father.

 

But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me:  "The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?"  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet."  So they answered that they did not know where it was from.  And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."  Jesus' answer is designed to draw those who would answer to the obvious response, that both John's and Jesus' authority comes from God.  But clearly the priority for these leaders is their own position as rulers in the temple, the authority and regulators of the faith and thereby the people.  They fear losing this authority, as the people all believe John to have been a prophet.  Jesus' concise and colorful debating skills trap them in their own response, no doubt to the delight of the people who could participate by listening to an open dialogue.

In much of the discourse during Jesus time teaching in the temple -- be that in the Synoptic Gospels and what takes place during Holy Week, or the debates in John's Gospel which occur at various festivals throughout Jesus three years of ministry -- we're told that the people are afraid to participate themselves, even to engage in dialogue, because of their fears of the leadership whom they know by this time seek to kill Christ (John 7:12-13).  Even among the leadership, we're told, many are afraid to speak openly although they believe that Jesus is the Christ (John 12:42).   And yet, Mark's Gospel tells us that the people heard Jesus with delight as He debated the leaders in the temple (Mark 12:37).  Perhaps this is one of the very reasons why Jesus' dialogues and debates with the leadership became so very well recorded for the Gospels, because they were made in the hearing of the common people -- who, while they themselves could not speak openly for fear of the leaders, nevertheless heard Jesus gladly.  In the available public forums for debate (and even entertainment or drama, if we want to think about it on those terms) there wouldn't be much place for people to participate in this kind of open dialogue, except in private and among themselves.  But Jesus takes His teaching to the people and always has.  He has publicly preached in synagogues and to large crowds, and on many occasions the leadership has come to openly question Him.  If there is one signal we can take from Christ, it is in this place of freedom and free debate.  As far as He is concerned, the truth is meant to be proclaimed from the housetops -- so long as it is at the right time, of course.  The truth about Him as Son of Man and Son of God -- His identity as Messiah -- that must be heard in the fullness of His ministry; that is, in the fullness of God's revelation through Him and His mission.  It is only in that context that the fullness of truth is present for proper understanding.  Jesus tells the disciples, "Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops" (Luke 12:3).   Perhaps simply because Jesus was an outsider, not one of the ones with the "authority" the religious leaders question Him about, His dialogue and sermons come to us in the Gospels.  Had he been an insider among the Sanhedrin, no doubt those debates would have been more private and within an inner circle.  As it is, Jesus came to the world in a time and place that facilitated everything about what He has given us.  In the Roman Empire roads stretched far and wide to connect the entire empire for trade and commerce, which in and of itself extended to spread news and the Christian movement.  Jerusalem itself was the Holy City, the one Jesus says "kills the prophets and stones those sent to her" (Luke 13:34), but also at this time a place where civilizations meet, where Roman rule could at any time assert its authority to keep people under control, and which depended upon the religious leaders themselves to maintain that control or else political rebellion could get out of hand.  In this context, we read the open debates of Jesus, and must come to understand the threats to the places of the religious leaders, the anxiety of the people who both feared the oppressive, tax-imposing Romans and waited for a Deliverer/Messiah, and frequently mistrust their own authorities in this context.  But Christ comes, nevertheless, freely proclaiming Himself and the gospel of the Kingdom.  He knows what will happen, but that through all things He is the One who is sent to do precisely what He does.  He gives us the power of the Word, and He is the Word, and we should never forget where our basic values regarding this kind of freedom come from, nor that He is the One who taught us both that the truth makes us free, and that He is the Person who is truth (John 8:31-22, 14:6).  In these open debates in the temple, and as they are presented to us in the Gospels, we can find a confidence in the truth, that the truth makes a difference.  Not only does it make a difference, but Christ teaches that it makes us free:  free because we are no longer slaves to falsehood and no longer slaves to half-concepts of truth that stand outside of the fullness of communion in Him.  In these words we find not only a positive definition of freedom but also a liberating concept of truth, and we find the foundations for what we claim today if we are those who seek the freedom for ourselves He proclaims.  These open debates before the people make it clear, moreover, that Christ places confidence in the power of that truth and in His message to the world.  It is, and becomes in His hands and preaching, a truth that belongs to each of us, a truth which is aimed at each human heart and soul.  He calls to all of us, and we delight to be called.  The question becomes, in some sense as parallel to the elders here, if we can understand the authority in that truth, or not.