It’s A Question of Authority – Holy Week Reflection 2

They 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.  “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked, “And who gave you the authority to do this?”
Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question.  Answer me and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.  John’s baptism – was it from heaven or from men?  Tell me!”
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say ‘from heaven’, he will ask ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’  But if we say, ‘From men…’” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Mark 11:27-33 (NIV)

It is natural, after the messing up of the temple, after the huge disruption Jesus had caused the previous day, for those in authority to ask him where he thought he had gained the authority to strike at the very heart of Jewish worship.  Some have read into the question of those in authority an attempt to trap Jesus into making a blasphemous claim about him-self so that they could put him on trial; but being charitable it may just have been a genuine question.

This isn’t the first time in Mark’s gospel that the authority of Jesus to do what he did has been questioned.  In Mark 2, in response to Jesus forgiving the paralytic his sins, the teachers of the law are thinking, “Why does this fellow talk like that?  He’s blaspheming!  Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7 – NIV)  Jesus proves his authority by not only forgiving the man’s sins but by curing him of his paralysis as well.  In Mark 3 the teachers of the law accuse Jesus of being in league with the devil by saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebub!  By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.” (Mark 3:22 - NIV) and even Jesus own family think that he is “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21 – NIV).

The question of the authority of Jesus is really one of the BIG questions; it is essentially a question of Jesus’ identity, of who he really is.  The teachers of the law in first century Palestine were so blinded by their own traditions and sense of superiority that they just couldn’t see who Jesus truly was; God himself incarnate in a man, fully divine and fully human.

Today in twenty first century Western society people are equally perplexed by the authority of Jesus.  For whatever reason they cannot accept that Jesus was exactly who he said he was; the son of the living God.  They try to categorise him as a prophet, as a great teacher (perhaps the greatest teacher who has ever lived) or as a human being who was closer to God than any other human being has ever been (a favourite description of some Liberal Christians); but they cannot or will not accept that in Jesus the eternal entered into time and space, that the Second Person of the Trinity became incarnate as man, that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.

C.S. Lewis once suggested that Jesus only left us three options concerning his identity; that he was lying, that he was insane or that he was exactly who he claimed to be.  Jesus was either bad, mad or the Son of God.  All the evidence of the New Testament suggests that he was and is the Son of God.

If you doubt this, read Mark’s gospel and follow it up with John’s gospel and then Matthew and Luke.  The portraits of Jesus contained in the gospels do not suggest dishonesty; neither do they suggest mental instability: what they suggest is that Jesus was and is exactly who he claims to be.

The temple officials had real doubts about Jesus authority “to do these things”.  They either didn’t want to, or couldn’t, admit that he might be the Messiah they had waited for over the centuries!  Many people today don’t want to or can’t admit that Jesus was and is the incarnate Word of God who died on the cross in atonement for their sins and rose again to assure them of the truth of the promises of eternal resurrection life.

As a Christian I have no doubt at all about Jesus’ authority or identity; he was and is the Son of God and his authority stems from his identity!