By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?
To some it was obvious that Jesus did have legitimate supernatural authority.
When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men (see Matthew 9:8).
But the Pharisees had their own authority and they felt the need to protect it against all challengers. Their authority was self-serving, for the sake of places of honor and fancy robes. They did not use it to help others to enter into the Kingdom, nor did they themselves enter.
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear,a and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues (see Matthew 23:2-6).
The authority given by God to the Pharisees was provisional and temporary. Right stewardship of it would have culminated in helping people to recognize and welcome the coming of the Messiah. Theirs was meant to be a transitional role into the true Davidic king arrived. This authority could have been a great blessing but instead it only brought them blindness. It prevented them from seeing what was obvious to the crowds about Jesus and John the Baptist.
“I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me,
then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.
Where was John’s baptism from?
Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”
Jesus knew that the Pharisees were only trying to trap him. Given that they didn't believe he had any authority, if he said it came from God they would spin that into allegations of blasphemy, of one more concrete way in which he seemed to be circumventing the customs and established institutions of worship at the time. And if Jesus instead answered that his authority was something lesser or entirely lacking, that answer would be fine as well. They could easily use such an answer to demonstrate to the crowds that Jesus was not worth following after all.
Jesus refused to play on the terms specified by the Pharisees. If it was the crowds they were trying to impress or convince the Pharisees would need to answer Jesus that John's baptism was from heaven. But of course they could not say this, for John himself pointed to Jesus as the Messiah. Conceding John's role conceded everything. But if they said the baptism of John was of human origin, as they clearly believed, they would not have fodder to use on the crowds against Jesus. On the contrary, they themselves would even more definitively lose any influence on the crowds that they may have had.
So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.”
He himself said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
There is a small practical point to be made about not engaging in disputes that aren't genuine. Discussions are one thing. But if our opponents are trying to trap us from the start it may be better to do what Jesus did and not engage. By not engaging Jesus nevertheless exposed the position of the Pharisees. No doubt crowds who saw this exchange would have realized all of the implications, that the Pharisees were biased against belief in John and therefore in Jesus before they even considered evidence or argument. Jesus leaving his own authority somewhat undefined and mysterious probably only served to heighten the Messianic expectation of the crowds. They would have seen this as just one more time the Pharisees failed in their attempts to outsmart Jesus.
The Pharisees were in some sense made to serve in spite of themselves, just as Balaam was paid to curse the God of Israel but instead continued to bless him instead. The Pharisees attempted to insinuate against and obscure the the message of Jesus but their attempts only served to elevate that message. There is much confidence we ourselves can gain from watching the way that God works in controversy. He does so in a way that is not constrained by the cleverness of our own arguments so much as our faithfulness. We do well to remember that it is God himself, more than any of us, who desires that his truth be known.
I see him, though not now;
I behold him, though not near:
A star shall advance from Jacob,
and a staff shall rise from Israel.
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