15 December 2025 - questioning authority

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

"By what authority are you doing these things?
And who gave you this authority?"

We can hardly blame them for being scandalized by Jesus cleansing the temple. He told them to stop making his Father's house a marketplace, which was obviously an implicit claim about his authority to act on his Father's behalf to set things right. But they wanted Jesus to make this implicit claim more explicit. Clearly no ordinary teacher would have claimed to have authority over the temple. Even prophets might make prophetic gestures or statements in regard to the temple, might even prophesy its eventual downfall, but they did not feel free to take renovations into their own hands. Jesus had said that he was one greater than the temple (see Matthew 12:6), which could, in the final analysis, mean only one thing. That one thing is what they were hoping to provoke him to say.

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.

Jesus wasn't being evasive about answering the question about authority so much as not interested in answering a question that was not motivated by a search for truth. The chief priests and elders asked the question for political purposes. They wanted to force Jesus to say something so extreme it would negate his growing popularity.

Where was John's baptism from?
Was it of heavenly or of human origin?"

Jesus, as he so often did, turned the tables on those who sought to entrap him. He responded with a legitimate question, since a proper understanding of the origin of John's baptism was inextricably linked with understanding Jesus, who received that baptism. The forerunner was part of the context without which the bridegroom's coming would be unintelligible. If they wanted a real answer about the authority of Jesus they would need to demonstrate the capability to give a real answer about the ministry of John the Baptist. But in the case of John the Baptist too they could only give a political answer, unable to take the popular stance, since they did not agree, and unable to say what they truly thought, since the alternative opinion was so popular. But if they couldn't be sincere about what they thought on that point, what right did they have to demand straightforward sincerity from Jesus? If they were only looking for pretext to solidify their preexisting opinions for political purposes, what good would it do to tell them that the authority of Jesus came from his heavenly Father?

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."

The big problem with the chief priests and the elders in this instance was that they had prior commitments and preconceptions into which Jesus did not fit. They hadn't believed in John, and were unwilling to reevaluate him in the light of Jesus. They were too tied to their ideas to change, and too afraid of the crowd to allow their opinions to be subjected to public scrutiny. In a way, people sincerely opposed to Jesus, and who could at least say so directly were in a much better position to potentially discover the truth about him. If those who questioned Jesus could just admit that they didn't believe in John that could have been the beginning of a conversation. But in their unwillingness to say anything at all they all but ruled out learning the truth.

The first reading this morning reminds us that God can work even through very stubborn people committed to false beliefs, as he did through Balaam. Our aversion to the truth and our innate stubbornness are not insurmountable obstacles to God. He can find people to whom we listen and put in their mouths words we can grasp. We may still reject those words. But they may spark with in us a desire to at least hope that they are true. Such is a blessing of this holiday season. Many people do not believe the message of Christmas. But some of them at least find it to be a desirable message. A God who cares enough to become one of us, to make himself known, and to save us, does seem preferable to a disinterested universe in which we are just blips of chance, heading from nothing and returning there. We can use this to our advantage as evangelists. It isn't always easy for us to own our Christianity publicly. Their isn't always a good opportunity to do so without being awkward. But Christmas makes it a little easier. So let us follow the example of John the Baptist and help to prepare for the coming of Christ this year.

Sword Of The Spirit Worship - Our Blessed Hope