Matthew 21:23-27--The Authority of Jesus Questioned

​Matthew 21:23-27 English Standard Version (ESV)
LISTEN:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.21.23-Matt.21.27  
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

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We come back to a familiar scene.  Jesus has the attention of large crowds of people and this gets the attention of the chief priests, especially since they've just seen the processional of the Messiah (they knew what the people were doing and saying) and have seen Jesus take authority over the temple to clean it out and have heard what He is teaching (or possibly heard it for themselves) and they decide they cannot allow this to go unchallenged on what they believe to be their "home court."

They devised a trap for Jesus that was the kind of question that seemed innocent, but Jesus knowing their intentions turned the tables on them and instead of answering them by what authority He did these things, He made them answer the question about if the baptism of John (which Jesus had already associated Himself with and had started Him ministry preaching the same message as John and many of His disciples has been disciples of John) was from heaven (from God) or from man (not of God)?

The chief priests and the elders quickly realized it was they who were ensnared because if they said they believed that John was a prophet of God, then the implication would be, "Why didn't you listen to him?," but if they said "He was just a man." then the crowds would riot because they did believe that John was a prophet, so they pretended out of expediency to play dumb.  Jesus then essentially said that two could play at that game and that He would not give them an answer to their question if they would not answer His and they would go away even more angry--other gospels tell us that from this point on they would set out to kill Him.  Up until now they had been content simply to discredit Him, but they took this embarrassment so personally and feared for their jobs and country (if Rome heard that the people wanted Jesus to be King and worshiped Him as God then Rome would come in and declare insurrection and start killing all the Jews.)

We too need to ask this question seriously with no ulterior motive or agenda.  Was Jesus a lair who knew He was not the Messiah and not God but made people believe He was, a lunatic who was delusional and believed He was Messiah and God even though He wasn't, or was He Lord and actually Messiah and God in the flesh just as He claimed to be?  There is no room to simply say that He was a "good man," a "good teacher," or a "prophet," which is why Jesus is usually quick to correct people that labeled Him in such a fashion, but He didn't correct those that bowed down in worship before Him.

We cannot simply bring Jesus alongside our lives as they are...I promise you that everything will be turned upside down and inside-out when you are converted.  To back to our analogy that we've used to much, it will be like a caterpillar changing into a butterfly.