Luke 20:1-8--The Authority of Jesus Challenged

Luke 20:1-8
English Standard Version
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The Authority of Jesus Challenged
20 One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up 2 and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” 3 He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, 4 was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” 5 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 8 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

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This question actually sounds pretty silly and petty if you have paid any attention to the teachings and events that we've studied since Luke 16--all of which probably happened over a week or two.  I don't expect the Pharisees to piece together everything that's happened over the past 3 years, because I know myself and know that I sometimes have trouble remembering things that happened more than a few days ago.  But, Jesus has been telling them the same thing over, and over, and over again.  He is the master and they are His slaves.  The Temple was His house, therefore, He had the authority to clean it out.  These people belonged to Him and He was their God, so of course He would accept worship and praise from them, and of course He spoke as one who had power and authority because He spoke everything into existence out of nothing.

However, they did not ask this question out of ignorance, but out of rebellion.  They recognized what authority He was saying that He did these things by and they refused to submit to that authority, and they wanted to trap Him into directly saying that He was God.  For the Old Testament Law would call such a statement made a mere blasphemy, and it was punishable by death.  This was their new solution--to get Jesus to say something in front of witnesses that would lead to them justifiably executing the death penalty immediately, for that is the way that death sentences were carried out in that time.   Witnesses immediately testified to the elders (that is the Sanhedrin), who just so happen to already be present at most of these testings, and on the agreement of the testimony of two or three (male) witnesses, every fact will be established and judgment will be swift and decisive.  Unfortunately though, the Romans would not not permit the Jews to carry out their own capital punishment (stoning for religious crimes or civil crimes) or so the Sanhedrin will say so that they can put the execution of Jesus off on the Romans.

However, first, they must entrap Jesus with His own words, so they ask Him a loaded question, "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority."  As I said before, Jesus has already answered that question, and He knows that they didn't miss the answer He had given previously.  So, He doesn't answer their dishonest question except to ask them a question that in a sense does answer their question, but reveals their hearts and puts them on trial in front of the people.  In so doing He turns the tables on them and catches them in the trap that they had tried to set for Him.  Jesus says He will only answer their question if they answer His--"Was baptism of John from heaven or from man?”

In a sense, Jesus is asking the question back to them about by what authority John the Baptist said and did what He did and is implying that the answer is the same to both questions.  They knew they were in trouble either way they answered because if they said "From God," then the obvious follow-up question is why they didn't repent and believe what John said, but if they say that it was from man or from earth (that it was not from God), then the people who knew John to be a prophet would be angry with them.  Therefore they claimed ignorance and simply answered, "We don't know," even though they clearly did know.  They showed that they were liars and they were exposed to all the people.  None of the people seriously believed that these religious leaders who went out to listen to and test John the Baptist didn't know where his message and power and authority came from, but they didn't want to believe him because his message upset them and the status quo that they profited from.  The same was true about Jesus--they knew exactly who He claimed to be (even greater than John), and He clearly told them not just that His message came from the Father in heaven, but that He Himself came from the Father and would return to the Father.

They feared the reaction of the crowd in stoning them that was the same reaction they had hoped to provoke in the crowd against Jesus.  Jesus having exposed them for who they were said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Dishonest questions do not deserve serious answers.  We should be able to discern when someone is asking a question for information and when they are asking to ensnare and entrap.  Jesus will show us over this period of examination that there are many such questions He would face from His enemies that didn't deserve answers--in fact, He didn't say much of anything during His trials when they questioned Him because their questions did not deserve answers (or even if He did answer them, they would not believe).

You can see that the tensions that were under the surface for a while are out in the open and what was once a desire simply to embarrass or discredit Jesus has now turned into an open campaign to use the Law to execute Him, and the Pharisees and the entire Sanhedrin had purposed in their hearts that Jesus would not make it to Passover.  They had but a few days to put their plans in motion so it is going to be non-stop action for both Jesus and His enemies, and the enemies of Jesus are going to have to bind themselves together with those they would typically find to be their enemies with the common purpose of eliminating Jesus.  Yet even with all the powers of the Jews and the Gentiles coming against Him, Jesus was still completely in control and nothing happened to progress the timeline until He knew it was time for the timeline to progress.