Our Lord’s Authority

S. Mark xi. 27–33

It was on the Tuesday in Holy Week, whilst Jesus was walking in the Temple teaching the people as they gathered about Him, that He was suddenly called upon to answer a question of the gravest import. The circumstances under which it was put were such, and the directness of the inquiry was so unmistakably clear, that unless it could be answered satisfactorily He would gain no further hearing.

After the cleansing of the Temple on the previous day, the Sanhedrim held a hasty sitting, and determined upon the adoption of some more urgent measures to compass His overthrow. Their jealousy of His influence had been stirred almost as soon as He began His Ministry, and it had culminated after the raising of Lazarus. S. John tells us that on hearing of this they met at the house of Caiaphas (on the Hill of Evil Counsel), and officially decreed His death. But their attempts at carrying out their decree had hitherto been defeated. Accordingly, when He reappeared on the scene which had witnessed their discomfiture, they reopened their plan of attack. They sent a formal deputation of their members to confront Him. It seems to have been carefully chosen with a view to overawe Him, for it contained representatives from each of its component parts, chief priests and scribes and elders. They would be well known in the Temple, and if they could succeed in shaking the belief in His claims, His popularity would receive a shock, and the great obstacle in their way be removed.

Jesus had taken upon Himself two offices, both of which, at least since the prophets had disappeared, had been assigned by general recognition to their body alone. He had usurped the control and management of the Temple, and placed Himself in the Teacher’s Chair. Show us, they say, your authority for such an unprecedented proceeding. If you say that you are a Priest, as we are, the office by God’s appointment is hereditary. Prove your Aaronic descent. Or if you claim the right to teach, show your commission. Name the Rabbi from whom you received it, or the Scribe who ordained and invested you with the symbols 3 of your office. “By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority to do these things?”

He Who could read the hearts of men saw through their design. He knew that their object was not really to learn the nature of His credentials, but to entangle Him, to force Him to put forth claims which they could seize upon as grounds for an indictment. And He foiled their attempt completely, as He always did when He discovered the least trace of dishonesty, by replying to the inquiry in a manner wholly unexpected. His answer appeared to be only a clever evasion of the question, but if they understood all that it involved it was its direct solution. “The baptism of John, whence was it?” He meant, of course, his ministry in general; but because its chief characteristic was the washing away of sin, the purification of the hearts of men in preparation for the Advent, He used the term Baptism as synonymous with Mission. And He asked them whether John received his commission to baptize and preach from God or from man. The question placed them on the horns of a dilemma from which there was no escape. Supposing they admitted that he had been sent by God, there was only one conclusion to be drawn. Christ would have told them at once that they had themselves answered their own question as to His authority. The aim and end of John’s mission was to bear testimony to Him. One great reason why the people flocked in such crowds to his Baptism was that they might be prepared to welcome Him Whose forerunner the Baptist professed to be. The burden of his message was, “There cometh One mightier than I after me, Whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.”

And could there be any manner of doubt that John had recognised Him as his successor? Had he not said of Him, “Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world “? To admit, therefore, the Divine authority of the Baptist’s mission, was tantamount to the admission of His; and this the Sanhedrists saw clearly enough. And not only so, but such a recognition would leave them self-condemned, for though in the first outburst of excitement some of them were carried along in the stream of popular enthusiasm, when they found how diametrically opposite His teaching was to theirs, they had set their faces against Him, and denounced His austerities in unmeasured terms. Not unnaturally then the thought arose in their minds, “If we shall say, From heaven; He will say, Why then did ye not believe him?” But supposing, on the other hand, they said that John had no Divine commission, they would be no better off. That would be to run counter to popular feeling, for “all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.” His coming had been hailed with delight by the nation. For four centuries they had been waiting and watching for one of those accredited messengers of God to come again amongst them. In all the difficulties in which they found themselves placed, their common lament shaped itself into a cry that the Urim and Thummim might be revived, or that some one might come who should be authorised to speak to them direct from God. And so when the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elias the whole population poured out to welcome him.

The Sanhedrists knew well what a hold he had gained upon the people, and to assert that his authority was only based upon human appointment would involve them in consequences which they were by no means prepared to face.

What then was to be done? Only one course was open to them. They would evade the difficulty by a pretence of ignorance. It was a question, they said, on which they could pronounce no opinion. “We cannot tell.” We can measure the humiliation it cost them to make such a confession in the hearing of the people, when we remember the claims which they had arrogated to themselves to be the sole depositaries of all legal and ecclesiastical knowledge. There was not a question ever propounded in their schools, not a difficulty, either of interpretation or history, which they would ever acknowledge their inability to solve in some way. And if only they had not shrunk from speaking the conviction of their hearts at this moment, there was no reason why they should do it even here. But anything was better than the least sanction to the pretensions of their open and avowed Antagonist; and so, with a lie on their lips, they went away, smarting under the humiliation and the blow which their pride had received, and determined to redouble their efforts to bring about His death.

The interview abruptly ended with our Lord’s refusal to give any other answer to their inquiry than what they had received.. He then turned to the people and resumed His teaching, to be interrupted again, if not by the same disputants, yet doubtless by men urged on at their instigation, to try to bring Him into collision with the civil power, but with the same result. No weapon of argument forged against Him could stand, for He had truth on His side, and it always prevailed. It was only when they enlisted treachery and force on their side that their end was gained. 1 Cf. p. 260.

Note: The hereditary spiritual office was represented by the heads of the twentyfour Courses of the Priests. The Elders were the real Senators of the Council, selected for age and dignity. The Scribes embodied the knowledge of the nation.

Note: He had called the Temple “His” House, and had swept aside by a single stroke all the rules and regulations which the Chief Priests had sanctioned; and as a Teacher He had taught the people with such an air of authority that they regarded Him as superior to the Scribes.

Note: It has been said that every Scribe received at his ordination a key, as the symbol of his office, showing that it was given to him to unlock the treasures of knowledge. — S. Luke xi. 52; Plumptre on S. Matt. xvi. 19, and Lightfoot’s Exercit. in loco. For some account of an ordination of a Scribe, cf. Edersheim, ii. 382, where, however, he denies the “tradition” of the key.