Matthew 21:23-32
“Jesus and the Jerusalem Authorities”
If I were to write a ticket or arrest someone for speeding down Whitley Road, I would probably be arrested for impersonating a police officer, and rightfully so. I don’t have the authority to do such a thing.
If I were to walk into an operating room at Baylor Grapevine and perform a surgery, I could very well be charged with attempted homicide, and for good reason…I am not a physician. I don’t have that authority.
Or, if I were somehow able to sit behind the president’s desk in the oval office and make executive decisions, I would be promptly seized by secret service and escorted to jail. I don’t have that authority.
The question of authority is worth asking, and worth knowing.
And when Jesus 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?”
In today’s reading from Matthew 21 it’s a matter of authority. The Jerusalem religious authorities are challenging Jesus’ authority. “Who does he think he is, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey like a some kind of Messiah? Turning over tables in “His house”. Strolling into the temple and teaching the people as though he owned the place?”
“By what authority are you doing these things, Jesus? Who gave you this authority?”
We need to understand the question before we can understand the answer. The keyword is authority. And in the minds of 1st century Jews, no one operated on their own authority. Authority had to come from somewhere and someone. We tend to equate authority with power. And it involves that, but much more. Authority, even today, is given, not claimed for oneself. Someone is granted, vested with, appointed or elected to a position of authority. It’s a matter of permission granted by another to do certain things. The police officer for law enforcement. The doctor for surgeries and physical wellbeing. The president to be the chief executive officer of the United States. To have authority is to have permission from someone greater, or higher to say and do certain things.
The same thing happens when I pronounce the absolution: I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I do so in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. By His authority. His permission. At his command, even.
So they ask, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
Now, we, and anyone who’s even been paying half attention to Matthew’s Gospel, already know the answer to this question. Jesus teaches the crowds with authority. Jesus heals and forgives the paralytic man with authority. Jesus calms the wind and waves with authority. Jesus sends out his disciples with authority. After Jesus’ death and resurrection he declares, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Yes, we know where Jesus’ authority comes from. From God the Father.
But of course, the religious authorities have no real interest in Jesus’ authority. What sounds like a holy, pious question only reveals their hypocrisy, unbelief, and rejection of Jesus – which only intensifies as Matthew’s Gospel continues on to Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.
So Jesus takes the bait. Plays their game. And ends up turning the tables on more than the money changers. “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. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
There’s a lot of freight behind Jesus’ question. Jesus essentially asks them, “was John sent from God or did he just make all that Messiah stuff up? And if John was sent from God, what does that say about my baptism in the Jordan River? You see, the answer to Jesus’ question is the same answer to the chief priests’ question. If John was from God, then so is Jesus. If John was a true prophet, then why didn’t the pay attention when John pointed to Jesus and declared him the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?
So, Jesus artfully, skillfully sets the trap and the religious authorities walk right into it, and they know it. They go into their corner, like contestants on Family Feud, and deliberate. “Well, if we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
Jesus beat them at their own game. They make a political play. A cowardly answer, taking no stand at all. “We do not know,” they answered Jesus. It’s an answer of self-condemnation. They’re caught in their hypocrisy and sin. They fear the loss of their popularity, prestige, and political power more than they fear, love, and trust in God and his Christ.
But isn’t the same true of us as well? When Jesus reveals their pride, hypocrisy, and sin, he also reveals ours. Jesus challenges our authority too. For like the chief priests we so often act and speak as if we are our own authority. I have lived as if God and my neighbor do not matter, and that I matter most. My kingdom come. My will be done. Yes, Jesus’ words reveal the chief priest in all each of us.
That we would presume to judge him – to challenge and question his right to ask things of us. That we would act as if we know better, is the height of arrogance. It is taking for ourselves authority that isn’t given. It’s putting ourselves in the place of God. This is what sinners do – and have always done – try to be like God, usurp God, bump him off the throne and take it for ourselves.
And yet, Jesus’s conflict with the chief priests reveals something even greater than their sin and ours. It reveals his love for sinners, even those who reject him and will crucify him. He longs to bring them to repentance and faith, just as he spoke through his prophet Ezekiel so long ago, that he desires not the death of the wicked but that they repent and live – all by God’s grace in Christ.
It’s a matter of authority. And this is how Jesus exercises his authority. Not selfishly, but selflessly. Laying down his life for the chief priests and us chief of sinners. Not in power but in his passion on the cross for you. Not in hubris, but in humility. For you, Jesus emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The Author of Creation itself submits to death in humility – for you. And so he re-authors, re-writes your destiny.
Now you live under the authority of Jesus crucified and risen. He calls you to repentance. He gives you faith in Him. He baptizes you in His name. He gives you love for your neighbor. He continues to teach you with authority in his life-giving Word. He continues to heal you miraculously in his body and blood.
Trust the Lord of your Baptism and you will live. He is authorized by the Father to save you, and He has done it. All for you.
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