THE LAST WEEK OF JESUS' PUBLIC MINISTRY AND HIS CRUCIFIXION

-The Jewish Leaders Challenge the Authority of Jesus

-Matthew 21:23-27; Mark 11:27-33; Luke 21:37-38; 20:1-8

-Each day that Jesus had entered Jerusalem, He had gone to the temple.  On Tuesday, as He

 taught there, the chief priests, scribes and elders approached Him and asked, “Tell us, by what

 authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?” (Luke 20:2).

            -“Our Lord was certainly under no obligation to answer their question: he had already given

             them such proofs of his divine mission as could not possibly be exceeded: in the miracles

             which he performed before their eyes, and before all Judea; and, as they would not credit

             him on this evidence, it would have been in vain to have expected their acknowledgment of

             him on any profession he would make” (Clarke).

-Jesus agreed to answer their question under one condition - that they first answer a question for

 Him - “The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?” (Mark 11:30).

            -The Jewish leaders reasoned amongst themselves and realized that they had not entrapped

             Jesus with their inquiry but were entrapped by His.  If they answered that the authority of

             John’s baptism originated from heaven then they would be incriminating themselves due to

             the fact that they had rejected John and his message regarding Jesus.  Yet, if they claimed

             that John had no heavenly authority for his mission and message, they would invoke the

             displeasure of the crowd who, as a whole, viewed John as a prophet of God.

            -“These teachers who were the professed guides of the people, and prepared to decide upon

             all questions, are now put in the ridiculous attitude of saying that they are unable to answer

             a simple question put to them by this despised man of Galilee.  How humiliating it must

             have been to them!  Yet they chose to suffer this humiliation rather than confess the truth”

             (Boles, Matthew, pg 419).

-Since they refused to answer Jesus’ question, Jesus simply refused to answer theirs.