The Authority of Jesus: Mark 11:27-33

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Around the middle of the twentieth century, a paradigm shift occurred in the minds of humanity, the likes of which had not occurred in 500 years. Historians, philosophers, and sociologists often recognize three major paradigm shifts in the last 2,000 years. The first is called the “pre-modern” era, and lasted until around 1500 AD. During this time, knowledge was rooted in faith in God and the authority of His revelation in Scripture. Truth was understood to be that which was in harmony with faith in God and His word. However, when the Enlightenment period began, what is sometimes called “the modern era”, the emphasis was changed from faith in God to human reasoning. For the better part of 500 years, this was the way the bulk of humanity operated. It wasn’t that faith in God or the Bible was discarded, it was just that people began to question why the authority of God or the Bible should be assumed. There emerged in this period of history a view of two circles of truth. There was the circle of “religious truth” or “faith,” in which ideas that people believed without proof was contained. And then there was the circle of “real truth,” or we might call it “scientific truth”. In this circle was all the information that could be tested and proven by human reason or scientific investigation. Slowly, this circle came to be more important in the minds of humanity than the circle of religious truth or faith. Over the next 400 years or so, several great clashes between the two circles took place such as the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, and the Scopes Monkey Trial. But in the midst of the twentieth century, the dominance of human reason began to lose power as a new paradigm shift began to emerge. This new way of thinking has been referred to as “Postmodernism”. If the pre-modern period is characterized by one circle of truth, and the modern period by two circles of truth, then postmodernism is characterized by no circle of truth. The notion of truth has disappeared altogether, replaced by a stronger emphasis on feelings and relationships. Nothing is considered to be true in an absolute sense, but truth morphs into whatever helps me to feel better or whatever values bind my social network. Of course, little thought is given to the fact that postmodern ideology is self-defeating. When one claims that there is no absolute truth, they expect that statement to be understood as absolute truth, and therein the whole system falls apart. But with the rejection of absolute truth also came the rejection of authority. Since no idea can be said to be absolutely true in the postmodern system of thought, then no one can lay claim to any level of authority. As we enter the marketplace and present the claims of the Christian faith, we are met with either indifference or antagonism. The indifferent response we receive says, “I’m so glad that Christianity works for you. It doesn’t work for me. So, it isn’t true for me, but it can be true for you.” The antagonistic response says, “Who do you think you are to force your ideas on me?” And so we see that, although the times have radically changed since Jesus’ day, the issues we face as we serve Him in a lost world have not changed all that much.

In the last few passages we have seen how Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Sunday of His final week before the cross. On Monday, He entered the Temple and chased out the money changers and salesmen and upset the entire system of Temple-based religion. Now, it is Tuesday, and Jesus returns to the Temple. Mark tells us that He was walking in the Temple, and the other Gospels tell us He was teaching. And as Jesus is walking and teaching, He is confronted by the chief priests and the scribes and elders. As the passage unfolds we see that the entire episode revolves around the issue of authority, namely by what authority Jesus has said and done the things they have observed. In the study of this passage, we will discover three important realizations about the authority of Jesus that will help us to understand the conflict which was brewing around Him. But these realizations will also help us to understand the clash which often erupts in our own day when it comes to His authority and the authority of His Word.

I. Jesus’ authority is rejected by those whom it threatens (vv27-28)

The chief priests, the scribes and the elders are no randomly gathered group of inquisitors. These three groups made up the body known as the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish executive, legislative, and judicial council: the equivalent of America’s president, congress, and Supreme Court, all rolled up into one body. The Sanhedrin consisted of seventy men plus the high priest, who was its presiding officer. The title “chief priests” refers to the present high priest, the former high priests, and the group of religious officials from which the high priests were chosen. Most of these were Sadducees, who are characterized by their support of Rome, their preference for the Greek culture, and their more liberal views of doctrine. The scribes consisted mostly of Pharisees, that prominent and powerful group of Jewish teachers who were considered to be experts in matters of religious doctrine and practice. The elders were the prominent leaders of nearby major towns. We should probably not assume that all 71 members of the Sanhedrin confronted Jesus in the Temple on that Tuesday, but it would be fair to understand this group as a chosen delegation sent by the Sanhedrin for the purpose of confronting Him.

In Matthew’s Gospel, we read that this encounter took place “while He was teaching.” It was a public engagement, and no doubt the delegation interrupted Him in the midst of His teaching to ask Him two very important questions: “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” What are “these things” to which they refer? Very obviously, they were concerned primarily with the events of the last 24-48 hours. By what authority has Jesus entered the city accompanied by the praises of the people? Who has given Him the authority to run off the temple’s merchants? And on what grounds does He assume He can enter the temple grounds and begin teaching? They demand that He produce some credentials otherwise He will be condemned as a blasphemer, an anarchist, and a religious rebel.

Inherent in their questions is a key assumption. The Sanhedrin believes itself to be the ultimate authority in all matters of Israel, and they have not authorized Jesus to do these things. Therefore, He is either without authority, or else He must claim to have some higher authority, and in their minds, the latter is unthinkable. In their eyes, there is no higher authority. By His actions, Jesus has threatened their power, their prominence, and their prosperity. His teaching undermines theirs, His popularity exceeds theirs, and His purging the merchants from the temple has cut off their means of financial support. They are not interested in conversation, but condemnation, because their livelihood and their very claim to legitimately exist as a ruling council is under attack by the words and deeds of Jesus. So their goal in this confrontation is to expose Jesus as an infidel and a renegade and return the people’s confidence to themselves. When it comes to the position of ultimate authority, there is room for only one. Either the Sanhedrin is the ultimate authority, or else someone or something else is. And the Sanhedrin will hardly relinquish its claim, therefore they reject the authority of Jesus to do “these things.”

In our day, as we point to the authoritative claims of Jesus Christ, those claims are received by some as threats. We claim that that He is the unique incarnation of God, that His word is the only source of divine revelation, that He is the only way to salvation, and that He alone is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This threatens those who choose to believe otherwise. They believe in other deities, other scriptures, other paths of enlightenment, and other sources of ultimate authority. And the most tyrannical authority in all the world is the tyranny of self. The Christian worldview is a brunt attack on the fortress of self-authority. We claim that God has a standard of righteousness, which threatens those who believe they can decide right and wrong for themselves. We claim that all are sinners, threatening the pervasive notion that we are all OK and basically good people deep down. We claim that there is only one source of truth and one way to salvation, threatening the idea that every person can determine their own truth or invent their own spirituality. We claim that allegiance to Christ demands a denial of self and of lesser things, threatening the self-serving ideals that are common to man. And so it is no surprise that these authoritative claims are rejected. But the rejection of the claims of Christ does not disprove them. One does not reject the claims of Christ because he or she is intellectually superior, or because they have found a more factual system of belief. They often reject the claims of Christ because they are threatened by His authority and are not yet willing to relinquish their own. But their rejection does not make the claims untrue. They were true when Jesus spoke them, though they were rejected by those whom they threatened, and they continue to be true, threatening, and rejected today. We can know this with certainty because of our second realization concerning His authority. …

II. Jesus’ authority is attested by divine revelation (29-32)

Rather than getting into a prolonged debate with the religious leaders, or going to great lengths to defend Himself, Jesus responds to their two questions with one question of His own: “Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?”

John the Baptist emerged onto the scene as a prophetic voice calling for people to repent. He was not trained in the rabbinical schools, and no impressive credentials to display. He was clothed in camel-hair, eating locusts and wild honey in the wilderness, and the people of Israel flocked out to hear him and to be baptized as a demonstration of their repentance from sin. His preaching broke 400 years of prophetic silence in Israel. Though he was not popular with Herod or with the religious establishment, the people rightly understood him to be a true prophet of God. The question of Jesus may seem at first glance to be unrelated to the issue of His own authority, but in fact it is crucial.

Like Jesus, John had not been authorized, commissioned, or ordained by the Sanhedrin. Rather than summoning the people to the Temple to undergo rituals and sacrifice to have their sins forgiven, John was offering forgiveness free of charge to all who would come to the river and demonstrate repentance of their sins and faith in the promise of God’s Word. Now Jesus asks the supposed religious authorities of Israel, “Who authorized John to do this?” Pious Jews sought to refrain from taking God’s name in vain, so they would often substitute the word “heaven” for the name of God. Jesus accommodates that custom in His question. Was John’s baptism from heaven, meaning was it authorized by God, or was it authorized by men?

Now the opposition found themselves in a real pickle. You can almost see them huddled together like a football team planning their next play, whispering among themselves, “Hmmm, how can we answer this one.” They knew that if they said John’s baptism was not of divine origin, they would have trouble on their hands. Luke’s Gospel tells us that they feared the people would stone them because everyone recognized John to be a real prophet of God. So that leaves them with the option of saying that John’s baptism was ordained by God. But this was equally problematic. If they said this, then they knew Jesus would say, “Then why did you not believe him?”

Now, what exactly had they not believed about John’s message? If you recall, a significant plank in John’s platform was his message that he was a forerunner, preparing the way for one who was to come after him who was greater than he. In Mark 1:7-8, John said, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The fact that Jesus was this mightier One is made evident by the testimony of John concerning Him. When Jesus came to be baptized by John, we read in Matthew 3:14 that John said, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” In John 1:29-30, John pointed out Jesus and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’” Of course John the Baptist was older than Jesus, but he recognized that Jesus was God incarnate, eternally preexistent, thus he said, “He existed before me.” But even more significant than John’s testimony of who Jesus was is God’s own testimony. When Jesus was baptized by John, in Mark 1:10-11 we read, “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’” In John 1:33-34, John the Baptist said, “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Now, if the members of the Sanhedrin admit that “the one who sent John to baptize” was God, then they must accept his testimony as true. But if they do that, then they admit to Jesus being the Son of God, God incarnate, and the long-awaited Messiah. This then would answer the question of His authority – if John was baptizing under God’s authority, then Jesus was doing the things He did under God’s authority as well. So the question Jesus asks is essential to the issue of His authority.

There is a principle at work here in this question and counter-question. Man can only know truth about God if and when God chooses to reveal it. And God reveals Himself to people progressively. To those who respond in faith to the revelation they receive from Him, He gives more. To those who reject that previous revelation or remain indifferent to it, He withholds further revelation. At best, the Sanhedrin takes a course of indifference to the revelation given through John the Baptist, saying ultimately, “We do not know.” At worst, they have rejected the revelation given through John, and only waver on it because of fear of the people. Either way, they have disqualified themselves from receiving an answer to their question. If they will accept John’s testimony, then the question of Jesus’ authority becomes unnecessary. But since they have rejected it, or ignored it, He refuses to give them more information than they already have.

This is relevant for us today. We have a message to proclaim about a God who forgives sin and invites people to live forever in heaven. And we are proclaiming that message to a culture which does not believe in God, or at least doesn’t believe in this God, doesn’t believe in sin, and doesn’t believe in life after death. Contrast the preaching of Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2 with the preaching of Paul at Mars Hill in Acts 17. Peter was preaching to a Jewish audience who had accepted the revelation of the Old Testament. Therefore in his sermon, he built on what they knew to lead them to understand Christ as a fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament. But in Acts 17, Paul was preaching to secularized Gentiles who were immersed in various strains of philosophy. He makes no reference at all to the Old Testament, but begins with their own religious beliefs, creation, and morality. He builds on what they already know and accept and doesn’t speak to them about concepts they can’t understand. This is similar to what Jesus does with the religious leaders. Knowing that they have (for the most part) accepted the revelation of the Old Testament, He moves on to the revelation of John the Baptist. Since they won’t accept that revelation, there is no need to move further with them. They are condemned already because of their unbelief. So we too must find a common ground with those that we talk to about Christ.

It may be that those with whom we seek to share Christ have no knowledge of God, or the Bible, or right and wrong. But they know they exist, and they know that this world exists. So we start there. They have received the revelation of creation. So we ask them to move from there to recognizing a creator. Then we move to the issue of revelation, that the creator makes Himself known to the creation. Then we move from there to Christ in calculated steps, building at each stage on what the individual has accepted already. No matter how convincing our presentation may be, God will not reveal Himself beyond what they already accept to be true about Him. Jesus demonstrates this in this encounter with the members of the Sanhedrin. They want to know about His authority. He points them to divine revelation, for His authority is attested therein. But they have not received the revelation they have been given, so they can receive no more.

Now we move to the final realization about Christ’s authority from these verses. …

III. Jesus’ authority will triumph over all earthly powers (33)

The final verse in this chapter is filled with somewhat humorous irony. The most powerful entity in Israel has approached Jesus to interrogate Him about the issue of authority. Their aim was to discredit Jesus in the eyes of the people. Yet, with a single and simple question, Jesus turns the tables on them. Was John’s baptism from heaven or from men? If anyone could possibly offer an answer to this question, certainly these men could be expected to do so. This group is supposedly a collection of experts on all things political and religious. Yet, without argument, without any propositional claim, without any line of personal defense, with a simple question, Jesus exposes their ignorance, their insecurity, and their spiritual powerlessness. They are forced to confess, “We do not know.” I wish we could see the looks on people’s faces who overheard this. I imagine they would be shocked to hear such a confession from these scholars. They are supposed to know it all! How can they not discern whether someone is operating under God’s authority or not? And since they admit that they cannot discern this about John, Jesus responds, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” And with that statement, Jesus demonstrates that they have no authority over Him. Rather, He has authority over them and does not owe them any answer.
There have been many throughout history who, like the Sanhedrin, have tried to place themselves in the seat of judgment over Christ. They try to evaluate Him according to their own standards, assuming that they have some authority to determine the validity of His words and works. But He does not submit to their authority. He does not jump through their hoops on command. And He doesn’t waste time proving to them the truths that will ultimately prevail on their own merits. He goes on about His work of teaching the multitudes and doing the works that the Father sent Him to do. The Sanhedrin is not appeased at this point. They will regroup and devise a more sinister plan to eliminate the Jesus threat by sending Him to the cross to die. But, even though they have the power to put Him to death, they still do not have authority over Him. He triumphs ultimately by His resurrection from the dead. Even in putting Him to death, they play right into His sovereign plans, illustrating yet again that He is the one with ultimate divine authority.

Governments, armies, philosophers and a host of other forces have tried to place themselves in authority over Christ, and time and time again, He triumphs over them. And we know that ultimately, the Word of God promises that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You may be witnessing to someone who refuses to acknowledge the authority of Christ, and by their rejection of His claims they seek to elevate themselves in authority over Him and His Word. Some Christian people are well-trained in apologetics and can engage in lengthy disputes and debates and present convincing arguments for the truth of Christ’s claims. But, while we should all be growing in our faith and in knowledge so that we can better articulate the Christian message, we should not be intimidated by the wise-sounding arguments of those who reject Christ. After all, it is not the power of our intellectual arguments that will convert the lost sinner. That is a work of the Holy Spirit as He moves sovereignly upon the hearts of men. We speak truth into their lives, under the authority of Christ who has commissioned us to do so, and we leave the results to Him.

We rest in confidence that Christ will triumph over all earthly powers. The individual or group of individuals who refuse to submit to Christ’s authority may die in their rebellious state. But they will find themselves then face to face with Him, and without word or argument, they will bow before Him and confess that He is Lord. Only then it will be too late for them, and for eternity they will endure the misery and torment of hell, being plagued by their guilt of rejecting Him during the days of their lives, and their refusal to receive the gracious offer of salvation from God.

Could it be that you have resisted Christ’s authority in your own life? Could it be that the thought of submitting to His authority threatens the security of your own life, thinking that you live under your own autonomy? If so, you must realize that your resistance to His authority does not diminish it. You will acknowledge His ultimate Lordship now, or you will later, and then it may be too late. To not live under rightful authority is to live in rebellion, and the way to end rebellion is to surrender. So it may be that today you need to wave the white flag and finally allow Him to reign in your life as Lord. Christ died to save you, and conquered death for you in His resurrection. Why not today, this moment, acknowledge this by faith and yield your life to Him?