Saturday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, June 1, 2024

Mark 11, 27-33

Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?” Jesus said to them, I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me.” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”– they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet. So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” Then Jesus said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

“By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?”  The priests and the elders demanded that the Lord Jesus answer their questions after he had cast the moneychangers and the sellers of animals out of the Temple precinct, thereby challenging their authority.  They ask important questions, but they ask in bad faith for whatever Jesus answered them they would reject.  Because of this, the Lord replies by asking them an important question.  We might wonder why they would drop their questions in order to ponder how to answer his, for in doing so they show themselves uncertain of their own authority And to place that of Jesus above theirs.  Perhaps they wanted to express their outrage over his challenge to them but they in actuality did not want to know the answer to their questions.  They might have also felt themselves put into an awkward position because many other people were looking on who were much more interested in what they thought about John the Baptist than in what Jesus might say about his actions.

“I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John’s baptism of heavenly or of human origin?”  Their uncertainty and weakness is exposed when they hesitate to answer the question he poses to them.  The Lord’s confidence in his authority likewise is on display.  As if to drive it home further, the Lord repeats, “Answer me.”  The apparent weakness of the chief priests and elders before the Lord is repeated in the Garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers approach him and he asks them whom they are looking for.  They halt at his word and said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”  When the Lord declared to them that he was Jesus of Nazareth, they “went backward and fell to the ground” (John 18, 6).  And again, when Pilate told Jesus that he had the power to crucify or to release him, the Lord told him, “You should not have any power against me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19, 11).  Pilate wilted at this and “from that point, Pilate sought to release him” (John 19, 12).  All these people recognized that it was Jesus who possessed authority and that their own authority paled before his.

“If we say, ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”  We note that they do not even consider telling them their true opinion.  For them, it is not relevant to the question.  Their lack of integrity and good faith leads them into a trap of their own making.  Psalm 57, 6: “They dug a pit in my path, but they have fallen into it themselves.”  It is interesting to try to see from their words what they actually thought about John the Baptist.  The main point that we can certainly draw from their words was that as long as John did not pose a threat to them, they did not care whether his mission was of heavenly or human origin.

“So they said to Jesus in reply, ‘We do not know.’ ”  This seemed the best answer to them, yet it must have galled them to give it because the the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders prided themselves on their wisdom and knowledge.  Here, in order to avoid being completely discredited they had to admit to weakness, to indecision, and to a lack of wisdom.  But at least they are able to limp away to lick their wounds.

“Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  The Lord Jesus pronounces their sentence: they are unworthy of hearing his answer to their question.  We can almost hear the voice of the master in the parable who says, regarding the useless servant who did not invest his master’s money: “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; where there shall be weeping and the  gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25, 30).

There are many who go about in the garb of authority, but some are usurpers and many others are pretenders.  The one authority in our lives whom we can always trust is the Lord Jesus, who can “neither deceive nor be deceived”, as the traditional “Act of Faith” says.