Monday in the Third Week of Advent, December 13, 2021

Matthew 21:23-27

When Jesus had come into the temple area, the chief priests and the elders of the people approached him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?” Jesus said to them in reply, “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things. Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?” They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they said to Jesus in reply, “We do not know.” He himself said to them, “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The following link and information will take anyone interested to the live St. Matthew’s Gospel Bible Study tonight at 8:00 PM eastern time, 7:00 PM central time.  We have just begun to look at the Sermon on the Mount.

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/3806645258?pwd=MUNuU0ZxNFM3NnpiclZCcFF6SFhyQT09

Meeting ID: 380 664 5258

Passcode: 140026

The Lord Jesus, having entered Jerusalem with a large crowd of supporters, went directly to the Temple as though to take possession of it.  When he found the usual sellers of animals and money changers in the courtyard, he violently threw them out.  These two actions — his entrance to the city and his suppression of trade in the Temple — alarmed the chief priests and the elders.  They saw that he was challenging their legitimacy and so they accosted him: “By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”  As if to say, We did not authorize you to do this.  However, they themselves possessed no authority.  The chief priests were not the descendants of Aaron, as the Law stated they must be.  Annas had been appointed by the Roman procurator when Jesus was just a boy, and he was later deposed.  A few years later, his son-in-law Caiphas was appointed as high priest.  In fact, several men were appointed as high priest and then were deposed by the Romans during this time.  Their authority, such as it was, came not from their office so much as from the Romans.  As for the elders, these were older men who simply assumed a role.  They possessed no authority at all.  These priests and elders have no foundation for demanding that Jesus tell them on what authority he acts.

As though to signify that they have no basis for making demands of him, he does not answer their question, but makes them an offer: “I shall ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I shall tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Clearly, the authority here is Jesus, and the priests and elders acknowledge this by agreeing to his terms.  It is interesting to speculate as to what sort of question they thought he would ask them.  Certainly a theological one, and one they thought they could answer with some vague allusion to the Scriptures.  They were not ready for the question he did ask them: “Where was John’s baptism from? Was it of heavenly or of human origin?”  The men of no legitimate authority are trapped and they know it.  Quite apart from answering honestly, though, they try to figure out an answer using their cunning.  Their lives might depend on it: “They discussed this among themselves and said, “If we say ‘Of heavenly origin,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we fear the crowd, for they all regard John as a prophet.”  With only the appearance of importance and power to back them up, people are concerned with their personal survival and nothing else.  The question the Lord asks is a reasonable one and one which deserved an answer.  But these men were not eager to give one.  The facade of their authority came crashing down if they answered that John’s authority came from God; and the crowd would tear them apart if they responded that it was merely of human origin.  The reply they finally give amounts to a surrender: “We do not know.”  But of all people, they were supposed to know.  And how could the crowd know if they did not?  Their answer confused the crowd so much that they were able to slither away safely.  “Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things.”  Jesus reaffirms that he owes them nothing.  

The meaning of his coming to the Temple and taking possession of it was to show that the old priesthood — the line of Aaron — had come to an end.  The animals, which were to be sacrificed, were set free, signifying that the sacrifices of the Old Law had come to an end.  Now had arrived the true high priest, restoring not the compromised line of Aaron, but the original line of Melchizedek, and he himself was the new Sacrifice.  When Jesus defeats the priests and elders in this reading, he shows them that a new age was dawning.