Wow! Can Jesus have done that much damage on a Monday? Made astonishing claims for the life of undoubting faith and prayer, dealt with ‘but-ers,’ cleansed the Temple, asserted that houses of worship are to be places of prayer for the nations, and so shaken the religious leaders by the reaction of their congregation to Jesus that they began serious discussions about how to ‘destroy’ Him? Yes...He’d managed all that in one day.

Tuesday of Passion Week begins with another entry into the Temple, more teaching (Mt. 21:23 RSV), walking among the people (Mk. 11:27), and “preaching the gospel” (Lk.20:1), setting off a confrontation over the source of Jesus’ authority. You see, the ‘gospel’ (“good news”) would have included who Jesus was (divine Son of God, Messiah...the Coming One come), and what His coming in human flesh (“the incarnation”) meant to those willing to believed Who He was, what He would do: “Save His people from their sins,” make them “new creatures” in Him, and through His coming death, once and for all restore their relationship with God. The import of these teachings was not lost on the religious leaders: If He was who He claimed to be, they would lose their power, jobs, titles, and status...for no one would need their intervention to talk with God, walk with Him... an unemployment issue of tremendous impact! Gone would be their share of the best cuts of meat from the endless sacrifices, gone their easy living from the Temple taxes, etc.

So, in an irony still played out today, those who should have been most able to see that Jesus’ acts and teachings were fulfilling prophecies of who He was failed to recognize Him in their midst. He didn’t fit their image: a temporal ruler charging in on a white horse (not an ass!), overthrowing the Romans, elevating them. Worse still, multitudes hearing Him were heeding Him. Clearly, Jesus had to ‘go.’ So they challenged His ‘rights’: “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” Translated, “What ‘right’ do you have to be doing the works of God?” They were, of course, asking the obvious...only God and Satan have such power, and Jesus was doing exactly what God’s Word had said He would do. Therefore, if He was doing the things God does, teaching what God’s Word says, (in the Old Testament, which is all they had), isn’t it obvious Who His source of authority must have been?

Jesus then turned over some more tables: “I will ask you a question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.” (Mk. 11:29) I can just feel their smirks: They were Bible scholars! This uneducated Galilean carpenter couldn’t possibly stump them! But this ‘branch’ from the ‘stump’ of Jesse did exactly that by shrewdly asking: “Was the baptism of John [the Baptist] from heaven [God] or from men?” It seems simple enough. The problem was that their answer would condemn them either way: “And they discussed it with one another, saying, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But if we say, “From men,” all the people will stone us, for they are convinced he was a prophet.”’” (Lk. 20:5-6) “So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’” (Mt. 21:21) He then declined to answer their question.

They had asked the ‘right’ question. Nothing in all of Life is more fundamental than settling in your own mind the issue of who Jesus is and what God’s authority is. Faith hinges on that answer, as does your opinion of the authority of the Bible, the Word of God. These are the core issues of Life. Have you faced them?

Have a good week!