The Authority Trap
Introduction: The Credentials Committee
We live in an age that is obsessed with authority, mostly in the sense of challenging it. Everyone wants to be on the credentials committee. Everyone wants to be the one sitting at the table, steepling their fingers, and asking the hard questions of anyone who dares to make a claim. The journalist, the academic, the bureaucrat, the online pundit, they all demand that you justify yourself before their august tribunal. "By what authority do you say that?" is the question of the hour. But you will notice that this question is almost never asked in good faith. It is not a genuine inquiry; it is a challenge. It is a trap. And the one thing the members of the credentials committee cannot tolerate is having the question turned back on them. If you ask them, "And by what authority do you ask?" the entire proceeding grinds to a halt in a sputtering rage.
This is because all authority questions are ultimately religious questions. There is no neutral ground from which to ask the question of authority. You are either standing on the bedrock of God's revealed Word, or you are standing on the sinking sand of human opinion, which is to say, you are standing on yourself. And when a man stands on himself, he has a fool for a foundation.
In our text today, Jesus, having cleansed the temple and declared His Kingship, is confronted by the official credentials committee of Jerusalem. The chief priests and elders come to Him with what they believe is a foolproof intellectual and political trap. They demand to see His paperwork. But what they fail to understand is that they are not the ones conducting the interview. The King is not applying for a position; He has come to take possession of what is His. And in the course of this exchange, He does not merely evade their trap. He springs one of His own, and in so doing, He exposes the fraudulent foundation of their entire religious system.
The Text
And when He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?" And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say to us, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as a prophet." And they answered Jesus and said, "We do not know." He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
(Matthew 21:23-27 LSB)
The Official Challenge (v. 23)
We begin with the confrontation itself.
"And when He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, 'By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?'" (Matthew 21:23)
The setting is crucial. Jesus is in the temple, His Father's house. He has just ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey, hailed as the Son of David. He has driven out the money changers, overturning their tables in an act of kingly judgment. Now He is teaching, acting as though He owns the place, which, of course, He does. "These things" refers to this entire complex of royal actions. He is acting like the Messiah, and the establishment is having none of it.
So the chief priests and elders, the Sanhedrin, the whole religious apparatus, confronts Him. Their question is a two-pronged legal maneuver, designed to impale Him. First, "By what authority?" Are you a prophet? A king? A teacher? Define your office. Second, "Who gave you this authority?" This is the key. They want Him to name His superior. If He says, "God gave it to me," they will charge Him with blasphemy, a capital crime. If He says, "I take it myself," they will dismiss Him as an arrogant, self-appointed lunatic. If He appeals to the people, they will accuse Him of insurrection. They think they have Him cornered.
This is the perennial strategy of the unbelieving establishment. They want to force the believer onto their turf, to make him play by their rules, to answer questions within their framework. They want to be the judge, jury, and prosecuting attorney, and they want Christ to be the defendant in the dock. But the Lord of Heaven and Earth does not play that game.
The Divine Counter-Question (v. 24-25)
Jesus's response is not an evasion; it is a masterful re-framing of the entire debate. He demonstrates His authority by taking control of the interrogation.
"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?'" (Matthew 21:24-25)
This is not a random trivia question. The ministry of John the Baptist was the single most significant prophetic event in Israel in the last 400 years. And what was the central theme of John's ministry? "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" John's entire purpose was to point to Jesus. Therefore, to settle the question of John's authority is to settle the question of Jesus's authority. If John was a true prophet from heaven, then Jesus is who John said He was: the Messiah.
Jesus's question is therefore a brilliant piece of spiritual jujitsu. He uses their own momentum against them. He forces them to declare their ultimate authority before He will answer them. Is truth determined by divine revelation ("from heaven") or by human consensus and political calculation ("from men")? Before you can ask about my authority, you must first tell me what an authoritative answer would even look like. You must reveal your presuppositions.
The Cowards' Caucus (v. 25-26)
Matthew then gives us a marvelous, inspired glimpse into the private deliberations of these corrupt leaders. We get to see the gears of their wicked minds turning.
"And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, 'If we say, "From heaven," He will say to us, "Then why did you not believe him?" But if we say, "From men," we fear the crowd; for they all regard John as a prophet.'" (Matthew 21:25-26)
Notice what is entirely absent from their reasoning: any concern for what is true. Their entire calculation is based on public relations and self-preservation. They are not theologians; they are political operatives. They are not shepherds; they are hirelings.
They see the two horns of the dilemma clearly. If they admit John's authority was from heaven, they condemn themselves. They know that to validate John is to validate Jesus, and this would require them to repent of their unbelief, which they are unwilling to do. Their hearts are hard. But if they say John was a fraud, an ordinary man, they will have a riot on their hands. They are more afraid of the people than they are of God. Their authority is not from heaven, but from the fickle affections of the mob. They are trapped by their own cowardice and love of power.
The Dishonest Dodge and the Judicial Silence (v. 27)
Their solution is to feign ignorance. It is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
"And they answered Jesus and said, 'We do not know.' He also said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" (Matthew 21:27)
"We do not know" is a lie. They had an opinion. They had rejected John. But they were too cowardly to state their position publicly. This is not intellectual humility; it is culpable agnosticism. It is a moral failure disguised as an intellectual one. They, the appointed teachers of Israel, the ones who were supposed to discern the truth for the people, are claiming incompetence on the most important prophetic question of their generation. It is a total abdication of their office.
And so, Jesus pronounces a quiet but devastating judgment upon them. "Neither will I tell you." This is not a petulant refusal. It is a righteous verdict. He is not obligated to give answers to men who have proven they are not interested in truth. He is not going to cast His pearls before swine. They have disqualified themselves as genuine interlocutors. By refusing to answer His question about the light (John), they have forfeited their right to an answer about the Light of the World.
The irony is that the answer to their question was standing directly in front of them. The authority of Jesus is self-attesting. For the humble heart, the one with eyes to see and ears to hear, no explanation is necessary. For the proud, rebellious heart that is committed to its own authority, no explanation is possible. Jesus's silence is His answer. It reveals that His authority is not the kind that submits itself for review to a corrupt and unbelieving committee.
Conclusion: From Heaven or From Men?
This confrontation in the temple is not just a historical curiosity. It frames the fundamental question that every human being must face. On what authority do you live your life? When you make a moral decision, a financial decision, a decision about your family or your future, is your ultimate appeal "from heaven" or "from men"?
Is your standard the clear, unchanging Word of God? Or is it the shifting sands of public opinion, the fear of what your coworkers will think, the desire for likes on social media, the pressure to conform to the spirit of the age? The chief priests and elders were condemned because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. They were men-pleasers, and therefore they could not be servants of Christ.
We are not allowed the cowardly refuge of "we do not know." We do know. God has spoken. He has revealed Himself in His Son. He has given us His Word. And He has demonstrated the authority of Jesus in the most undeniable way possible: by raising Him from the dead. The resurrection is God the Father's ultimate answer to the question, "Who gave you this authority?"
Therefore, we are called to bow to that authority without reservation. We are to believe His words, obey His commands, and trust His promises. We must not come to Him as a credentials committee, demanding that He justify Himself to us. We must come as humble subjects, acknowledging that He is Lord, and that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. For those who do, He gives not silence, but the gracious words of eternal life.