The Unanswerable Question Text: Mark 11:27-33
Introduction: The Authority of Reality
We live in a world that is in full-throated rebellion against all forms of authority. Our age despises the very concept. We have convinced ourselves that freedom is the absence of any external constraint, the glorious right to define our own reality. But this is a delusion. You cannot escape authority; you can only exchange one for another. If you reject the authority of God, you will inevitably submit to the authority of something else, be it the state, the mob, your own disordered passions, or the spirit of the age. There is no neutral ground. The universe is not a democracy; it is a monarchy.
The events in our text this morning take place in the immediate aftermath of Jesus cleansing the temple. He had walked into the central hub of Jewish religious and economic life and flipped over the tables of the money changers, driving them out with righteous fury. This was not a suggestion. It was not a protest. It was an act of sovereign, kingly authority. Jesus was not just cleansing a corrupt marketplace; He was declaring that the entire system, as it was being run, was fraudulent. He was asserting His ownership of His Father's house.
Naturally, the men who ran that system, the chief priests, scribes, and elders, were not amused. Their power, their prestige, and their profits were all tied up in the very system Jesus had just publicly condemned. And so they come to Him with a question that seems perfectly reasonable on the surface: "By what authority are you doing these things?" But we must understand what they are really asking. They are not genuinely curious. They are not seeking the truth. This is a trap. They believe they have Him cornered. If He says His authority is from God, they will accuse Him of blasphemy. If He says it is His own, they will dismiss Him as a megalomaniac. They believe they are the gatekeepers of authority, the ones who get to hand out the credentials. They are asking for His license, His permit, His authorization from their board of directors.
What they fail to grasp is that they are not questioning a prophet. They are cross-examining Reality itself. They are demanding that the Author of the book show them His library card. Jesus' response to them is a masterclass in what we might call presuppositional warfare. He does not play their game. He does not submit to their pretended authority to judge Him. Instead, He exposes the rotten foundation of their entire worldview with a single, devastating question. He demonstrates that those who refuse to bow to the authority of God are not neutral truth-seekers; they are dishonest cowards, trapped between their hatred of the truth and their fear of men.
The Text
Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?” And Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’?”, they were afraid of the crowd, for everyone was regarding John to have been a real prophet. And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
(Mark 11:27-33 LSB)
The Confrontation in the Temple (v. 27-28)
We begin with the challenge from the religious establishment.
"Then they came again to Jerusalem. And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him, and began saying to Him, 'By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?'" (Mark 11:27-28 LSB)
Notice who comes to Him. It's the whole committee. The chief priests were the Sadducees, the liberal, aristocratic party that controlled the temple operations and collaborated with Rome. The scribes were the theological lawyers, the experts in the Mosaic law, mostly Pharisees. The elders were the respected lay leaders, the heads of the influential families. This is the Sanhedrin in miniature. This is the religious, academic, and political power structure of Israel, all rolled into one delegation. They come to Jesus as He is walking in the temple, His temple, as though He were the one trespassing.
Their question is a direct challenge. "By what authority?" This is the fundamental question of all of life. Who is in charge here? Who gets to set the terms? They are asking for the source and the nature of His authority. The first part, "By what authority," asks about the kind of authority. Is it political? Prophetic? Demonic? The second part, "who gave You this authority," asks about the origin. Did you get this from the Sanhedrin? From Rome? From God? They assume that all legitimate authority must be mediated through their established channels. They cannot conceive of an authority that is inherent, original, and direct.
They are blind to the fact that authority is radiating from every molecule of His being. He had just healed the blind and the lame in that very temple. He had spoken with an authority that astonished the crowds, unlike their scribes. He had commanded demons, and they obeyed. He had commanded the winds and the sea, and they obeyed. And now, having just cleansed the temple, an act prophesied of the Messiah, they stand there demanding to see His paperwork. This is not an honest inquiry; it is willful blindness. It is the rebellion of the creature demanding that the Creator justify Himself before their tribunal.
The Unanswerable Counter-Question (v. 29-30)
Jesus does not answer them directly. To do so would be to grant their premise that they have the right to sit in judgment over Him. Instead, He turns the tables and puts them on trial.
"And Jesus said to them, 'I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me.'" (Mark 11:29-30 LSB)
This is a brilliant move. Jesus is not dodging their question. He is answering it by exposing their utter incompetence to receive the answer. He forces them to declare their own presuppositions. The question about John the Baptist is not a random theological tangent. John was the forerunner of the Messiah. His entire ministry was to point to Jesus and say, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" John's authority and Jesus' authority were inextricably linked. To answer the question about John is to answer the question about Jesus.
Jesus presents them with only two options: "from heaven, or from men?" This is the great antithesis that runs through all of Scripture. All authority, all truth, all morality, ultimately originates from one of two places: from God or from man. There is no third option. There is no middle ground where you can stand and be a neutral observer. You either start with God's revelation or you start with man's autonomous reason. And Jesus demands an answer: "Answer Me." He presses the point, forcing them to confront the implications of their own unbelief.
This is the essence of a presuppositional challenge. Jesus is saying, "Before you can evaluate me, you must first account for John. You cannot claim to be judges of ultimate reality if you are stumped by the most significant prophetic event of your lifetime." He is exposing their claim to be arbiters of truth as a complete sham.
The Coward's Dilemma (v. 31-32)
The religious leaders are immediately trapped. Mark gives us a glimpse into their private, craven deliberations.
"And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, 'If we say, "From heaven," He will say, "Then why did you not believe him?" But if we say, "From men"?', they were afraid of the crowd, for everyone was regarding John to have been a real prophet." (Mark 11:31-32 LSB)
Look at their reasoning process. It has nothing to do with truth. It is pure political calculation. Their primary concern is not "What is the right answer?" but rather "What is the safest answer?" They are not weighing evidence; they are weighing consequences for themselves. This is the heart of all unbelief. It is not an intellectual problem; it is a moral one. They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.
They see the horns of the dilemma clearly. Horn one: If they admit John's baptism was from heaven, they condemn themselves. John's message was "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and he explicitly identified Jesus as the one whose sandals he was unworthy to carry. To validate John is to validate Jesus. To say John was from God is to admit that they were rebels against God for rejecting his message and his Messiah. Their own mouths would convict them.
Horn two: If they say John was merely a man, a self-appointed crank, they risk a riot. The common people, the very crowds they despised, held John in high esteem. They knew he was a prophet. These leaders, who cultivated an image of piety and concern for the people, were terrified of losing their popular support, their position, their control. They feared the crowd more than they feared God. Their god was public opinion.
This reveals their true bankruptcy. They are not shepherds of the people; they are manipulators of the people. Their authority is not derived from God's truth but from their ability to manage perceptions. They are hollow men, and Jesus' question has just shattered their facade.
The Agnostic Refuge (v. 33)
Caught in their own trap, they retreat to the last refuge of the intellectually dishonest: the cowardly claim of ignorance.
"And answering Jesus, they said, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" (Mark 11:33 LSB)
This is a lie. "We do not know" is what you say when you have insufficient information. But they had all the information they needed. They had John's preaching, his miracles, his testimony. They had Jesus' teaching, His miracles, His fulfillment of prophecy. Their problem was not a lack of knowledge, but a surplus of rebellion. Their "We do not know" was a deliberate, calculated evasion. It was a confession of their moral and spiritual bankruptcy. They were the appointed teachers of Israel, and on the most pressing theological question of the day, they pleaded incompetence.
And so, Jesus gives them the only answer their dishonesty deserves. "Neither will I tell you." This is not petulance. This is judgment. He is not withholding information from sincere seekers. He is refusing to cast His pearls before swine. He is enacting the very principle He taught: "To the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away." They claimed to be the gatekeepers of knowledge, and Jesus declares them to be blind guides. They refused to answer His question about His forerunner, so He refuses to answer their question about Him.
He leaves them standing there, exposed and silenced. By refusing to affirm the lesser light (John), they proved themselves unworthy of the greater light (Jesus). Their refusal to answer was their answer. It was a confession that their entire system of authority was a fraud, built not on divine truth but on the shifting sands of political expediency and the fear of man.
Conclusion: The Unavoidable Question
This encounter is not just a historical curiosity. It is a paradigm for every confrontation between the unbelieving world and the claims of Christ. The world is constantly demanding that Jesus and His church present their credentials. "By what authority do you say marriage is between a man and a woman? By what authority do you say there is only one way to God? By what authority do you call sin, sin?"
And the answer of Christ is to turn the question back on the questioner. "By what authority do you deny it? What is the foundation for your worldview? If not from heaven, then from men. And if from men, what men? On what basis? You cannot stand in a puddle of your own making and pretend to judge the ocean."
Every person in this room is confronted with the same question Jesus put to the Sanhedrin. Was Jesus from heaven, or from men? Is He the eternal Son of God, the sovereign Lord of all, or was He just a man, a good teacher, a misunderstood prophet? You cannot plead agnosticism. "We do not know" is not a neutral position; it is a culpable evasion. To refuse to answer is to give your answer. It is to say that you prefer the darkness. It is to say that your comfort, your reputation, or your sin is more important than the truth.
The chief priests and scribes were trapped by their fear of the crowd. What are you trapped by? The fear of your colleagues? The fear of your family? The fear of being seen as intolerant or old-fashioned? The fear of what it might cost you to bow the knee?
Jesus Christ does not come to us to be evaluated. He comes to be enthroned. His authority is not up for debate. It is the bedrock of reality. His resurrection from the dead was God the Father's ultimate answer to the question, "By what authority?" He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. The question is not whether you will acknowledge it. The only question is whether you will acknowledge it now, in repentance and faith, or later, in terror and judgment. You must answer. And your life is your answer.