The Authority Trap Text: Luke 20:1-8
Introduction: The Unanswerable Question
Every confrontation with Jesus Christ is ultimately a confrontation over authority. This is the fundamental issue, the question that lies beneath all other questions. We live in an age that despises authority, or at least, despises any authority outside of the self. Modern man wants to be his own god, his own lawgiver, his own supreme court. He sits on a throne of his own making and demands that everyone, including the God of Heaven, submit their credentials for his review.
This is not a new rebellion; it is as old as the Garden. The serpent's question to Eve was a challenge to God's authority: "Did God really say?" The temptation was for man to usurp God's place as the ultimate arbiter of reality. And here, in the final week of His earthly ministry, Jesus faces the same rebellion, not from a serpent in a garden, but from the serpent's offspring in the temple. The chief priests, scribes, and elders, the religious establishment of Israel, come to Jesus with a question designed to be a trap. They want to put Him on the horns of a dilemma, to force Him into a corner where they can finally bring a charge against Him.
But they fundamentally misunderstand the situation. They think they are the ones conducting the examination. They believe they are the tenured professors and Jesus is the impudent graduate student who must defend His thesis. They fail to realize that they are the ones being examined. Jesus is not in their courtroom; they are in His. His response to them is not a clever evasion, but a masterful exposure of their own corruption. He does not just escape their trap; He springs it on them. In doing so, He teaches us how to handle a hostile world that constantly demands of the Church, "By what authority do you say these things?"
The Text
And it happened that on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up to Him, and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” And Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
(Luke 20:1-8 LSB)
The Official Challenge (v. 1-2)
The scene is set in the temple, the very heart of Israel's life and worship. Jesus is not hiding in a corner; He is front and center, teaching and preaching the good news.
"And it happened that on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up to Him, and they spoke, saying to Him, 'Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?'" (Luke 20:1-2 LSB)
Notice the location. Jesus is in His Father's house. Just a short time before this, He had cleansed it of the money changers, acting as though He owned the place, which, of course, He did. Now the supposed landlords, the religious authorities, show up as a formal delegation to serve Him an eviction notice. This is the Sanhedrin in miniature: the priests (religious power), the scribes (theological power), and the elders (civic power). They represent the entirety of the corrupt human establishment.
Their question is a legal challenge. "These things" refers to His teaching, His miracles, and especially His cleansing of the temple. They are asking for His credentials. In their world, authority was institutional. It was delegated. You had to be ordained by the right people, have the right seminary degree, be a part of their club. Jesus had none of that. He was an outsider, a Galilean carpenter, and He was acting with more authority than all of them combined.
The question is a trap. If Jesus says His authority is from God, they will accuse Him of blasphemy. If He says it is His own, they will accuse Him of arrogant self-promotion. They are not interested in the truth of His authority; they are interested in finding a pretext to eliminate Him. This is how all enemies of God operate. They feign a concern for process and credentials in order to attack the truth they hate.
The Divine Counter-Question (v. 3-4)
Jesus does not play their game. He refuses to step into the snare they have so carefully laid. Instead, He takes control of the interrogation.
"And Jesus answered and said to them, 'I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?'" (Luke 20:3-4 LSB)
This is sheer brilliance. Jesus turns the tables completely. He demonstrates His authority by putting them on the witness stand. And the question He asks is a laser-guided missile aimed at the heart of their hypocrisy. Why John the Baptist? Because John was the divinely sent forerunner. John's entire mission was to prepare the way for the Messiah and to point Him out. John's authority and Jesus' authority were woven from the same cloth.
To answer the question about John's authority is to answer the question about Jesus' authority. If John's ministry was "from heaven," then his testimony about Jesus as the Lamb of God was also from heaven, and they were obligated to believe it. If John's ministry was "from men," then they had to be prepared to defend that position before the crowds who revered John as a prophet. Jesus forces them to deal with the revelation they had already received and rejected. He is essentially saying, "You want to talk about authority? Let's start with the last prophet God sent you, the one you ignored."
The Coward's Calculation (v. 5-7)
Luke, by the inspiration of the Spirit, gives us a window into the souls of these men. We get to overhear their private, wicked deliberations.
"And they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'If we say, "From heaven," He will say, "Why did you not believe him?" But if we say, "From men," all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.' So they answered that they did not know where it came from." (Luke 20:5-7 LSB)
Look at their reasoning. There is not one ounce of concern for what is true. Their entire thought process is a political calculation based on self-preservation. It is pure pragmatism. They are not theologians seeking truth; they are politicians managing optics.
The first horn of the dilemma is the fear of being exposed as hypocrites. If they admit John's authority was from God, Jesus has them cornered. Their unbelief stands condemned by their own admission. They would have to repent, and that is the one thing they are unwilling to do.
The second horn is the fear of man. They are terrified of the people. The very crowds they despise are the source of their fragile power. They know that if they discredit John, they might face a riot. So, their final position is dictated not by Scripture, not by conviction, not by truth, but by a craven fear of popular opinion. These are the spiritual leaders of Israel, and they are more afraid of stones from the crowd than of judgment from God.
Their answer, "we do not know," is a contemptible lie. They do know. They have reasoned it out. Theirs is not an honest agnosticism; it is a dishonest evasion. It is the willful ignorance of men who love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. When a man is confronted with the truth and his response is to say, "I don't know," it is because he knows the cost of admission and is unwilling to pay it.
The Judicial Silence (v. 8)
Having exposed their cowardice and dishonesty, Jesus now delivers His verdict.
"And Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'" (Luke 20:8 LSB)
This is not a frustrated stalemate. This is a judicial sentence. Jesus is not saying, "You win, I won't answer." He is saying, "You have shown yourselves to be dishonest and unqualified judges. Case dismissed." He is refusing to cast His pearls before swine. They demanded that He submit His authority for their evaluation, but their response proved they had no moral or spiritual authority to evaluate anything.
God does not owe answers to dishonest tricksters. He reveals Himself to the humble, to those who tremble at His word, not to those who want to use His words as ammunition in their rebellion. By refusing to affirm the clear testimony of John, they forfeited their right to any further revelation from Jesus. Their feigned ignorance was met with a righteous silence. They came asking for a source of authority, and in the end, they were left with none at all.
Conclusion: The Unavoidable Question
This confrontation in the temple is a microcosm of every person's encounter with Christ. Jesus stands before us, teaching, healing, and claiming total authority over our lives. And the corrupt authorities of our own hearts, our pride, our self-righteousness, our fear of man, rise up to challenge Him. "By what authority do you demand my allegiance? Who gave you the right to call my sin, sin?"
The world plays the same game as the Sanhedrin. It demands that Christianity submit its credentials to be judged by secular reason, or modern science, or popular opinion. But these are rigged courts. We must learn from our Lord not to walk into the trap. The proper response is to challenge the challenger's authority. "By what authority do you declare that there is no God? Is your worldview from heaven, or is it from men?" When pressed, every form of unbelief is exposed as a cowardly calculation, a desperate attempt to avoid the claims of Christ.
Ultimately, Jesus did provide an answer to their question, but not in the way they wanted. He did not give them a verbal soundbite to twist. Instead, a few days later, He gave them a sign. He gave them the sign of Jonah. He went to the cross, was buried, and on the third day, God the Father vindicated His authority completely and overwhelmingly by raising Him from the dead. The resurrection is God's final, definitive answer to the question of authority. This is My beloved Son. Hear Him.
You cannot remain neutral. You cannot stand with the scribes and say, "I do not know." To refuse to answer is to have already answered. Before you today are two options. Is Jesus from heaven, or from men? Is He the Lord of glory, or just another religious teacher? If He is from heaven, then why do you not believe Him? Why do you not surrender your entire life to His gracious, absolute authority?