New Managment: Luke 20v1-8

On one of those days, while Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple, and announcing the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up with the elders, and said to him, 'Tell us: by what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority?'

'I've got a question for you, too,' said Jesus,'so tell me this: was John's baptism from God, or was it merely human?'

'If we say it was from God,' they said among themselves,'he'll say, so why didn't you believe him? But if we say "merely human", all the people will stone us, since they are convinced that John was a prophet.'

So they replied that they didn't know where John came from.

'Very well, then,'said Jesus. 'Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.'

Jesus has some chutzpah...there's no question about that. Think about it like this...a homeless guy, with a ragamuffin group of unemployed fishermen walks out of the woods and into your place of business starts flipping tables over, sending people on their way and sits down in the CEO's desk and starts making some pretty radical changes to the status quo. He's displaced the whole order of things and tells you your job's on the line. The question in your mind of course...who the !%^& are you and who sent you here to do this?

Now, admittedly, Jesus' response seems kind of strange...what does John have to do with all this? They think it's a trick question...trying to put them on the defensive or make them look either foolish for not believing God or making them publicly deny John's ministry...which would have had political consequences.

Actually, Jesus was answering their question, if John was indeed a prophet of God, then Jesus is in fact the Messiah. God bestowed on Jesus', through John's baptism (so that all righteousness would be fulfilled) the royal, messianic authority over the whole world, so much more so the Temple that existed for the service of His Father as a house of prayer...not a business! This authority was publicly bestowed on Him through John's baptism as he came up out of the water and the anointing of God came upon him for that very purpose. There authority passed, ever so quietly, from the old system to the new...from the law and the prophets to the King and the Kingdom. John, speaking prophetically as prophets do...on behalf of that old system says, 'I must decrease and He must increase.'

These authorities refuse to answer though...because their only concern is for maintaining their positions, they are concerned with the things below where as Jesus has His mind set on the things above, the things of God. So they get nothing from their King...'Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.'

There is more though... it's written, 'For zeal for Your house has consumed me, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.' ...to really get into the Lord's mindset here spend some time meditating on what we've talked about here after reading all of Psalm 69...

Grace and peace