Jesus confused the leaders. There was a great acceptance of John the Baptist among the people that they recognized him as the son of God. Recognizing the divine character of the Baptism of John the Baptist implicates recognizing the divine character of Jesus announced by John. In the temple, they approach Him and ask him the more awkward question when Jesus was teaching the people: “With what authority do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?” (cf Mk 11:28-33) They refuse to draw the conclusion that Jewish leader Nicodemas reached, when he told Jesus: “Rabbi, we know that you, as teacher, have come from God; for none can do these sign that you do unless God is with him (cf John 3:1-2ff).

Jesus could have said to His detractors: ‘Let my works speak for themselves’! After more than three years of his public career, the chief priests and the elders had many signs in which they could come to the correct conclusion of the identity of the Lord and His right to realize the miracles and to teach the truth in respect to the Reign of God. They simple were too prideful to accept all the evidence that God and his right to prove that Christ was the promised Messiah.

When the chief priests and the elders asked Jesus: ‘Who gave you this authority?’ He did not ask an abstract question, but said to him: “Also I ask you one thing. If you tell me, I will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John, where did it originate? From heaven or from men?” (Mk 11:29ff) The report adds: But they began to reason among themselves saying: “If we say: ‘from Heaven’ he will say to us: ‘Then why did not you believe in him?’ If however we say: ‘From men’, we will have the crowd to fear because they considered John as a prophet.” (Mk 11:31-32) So they said to Jesus in response: “We don’t know”. He for his time said to them: “Neither will I tell you from what authority do you do these things” (Mk 11:33)

The lesson we can draw from the biblical text is to not let the power in the world put us on the defense, and so deal with a thousand questions about why this or that other terrible situation happens to us. Rather with faith, hope and trust in Christ, we come to have a full life.

Father Bantu Mendonça K. Sayla

Translated from Portuguese