Word Live: In The Hot-Seat
If someone asked why you are a Christian, how would you answer?
Bible passage
Mark 11:27–33
The authority of Jesus questioned
27 They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him. 28 ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you authority to do this?’
29 Jesus replied, ‘I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 30 John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin? Tell me!’
31 They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” he will ask, “Then why didn’t you believe him?” 32 But if we say, “Of human origin” . . .’ (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.)
33 So they answered Jesus, ‘We don’t know.’
Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
It sounds a bit like an ambush, doesn’t it? Jesus is walking around the Temple, perhaps meditating or praying, and suddenly a whole group of ‘chief priests, teachers of the law and elders’ shows up (v 27)! There are a lot of people. And as they gather around Jesus, many more will come to see what’s going on. The spotlight is on Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t consider their particular question worthy of a direct answer. Instead, he asks them a similar question, but about John the Baptist’s authority rather than his own (vs 29,30). These are the religious leaders – the crowds listening expect them to be able to tell them whether or not God has sent a particular person (v 32b).
Have you ever been in one of those situations where someone asks you a question about God and the whole room suddenly goes silent? Everyone is listening. You’re on the spot.
Sometimes people ask us questions in order to catch us out, or to make us say something that confirms their belief that Christians are judgemental or hypocritical. At other times, people may ask us questions about our faith because they genuinely want to know. The challenge we have is to discern the motive behind the question and to answer accordingly.
Author
Alison Allen
Respond
Ask the Lord for discernment when you are questioned about your faith, and wisdom when you are faced with questions designed to catch you out.
Deeper Bible study
‘Isn’t he beautiful; beautiful, isn’t he? Prince of peace, Son of God, isn’t he? Isn’t he wonderful; wonderful, isn’t he? Counsellor, Almighty God, isn’t he?’1
It’s Tuesday of Passion Week. The Jewish leaders are carrying out the next move in their plot to kill Jesus (v 18). They put to Jesus a question: not one posed from a genuine search for truth and a willingness to be changed by it, but one set to trap him. Presumably they hoped that Jesus’ answer would neutralise his ministry and following, or frame him for blasphemy. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’, they want to know (v 28); ‘these things’ being the cursing of the fig tree and the clearing of the Temple – that is, the pronouncing of judgement on Israel.2
Jesus, however, true to form, answers their question with a different question. ‘John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin?’ (v 30). Just as John’s ministry was ultimately about Jesus, so too is this question. If John’s baptism – and his ministry – are of God, then the Jewish leaders would have to believe all that John pronounced about Jesus – not least that he is ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world … God’s Chosen One’.3 If John’s authority is from God, so too is Jesus’ – and if Jesus’ authority is from God, then he is to be heeded and hallowed.
So it is not Jesus who is trapped – for the Son of God can never be bound – but those who sought to trap him. They are trapped not by Jesus’ questioning,4 but by their own unwillingness to believe based on the evidence put before them during the ministry of John and of Jesus himself. There are many people trapped in the same way today; let us pray that God, in his mercy, will open the eyes of the blind and set the oppressed free.5
‘Power and authority, splendour and dignity, bow to his mastery, Jesus is Lord!’6 Make this your prayer; pray it also for someone who is yet to believe in Jesus.
1 John Wimber, 1980 2 Cole, 1995, p250–251 3John 1:29–34 4 Cole, p258 5Luke 4:18 6 Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1984, ‘Name of all majesty’
Author
Fiona Silley
