Saturday of Week 8 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
27Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him 28and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?” 29Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.” 31They argued with one another, “What should we say? If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. 33So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Commentary on Mark 11:27-33
Jesus has now come to Jerusalem. It is the last phase of his public life and hostility is building up against him. In today’s reading, while walking in the Temple area, he is confronted by a group of Jewish leaders, chief priests, scribes and elders. These are the people who formed the supreme council which will later condemn him to death. They ask:
By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?
The implication is that he is not doing it on their authority, which they regard as supreme. In his usual manner, Jesus counters with another question. He asks them if the work of John the Baptist was of human or divine origin.
They immediately realise that answering Jesus’ question raises a serious dilemma. If they were to say John’s baptism was from God, then it could be asked why they did not take part in it (as large numbers of the ordinary people did—and as Jesus himself did). The Gospel had described the leaders as simply coming to observe John as outsiders and judges.
On the other hand, if they were to say they considered John’s baptism as merely a human thing, then it would offend all those people who had the highest respect for John and saw in him a prophet of God.
Weakly Jesus’ questioners reply: “We do not know.” A strange and not very convincing reply from the spiritual leaders of the people! Jesus then refuses to answer the question they asked him.
But Jesus’ case was similar to that of John. The people, who had heard Jesus speak (“Never has anyone spoken like this!”) and saw his cures (“God has visited his people”), had no doubts whatever about the source of Jesus’ authority:
They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)
The leaders’ own question was a clear indication of their prejudice and wilful blindness in the face of overwhelming evidence.
We too, of course, can have a similar blindness. We can refuse to see the presence and activity of God in situations where we do not want to see it—or in people where we do not want to see it. But God can use any person, any experience, good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, to communicate with us. We pray:
Help me, Lord, to seek and find and respond to you in every experience of my life.
