Matthew 21:23-27

Matthew 21:23-27 The chief priests and elders challenge Jesus’s authority

The locus of opposition to Jesus has been shifting from the Pharisees and scribes to the chief priests and scribes and now to the chief priests and elders.  The Pharisees were members of might be thought of as a religious society that was mostly trying to live a devoted life to God.  The scribes were the lawyers (or theologians of our day) who knew the details of God’s Law and the Scriptures and might be aligned with the Pharisees or the chief priests.  But the elders, which included many of the chief priests, were the power brokers of Jerusalem.  The chief priests and elders, together, were a potent force: The chief priests ran the Temple, and the elders made the political decisions that affected the whole city of Jerusalem.

Recall that Jesus has entered the city in a very disruptive way, kicked people out of the Temple precincts, healed people in the Temple precincts, and now was back, teaching the people right there on the Temple grounds.

What do the chief priests and elders ask Jesus?

Why do you think they ask him this question?

Not everyone who claims to be from God actually is.  Is it reasonable to ask where a person’s authority comes from when they are shaking things up?

How can we judge whether someone who is shaking things up is coming from God or not?

Notice that Jesus does not answer their question.  Is there a lesson for us in choosing when to defend ourselves and when to let a challenge pass without an answer?

If Jesus had chosen to answer the question, what would his answer have been?

Jesus chooses to counter with a question, to either establish their sincerity or spotlight their spiritual bankruptcy.

What question does Jesus ask them (verse 25)?

Why is this a hard question for them to answer?

What would be the right answer to Jesus’s question?

Notice that the right answer to Jesus’s question is also the right answer to the question the leaders asked Jesus: John and Jesus were both operating based on authority given to them by God.

How does their inability (or unwillingness) to answer Jesus’s question expose how badly they are out of touch with what the people can see that God is doing?

What can we learn from this story for ourselves?

My Bible Study group saw many things they could learn from this story.  For example: Ask questions.  Don’t feel the need to defend yourself or answer every question from others.  Jesus often doesn’t dictate answers to people; he lets them reach their own conclusions – perhaps we should too.  Instead of getting caught up in verbal battles with others, pay attention to what God is doing.

Why does Jesus allow people to think things that are wrong rather than trying to prove to them what is right?

Jesus is building hearts and minds, not robotic teleprompters or answering machines.  He wants to develop people who can think like God thinks and act like Jesus would.  If he forces us to think a certain way, we can never develop hearts and minds that follow him by our own free will.

Jesus’s approach to other people, even those who oppose him, always honors the importance of free will.  How can we use our free will well?

God always hopes that we will use the free will he has given to us to respond to what he has revealed give our lives freely in service to him and others.

Take a step back and consider this:

Some people would see the chief priests and elders as master politicians: They are very aware of the ways that the people don’t agree with them, and very savvy about how to manage that problem so that they don’t get on the bad side of the people.

However, in the process, they have lost a bit of themselves and their integrity.  They are playing for power, rather than for working for truth, or justice, or goodness.

• If they were working for truth, they would make their case and try to show the people why they are wrong.  That might appear difficult with so much evidence on the other side; but if they genuinely believed they were right then they would be willing to stand up for their beliefs and make their best case, whether others agreed or not.  But that is if they were working for truth, not playing for power.

• If they were working for justice, or goodness, or any other good motive, they similarly would make the case for what they believe in.  Only the coward or the person playing politics would back down when asked a question and not even try to offer an answer.

Politics is not inherently bad.  Some people are called to the difficult work of trying to manage disagreements in a society or community and find solutions or approaches that address a wide range of concerns and hold the community together even though many people can’t have all they want.  But that is when they are doing the hard work of politics, not playing politics for their own benefit.  How can a politician do the hard work of politics and still act like a Christian?

In a democracy, Christians are called to get involved in politics, at least to the extent of voting and perhaps in other ways, in order to exercise their responsibilities as citizens to promote the good of all.  Beyond that, almost everyone is involved in politics in other ways – the politics of the office, the give-and-take and negotiating that goes on in families, and even the managing of different groupings in a church.  We are called to be like Jesus in all situations, even in those places.  How can we do the work of politics well in our everyday lives?