Context for Matthew 21:23-46
Jesus sat in the courts of the Temple teaching even as the leaders of the Jews plotted to kill Him. Perhaps more amazingly, He directly challenged the leaders’ authority, not based on some earthly claim, but upon the very Scripture they based their own claims upon. In doing so, He drove home the point they worked so hard to avoid: He was the Messiah that Scripture foretold.
By what authority did Jesus do what He did? The leaders of the Jews wanted to know what gave Jesus the right to clear the likely very profitable business ventures they shared in the temple courts. More importantly, they wanted to know if Jesus really claimed to be the Messiah.
Of course, the leaders of the Jews saw this question as a trap. In their minds, if Jesus answered that His authority was from God and that He was the Messiah, then He was guilty of blasphemy, and they could expect popular support in their quest to have Jesus killed. Instead of springing that trap, Jesus turned it back on them, demanding that they explain, ultimately, the nature of their own authority.
Authority and its source is an important question for us today as well, both as Christians and as Americans and Westerners. By what authority to we claim what we claim and believe what we believe? The answer must be united and sure: our authority comes from the Word-that is the Bible and Christ who it represents.
If we indeed believe what the Word says, then everything we then do and say must be derived from that Word. To a world determined to believe that Jesus was at most a historically relevant holy man, our actions and words will seem just as jarring as Jesus’ were to the Jews as a result.
This question, however, is core to who we are as Christians. Our authority comes from Christ, our God, our Savior, and our King. The question each of us must decide everyday is how we exercise that authority by grace through faith loving our God above all and our neighbor as ourselves.
