Sermon Tone Analysis

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*27 *And they came again to Jerusalem.

And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, *28 *and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”

*29 *Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

*30 *Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” *31 *And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’

*32 *But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet.

*33 *So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.”

And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

*12:1 *And he began to speak to them in parables.

“A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country.

*2 *When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.

*3 *And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

*4 *Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully.

*5 *And he sent another, and him they killed.

And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed.

*6 *He had still one other, a beloved son.

Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ *7 *But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir.

Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

*8 *And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.

*9 *What will the owner of the vineyard do?

He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.

*10 *Have you not read this Scripture:

“ ‘The stone that the builders rejected \\ has become the cornerstone; \\ *11 *this was the Lord’s doing, \\ and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

*12 *And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them.

So they left him and went away.

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This is the third time Jesus has entered Jerusalem since he arrived outside the city.

But this time he is confronted by the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders as he lingered in the temple.

The plot is thickening; these are the exact three groups that Jesus predicted would reject him and kill him: “And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).

These three groups comprise the Jewish supreme council and court of justice, the Sanhedrin.

They have come to question Jesus.

What right does he have to do the things he has been doing?

Jesus simply cannot be ignored, either by the Sanhedrin in Jesus’ day or by any serious person today.

One of the most distinctive features of the life and ministry of Jesus is the authority that he commanded.

So what does Jesus have to say about himself?

Let’s examine the authority of Jesus, and then look at how that authority was rejected by the Sanhedrin.

We will conclude by seeing how Jesus promises to reestablish his authority in spite of widespread rejection.

!

THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS

The Gospel of Mark opens with people observing that when Jesus taught, there was unique authority in his instruction, such that “even the unclean spirits” were forced to obey him (Mark 1:22, 27).

Jesus also demonstrated his authority by pronouncing forgiveness of sins and by healing people (Mark 2:10).

When he came to Jerusalem, he continues to demonstrate his unique authority.

!! The claim of authority

First, he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, not only a symbol of royalty but also a symbol of the claim to be the long-awaited King, the Messiah.

The religious elite were outraged by this act and by the adulation of the crowd who shouted, “Hosanna” (save us, now).

But then the next day he entered the temple and forcibly removed the merchants and overturned the tables of the money-changers.

This fueled the indignation of the chief priests and scribes and is the basis of their question in verse 28, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”

They have not misinterpreted Jesus’ actions.

Jesus is claiming to be Lord of Jerusalem and Lord of the temple mount.

This is a claim of divine authority.

!! The source of authority

The obvious question, then, is the one the Sanhedrin asks Jesus.

He has made a claim of authority by acting with authority.

“Jesus, from where did you get this authority?”

Jesus responds to their question with a question of his own in verse 30.

He says in verse 29 that if they will answer his question, then he will answer theirs.

This is, of course, standard rabbinic teaching technique, to answer a question with a question, but why does Jesus do this?

Why, even at the end of this chapter, does he refuse to answer the question?

(“Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things,” verse 33.)

The reason is that Jesus knows the Sanhedrin have not come with sincerity in asking this question.

The kind of authority Jesus is demonstrating can have only one source.

Yet if Jesus admits that he has received his authority from God, it could lead to a charge of blasphemy.[1]

In other words, they have come to Jesus for exactly the same reason the Pharisees came to Jesus to ask him about divorce in chapter ten.

They have come to “test” Jesus.

They are not looking for reasons to believe Jesus; they are looking for reasons to reject Jesus.

Jesus masterfully reveals this insincerity by posing this question to the Sanhedrin.

“Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?”

This was not an irrelevant change of subject.

The correct answer to this question will point to the answer to the question they had asked Jesus.

In other words, Jesus knows that the problem for the Sanhedrin is not a “knowing” problem but an “accepting” problem.

Their problem is not a lack of information but a lack of faith.

So he asks them about their views concerning John the Baptist.

From where did John get /his /authority?

There is only two options.

Either John was baptizing on the authority of God as a prophet, or he was baptizing on his own authority as a fraud.

And Jesus declares his solidarity with John.

After all, he had been baptized by John (Mark 1:9).

And he preached the same message as John (Mark 1:4, 15).

So there are only two options about Jesus’ authority, too.

There are two options and only two possible verdicts.

How will the Sanhedrin decide?

!! The response to authority

We don’t have to guess how they /wanted/ to answer.

But Mark tells us that “they discussed it with one another” first (v.

31).

The verb “discussed” occurs seven times in Mark, and each time it describes the actions of people who are “trying to evade the force of Jesus’ word or claim on them.”[2]

Jesus has put the Sanhedrin in a dilemma.

They reason that if they were to confess that John and Jesus’ authority came from God then their refusal to believe either of them would be self-condemning.

On the other hand, what they actually believed about John and Jesus was not the popular opinion.

To say that they were both a fraud would be political suicide.

The Sanhedrin enjoyed the accolades of their fellow man, so they are afraid to violate common belief about John and Jesus.

Jesus has forced them into a corner.

The Sanhedrin must decide and confess what they believe about Jesus.

We all must face the same dilemma.

Jesus will not go away quietly.

He commands our attention and forces us to decide.

We cannot ignore him.

Most of us don’t think this is a dilemma at all.

We have no problem confessing that Jesus’ authority is divine authority.

But as soon as we confess that we are at the same time condemning ourselves.

If we confess that Jesus is sent from God, then why don’t we believe him?

Why do we not do what he commands?

Why do we dismiss his words and assume there will be no consequence for doing so?

You have to admire this about the Sanhedrin.