Scripture Daily

Context No. 86 of 4322 · Mark

Context · Reflection

Mark 11:27-33: in context

27They came again to Jerusalem, and as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him, 28and they began saying to him, “By what authority do you do these things? Or who gave you this authority to do these things?” 29Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30The baptism of John—was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me.” 31They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven;’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32If we should say, ‘From men’”—they feared the people, for all held John to really be a prophet. 33They answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem, overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, and come back the next day to teach in the same courts. This passage is the official delegation arriving: chief priests, scribes, and elders, the composition of the Sanhedrin. Their question is the reasonable one for men responsible for the temple. By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave it to you?

He offers a trade. Answer me one question and I will answer yours. The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from men? Then Mark does something unusual and lets us hear them work it out. If we say from heaven, he will ask why we did not believe him. If we say from men, and they were afraid of the crowd, because everyone held that John really was a prophet.

Notice what is missing from their deliberation. They weigh both answers by consequence, and never once ask which is true. So they say, we do not know, and he says, then I will not tell you either. He does not withhold the answer to be clever. He declines to give evidence to men who have just shown, out loud, that evidence is not what decides them. When I ask a hard question, am I working out what is true or what it will cost me to have said it?

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