Luke 20:7-8, “So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from. Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
Have you read through the Gospels and gotten to know the Pharisees? They are some interesting dudes. The religious leaders of the day, and from what we learn from the teaching of Jesus, they were far more concerned with being perceived as Christian than they were with having an authentic relationship with Christ. I mean quite literally the Christ, Jesus, was there with them and they wanted to kill Him from almost the beginning because He threatened their way of life.
In this passage in Luke 20, we see that the Pharisees are trying to trip Jesus up. A common theme in most of their conversations was that the Pharisees tried to verbally trick Jesus into saying the wrong thing so that He would lose credibility with the community and also create a cause to be put to death (pretty intense, I know). In this passage, they ask Jesus by what authority He receives His power. BUT, since Jesus is Jesus, He was three steps ahead of them and instead of responding in a way that could have been bad, He turned the question on them and asked them. It went like this (Luke 20:3-8):
“He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.”
Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
When the Christian leaders were asked who Jesus was, they couldn’t say because they were too concerned with how they would be viewed. Now, why am I telling you this? This is why, we often like to be like, “wow, come on Pharisees, how could you be so foolish.” When in reality, we are the Pharisees sometimes. We are the ones who go to church or youth group and even bring our Bibles or Journals and look really Holy. But, then when it is time to be challenged, like living out your faith outside of church, or choosing to not participate in something that all your friends are doing…we start to sound like the Pharisees. Maybe we aren’t trying to literally kill Jesus, but have you ever thought, “does the Bible really know what’s best, it was written so long ago, are we SURE that the same rules still apply” or “I trust Jesus, I do, but I think this choice is best for my life.”
Jesus calls us to a higher standard of living. We need to read the Bible and be in relationship with Jesus, being so in tune with the Father that we even have the ability to look at contemporary Christian culture and say, “no, that seems surface level, I want a deeper relationship.” Looks are looks and people thinking you are Christian feels good, but having a real, trusting relationship is good and Jesus will settle for nothing less.
This week ask yourself why you are doing the things you do. Are you doing them so that you can feel like you’re doing the right thing or because you want to have a real relationship with the Lord? When you decide to take the second option, your eyes will be opened to just how much Jesus loves you and how He is there for you always.