12th May 2010

Mark 11:27-33– Jesus’ authority is questioned.

• Jesus was audacious in His teaching and His actions.
• The religious elite approach him and ask where His s’mikhah comes from. They had formularized and systemized the whole business of authority – especially in the area of teaching.
• To be able to teach halakhah you had to receive a certain type of authority. Especially if you were bringing new interpretation and authority as Jesus was doing. Three people [usually elders] had to lay hands on you and pass on this authority; one of them had to have received s’mikhah themselves.
• Three things to learn here.
• Firstly Jesus had received s’mikhah and it had come from understanding authority but not in the way that this spiritual Mafioso were demanding it had to be received. Authority is given by God to those who understand authority and to those who are honoring and submissive to authority. Jesus certainly did this. He mentions John which is poignant because in humility and submission, He was baptized by John – some say His S’mikhah was evidently given Him at His baptism.
• Secondly; Jesus was a prophet. In the OT especially God used two types of people to spiritually lead Israel; priests and prophets.
• Priests had religious duties of the nation, Holidays, sacrifices, observations, feasts & fasts. The Key to their service was regularity & regulations. They were qualified through blood & study. Traced their lineage through Aaron.
• At points however these traditions because dead and lifeless and at that point God rose up…
• Prophets. They often had no formal qualifications or particular bloodline. McClaren: The only credential they possessed was a kind of self-authenticating passion and unavoidable moral substance. They emphasized the heart not routine and spoke on behalf of God for the benefit of someone else: the poor, underprivileged, weak downtrodden. They always promised a new world order where these people would benefit.
• Those questioning Jesus had conveniently forgotten this fact and perhaps did not want to allude to Jesus being a prophet. But Jesus uses John to raise the issue as Jesus was commonly seen in the mold of a typical prophet.
• Thirdly; Jesus yet again refuses to be boxed in to a line of questioning that he knows will lead away from the real issue. The whole line of questioning is a red herring. A typical tactic of Jesus’ attackers were to ignore the big issues God was speaking about and waste time on minutia in order bring about their selfish purposes.
• But Jesus wasn’t playing.
• We need to learn that it is sometimes better not to answer the question. It forces people to take action based on their real motives.
• Praying for authority today.