Mark 11:27-33-- Truth for Evil's Sake

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, and began saying to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?" And Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question, and you answer Me, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer Me." They began reasoning among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Then why did you not believe him?' But shall we say, 'From men '?"— they were afraid of the people, for everyone considered John to have been a real prophet. Answering Jesus, they said, "We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Jesus had made quite an impact in Jerusalem in the two days he was there.  The first day he was proclaimed as the king of Jerusalem by many people.  The second day he threw tables and money around the temple, proclaiming it to be unclean.  The leaders in Jerusalem are stunned and offended by these actions.  The first implied that their leadership would be replaced.  The second clearly proclaimed that their handing of the temple was evil before God.  And Jesus’ act in the temple might also imply that he was predicting the destruction of the temple.  So the leaders of Jerusalem wanted to know why he thought he could do these things.

The three groups that were confronting Jesus here were the scribes, who were Bible experts, the elders, who were members of the ruling body called the Sanhedrin and the ruling priests.  These were leaders of all Judaism, throughout the world.  And these were the people Jesus was confronting from the time he proclaimed God’s kingdom to be coming.  They are fundamentally content with the status quo and wants to keep things as they are—Jesus, on the other hand, is proclaiming radical changes.  So they want to know why Jesus had the right to do what he was doing—who gave him the authority.

Of course, the simple answer would be that Jesus received this authority from God—Jesus and John heard the voice from heaven.  But instead of giving them the simple answer, Jesus said he wanted to know what they thought of John’s proclamation—was it from God or not?  This question was essential to Jesus’ answer.  If they thought that John was sent from God, then they could accept Jesus—but if they did not, they would not accept him.  Mark then allows us to hear their discussion with each other—they didn’t really believe in John’s proclamation, but they didn’t want to say so publicly.  And if they said John was sent from God, then Jesus would rebuke them.

So they took the safe course—they said they didn’t know.  Jesus replied that since they refused to commit themselves one way or another about John, then he wouldn’t answer their question.  If he answered them, it would open himself up to a public rejection.

Most of the time, when we ask a question, we want to have an answer.  But the gospels are full of people who ask questions in order to avoid other questions, to trap someone, to avoid responsibility.  

Curiosity is good and it is a human trait God created in us.  But we can use the veneer of what is naturally human to be cruel, to be underhanded and to be passive-aggressive.  If we use a question in this way, we can always say, "It was just a question... sheesh... why make such a big deal about it?"  

Other times, people will ask a question that shouldn't be answered, even if it is sincere.  If the Nazis come to your door and ask if Jews are there, that's not a question that should be answered.  Hate uses truth for evil purposes. 

It is a sad thing when we use what is good for the purpose of evil.  What a sad world we live in that it happens all the time.