The Question of Authority

It is good to be with you once again. If I have not had the privilege of meeting you, my name is Mike Sladen. As weeks of this season have rolled into months of our new normal, I find myself very much resonating with what was shared earlier: I miss you guys. I find myself desiring to be back in a room together live to worship, to hear you sing, and to see your faces. I find myself overcome at times with emotions I didn’t even know I had. There’s an ongoing joke in the Sladen household that I only feel either hungry or tired, and I can’t feel both at the same time. But right now, I truly feel a deep longing to be together again, and I cannot wait until we are back together as one body.

If you have your Bible with you—and I trust that you do—turn to Matthew chapter 21. We are continuing in the series through the Gospel of Matthew that we have been in for well over a year now, picking up right where Brad left off last week in Matthew 21:23–32.

The Gravity of Passion Week

As you remember, we are right in the midst of Passion Week. Matthew has dedicated a massive portion of his entire book to this single week. Brad mentioned some of the Bible study techniques Matthew uses—specifically the law of proportion, dedicating a vast amount of text to a very short amount of time, which tells us that this week is of supreme importance.

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the Triumphal Entry, likely on Monday, March 30th, as Jesus walked into Jerusalem on Lamb Selection Day. Last week, Brad taught on the cleansing of the temple and the cursing of the fig tree, likely on Monday or Tuesday of that week. While we cannot be dogmatic about the exact day every single event took place, we know that today’s text occurs around Tuesday or Wednesday of Passion Week.

That means we are literally, at most, forty-eight hours away from the Upper Room Discourse on Thursday evening, where Jesus will share the Passover meal with His disciples. We are two days away from the Garden of Gethsemane, His betrayal, His trials, and ultimately the cross. When you consider the gravity of this situation, the intensity is off the charts. The gloves are completely off. Jesus enters into this discourse with a seriousness and a directness that we have not seen up to this point in Matthew’s Gospel.

Around the Well, we often talk about having a “last 10% conversation.” The first 90% of any conversation is generally easy to have. But when you step into that last 10%, you are saying, “This is what I really need to say. It may not feel good to hear, but you need to hear it because I love you.” Most of us can probably count on one hand the people in our lives who have the courage to speak to us like that. I have a few close friends who have entered into my life at that level. Every time they have those hard conversations with me, it is difficult to hear, but once I swallow my pride and listen to the truth spoken in love, I am shaped and molded by it.

That is the exact tone Jesus brings into this interaction with the religious leaders. He is handing them a last 10% conversation. For the next two and a half chapters, all the way through the end of chapter 23, Jesus ramps up His direct confrontation with the Pharisees, the scribes, the elders, the Sanhedrin, and the Sadducees.

Our passage breaks down into two clear sections: in verses 23 through 27, we see Christ’s authority challenged by the religious leaders; and in verses 28 through 32, Jesus tells a parable illustrating the true nature of their rebellion.

Christ’s Authority Challenged

Jesus begins by showing why the fig tree was cursed in the previous passage—it withered because of the fruitlessness and unbelief of the religious leaders who had led the people astray.

Matthew 21:23 (NASB)

When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, ‘By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?’

Jesus is in the temple courts, the epicenter of all things religious in Jerusalem. As He is teaching, the chief priests and elders confront Him. The chief priests were high-ranking temple officials who formed part of the Sanhedrin—the seventy-man ruling council that served as the supreme religious court of the Jews. They possessed immense power and presided over religious life. In fact, they will preside over three of Jesus’ six trials in just a few days. The elders were the heads of the leading, aristocratic families of Israel. Both groups operated with assumed authority. They controlled the temple, and they were deeply at odds with Jesus.

They ask Him, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” By “these things,” they are referencing His triumphal entry, the crowds praising Him as Messiah, His cleansing of the temple courts, His healing of the blind and the lame, and His bold teaching right in their jurisdiction. They are asking, “Who gave you the right to do this?”

They understood that Jesus was claiming messianic authority, but this was nothing new. Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus’ authority has been on full display. We saw it in His genealogy linking Him to David, His baptism by John, and the Sermon on the Mount where He declared, “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you,” exercising authority over the interpretation of the Law itself. We saw Him forgive sins, cast out demons, claim supremacy over the Sabbath, and address God intimately as Abba.

Matthew 7:28-29 (NASB)

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as [one] having authority, and not as their scribes.

The disciples had seen His authority. The crowds had seen His authority. The religious leaders had seen His authority. Yet they were not asking out of an inquisitive heart that wanted to learn. Their minds were already made up. They had rejected Him and were simply fishing for evidence to use against Him.

The core problem was that Jesus did not fit their mold. He didn’t come from their rabbinic academies. He wasn’t a member of the Sanhedrin. He was an untrained carpenter from Nazareth. Because He didn’t fit their preconceived expectations of what the Messiah should be, they refused to break their mold and admit they were wrong.

There was an accepted pattern of rabbinic debate in that culture. The host leaders would ask a visiting rabbi a broad question, and out of respect, the visiting rabbi would give a general answer. They would spar back and forth cordially, allowing both parties to agreeably disagree while preserving everyone’s honor. But watch how Jesus responds.

Matthew 21:24-25 (NASB)

Jesus said to them, ’I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. ‘The baptism of John was from what [source], from heaven or from men?’ And they [began] reasoning among themselves, saying, ’If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’

Jesus assumes complete control of the conversation. Instead of answering them directly, He asks a counter-question. This was not evasive; it was brilliantly rabbinic.

Years ago, while preparing for a trip to Israel, I heard a story about an American tourist visiting a souvenir shop in Jerusalem. The tourist was captivated by the stunning paintings on the wall and asked the shopkeeper, “These are incredible! Which one is your favorite?” The shopkeeper looked at her and asked, “Ma’am, are you married?” She said, “Yes, why?” He asked, “Do you have children?” She replied, “Yes, three.” The shopkeeper smiled and said, “Which one is your favorite?” His answer was inside his question.

Jesus did the same thing throughout His ministry. Even at twelve years old in the temple, the teachers were amazed at His understanding and questions.

Luke 2:46-47 (NASB)

Then, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.

Here, Jesus brings up John the Baptist. Malachi had prophesied that a forerunner would prepare the way for the Messiah. John arrived preaching repentance, and he explicitly pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Jesus asks them: was John’s ministry from heaven—ordained by God—or was it merely from human origin?

Jesus is turning the screws. He puts them in an inescapable corner. If they say John’s ministry was from heaven, Jesus will ask, “Then why didn’t you believe him when he pointed to Me?” But if they say it was from men, they risk a riot because the crowds revered John as a true prophet.

Matthew 21:25-26 (NASB)

‘The baptism of John was from what [source], from heaven or from men?’ And they [began] reasoning among themselves, saying, ’If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ ’But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.’

Luke’s Gospel adds even more color to their panic.

Luke 20:6 (NASB)

’But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.’

They are trapped between their rejection of the truth and their fear of man. They know the right answer, but pride, position, and self-preservation prevent them from speaking it.

Matthew 21:27 (NASB)

And answering Jesus, they said, ‘We do not know.’ He also said to them, ’Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

They offer the ultimate cop-out: “We do not know.” Because they refused to seek the truth honestly, Jesus refuses to answer them directly. They rejected the forerunner, and in doing so, they rejected the King.

The Parable of the Two Sons

Jesus immediately follows this confrontation with three parables aimed directly at these religious leaders. The first is the Parable of the Two Sons.

As we read this story, we need to engage it with both our head and our heart. Parables are designed to hold up a mirror so we can locate ourselves in the narrative.

Matthew 21:28-29 (NASB)

’But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ ’And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went.

In that culture, for a son to tell his father, “I will not work in the vineyard,” was scandalous and deeply disrespectful. In the Sladen household, our kids have chores. If one of our children looked at Michelle or me and said, “No, I’m not doing that,” it would be an outright rejection of our authority.

Yet this first son has a change of heart. The text says he regretted it and went. That word for “regretted” carries the meaning of repentance—he changed his mind. He reconsidered his father’s words, swallowed his pride, and obeyed. His initial rebellion was followed by genuine obedience because his heart softened to the truth.

Who does this son represent? He represents the irreligious—the tax collectors, the prostitutes, and the outcasts. They were people whose lives were initially marked by open rebellion against God. They had no polished religious resume. Yet when confronted with the truth of the Gospel through John and Jesus, they repented, changed their minds, and stepped into obedience.

Now look at the second son.

Matthew 21:30 (NASB)

’The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I [will], sir’; but he did not go.

This son gives an immediate, polite response: “I will, sir.” He has the right vocabulary and a respectful tone. Sometimes one of my daughters will respond to a request to clean up with a sweet, “No thank you, Daddy!” It sounds very polite, but it’s still disobedience!

The second son represents the religious elite—the chief priests, Pharisees, and elders. They possessed the scriptures, held positions in the temple, and gave lip service to God’s authority. But when God’s Messiah stood right in front of them, they refused to obey Him. They said “yes” with their mouths, but their lives said “no.”

Jesus then delivers the piercing punchline.

Matthew 21:31 (NASB)

‘Which of the two did the will of his father?’ They said, ‘The first.’ Jesus said to them, ’Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

The leaders give the obvious answer: the first son did the will of his father. With their own mouths, they pronounce their own condemnation.

Jesus looks at these esteemed, highly respected religious leaders and tells them something unthinkable: the despised tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of them—in fact, instead of them. The marginalized outcasts who repented were receiving the kingdom, while the self-righteous leaders who refused to repent were left outside.

Matthew 21:32 (NASB)

’For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing [this], did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.

Repentance, Belief, and Control

Jesus identifies the two missing elements in the lives of these religious leaders: repentance and belief.

To repent means to undergo a fundamental shift in thinking—a metamorphosis of the mind that produces a changed life. To believe means to place your total trust and reliance upon someone. The religious leaders spent their entire lives assuming they were right with God based on their pedigree, their knowledge, and their status. When the truth proved them wrong, they refused to adjust.

Back in high school physics class, our teacher conducted a classic experiment. He held a heavy bowling ball in one hand and a small marble in the other and asked the class, “If I drop these at the exact same time, which one will hit the ground first?” Like most students, I assumed the bowling ball would hit first because of its mass. But when he released them, they struck the floor at the exact same time.

In that moment, I had two choices: I could cling to my flawed preconceived notion, or I could admit I was wrong and adjust my thinking to reality.

That is precisely what Jesus demanded of the religious leaders. They had a flawed hypothesis about the Messiah, but when the living reality stood before them, they refused to admit they were wrong. They chose pride over truth.

Which Son Are You?

As we examine this text, we must ask ourselves the searching question: which son are you?

Perhaps you identify with the first son. You look in the rearview mirror of your life—or maybe even at your present situation—and you see seasons of open rebellion against God. You feel like an outsider who doesn’t have it all together. The good news of the Gospel is that your past does not disqualify you from the kingdom of God. Jesus invites the least, the last, and the broken. If you will humble yourself, change your mind, and place your faith in Christ, His grace covers all your sin.

Or perhaps you see yourself in the second son. You grew up in church. You went through confirmation, memorized Bible verses, and know all the right religious jargon. But underneath the respectable exterior, you are trusting in your own goodness and self-righteousness. Religious credentials cannot save you. Without a broken and contrite heart that genuinely bows to Jesus as Lord, external religion is meaningless.

At the root of both sons’ struggles—and at the root of our own hearts—is the issue of control. None of us naturally wants to surrender control of our lives. We know that if we bend the knee to King Jesus, He will demand our full allegiance. He will ask us to walk down difficult roads of humility and surrender.

True faith is not defined by what we merely affirm with our lips; it is revealed by how we live. What we truly believe in our heads will move our hearts and show up in our hands. Lip service does not move God. A humble, repentant heart does.

Would you surrender control today? Whether you have lived a life of outward rebellion or a life of hollow religion, turn to Christ. Repent, believe, and place your complete trust in Him alone.

Prayer

Father, we are so grateful that You have the courage and love to have these hard, last 10% conversations with us. Two thousand years later, we are the ones who need to hear these words. We need to be reminded of the supreme authority of Jesus Christ—that He alone is worthy to be trusted, followed, and obeyed.

Lord, soften our hearts today. Keep us from becoming like the second son who offered polite lip service while withholding his heart. Give us the humility of the tax collectors and outcasts who recognized their deep need, repented of their sin, and ran to the Savior. We place our full faith, hope, and trust in Christ and Christ alone. In His name we pray, Amen.