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Luke 20:1-8
Jesus has made the triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-40) and was praised as “King” by the people. The Pharisees were offended by this activity, and then Jesus drove their workers (the temple priests) out of the temple for conducting extortion in God’s house. Jesus then takes over the temple and begins teaching in it each day. The Pharisees are held silent but are growing more and more offended by the presence of Jesus. In Luke 20:1-8, the chief priests, scribes, and elders confront Jesus with intentions of trapping Him in His own words by asking Him a tough question of where or by whom has He been given the authority to do these things? Jesus responds with a question for the chief priests, scribes, and the elders of where did the baptism of John [the Baptist] come from? Their response to Jesus is that they do not know because if they say, “from God” Jesus will ask them why they did not believe him, and if they say from men, they may be stoned by the people for blasphemy because they considered John the Baptist a prophet. Because they could not answer this question given them by Jesus, Jesus responds by telling them that He will also not answer the question that they had asked of Him.
This is an example of ultimate authority.
This is an example of the pride and self-righteousness of men in desire to be above God. (The exact reason Lucifer was cast out of heaven, and one of the main tools that Satan uses against man in his attempt to keep us away from submitting our lives to Jesus.)
We all want to be the ultimate authority in our lives, families, and professions. When someone challenges our authority, we become offended and want to lash out at that person, just as did the Pharisees, chief priests, and the elders of the temple when Jesus presented Himself to them. This is the result of the sinful nature that lives within us and is the rebellious nature that Satan uses against us in his attempt to keep us away from our Savior Jesus and receiving a new life of forgiveness that is only found in Him. The Apostle Paul teaches us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). He also teaches us that the works of the flesh (sinful nature) is adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). The question is to which path will we choose to follow; one leads to eternal life, and the other to eternal condemnation.
Dear Lord,
Please help us to see that the sinful nature is forced upon us by Satan in his rebellion against You. Please help us to see that he does not want anyone to have a relationship with you because he has lost his relationship with You and in his self-centeredness, pride, and jealousy he does not want us to have a relationship with You either. We can only overcome the grasp of the sinful nature by accepting Jesus and submitting our lives to Your will for us. Please give us the strength each day to do so and keep our focus on Jesus; our Savior who makes forgiveness and eternal life in heaven possible. Thank You Jesus for saving me from sin. In Jesus name I pray, amen.