Mark 11:27-28. 27And 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, 28and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?”
Who said you could do that?
Who gave you permission?
Who put you in charge?
Have you ever been asked a question like this? Well, that’s the question that the religious leaders in the Temple are asking Jesus. They’re asking him about authority. Do you know what authority means? It means being in charge.
It’s Tuesday of Holy Week (Passover Week) and yesterday, on Monday, Jesus walked into the Temple and shut everything down (at least for a while). And now the people in charge of the Temple want to know why Jesus thinks he can get away with it – By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?
Jesus is used to being asked this question. He has been asked it many times before. In fact, at one point the religious leaders accused Jesus of getting his power and authority from Satan. Yikes.
Jesus’ answer is the complete opposite – I get my authority from God. In fact, I AM God. When Jesus went into the Temple and flipped over the tables on Monday, he called the Temple “my house.” Not your house. And not even God’s house. When he said “my house” he was calling himself God. He was claiming to have all the same authority as God. He’s saying, “The Temple is God’s house and it’s my house too, because I am God, and I’m in charge.”
On Holy Tuesday Jesus will say something else about authority that is almost as shocking. And it involves you and me. Let’s go back to the beginning of his conversation with the religious leaders:
Mark 11:22-25. 22Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
This is a big deal. Jesus is sharing his authority with his disciples, and also with you and me. Jesus is saying that we can have the same authority as him. The authority to pray to God and ask for anything and the authority to forgive people when they sin.
What is Jesus saying here? He’s saying that we will be like the Temple. We won’t have to go to a building anymore to pray and to have sins forgiven; we can do those things anywhere because we ARE the new Temple of God. When Jesus say that the mountain will be thrown into the sea, he means the mountain that the Temple is sitting on – no more Temple. No more Temple! We ARE the Temple!!
How is that possible? Because Jesus lives in us. That means we can pray to God and offer forgiveness anytime and anywhere. Jesus has given us the authority to do these things. And he has given us his authority to go and tell others about himself.
Who’s in charge? Jesus.
But we are with Jesus, so we get to do what he would do and we get to do it from his authority.
You: Would you say that Jesus is the authority of your life, that he is in charge? Explain your answer.
You with Jesus: Is there anyone that you need to forgive today? Would Jesus forgive them? Then you can too.
Prayer: Father, you gave Jesus authority and now Jesus has shared his authority with me. Help me to always pray to you and forgive others by faith in Jesus. Amen.
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