Who will be King? (or, “You’re not the boss of me!”) - Mark 11:27-33

Who will be King? (or, “You’re not the boss of me!”)

Mark 11:27-33

Introduction: Growing up in a family with seven children we had a fair amount “constructive disagreements” between the children at different times… (OK, we fought a lot!).  Whenever there was some misunderstanding about the “pecking order” the immediate reply would come: “You’re not the boss of me!” Since the Fall, that has really been the cry of sinful humans to holy God: “You’re not the boss of me!” One preacher said, “Sin is like a tiny drop of protoplasm, floating on a little speck of dust in space, shaking its fist at the God who created a hundred million galaxies.” The famous last line of the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley says, “It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” Henley reflects the pervasive desire of unregenerate humans to affirm their supposed autonomy and to resist the rule of God.  We struggle with the idea that we owe another our allegiance, and our obedience.

       I am convinced that that is the greatest obstacle to people putting their trust in Christ. They recoil from the idea that He is Lord, and that He has authority of us. Rather than seeking to know God as He is, as He has revealed himself to be, people try to deny Him, or to redefine Him in their own terms. The God who is, has spoken. His Word is truth. Have you heard His voice?

       Jesus said in the great commission, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and on earth…” (Mt 28:18). The refusal to trust Jesus and confess Him as Lord reveals the hardness of the hearts of these leaders, and of all unregenerate humans. They resist His authority, they refuse to honestly look at the evidence, and they fear men more than they fear God. The evidence demands a verdict. And Jesus is not on trial. We are. Will we take Him at His Word?  Will we submit ourselves to Him?

The Maine* Idea: Jesus is Lord, which means every decision we make must be subsumed under the authority of Christ.

I. The authority of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel (1:22, etc.). As Mark has presented his account of the story of Jesus, the Messiah, he has been pushing the reader to recognize that Jesus was not a mere man. Who then is Jesus?  He wasn’t just another in a long line of prophets, or even simply a great and influential teacher of moral truths. Mark begins the gospel affirming that Jesus is nothing less than the very Son of God (1:1).  His authority, as it comes center stage in this passage, is properly recognized from rightly understanding His identity. I hope that you have spent some time reading this gospel over the last year and a half and through that reading have deepened your appreciation and understanding of His identity. If He is who He claimed to be, then what? That is the issue that comes into focus in this passage. Let’s review a few verses we’ve seen that shine a light on aspects of His person, demonstrating His authority.

     Authority in His teaching (1:22, 27). Early in this gospel, as Jesus taught in the synagogue in Capernaum, we read that “…they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes…” (1:22). Typically, the scribes evoked earlier teachers and rabbi’s, much like a researcher today might have footnotes in his paper or a speaker might credit a writer or a preacher from an earlier generation. Not so with Jesus. He spoke with authority, affirmed the truth of God directly. This astonished the crowds, it was different than teaching they had earlier received.

      Authority over sickness and death (1:30,31,34,41,42, etc.). We’ve looked at the miracles that Jesus did in this gospel. Giving sight to the blind, opening deaf ears, healing paralytics, even raising the dead (cf. Matt 11:4,5; John 3:2)! He did the kinds of things that only someone empowered by God could do, the kinds of things that the prophets had predicted would be done by the Messiah.

      Authority over demons (1:24,25; 3:15; 6:7). Jesus had demonstrated absolute power and authority in encounters with demons – they were banished by His words and those they oppressed were set free. Remember when He liberated the Gadarene demoniac from the Legion, and the herd of pigs rushed down over a precipice into the sea? The people of the region urged Him to leave! They didn’t want to risk shaking up their lives like that – better that He depart from their region! God will shake up your life, are you ready?

      Authority over the wind and sea (4:37-41; 6:45-52). In the ancient world, those who lived near the water, or from it derived their livelihood, learned to respect the sea. One of the stories this week in VBS was Paul being shipwrecked on his way to Rome as a prisoner. Even the experienced sailors in that story in Acts 27 at one point despaired in the face of the storm and lost hope. Mark shows Jesus with authority commanding the wind and the waves. Even the disciples asked, “Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey Him?” A second scene was even more shocking as Jesus seemed to dismiss the laws of physics when He walked to the disciples in the midst of a storm on the surface of the water. They were terrified! Things like that didn’t happen! Who has such authority? Who can essentially re-write the laws of nature like that?

       Authority to forgive sins (2:7-11). Perhaps most striking, and to the leaders most offensive, was Jesus pronouncing the forgiveness of sins. They asked in 2:7, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Who indeed! The leaders were rightly seeing the direction that Jesus’ ministry was pointing – they were simply unwilling to accept the implications.  Was it their comfort with the status quo or the fact that Jesus simply didn’t fit their views of the messiah? One thing was clear: they had already decided He would not be their king!

       Mark has been presenting the case for the absolute authority of Christ. The resistance to Him that we see, especially in the leaders, exposes their unbelieving hearts. They had already decided that Jesus was not, could not be, the messiah.  They were blind to the truth. What about you? If we recognize who He is, we will see that He is Lord. That means we owe Him our obedience, every decision we make must be submitted to His authority.

II. The leaders challenged the authority of Christ (11:27-28). “By what authority are you doing these things?” This was no honest, searching questioning! This was not like Nicodemus in John 3 who seems to be searching. At least he admitted, “We know that you are a teacher sent by God because no one could do the signs that you are doing except God be with Him.” These leaders in Mark 11 make no such admission. Their minds were made up, and they hoped to trap Jesus with His own words, and so to have a basis for condemning Him. This scene introduces as series of confrontations with the leaders this passion week which will ultimately reach a climax in the Cross.

²⁷ And 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,  ²⁸ and they said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?" 

       Remember the context, Jesus had entered the city like a Messianic figure, a King, as prophesied by Zechariah (9:9). The crowds had hailed his coming in messianic terms, and, for the first time, He had refused to silence them! In fact, the time for such affirmation had come. If the people were quiet the stones themselves would cry out! His time was at hand, and even in guiding the story to this point He has been showing that He is in control, that He has all authority.

        Jesus entered the city as prophesied, and the next day had entered the Temple and cast out the money changers. The Temple should have been a place of prayer, the center of worship; and instead it had become a place of commerce. The “business” of the feast was well established in the early part of the first century. He not only upset their business, but taught at that time, in the temple courts, with authority.  Now a day has passed and they entered the city for the third time that week. The leaders were waiting, these actions could not go unanswered.  The people, and especially the leaders, had to respond.

        The leaders challenged His authority to do and say the things He was saying and doing. These leaders probably included members of the Sanhedrin, the “supreme court” so-to-speak of Judaism. This rebuke of the status quo during one of the Pilgrim Feasts was outrageous from their perspective. Who did this guy think He was?  He had no training at the feet of a respected rabbi (he didn’t even go to a seminary!). And so, they challenge Him with a direct, two-part question: “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you the authority to do them?” To claim to be directly authorized by God would have been a basis for a charge of blasphemy. They were the Supreme Council after all! Later, in the midst of His “trial,” they will literally say, “We will not have this man to be our king!” Who do you say that He is?  Do you realize that you are really not in charge, that you are not the master of your soul? Are you willing to admit that He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life? He is Lord, which means every decision we make must be subsumed under His authority.

III. The leaders’ hearts are exposed by their response to Christ (29-33). Jesus’ works and words demonstrated His identity. The evidence was clear. The refusal of the leaders to believe exposed their hard, unrepentant hearts.

²⁹ Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.  ³⁰ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me."  ³¹ And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  ³² But shall we say, 'From man'?"- they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet.  ³³ So they answered Jesus, "We do not know." And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

        Jesus did not answer directly but asked a question to expose the hearts of the leaders. This was a typical approach to rabbinic teaching and debate. Of course, Jesus knew the hearts of the leaders. They were not seeking the truth, they thought they had Jesus cornered with their question. If He answered as they were sure He would – that His authority came from God – they would have Him trapped… or so they thought. They were essentially asking, “Who do you think you are?” Jesus turns their “plan” on its head with His question. Ironically, He both demonstrates His authority by trapping them with His counter-question, and in the process, He exposes their unbelief.  The overarching irony in the gospel accounts is that the rejection of Jesus by the leaders in fact confirms His identity and fulfills the Scriptures. He is the Stone the builders rejected, the righteous sufferer of the Psalms, the suffering servant of Isaiah. The leaders are asking Jesus, “Who do you think you are?” The real question was what Jesus was asking the leaders, “Who do you think that I am?” That is one of the key questions that every human must answer! What will you do with Jesus? Who do you say that He is?

       Even in stumping them with His question, He shows that He is in control – He is Lord!  He would soon affirm His deity before the leaders, but on His terms and at His time. He was in control. He was guiding the story in precise fulfill-ment of the plan of God. The leaders likely thought they had Jesus cornered with their question, and suddenly, a reversal, they were on the defensive!

       The leaders were stuck. They had watched John from a distance and knew that the people respected him, considering him a prophet.  Perhaps they had heard that John had baptized Jesus and identified Him as the Promised One. If they said that John was sent by God, then Jesus would ask why they hadn’t embraced him and his message. If they said that He was from man, they would anger the people, who widely regarded Him as a prophet. Rather than speaking honestly, expressing their conclusions or beliefs about John, they shift into “self-defense mode.” “We do not know…”

      First of all, notice that the leaders are more concerned about the reaction of the people than they are about seeking the truth. This comes out in the entire so-called “trial” of Jesus. The entire motivation is to get Jesus to make a messianic claim, which they can then turn into a basis for condemning Him. Their minds were made up. Despite Jesus’ teaching and the confirming evidence of the signs he had done, they would not be confused by the facts.

       I think one of the great obstacles to faith is exactly this: Do I believe that I can be the master of my fate, the captain of my soul, or do I recognize that I was dead spiritually, separated from God, unable to understand the things of the Spirit of God, by nature a child of wrath—deserving nothing but judgement? Do I see that it is not what I can do, but rather what He has done for me? We have to see our desperate need, our total inability, crying out to Him for mercy! Like the man in Jesus, parable, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” I need to surrender my heart to Him, recognizing my only hope is in Christ alone.

What is God saying to me in this passage? Jesus is Lord, which means every decision we make must be subsumed under the authority of Christ.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Have you recognized the One who came to reconcile us to God? Are you willing to follow Him? Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me…” His life, death, and resurrection had unfolded exactly as God had planned in eternity past, and as He had revealed in the Scriptures. If Jesus is who He claimed to be, then the song writer was correct: “Trust and obey, there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey!” Have you recognized your need, that by birth and by choice you are a sinner? God is holy. He is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. And so, as the Bible tells us, “He will be no means leave the guilty unpunished…” and, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” What hope is there then for any of us? Jesus, the Lamb of God, lived a perfect sinless life, and came to die as our substitute. He bore our sins in His body on the tree… Such grace!

       The song I earlier referred to, “Trust and Obey,” has two aspects to it. Trust in Jesus, the Son of God, trusting in what He did for us in His death and resurrection, as our only hope of salvation. So, we turn from sin, and turn to Him. He gives us a new heart, and we can live a new life, with the help of the Spirit convicting and guiding us, we choose to follow Him.

       We’ve seen in Mark, Jesus give authority to his disciples as he sent them out on a mission to preach and heal and cast out demons. It is good for us to remember that in the Great Commission Jesus said, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth… therefore go and make disciples…” That call applied to the disciples, but it is also the mission that He has entrusted to the church. That includes us. Does He have authority over us? He has all authority. If you know Him, you too have a part in His mission, you have been sent! Will you embrace your part in His mission? It starts right where He has placed you, with your friends, relatives, and neighbors. You are His ambassadors!  AMEN.