Jesus’s Authority to Judge (Mark 11.27-12.27)
I would like to tell you about a conversation I had with a colleague at my job before I became a minister.
She had just learned that an acquaintance of hers had gone on a missionary trip abroad.
"I thought it was so arrogant," she said.
"What right do you have to go to another country and tell them to change their religion and believe in Jesus?"
"How arrogant and intolerant!"
Being a bit slow on the uptake, I didn't really know how to respond at the time.
At Connexion Church, we are preparing for a missionary trip.
To those of you who are going, may I ask you a question? What gives you the right to do that? What gives you the authority to go to a country that is not your own, call on people to change what they believe, perhaps for centuries, their religion, perhaps certain aspects of their way of life, and to accept the Christian faith?
By what authority are you going to do this?
This afternoon, some of you will go out into this neighbourhood to try to share the good news of Jesus with passers-by who may have very different beliefs from your own.
By what right?
What gives you the right to say that people must believe in Jesus?
Perhaps you are here this morning because you have questions about the Christian faith.
Perhaps you are interested in the person of Jesus Christ. What you don't want is to become arrogant and intolerant.
Is that what happens when you embrace the Christian faith?
Hence our question this morning: what right do we have to insist on the need to believe in Jesus... alone?
By what right does Jesus demand that we believe in him... even if it means rejecting other belief systems?
This is the question posed to Jesus in verse 28 of Mark chapter 11, which we have just read.
Jesus is walking in the temple in Jerusalem. The leaders of the people challenge him:
"By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you the authority to do them?"
The context behind the question is what we saw Jesus do last Sunday, if you were there.
He arrived in Jerusalem, and the crowds hailed him as king and saviour. Then the first thing he did was to go to the temple, the historic house of God and the centre of Israel's religion, to announce... that it was over for the temple.
Finished.
It's as if he went to Notre Dame Cathedral, not just to chase away the tourists and close the souvenir shop so that people could concentrate better during services. No, it's as if he entered the cathedral to chase away the clergy, lock the doors and throw the key into the Seine.
He compares the temple to a fig tree that had not borne the expected fruit, and he curses it.
He says that what matters now is no longer the religion of the temple, but faith in him.
No wonder the leaders ask him: by what authority are you doing these things? What gives you the right to take our religion, our temple - which God himself established - and say, "It's over; believe in me now"?
By what authority do you judge us in this way?
This is what we see in this morning's passage.
Jesus' authority to judge
The reasons that attract his judgement...
And the need to believe in him to escape judgement.
Three points:
The judge's accusation presented
The judge's accusation confirmed
The judge's victory assured
The judge's accusation presented (11:27-12:9)
The title of the first point is deliberately ambiguous.
It could either mean the trial brought against a judge or by a judge.
This is what we see in the exchanges between the Jewish leaders and Jesus.
They attack his authority to judge. But in doing so, they show why Jesus must judge them.
This is the first thing to understand: God is good, God is patient, but at some point, Jesus judges those who rebel against his authority.
Mark 11:27:
"They went back to Jerusalem, and as Jesus was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders came to him and said, 'By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you the authority to do them?
At first glance, the question seems perfectly legitimate.
If I went to Notre Dame Cathedral to chase away the clergy and lock the doors, those in charge would be entitled to ask me who I think I am.
But I am not Jesus!
And in the mouths of the leaders of Israel, this question is anything but sincere, for several reasons.
First, they saw with their own eyes what Jesus' authority was. They saw his miracles. They heard his teaching. They contemplated his character.
They know his authority.
Second, in their mouths, it is a trick question.
Last week we saw that when they saw Jesus judging the temple and how the crowds were nevertheless glued to his words, they were looking for a way to kill him.
So they tried to trap him. If he answered that his authority came from God, they could accuse him of blasphemy.
If he answers that it comes from men, he loses all legitimacy.
Jesus' answer is a stroke of genius.
Verse 29
Jesus replied, "I will ask you a question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Was John's baptism from heaven or from men?"
John is John the Baptist, someone who had been immensely popular among the people.
Above all, he had testified about Jesus just before he began his ministry.
Now the leaders were stumped!
"If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him? Why did you not accept his testimony about me?
And if we say, 'From men...'" They feared the people's reaction, for they all truly regarded John as a prophet.
They risked losing popular support.
So, like good politicians, they avoided taking a position.
"We do not know."
Jesus' response: Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Jesus exposes their true motives.
Holding on to power.
Popularity is more important to them than the truth.
They fear men more than they fear God.
Isn't that so typically human?
We don't like to relinquish control.
We, too, often care more about what people will say than what God will say.
For us too, the approval of others often matters more than God's approval.
When my colleague told me about her friend's missionary trip, what probably prevented me from responding appropriately was my greater concern for popularity than for truth.
It's so human!
But their question, "By what authority do you judge us?", may be a trick question in the mouths of the leaders, but it remains an important question for us.
We need to know what gives Jesus the authority to take an entire religious system and throw it in the bin!
Because if he can do that to the religion that God himself established, how much more so can he do it to any other belief system?
We need to know why Jesus the judge is conducting his trial.
So Jesus tells a parable to explain.
Chapter 12, verse 1
And he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2 When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
In this story, the owner of the vineyard is God.
The vineyard represents the privileges granted to the people of Israel.
The tenants are the leaders of Israel.
The servants are the prophets whom God sent to Israel.
The owner's son is Jesus.
Let us remember the purpose of parables.
The purpose of parables is to harden those who have already decided that they do not want Jesus, such as the religious leaders, and to enlighten those who belong to Jesus.
How does this parable enlighten us?
First, it shows us God's immense generosity towards Israel throughout its history.
The vineyard is of the highest quality. It has all the necessary equipment.
It is not a small vineyard that only produces cheap wine at €1 a bottle. It is Château Margaux.
An image of God's overflowing generosity towards Israel. The abundance of their country, protection from enemies, the privilege of being the only people in the world to have God dwelling among them.
God had spared no expense.
The parable also speaks of God's patience with Israel.
The vineyard is leased to the vinedressers so that they may enjoy it and also produce fruit for the owner.
That's normal. It belongs to him.
But when the owner sends a servant to collect his share, they beat him and send him away empty-handed.
If I were the owner, I would have stopped there.
I would have called the police to remove them by force.
Not this owner.
He sends a second servant, a third, a fourth.
Some are beaten, others killed. He continues to give them chances.
Immense patience.
But this immense patience only serves to highlight how immense their sin is.
They did not listen to the servants.
The owner sends his beloved son; surely they will respect him!
But the vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'
This answers the question: by what authority does Jesus do these things?
The authority of a son sent to recover what is due to his father.
This is the great shock of this parable.
Why do the vineyard workers kill the son? Is it because they do not know who he is? No.
Is it because he did not prove his identity? No.
Is it because they doubt his authority? No.
On the contrary, it is precisely because they recognise who he is and know his authority that they decide to kill him.
They act deliberately, to take advantage of what has been entrusted to them, without submitting to his authority.
Imagine that you invest money in an apartment, rent it out to tenants, and move to another city.
Then the rent doesn't come in.
You send messages – no reply.
You ask friends to go and talk to them. They slam the door in their faces.
Finally, you send your son to beg them to use common sense.
But when they see that he is the heir to the flat, they kill him, thinking they can keep it for themselves.
It's horrible.
But this is Jesus' indictment of the leaders of Israel.
In fact, it is the indictment he brings against the whole world.
The history of Israel is a microcosm of the history of humanity.
God had given Israel a vineyard full of good fruit.
He had given humanity a garden full of good fruit.
Israel wanted to steal the vineyard from its owner.
Humanity tried to steal the earth from its owner.
Everyone in this room and everyone on this planet has enjoyed the good things given by God without giving back what is due to God.
The gratitude and obedience He deserves.
If He then sends us His Son, but we reject Him... we are guilty.
This is how I should have responded to my colleague.
Is the Christian faith arrogant and intolerant?
The world belongs to God!
It is full of good things – think of the diversity and beauty of his creation! God wants us to enjoy it, but it is his world, not ours.
If we live in it like squatters who refuse to pay rent, it's only natural that he would disagree.
If he calls us to give his son what is due to him, it is not arrogance. It is a sign of his patience.
If we continue to refuse, if we reject this Son, it is only natural that He will not tolerate this rejection forever.
God is good, God is patient, but at some point, those who reject his authority must be judged.
Perhaps we are not convinced by the accusation.
Perhaps we find Jesus too harsh.
But what follows shows that this rejection of God's authority can take very mundane forms.
This is the second point...
The judge's accusation confirmed (12:13-27)
One skill we develop when caring for children is the ability to discern their true motives.
You walk into the kitchen and there's the little one, standing on a stool next to the cupboard where the biscuits are kept.
"What are you doing?"
"Actually" — that's how the answer usually starts — "I wanted to wipe the sponge."
We are perceptive enough to discern the real motive.
The irony in this passage is that when the leaders hear this parable accusing them of wanting to kill Jesus, they want to kill Jesus even more!
But they cannot because of the crowd.
So they send two delegations to trap him.
Each time, Jesus proves that their real motive for attacking him is to live for themselves rather than for God.
Mark 12:13:
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?”
Relativised repentance
The Pharisees were a popular movement that sought to encourage the people to adhere more strictly to Jewish law.
The Herodians were supporters of King Herod.
What they had in common was their concern about how to relate to the Romans, who occupied Israel.
Hence their question. Is it permissible or not to pay taxes to the emperor?
This was another trick question.
If Jesus answered that taxes should be paid to Caesar, he risked being seen as a traitor in the eyes of the people. A collaborator.
If he answered that they should not pay, he would be denounced to the Romans as a rebel, and they would come and execute him.
In both cases, the goal is to eliminate Jesus.
Once again, Jesus finds a brilliant answer.
He takes a coin. Whose image is on it?
"The emperor's."
Then, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's."
In other words, if the coin bears the image of the emperor, Caesar, it belongs to him. It is his currency that you are using. So pay your taxes.
But also give to God what belongs to God. And what bears the image of God?
You! You human beings! You bear the image of God!
What God really asks is that you give yourselves to him! Your whole life. Not just part of it.
What you are guilty of is limiting God's authority to only a few narrow areas.
Your tax return, as important as that may be.
We often do the same thing.
Limiting God's authority to a few moments of the week, or certain areas of life.
But God asks us to surrender ourselves to him completely.
Like the Pharisees.
Then come the Sadducees.
Eternity ignored (12:18-27)
The Sadducees recognised only the first five books of the Bible and did not believe in the resurrection from the dead.
Like many of our contemporaries.
Today, many people believe that we only have this life, that by striving for heaven, we miss out on earth. Let's enjoy the present moment without worrying too much about the hereafter.
Jesus, however, taught that he would die and then rise again.
If there is indeed no resurrection, his teaching falls flat.
The Sadducees try to trap him with an imaginary case.
A man dies and leaves behind a wife but no children.
According to Jewish law, the man's brother had to marry the widow to give his first husband descendants.
But let us imagine that this brother also dies without children. Another brother marries her and he too dies without children, and so on until the woman has been married seven times.
In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
And Jesus’s scathing reply in verse 24:
“Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?”
He gives two examples to prove that they are mistaken.
First, the Sadducees did not understand how different life after the resurrection will be from life here and now.
In particular, they did not understand that marriage here and now is only a picture ... of the relationship between the church and Jesus in the new world that God is preparing.
Marriage as we know it now will no longer exist.
Their argument does not hold water.
Secondly, God affirms that there will be a resurrection when he presents himself in the book of Exodus as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob four centuries after their death.
God had made promises to these three men that were not fulfilled during their lifetime.
There must be a day when they will be resurrected to receive what was promised.
We cannot close our eyes to life after death without closing our eyes to what God has revealed in the Bible.
But that is what the Sadducees do, so that they do not have to take Jesus seriously.
If this seems complicated, here is the gist of it.
The leaders confirm that they have a problem with authority—the authority of Jesus.
Far from discrediting Jesus, their questions and arguments just show that they want to live for themselves and for the present.
Once again, this is so human!
I have a brother who is not a Christian.
We have discussed the arguments for and against the Christian faith at length.
But I remember a very telling remark he once made.
Even if the Christian faith were true, I wouldn't believe in it because I don't agree with the Bible on sexuality.
In other words, whether it's true or not doesn't matter. I don't want it to be true!
So... we have the right to ask questions!
If you have questions or even objections, ask them! This is the place for it.
But let's be clear about what Jesus is revealing here.
Our difficulty with Jesus is not fundamentally a question of arguments or facts.
Not fundamentally.
The leaders saw that Jesus had the arguments on his side. That did not mean they believed in him.
Because behind the mind that does not believe, there is a heart that does not want to.
We have a problem with Jesus' authority... as good and benevolent as it may be.
But if we persist in our stubbornness, the stakes are enormous. That is the final point.
The judge's victory assured (12:9-12)
By what right do we insist on the need to believe in Jesus?
It is because, in the end, the judge Jesus will have the final say over everyone.
We may not realise this today. One day it will be obvious.
Let us return to the parable of the vineyard workers. Mark 12:9.
The owner was patient, he sent his servants, he sent his son... whom they killed... just as the leaders are preparing to kill Jesus.
Verse 9:
What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
The idea of God's judgement is not a very popular one.
Deep down, we all want it.
Does Jesus not convince us in the parable that the punishment of the labourers... is just?
Imagine that it was your son. Wouldn't you want justice to be done?
If, despite God's immense patience and repeated calls to change, we persist in our rejection, what more can he do?
The only option left is judgement.
It is as if God were saying: OK. You don't want my favour? You won't get it.
There comes a time when God must judge, or God is not just.
And if we turn our backs on him despite all his goodness...
Having food to eat every day...
Enjoying His creation...
Having His Son come into our world...
If, despite all this, we reject him, what can we say in our defence when we stand before him?
Not ignorance.
If we reject Jesus, all that remains is the prospect of judgement.
We don't need to have killed Jesus ourselves to be in the same situation as the leaders of Israel.
As long as our attitude is like theirs, we too are exposed to judgement.
God rejects those who reject the authority of his Son.
But there is a more joyful alternative.
Mark 12:10: Jesus said to the leaders,
10 Have you not read this Scripture: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’”
Imagine you are walking past a building site.
Workers are mocking the architect's plans, and in contempt for his project, they take a piece of concrete and throw it into a skip. Pffff! Pathetic!
When you walk by the next day, the labourers are gone. They have been replaced, and the piece of concrete has been taken out of the skip and laid as a foundation.
Jesus says he is like that piece of concrete.
Rejected.
But in the end, resurrected, victorious and the foundation of a new temple, not made of stones but of people who believed in him.
When we talk about Jesus as a judge, we might form too negative an image of him
As if what he wanted most of all was to punish.
Jesus is the judge.
But the ultimate goal of his judgement is to build.
To build a house for the glory of God made up of people who have built their lives on him.
It is possible that there are people here who have not yet made that choice.
Building their lives on Jesus.
You have to take a stand.
We can either continue to live as our own masters, with the serious consequences that entails, or we can base our lives on Jesus, who will have the final victory.
We must choose.
Perhaps this is a choice you need to make today.
If we have already made this choice, this text should give us great confidence if, despite the rejection it may provoke, we choose to live for Jesus and bear witness to Jesus.
Being a Christian today sometimes means feeling like you are the laughing stock of the world.
Sometimes it means being labelled intolerant or arrogant.
This week, I watched the Envoyé Spécial report on evangelical Christians in France.
It is a report that highlights real problems in some evangelical churches, it must be acknowledged.
But something that the report seemed to find particularly absurd was the idea that some people might still believe in 2025 that there are eternal stakes involved in believing in Jesus or not.
How can anyone still be so arrogant?
That is the message of this text, that there are eternal stakes involved in believing in Jesus!
Granted, this idea is not popular today. Nor was it popular with Jewish leaders 2,000 years ago.
But that doesn't make it false.
To be on Jesus' side is to be on the side of the one whose authority generates hostility.
'By what right do you say such things?', we will be asked.
But being on Jesus' side also means being on the side of the judge who will have the final say.
If we believe in him and invite others to believe in him, with humility, knowing that we are no better than anyone else... we do so with all the authority of the judge... whose victory... is assured.
Those of you who are leaving for Togo, may I ask you to remember that yes, Jesus is the gracious Saviour, yes, Jesus is the majestic King... but he is also the judge of all people?
Those of you who are going out to evangelise this afternoon, may I ask you to remember the same thing?
Jesus is the gracious Saviour, Jesus is the majestic King... He is also the judge of all?
Whatever we think of him today, he will have the last word.