The Time Jesus Refused to Answer Someone's Question
He challenged the ones who questioned Him.
Jesus didn’t always answer everyone’s questions.
Sometimes He refused to answer - and asked a question instead.
Matthew records one of these times Jesus refused to answer a question.
Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?”
But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John—where was it from? From heaven or from men?”
And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.”
And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21:23-27)
Interesting, isn’t it?
The parables Jesus went on to tell in the rest of the chapter (Matthew 21:28-44) show that He knew the problem. The chief priests and the leaders of the people rejected Jesus.
They rejected Him not because they had their doubts about Him - but because Jesus wasn’t who they wanted Him to be.
Jesus refused to answer the questions of people who had already made up their minds about Him.
Today, do people still challenge the Lord’s authority because He isn’t who they want Him to be?
Are we guilty of doing the same thing as the leaders of the people in Jesus’ day? Or, do we humbly submit ourselves to Jesus for who He truly is?