It was late February or early March some years ago while we were living in Dublin, Georgia. I was home with the children; Cindy was out for a while. The day was unseasonably warm, but there was still a nip in the air. A child with her friend came up to me in the late afternoon. “Can we put on swimsuits and turn on the hose and get wet?”
I had forgotten to put on my bracelet that morning—my WWMS bracelet. You know, “What would Mom say?” Still, in the back of my mind, I knew what Mom would say: “NO!” And she would have several dozen good reasons for that answer.
My mind was full of deep theological thoughts, though, and try as I might, I could not marshal a single reason to say no. “I guess,” I said, but wanting to prove I was no pushover, I added, “But not one drop of water in the house, and no mud at all. Stay on the driveway or in the grass.” As they ran happily off, I returned to my easy chair in front of a television showing NCAA basketball that I was, of course, ignoring, being caught up thinking deep theological thoughts. But I remember that inwardly I felt a little uneasy and hoped it would be a while before Mom returned. However, it wasn’t long before I heard the van make its way into the driveway and to the rear of the house.
My wife is an excellent musician. She has a beautiful voice. And in that moment I heard her melodious strains wafting through the backyard and on into the house.
“WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD GET WET AND MUDDY?” I froze as I waited to hear the reply, which came rather quickly. “Dad said we could.” And I heard them continue to explain it in such I way that it sounded like I gave them not only permission but that it was my idea!
They were off the hook. They had authority. “Dad said we could.” I reluctantly pushed my deep theological thoughts aside and quietly made my way to the front door. I just remembered some errands I needed to run. And since my cell phone battery was not taking a charge very well at the time, I decided I would conserve the power and just leave it off for a while.
“Who told you that you could?” That’s a popular question, isn’t it? Jesus was asked that question on a busy teaching day during Holy Week. He was asked that by the guardians of Judaism who were threatened by his popularity and his power and his very presence.
It was Tuesday of Holy Week. On Sunday the crowd had gone wild with shouts of “Hosanna!” as Jesus entered Jerusalem for the week of Passover. On Monday, Jesus had cleared the temple in anger at the greed of the people. So on Tuesday, the chief priests wanted to know, “Who told you that you could do all these things?” They were the hierarchy; they were the leaders of the faith. Where did he get off telling the people that they themselves—the chief priests, the teachers of the law, the Pharisees—were hypocrites and worse? Who told him he could receive the praise of the people? What made him think he could disrupt the sacrifices that had been practiced for 1000 years?
Since a crowd of people were around, they were a little more polite than they might have been in private: “‘By what authority are you doing these things?’ they asked. ‘And who gave you the authority to do this?’”
He could have answered them, and perhaps he would have answered them had they been honest inquirers of what could have been, in my mind, a legitimate question. But legitimate questions seek for answers. And they had already decided in their minds that since they had not given him authority, there was no authority. They were not looking for an answer to consider; they were looking for an answer to entrap and condemn.
So Jesus offered them a deal. If they would answer a question about the authority of John the Baptist, He would answer the question about his own authority.
In Mark 11.29-30 (NIV), it says:
Jesus replied, “I will ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John's baptism—was it from heaven, or from men? Tell me!”
The group of questioners realized that Jesus’ question presented a dilemma for them, so they got into a huddle to discuss it. Jesus had presented them with two reasonable choices in making their answer. Which would they choose?
“If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn't you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men’....” (They feared the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet) (Mark 11.31-32).
Had they been honest, from their own perspective they would have said that John was not a God-sent prophet, but they knew it would have lowered their standing in the minds of the people even more, for the people did see John as a prophet.
So they emerged from their huddle and very humbly and piously stated, “We don’t know.”
“If you are the experts on religious authority and cannot determine the authority of John’s message…” Jesus seemed to be saying as he uttered the words:
“Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things” (Mark 11.33).
To add insult to injury, Jesus told a parable that cast them in the roles of thieves and murderers. This made them angrier than ever. So they regrouped and tried to come up with a way of putting Jesus in a bad light with the people or making Him look foolish.
It was April, so they asked him if it were okay to pay taxes to Caesar. He said, in essence, “Yes, but it is even more important to give God his due.”
And what is God due? What is God’s? We would like to know that this Holy Week, wouldn’t we? Good news! Jesus answers that question for us after a slight detour.
The Sadducees, a group that didn’t believe in life after death, first throw out a riddle trying to show the absurdity of the resurrection. Jesus uses the Scripture to say firmly, “Yes, there is life after death. This is not all there is.” And if they didn’t believe the Scriptures, all they had to do was hang around town just a few more days, and they could see it for themselves!
But then, in the last question anyone dared ask Him publicly, someone asks that day a question that Matthew implies may have started out as kind of a setup, but ends up with the questioner becoming impressed with Jesus, and that, in turn, impresses Jesus.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important? (Mark 12.28 NIV).
This last question is the most important. Essentially, in my mind, he is asking, “What is the most important thing in life?” “What is life all about?”
Let’s pay close attention to Jesus’ answer…
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12.29-31 NIV).
It’s as if Jesus, hearing the question as it is put, says, “I can’t limit the answer to this vital question to just one, even though there is indeed one that is the MOST important. But there is another that is so closely related that I need to give you the two most important.”
After He shared the two, He said, “There is no commandment greater than these.” Does that statement sound like this is something we need to underline in our lives? Does it sound to you that Jesus is saying we need to order our lives around these words?
The most important thing in life: Love God. But how? How are we to love God?
Look again at verse 30 and note the words given: with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. What would you judge as the key concept in that section? I once did a word study to try to figure out what each of these four words really means. What I found surprised me. The meaning of each word is not as separate and easy to define as I thought. These words overlap in their meaning. The difference is more in nuance. One commentator stated it this way: “The words are semantically concentric.” That’s a fancy way of saying they mean pretty close to the same thing in their center. As I was searching for the key way of loving God from this passage, I found that the key concept here is not heart. It is not soul. Not mind. No, not strength, either.
The key in how to love God? ALL.
If we were honest, some of us might admit that we love God with half our hearts rather than all our hearts. We love Him, yes, but we are half-hearted in that love for God.
Some of us have divided minds … we are too enamored with the entertainment of this world that focuses on the sensual and the decadent rather than the spiritual and the good.
But Jesus says, “Love with all.”
Here’s our last question of the day: Is Jesus right? The questioner thinks so:
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12.32-33 NIV).
And Jesus, after being evaluated by this questioner, evaluates him in turn, subtly showing that He is the one who is the final judge of the situation. Look at Jesus’ answer:
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12.34 NIV).
Which brings us back to the original question:
“By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you authority to do this?”
In other words, “Who told you that you could make such pronouncements?”
Jesus didn’t give these guys the answer, but He gives it to us:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28.18-20 NIV).
Who told you that you could do that, Jesus?
Jesus says, “Daddy told me I could.” And in the way He explained it, He lets us know that it was his Father’s idea all along: “I do only what the Father tells me to do.”
He proved it by going to the cross.
This Holy Week, attending special services and the like are good things to do. But what is most important is to love God with all that you are, and to love one another as you love yourself.
Love on God this week through prayer, praise, the Word, and by your actions.
Remember, Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
Love your neighbor today, whether that is your spouse, your child, your parents, your acquaintances—whoever. Remember that Jesus would say to love on somebody, to help somebody who can’t do anything for you in return.
Love God with all you are. Love your neighbor as yourself. And we love, because he first loved us.
The Father has told me to tell you that this is what will make this week—and every week—Holy Week.
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