If you walk into a church, there’s a natural order: the bishop, the priest, the parish council. It was the same in Jesus’s day with the Temple. So, why was he so upset with the hierarchical structure as it was?
Jesus and the Temple authorities clashed on how God was working to bring his promises to bear on the world.
Jesus is announcing that God is redeeming the world through his ministry, death, and resurrection.
The Temple authorities didn’t believe this. In their minds, Jesus had no authority to speak for God. He had no authority over the Temple.
But, if Jesus was the true Messiah, then that’s a different story. If he’s the true Anointed King of Israel, then he would have complete authority over the Temple.
As readers of the Gospel of Luke we saw Jesus baptized by John, the Holy Spirit descend, and God say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased.”
This was a key moment and Jesus reminds the Temple authorities of this.
No longer are we held back from God by an institution.
Now, through Jesus’s faithfulness, we are are able to draw near to God and have him call us his children.
The Reading
And it happened that, on one of the days when he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good tidings, the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, descended upon him, And spoke to him, saying, “Tell us by what power you do these things, or who it is who has given you this power.” And in reply he said to them, “I will also ask you to say something, and tell me: The baptism of John, was it from heaven or from human beings?” And they debated among themselves, saying: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not have faith in him?’ And if we say, ‘From human beings,’ all the people are persuaded that John was a prophet.” And they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither do I tell you by what power I do these things.” (Luke 20:1-8)