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THE GOSPEL OF LUKE- SHOW US YOUR CREDENTIALS

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CHAPTER TWENTY

SHOW US YOUR CREDENTIALS

“One day He was teaching the people in the Temple, proclaiming the Message. The high priests, religion scholars and leaders confronted Him and demanded, ‘Show us your credentials. Who authorised you to speak and act like this?’

“Jesus answered, ‘First let me ask you a question. About the baptism of John – who authorised it, heaven or humans?’

“They were on the spot, and knew it. They pulled back into a huddle and whispered, ‘If we say ‘heaven’, He’ll ask us why we didn’t believe Him; if we say ‘humans’, the people will tear us limb from limb, convinced as they are that John was God’s prophet.’ They agreed to concede that round to Jesus and said they didn’t know.

“Jesus said, ‘Then neither will I answer your question.’ Luke 20:1-8.

Jesus was smart. He knew that the religious leaders had no interest in the answer to their question other than to use it against Him. They were building their case against Him and the answer to this question was an important weapon in their arsenal.

Jesus was a rabbi with authority, which meant that He had the right to determine how He would interpret the Torah and how He would apply His interpretation in His own life and teaching. This was called His ‘yoke’ and was binding upon His disciples as well; they were obligated to wear His yoke and to ‘bind’ in on their followers, loosing them from the yoke of any other rabbi. Any deviation or addition meant that they were automatically disqualified from being His disciples.

Since Jesus had the supreme authorisation of His Father and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, (“When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as He was praying, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, you are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” Luke 3:21, 22. NIV), His yoke carried more authority than the yoke of any other rabbi.

The religious leaders were following the yoke of the chief rabbis of their day, which was in conflict with Jesus’ yoke. They strictly and rigidly stuck to the Law of God and the many additions made by their religious authorities through the years, which distorted the character of God until He was unrecognisable as the God of their fathers. The God who had revealed Himself to Moses as ‘gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving sin…Exodus 34:6, was buried under a weight of do’s and don’ts which effectively made the people slaves of religion.

Jesus came to reveal the true nature of the Father and to set His people free from the terrible yoke of legalism. No wonder He earnestly extended His invitation to His harassed people, “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.'” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV).

Since Jesus came to reveal the heart of a loving and compassionate Father, it was inevitable that He would clash with the religious leaders. They held the power over the people and would not easily relinquish it to the likes of Jesus who continually .humiliated them by the way He applied His yoke of mercy and compassion to suffering people. Like all false religions, they ruled the people by the fear of punishment and hated the exposure of their own wicked hearts.

Jesus was always one step ahead. Instead of answering their question as they wanted Him to, which would have been, for them, an admission of blasphemy, He asked them a question, ‘Who gave John his authority?’ Their response would incriminate them, one way or the other. To admit that John was a prophet of God would expose their guilt because they refused to acknowledge or believe him, and he had come to introduce Jesus as Messiah! To deny his heavenly calling would be to admit their guilt and risk the loss of their power over the people.

The very fact that Jesus lived and acted in harmony with God’s revelation of Himself in the Torah was proof enough that His credentials were impeccable – He was the living embodiment of the Father and the religious leaders could not fault Him. In fact, they had no answer to His challenge, ‘Who of you convinces me of sin?’

They had trapped themselves and they had to concede defeat.

THE BOOK OF ACTS – A HORNET’S NEST

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A HORNETS’ NEST!

“‘And that’s when I met Ananias, a man with a sterling reputation in observing our laws — the Jewish community in Damascus is unanimous on that score. He came and put his arm on my shoulder. ‘Look up,’ he said. I looked, and found myself looking right into his eyes — I could see again!

“Then he said, ‘The God of our ancestors has hand-picked you to be briefed on His plan of action. You’ve actually seen the Righteous Innocent and heard Him speak. You are to be a key witness to everyone you meet of what you’ve seen and heard. So what are you waiting for? Get up and get yourself baptised, scrubbed clean of those sins and personally acquainted with God.'” Acts 22:12-16 (The Message).

Paul was very careful to emphasize Ananias’ credentials, a Jew from Damascus who had good standing in the Jewish community there; but that did not take away from the fact that he was also one of those who followed Jesus in the “sect” they called “the Way”.

Just as Paul was looking for every way to defuse the situation, the crowd was waiting for him to indict himself by his own words. Up to this point there was nothing in his story to condemn him, so they allowed him to continue.

“‘Well, it happened as Ananias said. After I was back in Jerusalem and praying one day in the Temple, lost in the presence of God, I saw Him, saw God’s Righteous Innocent, and heard Him say to me, ‘Hurry up! Get out of here as quickly as you can. None of the Jews here in Jerusalem are going to accept what you say about me.’

“‘At first I objected: ‘Who has better credentials? They all know how obsessed I was with hunting out those who believed in you, beating them up in the meeting places and throwing them in jail. And when your witness, Stephen, was murdered, I was right there, holding the clothes of the murderers and cheering them on. And now they see me totally converted. What better qualifications could I have?’

“But He said, ‘Don’t argue. Go. I’m sending you on a long journey to outsider Gentiles.'” Acts 22:17-21 (The Message).

Paul’s credentials in his old, pre-Christ life were also impeccable. He was so zealous for the law that he was willing to kill those whom he considered traitors to Moses. Strange, isn’t it, that he was murderously defending the law that said, “Do not commit murder”! He was oppressing those whom the law defended against oppression! He was making decisions for those to whom God had given the right to make their own decisions! Isn’t this how religion works?

He had turned his religion into an idol which he worshiped with such fanatical zeal that it had turned him into a heartless monster and as blind as a bat to the truth. He had long since lost the understanding of the true God — the God of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who established a covenant of love with them and taught them, through the provisions of that covenant, to care about people and to protect them, not to destroy them because they had believed in their Messiah about whom his Scriptures had spoken.

It had taken nothing less than a face-to-face confrontation with Jesus to convince Paul that he was dead wrong about Him. Now Paul was trying to convince people who were as equally blind and stubborn as he had been that Jesus was their Messiah! His journeys through Asia and Europe had not yielded much fruit among the Jews. It was not likely that it would be any different here in Jerusalem.

Paul was standing next to a hornets’ nest and at any moment they would break loose and strike!