In Matthew 21 and 22 there are four kinds of questions that are asked by different kinds of people. The first question was asked by the chief priests and the elders. The chief priests were the leaders in religion, and the elders were leaders in the community.
The second question was asked by the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were a religious party. They sent their disciples with the Herodians, who were the political party of Herod the king.
Then the third question was asked by the Sadducees, who might be called the ancient modernists. Today there are many who can be compared to the Sadducees, because they do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross, shedding His blood for our redemption, and was resurrected. The modernists might be called today’s Sadducees, and the Sadducees were the ancient modernists. They do not believe in the Word of God or in His power, and they do not believe in angels or in resurrection.
The fourth question was asked by one of the Pharisees, who was a lawyer, a learned one with knowledge of the Scriptures. Of course, he was more qualified and equipped. Here we see all these different kinds of people; the chief priests, the elders, the disciples of the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the more learned Pharisee. All of them surrounded this little Jesus. All of these leading ones with their high attainments, knowledge, power, and position surrounded the Lord Jesus to entangle Him. He had not received a degree. He came out of Nazareth, a despised town. He was a poor man, not having any name or position in the midst of such people. Nevertheless, although He was small outwardly, He is not small inwardly. He has no form outwardly, but He has tremendous power inwardly. He may not have outward knowledge, but He has inward wisdom.
“And as He came into the temple, the chief priests and elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching and said, By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? And Jesus answered and said to them, I also will question you about one thing, which if you tell Me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John, whence was it? 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 crowd, for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus and said, We do not know. He also said to them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things” (Matt. 21:23-27).
The chief priests and the elders wanted to know where Jesus obtained His authority. How could such a little man like Him have such authority? The Lord Jesus was wise. He said, in effect, “Since you ask Me a question, let Me also ask you a question. If you tell Me, then I will tell you. What about the baptism of John? Was it from heaven or from man?” Then the chief priests and the elders said among themselves, in effect, “If we say that it is of heaven, then he will ask us why we did not believe John. We all know that John recommended this man. If we say that we believe John and recognize that his baptism is from heaven, we will also have to believe that this man is from heaven, because John was his forerunner. However, if we say that John’s baptism is from man, we will offend the people, because they all regard John as a prophet.” Therefore, they decided that the best way was to tell a lie, and they said, “We do not know.”
Notice the wisdom with which the Lord answered. He did not say, “You are lying. You know, but you will not tell Me!” No, He simply said in a gentle way, “Neither do I tell you.” These few words are full of meaning. They reveal that He knew they were lying. They told a lie, but the Lord told the truth. They knew, but they said they did not know. He knew, but He would not tell them. Jesus is really the Lord! He is worthy of our worship! Who else could answer such a question in this way?