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9 November. Mark chapters 10-11
From the point yesterday where Jesus talks about ‘taking up the cross’ and ‘giving up one’s life’ to follow him, events move swiftly. Within a couple of pages of Mark’s Gospel he teaches his disciples more about the servant nature of ministry, faith and forgiveness, during which time he also arrives in Jerusalem with them, then confronts the money-changers and traders in the Temple that was supposed to be a place of prayer. Finally, he is challenged by the “priests, scribes and elders” about the source or authority of his teaching. Authority was a big matter for them – Jewish rabbinical tradition is based on tradition, precedent and the moral authority of one rabbi over another.
Jesus once again answers their question with another: “Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” It was a trick question, and Mark explains their reason for being reluctant to answer it by saying it was of human origin, for “they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet” (11:31-32). I think they did really know it was from heaven, but were too embarrassed to say so.
There is an English saying that dates from the 16th century if not earlier, and particularly popular in Yorkshire: “There’s none so blind as those who won’t see”. In other words, if we have a reason for finding a certain truth “inconvenient” (as Al Gore might say) then we will deny it, at least outwardly to other people; and if we deny it often enough to others we will convince ourselves that it is not true as well. The priests and scribes would have found it very inconvenient at this point to acknowledge to others or even themselves that John’s baptism was from God, because in that case they would have had to accept that Jesus who did more miracles than John ever did, and whom John called the “[sacrificial] lamb of God” was also sent from God. But they had spent the last couple of years publicly criticising Jesus’ teaching, doubting his miracles and denouncing his authority.
When someone is in this “denying something they know in their heart to be true” mode, there is no point trying to argue further, as the more you convince them of the rightness of the argument the more they will argue against it – just look at the climate change deniers today. All you can do is leave them alone until they convince themselves inwardly and “eat humble pie”. If they eventually stop opposing the obvious truth, then they know they have lost the argument and there’s no point humiliating them further by saying “I told you so”. Unfortunately Jesus didn’t have time on his side to wait for this to happen.