TEXT: Luke 20:1-8

SUBJECT: Luke #75: Don’t Question Me!

Of all the things I dislike in a sermon, the one that bothers me the most is the use of big words. I once heard a preacher describe the death of Christ as a propitiatory expiation! The man was right, of course: the Lord’s death did cover our sins and satisfy the justice of God. But isn’t there some better way of saying that than the words he chose?

The use of big words in the pulpit is sometimes the result of pride: the preacher knows more than you do and he wants you to know it! But most of the time, the cause is less sinister than that: as a rule, big words are used in the pulpit because the preacher is too lazy to think of smaller ones. He read the big ones in an old book—and instead of putting them into his own words—he used the words of another time and place. Even though he must have known that his people wouldn’t understand them.

I hate big words in the pulpit. But I’m going to use one anyway! The word is theodicy. A theodicy is a defense of God and His ways in the world. The Bible teaches that God is good, just, merciful, and in control of all things. Our eyes tells us that the world He is in control of is not good, just, or merciful. We want to know why. We want the Lord to defend Himself.

This is not a new thing.

Long ago, there was a man named Job. He was the holiest man in the world and for his trouble he received the prize of…suffering. In one day, his great wealth was wiped out and his ten children died. A bit later, he caught leprosy and was covered with oozing sores….

Then his wife counseled suicide and his friends jumped all over him for his hypocrisy. For they, too, believed that God was just, good, and merciful, and if He’s bringing all these things down on Job, the man must be guilty of a secret sin of bigger than the great outdoors!

But Job knew better! He did not think he was sinless, but he knew that he feared God and stayed away from evil. And so he turns on the Lord and demands an answer. He wants God to explain Himself!

Which He will not do! The only answer the holy man gets is:

In other words, "Who do you think you’re talking to?" The Lord is not answerable to Job; Job is answerable to the Lord!

That’s the only answer he gets.

There’s a similar passage in the New Testament. In Romans 9, Paul traces the sinner’s salvation to God alone. Starting with the patriarchs, he shows that God has always chosen some and passed by others. Some found this offensive, but instead of softening his words, Paul makes them harder!

The critics hit back. If the sinner’s salvation depends on God’s will alone, then God cannot justly condemn a man whom He has not willed to save. They put it this way:

If Paul was your standard pastor who cared more about being sensitive than in telling the truth, he would have tried to answer the objection and make God look good (or at least better) to the man sitting in judgment over Him.

But he doesn’t do that; he offers no defense of God and His ways! What he does is slap the man down for presuming to judge the Lord!

Why is Paul so combative? It is because God is not answerable to us; it is we who are answerable to Him!

Believe it or not, this introduces the story for today! It is about some men who believe they can pass judgment on Jesus Christ. But—in the end—it is He who judges them.

The Tribunal is made up of three kinds of men: chief priests, scribes, and elders.

The Chief Priests are the descendants of Aaron and the men responsible for conducting the public worship of Israel. Had they stuck to their calling, they would have been a great blessing to God’s people. But, for the most part, they hadn’t. By this time, they were all about power—their own power—and if ethical compromises had to be made to keep it—then let them be made. Even if it means crucifying an Innocent Man.

The Scribes were the educated men. They were trained in the Word of God, its interpretation, and how it should be applied to daily life. But they did not live up to their training. They became the crooked lawyers of their time—the men who twisted and turned the Law to their own liking. Under their rule, what was given to free the People of God became a slavery to them.

The Elders were the leading laymen of Israel, something like mayors, city councilmen, and so on. They had no religious calling or expertise in the Word of God, and this made them puppets of the men who did.

And so these are the men who will sit in judgment over the Lord Jesus Christ! Power-hungry pastors, crooked lawyers, and proud laymen who don’t know the Bible from a hole in the ground!

Apparently, this is an official visit. They’ve come to Christ—it seems—on behalf of Ruling Council. They’re going to report back on Him.

THE QUESTIONS

What they want to know is

The question seems legitimate. The Lord, after all, is not a priest or a scholar; He’s not even an ordained rabbi. Who does He think He is to take over the Temple as though He owned the place?

But the more you think about the question, the more you see it for what it is. For more than three years now, He has been acting with an authority no one could mistake.

The Council knew this! They respected scholarship and knew a good preacher when they heard one. But when they sent their policemen to bring in the Lord, they came back empty-handed, shaking their heads and saying,

In another place, it says he "taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes". The scribes had the university degrees and the mannerisms of learning, but the Lord had authority!

And it wasn’t just His teaching. He had done countless miracles and every one of them showed He was acting with the approval of heaven. When the Leaders cross-examined the blind man about who gave him back his sight and how he did it, the man could only laugh:

If the insight of laymen was enough for the scholars, then one of their own felt the same way. He was Nicodemus, one of the most learned and respected men in Israel. A few years before, he had said to the Lord,

The Council was not ignorant! The questions were not for finding out the truth! They were for catching the Lord in His words and for getting Him in trouble with the Romans or with the common people.

The Lord knows what they’re up to and He agrees to answer them—but first, they have to answer a question He’s been wondering about for some time.

The scribes were no doubt eager to hear Him because they were so smart they’d be sure to impress everyone with the answer. So, what do You want to know?

Only this:

In other words, By what authority did John baptize and who gave him that authority? If you want everything to be duly authorized, tell Me, please who authorized John to do what he did?

That’s an easy one! Unless you’re a chief priest, a scribe, or an elder! The huddled up and one said: "If we say God sent John, He’ll ask, `Why didn’t you receive him?’ If we say, John sent himself, the people will stone us here and now because they think he was a prophet".

So…

They could only say, "We do not know".

Well, fair is fair. If they won’t answer His question, the Lord won’t answer theirs!

If the question had been a legitimate one, the Lord would have answered it. But it wasn’t sincere and it wouldn’t have helped them in the least.

For they knew by what authority He did all these things and Who gave it to Him! If they weren’t sure, let them look into the matter! Listen to His sermons; watch His miracles; study His character; read the Old Testament prophecies; hear John the Baptist, hear the demons confessing Him, hear the voice of God speaking from heaven,

The question was answered long before they asked it. By what authority was He doing these things? By the authority of heaven! And who gave it to Him? God did!

They should have known this—and they would have known it had they let themselves know it.

But as many and powerful as the witnesses have been to Christ, there is one more to come—and it will be so clear-cut and persuasive that the most stubborn man in Israel will break under it. In less than a week, the authority this Man acts on will be fully revealed: God will raise Him from the dead.

The meaning of the story is not on the surface; it wasn’t for the men who came to the Lord that day or for us either. This is one we have to ponder long and hard and with much prayer and an openness to correction.

The story means: God does not have to answer all our questions. Some of them He answers in His Word; but not all of them. And we have to be satisfied with not knowing.

This can be applied to doctrinal issues such as Predestination and the Second Coming of Christ. What we need to know about these things is revealed in the Bible. To go beyond what the Bible plainly teaches on them is foolish and often leads to heresy and worse!

But most of all, we apply this to the sad things in life.

Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s easy to say there are no good people, or the bad things that happen to good people are not really bad. Bible verses could be cited to support both answers. The problem is: they’re the same answers Job got from his friends! Whom God condemned for lying in His name!

The fact is, we don’t know why bad things happen to good people! Oh, we know that sin is the cause of all bad things in general. But bad things are never general! They’re intensely specific: it’s not cancer, it’s my cancer; it’s not the rising unemployment rate, it’s my job that was lost!

We want answers! But no answers are given. We do we do then? We accept the answer of no answers. This sound hard, but it may be easier than you think. For when God will not give us the answers we want, He gives us something better—Himself:

God is not answerable to us. We are answerable to Him. This is how it ought to be. We can be content with it. God help us, for Christ’s sake. Amen.