Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- A New Authority

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 6.3.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Mark 11:27-33

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approach Jesus and ask him,
“By what authority are you doing these things?”

The first witnesses of Jesus were astonished by
the authority of his speech and his actions.
This wasn’t simply because he spoke and acted with conviction and enthusiasm;
it was because he refused to play the game that every other rabbi played,
tracing his authority finally back to Moses.
He went, as it were, over the head of Moses,
as he did at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard that it was said . . . but I say . . .”

His listeners knew they were dealing with something qualitatively different
than anything else in their religious tradition or experience.
They were dealing with the prophet greater than Moses.

And Jesus had to be more than a mere prophet.
Why? Because we all have been wounded,
indeed our entire world compromised,
by a battle that took place at a more fundamental level of existence.
The result is the devastation of sin,
which we all know too well.
Who alone could possibly take it on?
A merely human figure?
Hardly. What is required is the power and authority of the Creator himself,
intent on remaking and saving his world,
binding up its wounds,
and setting it right.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus and his disciples
returned once more to Jerusalem.
As he was walking in the temple area,
the chief priests, the scribes,
and the elders
approached him and said to him,
“By what authority are you doing
these things?
Or who gave you this authority
to do them?”
Jesus said to them,
“I shall ask you one question.
Answer me, and I will tell you
by what authority I do these things.
Was John’s baptism of heavenly
or of human origin? Answer me.”
They discussed this among
themselves and said,
“If we say, ‘Of heavenly
origin,’ he will say,
‘Then why did you not believe him?’
But shall we say, ‘Of human origin’?”–
they feared the crowd,
for they all thought John really
was a prophet.
So they said to Jesus in reply,
“We do not know.”
Then Jesus said to them,
“Neither shall I tell you by
what authority I do these things.”+++

[No name given]

Amen 🙏🏻!!!!