Who Does Jesus Think He Is?--September 28, 2026

Who Does Jesus Think He Is?--September 28, 2026

When [Jesus] entered the temple, the chief priests and the 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?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things...." (Matthew 21:23-27)

Come on now, who does Jesus think he is?

I mean that question quite literally--or at least, the Respectable Religious Leaders did when they approached Jesus in this scene that many of us heard in worship this past Sunday.  They want to know where Jesus gets off thinking that he has the authority to do and say the kinds of things he is doing and saying.  They, after all, have credentials--they are card-carrying members of the Religious Establishment.  They have the pedigrees and certification that they "know a lot about God."  They run the Temple, and they grant access to the Temple's services to whichever people they deem worthy.  And they will tell the world what God is really like, thank-you-very-much.

And along comes Jesus, this itinerant rabbi from the outlying territory of Galilee, who does not come from one of the official "priestly" families and who does not have a diploma from an approved Expert.  And Jesus doesn't just start giving harmless, bland sermons--he starts upsetting all the religious and political arrangements that the Respectable Ones have tried to put in a delicate balance.  These "chief priests and elders" are provoked by Jesus enough to ask him where he gets the authority to be "doing these things," namely, the two provocative actions immediately preceding this passage.  These verses come right on the heels of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding a borrowed donkey and then his deliberate and planned protest in the Temple that led him to overturn the tables of the moneychangers and chase out the sacrificial animals.  That's what they are all hot and bothered about, which is completely understandable, honestly. Both of those actions are like symbolic shots across the bow, both to the Romans and to the Temple leadership.  

Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was a calculated mockery and parody of the Romans' military parade into the city, in which he rides not on a war horse but on a lowly (and untrained) donkey.  The people cry out "Hosanna!" which is like saying, "Deliver us!" and the Romans can't help but hear that as borderline seditious against their occupation of the land.  The religious leaders are upset especially because this is the kind of language that could spark a riot, and they know that the Romans would be ruthless in snuffing out any kind of situation like that.  And when Jesus overturns the tables in the Temple complex, he is essentially staging a protest by forcing sacrifices to stop for the day--it has the feel of a sit-in held in a segregated lunch counter back in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, or a human chain surrounding a building to keep it from being bulldozed.  And again, the Respectable Religious Leaders want to know where Jesus gets the sheer chutzpah to do these kinds of things.  So they ask him directly, "By what authority are you doing these things?"  That is to say, "Who do you think you are?" 

And before we go any further that that, maybe that's a question we need to sit with ourselves.  Who do we actually think Jesus is?  And do we actually believe he speaks and acts with authority--even when he says and does things that make us uncomfortable... or yank us from our complacency... or challenge our old view of the world?  Because, to be honest, it's not just the Palm Sunday parade or the Temple Tables episode that are controversial acts on Jesus' part.  He is always saying things that turn our old way of life on its head, welcoming people we had decided to exclude from the party, and rearranging our values in light of his. Now, if Jesus is simply one random guy offering his opinions, then we are free to ignore him when we disagree with him.  But if he speaks with God's authority, then we have no choice but to let him turn our world upside-down.

This is the same Jesus, after all, who up-ends so many other of our assumptions about how the world works. Instead of reaffirming our belief that wealth, status, power, and comfort are sure signs of God's approval and blessing, Jesus goes and declares that the poor, the grieving, the hungry, and the persecuted are "blessed." Instead of endorsing our need for revenge, payback, and violence against those we deem as enemies, Jesus commands us to love our enemies and to pray for the ones who are set against us. Instead of encouraging us to seize the trappings of "greatness" for ourselves, Jesus calls us to become servants of all who seek the interests of others before our own.  And yes, instead of raising up an army to overthrow the Empire and replace it with his own regime, Jesus borrow a donkey to ridicule that whole way of thinking and to say, effectively that the Emperor isn't wearing any clothes.  For that matter, Jesus doesn't just vaguely support the Temple's transactional form of piety--he protests the Temple's whole set-up and offers himself instead as a living, walking, talking Temple and meeting-place between God and humanity.  So yeah, Jesus is pretty much subverting our worldview all the time.  So we might well find ourselves asking the same question as the chief priests: Who is this guy?  And where does he get the authority to do and say what does?

The bottom line, then, is this: we can safely ignore Jesus if he is only a religious teacher offering free opinions.  In that case we can dismiss him as a harmless pundit and only trot him out when he says something we like.  But if Jesus really does speak as the Word-of-God-Made-Flesh, then we have no choice but to let him turn our view of the world inside out.  If Jesus really is God's Chosen One, then not only does he have the authority to provoke the Romans on Palm Sunday and upset the tables in the Temple the next day, but he has the authority to rearrange our priorities, our loves, and our values.  He has the authority to point us in a new direction.  He has the authority to change everything for us.

Now, maybe we should be clear about what we church folk say on any given Sunday when we name Jesus our "Lord" and confess him to be "Son of God." And when we profess the ancient words of the Creed that identify Jesus as "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God," then we are definitely ruling out the option of treating him as just a random stranger offering religious "hot takes." We are declaring that we are prepared to have Jesus overturn the tables in our hearts as well, and to call us out when we have crowned ourselves Emperors and need to be shown that we are wearing no clothes, either.  

Are we prepared to let Jesus do that? Not just once, mind you, but every day?  

If not, perhaps we should reconsider whether we can actually call Jesus our "Lord" at all.

But if we dare to name him "Lord" as well as "Savior" and "Son of God," then we should be prepared to let Jesus turn our lives right-side up, even if it feels like he is shaking everything we thought was solid.

Lord Jesus, because of who you are, we dare to trust your word. Come, speak to us, and let your voice change our lives.