Gospel: Mark
1:27-33
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.
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Reflection:
Do you know where the authority of Jesus is coming
from? The ruling power during Jesus time wanted to know the origin of His
authority. Why were they interested to know? Was it for the reason that their
own power base was being threatened by Jesus popularity among the ordinary
people?
When our own survival is threatened we normally would
do everything within our capacity to
defeat the incoming power. Even if the incoming power is doing what is
right and noble. We would still do something to defeat it by any means
possible.
Such is our flawed self-serving behavior; we don’t
want to be upstaged by anyone. We always want to be in front and have the
starring role, perhaps this is part of our human insecurity.
Jesus never had any insecurity for He simply did His
mission without questioning anyone’s authority. The priority for Jesus was not
authority or power it was first and foremost the well being and interest of the
people.
How about us? Do we put so much weight on authority?
Or we just keep on doing what is good without being conscious with any
authority? – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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