The Very Lutheran Project

23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. -Matthew 21:23-27 Institutional thinking is nothing new. The Pharisees had run into many a man who thought himself a prophet, men who spun up insane heterodox teaching and dragged fools into cults. As this incident in our reading plays out, just 30 miles away the Qumran cult was convincing young men to give all of their possessions to the community and walk around naked for days. They were also polytheists who believed that other gods would assist them in an eschatological battle (their practice of astrology informed them of this). To protect from heretical movements like that, the institutional process was solidified throughout Judea. If someone wanted to be a rabbi they had to go to be recommended, go to school, and be an apprentice to a senior rabbi for years before taking on the management of a synagogue. After decades, the teacher *might* be formally ordained through the Semicha ceremony, whereby he would be given the authority to judge doctrinal matters with the rest of the Sanhedrin. The high priest would oversee much of this process with some level of veto power. This ought to sound familiar. For over a millennium now most of the Church has done the same thing. Someone who wants to be a priest must be recommended by the congregation, go through seminary, spend a year or two as a vicar, then be sent to pastor a small congregation for years and years until maybe they become a consecrated bishop. Among the papists, the Pope takes the place of high priest for such ordinations. On the one hand, such a burdensome institutional process is necessary. Otherwise believers are vulnerable to the chaotic winds of doctrinal change, and cults proliferate by the self empowerment of stupid men. On the other hand, the ossification of the process and traditions makes it extremely hard to reform the institution. Once false teaching worms its way in, it digs itself in deep so that removing it greatly harms the body. Notice a problem, an obvious false doctrine or sin? Go through the right channels and you may have a chance at fixing it over the course of 50 years - just kidding, the problem won't be solved and you are now excommunicated. Just ask the pastors who protests Lutheran bodies ordaining women, or the SSPX. While institutionalism can give stability, it ultimately leads to difficulties with faith itself. The Pharisees derided John the Baptist because they could not believe an uneducated, unordained man was directly inspired by God. But since the *people* who paid tithes to them believed what John said, they could not speak against him. When Jesus asks them about John, they are thus paralyzed, for they do not *actually* believe in Divine authority. Their own authority is based on a social contract with believers and they know it: that is how it is with all institutional ministers. Confronted with someone who *actually* has Divine authority, the real deal, what can they possibly do but oppose him quietly? Thus our Lord, being God in human flesh, sidesteps their silly attempt at delegitimizing His ministry. He could certainly answer them directly about who He is and how He has authority from our Heavenly Father, but He had done so many times already. They only asked this time so as to publicly lump Him in with the crazies; so He turns their trap on their head by starting an institutional short circuit.