How Jesus Argues – Mat 21:18-22

This is not the first time Jesus has confronted the elites of His day on the question of His authority. The disingenuous mob of scribes and pharisees demanded a sign from Him in Chap 12:38-42. His answer was similar. Sufficient testimony to condemn them had reached its threshold long before their questioning. More evidence refuted them than the demonstration of the Word of God that moved Nineveh to repent or the queen of the South to marvel. Something greater than Jonah and Solomon was here and the self-important, self-righteous and self-serving refuse to admit it. Yet they are without excuse and so are we. I Cor 3:19 proclaims: “.. for the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,...” Mat 21 provides a perfect example of this truth in real time. Matthew Henry writes of this incident: “ While His adversaries thought by their power to have silenced Him, He by His wisdom silenced them.”