Mark 11v30

The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? answer me.

This scripture is effectively the same as Matthew 21v25 {16 } and Luke 20v4 {42 }.

This verse came about as Jesus was teaching in the temple. The chief priests, scribes and elders came to Jesus and asked Him “By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?” (v29). Jesus answered with a question of His own in this verse, and the implication is that both questions have the same answer – that baptism and all that Jesus was doing were both initiated from heaven, by God Himself.

The implication of the initial question from the “the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders” (v27) – the religious ‘heavies’ – was that Jesus had no authority from any of the rulers of the temple to do what he was doing there, and was only there on his own authority.

If we ask the question ‘why were they concerned’ the answer is most likely in their use of the word “authority.” Clearly they had come to see the temple as the place where they alone had authority. No doubt this belief was underpinned by generations of tradition, and a finely tuned machine where each cog knew the limits of what was and wasn’t going to be allowed in their province. So when the Son of God came along they were so wrapped up in self, flesh, and traditions that they couldn’t even recognise the very one they were longing and hoping for. It is still possible for this to happen today, where traditions can start to work against the move of God in any given situation.

For a more complete discussion of this verse, see also Luke 20v4 {42 }.