Matthew 21:23

“Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. ‘By what authority are you doing these things?’  And, ‘Who gave you this authority?'”

“Who does Jesus think he is?” This question must have formed in the minds of these properly selected and appointed rulers of the temple. To serve as chief priests or elders of the people was probably the highest honor any Jew received. Their arrival at such a high office had the blessing of all Jews everywhere. They earned the offices through personal and political power. They were fully authorized by the Jews to rule the Temple, an authority that the Roman occupiers acknowledged as well.

So, they probably asked one another, who does this “nobody” from Galilee think he is? Finally, they asked him outright, “Who gave you this authority?”  They certainly did not. Nor did the civil powers, the Romans, authorize Jesus to do what he did in the court of the Gentiles just yesterday.

What Jesus did can not go unpunished. He was not authorized to upset temple affairs.

Without knowing it they asked him the central question of all questions, “Who are you and who authorized you to do what you did in the Temple?”  As he often does, Jesus did not try to explain further, because he knew that could not possibly accept the truth. So, after a little exchange about who authorized John the Baptist to do what he did, Jesus simply walked away.

If we fast forward a few months in the story, Peter and John declare openly in the that very temple, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12