Today’s Gospel is a story of confrontation. Jesus has just cleansed the outer Temple courts of money changers and vendors, and the priests are upset at this attack on their system, as they took their cut on all these commercial transactions.

By whose authority are you doing these things? They challenge him.

His refusal to answer the question is a tacit rejection of their presumptions. If they are really teachers of the Law, he implies, they should be able to fulfill one of their fundamental responsibilities – to discern true and false prophets. Their confession of incompetence releases Jesus from any obligation to submit himself to their judgment.

The Gospels reconstruct the attitude of the religious leaders of the Jews, doing little credit to the leaders themselves. They had looked critically at John the Baptist and refused to accept his prophetic inspiration. So they face a dilemma: if they admit John’s divine commission, why then did they disbelieve him? If they deny it, they risk inciting the anger of the people who hailed John as a prophet. So they evade the answer.

Is it not often the same with us? We find theoretical reasons to argue around a point, when actually what’s necessary is a practical change of heart.