Holy Week; Part V: From Heave or from a human source?

He went into the Temple area; and as he was teaching, the head cohanim and the elders of the people approached him and demanded, "What s'mikhah do you have that authorizes you to do these things? And who have you this s'mikhah?" Yeshua answered, "I too will ask you a question. If you answer it, then I will tell you by what s'mikhah I do these things. The immersion of Yochanan -where did it come from? From Heaven or from a human source?"  They discussed it among themselves: "If we say 'From Heaven', he will say, 'Then why didn't you believe him?' But if we say, 'From a human source,' we are afraid of the people, for they all regard Yochanan as a prophet." So they answered Yeshua, "We don't know." And he replied, "Then I won't tell you by what s'mikhah I do these things."
It is Yeshuas second day in Yerushalayim. So far he has made a practice of challenging hypocrisy. Each instance we have seen, he challenges an established structure, striking for the heart to reveal that the religious practices are dead inside. Here we see the Cohanim challenging Yeshua, and he turns it around on them.
The Cohanim were the ultimate authority on religion, worship and practice in that day. The lived for the scriptures. Yet it is these men who Yeshua makes a point of challenging; he shows their hypocrisy to all. He makes them angry. These people use religious expirience as a way to define themselves and prop themselves up. When Yeshua challenges their sense of religious superiority, he challenges their very identity. They worshiped worship, and turned the old testament studies into a death trap. No one wants to be a hypocrite, its just what they were set up for by the way the focused, and what they loved.
The teachers and priests challenge Yeshua on his authority to teach the people. They were teachers themselves, and wanted to make sure Yeshua followed "party lines". It Yeshua was going to be doing the same job they were, they wanted to make sure his credentials were up to par. Even more so, they wanted to make everyone who would have been watching and listening aware that Yeshua was not as formally educated as they were.
Yeshua poses his challengers a question. It was not a trick question. It was a pointed question that was designed to bring about a result. The content of the questions is almost irrelevant, but the results of the question are immensely poignant. The question is designed to make a display of hypocrisy.
Yeshua had been challenging people his entire life. Pushing them, and saying things that went against the grain of what they knew. He taught things that reversed the logic of man's teaching. And he taught it regardless of how me might be received. As the cohanim struggle with this question, they reveal that they are unwilling to challenge people the way Yeshua was. The cower to the common belief to maintain their own popularity, and show that, in effect, their regard for their own religion, which was so important to them, was second to popular opinion. They sacrificed their very identity as religious people by not standing up for what they preached just to remain popular.
The roots of hypocrisy: unbelief and fear of man. Unblelief in that the leaders were not willing to stand by what they believed G-d had told them, and trust that he was the ultimate source of their right and wrong. This is a modern problem, as well as an ancient one. Only now we have a new term for it. Political correctness. And it is rampant in the church. Don't say anything that might offend (or rather CONVICT) people. No one ever intends to be a hypocrite, but the fear of man and the insecurity of belief slowly take over until they control belief and faith. These two factors tie people to hypocrisy.
Another brilliant part of this interaction is that Yeshua avoids a pointless discussion. He knows that his challengers are hypocrites who just don't like him, so no matter what he would say in answer them, they would likely try to refute him because they are blinded by unbelief and the fear of man. It would have been a worthless discussion.