How Do We Know Jesus Has The Authority He Claims?
BY HIS RESURRECTION
Mark 12:1 begins with Jesus still locked in the same scene of conflict with the religious authorities of Israel who have questioned and challenged his own authority. They've feigned ignorance and failed to answer Jesus' question about John's baptism, but Jesus won't let them off the hook so easily. He advances the conversation by speaking a parable to them. One that provides an answer to the question, "By what authority?" In the story of the wicked tenant-farmers, Jesus warns the temple authorities of the fate that awaits all those who reject the Son - the tenant farmers will be destroyed (12:9). It further interprets the impending death and resurrection of the Son as his rejection at the hands of men but vindication by the hand of God (12:10-11, Ps 118:22-23). In other words, Jesus says His resurrection will prove the authority He’s been so audaciously claiming. His resurrection will be the decisive moment in which God's "Yes" would overturn man's "No" and the authority of Jesus' opponents would be decisively overruled.