Text: Matthew 21:23 (KJV)
“And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”
Holy Tuesday. Often overshadowed by the spectacle of Palm Sunday or the drama of Holy Thursday, this day quietly sits in the middle of Holy Week—and yet, it may be the most explosive and theologically disruptive of them all.
Because on Holy Tuesday, Jesus did something even more dangerous than flipping tables or cursing fig trees. He stood in the middle of the temple system, in front of the most powerful religious authorities of His day, and exposed them. Not with violence. Not with protest. But with stories. Parables that held a mirror up to their power and stripped their righteousness bare.
And He did it all in public.
If Sunday was a protest, and Monday was a judgment, then Tuesday was a reckoning.
What Actually Happened on Holy Tuesday?
The Gospels (especially Matthew, Mark, and Luke) dedicate a large portion of their Holy Week narrative to the events of Tuesday. Jesus returns to the temple and begins teaching. But He isn’t giving a feel-good sermon.
He’s teaching in parables. He’s publicly debating the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians. He’s exposing their collusion with empire and their spiritual bankruptcy.
And the crowd is watching.
This is the day Jesus tells the parables of:
- The Two Sons (Matthew 21:28–32)
- The Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33–46)
- The Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1–14)
And it’s the day He declares the Seven Woes on the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23).
He calls them out for:
- Oppressing the vulnerable
- Obsessing over minor rules
- Seeking power and prestige
- Pretending to honor prophets while killing them
Let that sink in: Jesus didn’t hold back.
He goes full prophet. Full fire. Full truth.
And this wasn’t just a critique of individual behavior. This was a public dismantling of a religious-political system that claimed to represent God, yet had become deeply compromised.
By What Authority? The Threat of Independent Power
It all starts with a question: “By what authority doest thou these things?” (Matt. 21:23)
The religious elite weren’t just curious. They were threatened. Jesus had disrupted the temple economy on Monday. Now He was back, teaching as if He owned the place.
They demanded credentials.
But Jesus, master of the counter-question, asked them about John the Baptist:
“The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” (Matthew 21:25)
They couldn’t answer. Because they feared the people. They had no real authority—only borrowed power from Rome and fragile popularity among the crowd.
Jesus’ refusal to answer wasn’t avoidance. It was reversal. He showed that their entire framework of authority was hollow. They couldn’t even answer a simple question without political calculation.
He had already exposed the temple. Now, He was exposing them.
The Parables as Prophetic Indictments
Let’s be clear: these parables weren’t bedtime stories. They were public rebukes, loaded with historical references, aimed directly at those in power.
1. The Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28–32)
A father tells two sons to go work. One says yes but doesn’t go. The other says no, but later does.
Jesus turns this into a verdict: “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.”
Translation: The people you look down on—the impure, the scandalous, the broken—they’re actually doing the will of God. You, with your religious veneer, are not.
2. The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Matthew 21:33–46)
A landowner sends servants to collect fruit from his vineyard. The tenants beat and kill them. Finally, he sends his son. They kill him too.
“He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen.” (v. 41)
The vineyard is Israel. The servants are the prophets. The son is Jesus. And the tenants? The religious leaders.
Translation: Your time is up. You have killed the messengers. You will kill the Son. But the kingdom will be given to those who bear fruit.
3. The Parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22:1–14)
Those invited to the king’s feast refuse to come. So the invitation goes to the outcasts.
Translation: The elite have rejected the call. Now, the kingdom goes to the streets.
Jesus is declaring a revolution in real time.
He is saying: “God is no longer working through your structures. A new people is forming—not based on lineage or status, but on response to grace.”
No wonder they plotted to kill Him.
Seven Woes: Jesus Declares War on Religious Hypocrisy
Matthew 23 is a scathing critique. Not of pagans. Not of tax collectors. But of religious leaders.
He accuses them of:
- Saying but not doing (v. 3)
- Crushing people with burdens they won’t lift (v. 4)
- Loving titles and honor (v. 6–7)
- Obsessing over tithing while neglecting justice, mercy, and faith (v. 23)
- Cleaning the outside of the cup while the inside is filthy (v. 25)
- Building tombs for prophets they would have killed (v. 29–30)
He calls them:
- Hypocrites
- Blind guides
- Whitewashed tombs
- Serpents
- A generation of vipers
This is not gentle Jesus, meek and mild. This is Jesus the firebrand, torching the facade of religious respectability.
And let us remember: He wasn’t condemning Judaism. He was calling out corruption within His own tradition. Within His own sacred house.
He loved it enough to call it to account.
Why This Is So Threatening
Because Jesus wasn’t attacking sin in general. He was attacking the collusion of religion and power.
The temple had become a broker of access to God. The priests were mediators of purity, forgiveness, and inclusion. But Jesus offered all of that without the system.
- He healed outside the temple.
- He forgave sins without a sacrifice.
- He taught with authority without being ordained.
Jesus was an unauthorized voice speaking divine truth—and that is always a threat to empires, both religious and political.
That’s why they asked about authority. That’s why they tried to trap Him with taxes (Matt. 22:15–22). That’s why they challenged Him on resurrection (Matt. 22:23–33).
They weren’t interested in truth. They were trying to preserve their power.
What About Us?
Holy Tuesday challenges more than just ancient religious elites. It confronts us.
Are we bearing fruit? Are we using our platforms to uplift or to control? Are we more concerned with titles, respectability, and doctrinal purity than with mercy, justice, and humility?
If Jesus walked into our churches, would He find tables to overturn? If He stood behind our pulpits, would He affirm our sermons or rewrite them?
Holy Tuesday is uncomfortable because it pulls back the curtain. It dares to ask: Who benefits from our religion?
And who is left out?
Jesus as the Embodiment of a New Authority
By the end of the day, Jesus had refused their traps, dismantled their arguments, and silenced their questions.
“And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.” (Matthew 22:46)
Because Jesus didn’t speak from the system. He spoke above it. He didn’t need human credentials. He was the authority.
He redefined holiness. He expanded the kingdom. He bypassed the gatekeepers.
And it cost Him everything.
The Countdown to the Cross
Holy Tuesday is the day the system decided Jesus had to die. Not because He was a blasphemer. Not because He healed on the Sabbath. Not because He claimed to be the Son of God.
But because He exposed their spiritual bankruptcy in front of the people.
He pulled down the curtain. He broke the spell. He unmasked the machine.
And for that, He had to go.
Let us not romanticize Holy Week so much that we forget: Jesus was executed by a partnership of religion and empire working together to silence a prophet.
Will We Listen, or Silence Him Again?
Every year, Holy Tuesday offers us a chance. To let Jesus examine us. To let Him question our assumptions. To let Him challenge our sacred cows.
It dares us to ask:
- What systems are we protecting?
- What truths are we avoiding?
- What voices are we silencing?
Because the same Jesus who dismantled the temple structure in public, who rebuked the elite and uplifted the outsider, is still speaking.
The question is not: By what authority does He do these things?
The question is: Will we recognize His authority now?
Or will we—like the priests, the scribes, the politicians, and the crowd—choose silence over surrender?
Holy Tuesday is not about soft devotion. It is about prophetic confrontation.
And the voice of Jesus still echoes in the courts of our religion:
“Woe unto you… for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” (Matthew 23:13)
May we open the gates. May we bear the fruit. May we heed the warning.
And may we follow the Rabbi who dared to teach truth in the temple.
Even when it got Him killed.
Amen.
Leave a Reply