devotional post # 2041

Luke 20:1-8 JDV

Luk 20:1 Then one day it happened: while Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and explaining the gospel, the high-ranking priests and the experts in the law with the elders stood up

Luk 20:2 and this is what they said to him: “Tell us: what gives you the right to do these things? Or who is it who gave you this right?”

Luk 20:3 He replied to them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell me:

Luk 20:4 John’s baptism — was it from the sky or from people?”

Luk 20:5 So they debated this with one another, deliberating, “If we say, ‘From the sky,’ he will say, ‘And you did not believe him?’

Luk 20:6 But if we say, ‘From people,’ the people will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”

Luk 20:7 So they replied that they did not know where it came from.

Luk 20:8 So Jesus said to them, “I am not going to tell you who gave me the right to do these things either.”

agnosticism exposed

The religious leaders’ fear of John the Baptist reveals far more than they intended to show. They recognized that something real was happening in his ministry—something they could not easily dismiss. The crowds flocked to him. Lives were being changed. His message carried the weight of heaven. To deny the movement outright would have exposed them as opponents of God’s work. But to join it would have required repentance, humility, and a willingness to relinquish control. So they chose the middle ground of silence. It looked cautious, even prudent, but it was actually fear disguised as neutrality.

When Jesus arrived, however, their silence evaporated. Their hatred of Him pushed them off the fence. And in confronting them, Jesus exposed the truth: their so‑called “uncertainty” about John—and about the kingdom—was not intellectual hesitation but spiritual resistance. Their agnosticism was not the product of careful thought; it was the product of fear, pride, and a refusal to surrender.

That same posture is common today. Many people claim to be “agnostic” about Jesus—not because the evidence is unclear, but because commitment feels costly. Declaring allegiance to Christ means acknowledging His authority. It means admitting that He is Lord, not merely an interesting historical figure or a moral teacher. For some, it feels safer to remain undecided, to keep options open, to avoid the implications of belief. Fence‑sitting becomes a strategy for self‑protection.

But neutrality toward Jesus is not actually neutral. To refuse to acknowledge Him is, in practice, to reject Him. The truth of His lordship is too bright, too compelling, too well‑attested to be ignored without consequence. The danger is not in choosing wrongly—it is in refusing to choose at all. The kingdom of God does not allow permanent indecision. Eventually, every heart must answer the question Jesus asked His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”

Courage is required—not only to believe, but to confess. To step off the fence. To declare that Jesus is Lord, even when doing so may cost us approval, comfort, or safety. But that courage is precisely what the Spirit gives, and precisely what the world needs to see.

LORD, give us the courage to believe and confess allegiance to Christ.