NOTES for Mar 11:27-33

What can one say in answer to a question when the answer is quite obvious? One can tell the truth. One can try to deceive the person asking. Or one can simply remain silent when one does not wish to acknowledge the obvious but one’s convictions do not permit lying. In our fallen world, silence is sometimes truly golden. But not always. Jesus is silent when He sees no point in answering, because He understands that no one is seriously expecting an answer from Him. His interlocutors, however, are silent because they do not dare answer the question itself. At that point it no longer matters what restrains them: fear of the people or fear of exposing their own theological or religious inadequacy. What matters is that their answer contains deceit, which is utterly incompatible with an honest search for truth. That alone is enough to close a person’s way into the Kingdom. Jesus never holds conversations for their own sake; He does not need debate as an end in itself, nor does He aim to prove to anyone that He is right. His task is entirely different: to save as many people as possible by bringing them into the life of the Kingdom He has brought into the world. And so He refuses to answer the Pharisees’ question. He sees no point in an exchange of remarks that will save no one and help no one.