“Answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things” (Mark 11:33).
The Lord does not answer all our questions at this time. I suspect we would still not understand if we did get the answer. Better is the way of trusting the Lord, even above our ability to understand. The Lord grants authority to whom He grants it and He has His reasons. Sometimes this puzzles us, especially if there is a wicked despot who rules. But the Lord has purpose in all things and He alone is trustworthy.
Lord, when I am puzzled and have unanswered questions, help me so that my faith is not dependent upon circumstances or my ability to understand. You alone have the words of life and life eternal. You have spoken Your word of promise, and You alone can be trusted. Help me to understand the simple wisdom that trusting You above all things is the way to live. You have promised that You will work it all together for good.
Guide me, gracious Savior. I encounter people all day long and wonder by what authority they do what they do. Help me to understand that You are working all things together according to Your purpose. Help me to remain in Your will, exercising whatever authority You grant me, respecting those whom You have placed in authority over me and living according to Your word. Amen.
This is such a wonderful devotion today as it helps to understand that when Faith Is Replaced by Activism, the Gospel Is Lost
“‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said… ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things’” (Mark 11:33).
This passage is not about God being vague. It is about God refusing to submit His authority to those who reject Him. Christ does not answer unbelief on its own terms—and He never will.
That is the critical error increasingly seen in the theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The issue is not their concern for justice. Christians are called to love their neighbor. The issue is far more serious: a shift in where certainty is found.
Lutheran theology, grounded in the teaching of Martin Luther, confesses that certainty comes from Christ alone—through His Word and Sacraments. Not from outcomes. Not from social progress. Not from human systems.
God has not promised that the world will make sense to us. He has not promised that we will understand why wicked rulers rise or why injustice persists. These belong to His hidden will, which we are not given to interpret.
What He has given is this:
Christ crucified for sinners.
The forgiveness of sins.
The promise of eternal life.
That is where faith rests.
The ELCA’s theological trajectory, however, increasingly seeks certainty elsewhere—through social frameworks, justice movements, and human-defined outcomes. In doing so, it subtly but decisively shifts trust away from the Gospel and toward human action.
This is a confusion of the Two Kingdoms.
God rules the world through civil authority to restrain evil. He saves through the Gospel alone. When the Church attempts to secure righteousness through political or social means, it abandons its true mission and loses its theological footing.
The result is predictable:
Faith becomes activism.
The Gospel becomes a tool.
And Christ’s authority is no longer received—it is evaluated.
Mark 11:33 stands as a warning.
Christ does not conform to our demands for clarity, control, or visible results. He calls us to trust what He has revealed—not to replace it with what we can measure or achieve.
Lutheran faith does not rest in what we can fix in the world.
It rests in what Christ has already accomplished on the cross.
Anything else is not a deeper faith.
It is a different religion.
In Christ
Paul Flemming