Jesus was in the temple teaching, when the chief priests and the elders asked Him, “By what authority do you do what you do? Who gave you this authority?” They wanted to know what made Jesus think He had the right to speak and act the way He did. They were jealous of Jesus and wanted some way to stop Him.

Jesus responded, “I will ask you a question and if you answer correctly then I will answer your question. The baptism of John. Was it from God or from humans?”

The chief priests talked among themselves about this question, but knew that they had to answer very carefully because if they answered that John’s baptism was from heaven, then Jesus would ask why they hadn’t believed John, and if they said that John’s baptism was from humans, then the people would riot because the people thought of John as a prophet.

The chief priests answered that they didn’t have an answer, so Jesus told them that because of that, He didn’t have to give them answer.