In Luke 20:1-8 The leaders of the law were questioning Jesus’ authority.
“One day as Jesus was teaching the people and preaching the Good News in the Temple, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders came up to him. They demanded, “By what authority are you doing all these things? Who gave you the right?”
“Let me ask you a question first,” he replied. “Did John’s authority to baptize come from heaven, or was it merely human?”
They talked it over among themselves. “If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn’t believe John. But if we say it was merely human, the people will stone us because they are convinced John was a prophet.” So they finally replied that they didn’t know.
And Jesus responded, “Then I won’t tell you by what authority I do these things.”
These Leaders got themselves into quite a pickle when Jesus asked them about the authority John had. On one hand they could say John’s authority came from heaven but that would mean they are admitting to not believing in the one God sent. And on the other hand, they could say it was merely human but everyone else believes John was a prophet. That question really backed them into a corner. The only reason they are back into a corner is because they are in the wrong and don’t want to admit it.
Getting corrected or seeing the error of your ways is not always fun, but corrections adjust our course and ensures we are going in the right direction. These guys deemed it better to not answer the question and stay in their error and unbelief, then to admit they were wrong and see things from a different perspective.
Repentance means to change the way you think but these guy’s pride made the price seem too high. But when we change the way we think we are always moving into greater understanding of function, while shedding off layers and perspectives of malfunction.