Jesus was brought up in the Jewish faith. He had been taught from a young age to respect the chief priests and scribes. However, as His mission progressed, He was challenged by these people constantly. Today we read of their challenge regarding the source of Jesus' authority to act as He did. Their question was designed to show that Jesus had no authority. Instead of being disrespectful Jesus poses a counter-question regarding the authority of John the Baptist. 'John's baptism: did it come from heaven or from man? Answer me that.' Now they found themselves in a bind for if they said 'heaven' then Jesus would question their refusal to believe John, and if they said 'man' then the ordinary people would be angry because they believed John was a real prophet. They were unable to answer Jesus. In turn, Jesus refused to answer their question. So Jesus displayed great wisdom in dealing with these people. In Sirach we saw that for most people wisdom comes at the end of a lifetime of conscious searching. This is in stark contrast to Jesus who as a young man displayed great wisdom in all His dealings with the chief priests and scribes. There is a lesson here for us. Instead of over-reacting in challenging situations, it would be far better to display wisdom and courage and use our intelligence to challenge what we perceive as wrong.