Jesus responded to their question with one of His own. This was common rabbinic debate technique (cf. Matthew 15:3; Matthew 22:20). [1] By referring to John"s baptism Jesus meant everything associated with his baptism, his whole message and ministry. Since John was Jesus" forerunner the leaders" response to John"s ministry would answer their own question about Jesus" authority. If they said John"s ministry was from heaven they would have had to acknowledge that Jesus" received His authority from God, since that is what John announced. [2] If they said John"s ministry was from men, lacking divine authentication, they knew the people would rise up against them because the people regarded John as a prophet from God. The leaders" refused to commit themselves knowing that whatever they said would have bad consequences for them. They wanted to avoid losing face. [source][source][source]
Any honest seeker among the leaders would have understood and accepted Jesus" answer to the leaders" question. However most of the leaders simply wanted to get rid of Jesus having previously rejected Him. Jesus pointed out with His question that their rejection of Him grew out of an earlier rejection of John. [source][source][source]