Luke 20

Luke 20:1

On Sunday, as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He was hailed as King. On Monday, as He cleansed the temple, He acted as the Great High Priest. Here, on Tuesday, as He answers with tremendous skill and wisdom every question hurled at Him, He will show Himself to be a Prophet like no other. Prophet, Priest, and King are the three offices only Jesus can and does hold simultaneously.

Luke 20:2

The day the chief priests and scribes decided to question Jesus was the tenth day of Nissan, four days before the slaying of the Passover lambs. This perfectly fulfilled the prophetic picture portrayed in Exodus where we read that Passover lambs were to be scrutinized and inspected for four days to ensure they were without blemish (Exo_12:3-6). Jesus Christ, our Passover Lamb, would also be examined and scrutinized, and would be found faultless.

Luke 20:3

In response, Jesus asked the chief priests and scribes a question of His own. Through it, He implied that, because they hadn’t responded to John’s identification of Him as the Lamb of God, it was pointless to provide them with further identification.

Luke 20:9

Isaiah also used a vineyard to portray Israel’s relationship with God (Isa_5:7). Therefore, Jesus’ audience would have recognized the vineyard as a picture of themselves and the vineyard owner as God.

Luke 20:10

Jesus likened the prophets to a series of servants sent to collect fruit from the vineyard. Each was either beaten or killed. In this, Jesus was saying, “I know your plan. I know your intention. I know what’s going on in your hearts.” I believe He didn’t say this to indict them, but to plead with them, “Is there any of you who want to change your mind, to change your direction, to repent?” That’s exactly what the Lord does with us. None of us falls into sin, but rather we walk into sin one step at a time. Yet, as He sent His servants in the parable and His prophets in the Old Testament, the Lord is faithful to send messengers and warnings to us. All too often, however, we continue on a path of progressive destruction. In the parable before us, the first messenger was beaten. The second messenger was not only beaten but also treated shamefully. The third messenger was permanently wounded. The fourth messenger was killed. The same progression is seen in the actions of the Jewish leaders: They allowed John the Baptist to be killed. They demanded Jesus be killed. They themselves killed Stephen. That’s the way sin is. It progresses. At first we might be passively allowing it to take place around us. Next, we’re requesting that it happen. Finally, we’re participating and making it happen. Yet all the while, the Lord faithfully gives opportunities to change direction. We go to a Bible study and get convicted. We turn on the radio and hear words of warning. A concerned brother or sister says, “What are you doing?” Each one is a messenger sent to save us. In giving the Jewish leaders yet another opportunity to repent, Jesus wasn’t trying to protect His own life. He knew He would die on the Cross to pay for their sins. Rather, He was pleading with them to save their own lives. What was their answer? A tragically defensive, “God forbid.”

Luke 20:17

The verse Jesus quotesPsa_118:22is the most oft-quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. It refers to the construction of the temple under Solomon’s reign when the massive stones were chiseled miles away from the building site in order that no sound be heard upon the temple mount. When the stones arrived, one stone didn’t fit and was thrown down the hill into the Kidron Valley. When it became evident that the cornerstone was missing, the stone that had been rejected turned out to be the one that fit perfectly. Jesus applies this to Himself. “You’re trying to build your religion apart from Me,” He says, “but you’re going to see that I am the Cornerstone. Without Me, nothing stands.”

Luke 20:18

The one who falls upon Jesus, the Cornerstone, will indeed be broken, for it’s only in admitting our sin and our need that we can be saved. You see, those who aren’t broken before Him will one day be broken by Him. Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord (Php_2:10). The only question is when will this happen? Will you do it now in brokenness before Him and be saved? Or will you wait too long and be broken by Him?

Luke 20:19

After inspecting His authority, the Jews will now question Jesus’ integrity.

Luke 20:22

In Jesus’ day, paying taxes to Caesar was tantamount to supporting a man who claimed to be God. Therefore, if Jesus said, “Pay taxes to Caesar,” the Jewish leaders could accuse Him of supporting idolatry. If, however, He said, “Don’t pay taxes,” they could have Him arrested for anarchy.

Luke 20:23

Jesus answered ingeniously when He said, “Give to Caesar that which is made in his imagemoneyand give to God that which is made in His imageyourselves.”

Luke 20:26

With two strikes against them, the Jewish leaders move on to question Jesus’ theology.

Luke 20:27

The basis for this question is the Old Testament law that when a man died, his younger brother was to marry his widow, and the first child conceived would be the legal descendant of the deceased brother.

Luke 20:34

Jesus draws the Sadducees’ attention to Exodus 3, where, in revealing Himself to Moses, God said, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” In other words, to these men who, under the guise of a question about marriage, were actually questioning the reality of resurrection, Jesus said the fact that God refers to Himself presently as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob means that they’re still alive.

Luke 20:39

Look at me and you’ll find fault easily. Look at the person sitting next to you long enough and close enough, and you will find fault with him or her as well. But look at Jesus and you will find no fault whatsoever. No matter how carefully you scrutinize His teachings or study His actions, He will never disappoint or disillusion you. Not once.

Luke 20:40

Lest we are too quick to judge the Jewish leaders for their audacity in questioning Jesus, we would do well to listen to ourselves. Do we put Him on trial every time we wonder why we haven’t got the raise we deserve, why our marriage didn’t work out as we thought it would, why Mr. Right hasn’t yet come along, why we aren’t healed of our diseases? And when we don’t get the answers we think we are due, do we shake our fist at Him, apathetically shrug our shoulders toward Him, or almost imperceptibly walk away from Him? The scribes and Pharisees did not dare question Jesus anymore. Why? The words He spoke and the logic He displayed silenced their cynicism. You and I have an even greater proof before us than the words He spoke, for, unlike the scribes and Pharisees, we can look at the Cross. You who shrug your shoulders in apathy, look at His shoulder and see it ripped apart by the flagellum and bearing a Cross that should have been yours. You who shake your fist because things aren’t happening in the way you think they should, see His hand not clenched but open, pierced by a nail. You who have walked away from the Lord in anger or drifted away in busyness, look at His feet and see them pinned to a beam of wood, bleeding for you. The word “crux” meaning “cross,” the crux of every matter is indeed the Cross. Does God love me even when the job doesn’t work out as I thought it would, even when people don’t treat me the way I think they should, even if I’m not healed in the way I hoped I would be, even if I’m not understanding what’s happening presently? It is in Cross-examining that which is happening in my life; it is in looking at everything through the lens of Calvary, that I have absolute assurance that, although I may not understand it, everything taking place in my life is for my good. If Jesus loved me enough to die for me, surely He will do what’s best concerning me. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, perhaps the greatest of the modern German theologians, said, “The words why, when, where, and how are all words of the faithless. The only word spoken by a man or woman of faith is ‘who.’ And ‘who’ will lead you to Him.” What gave Bonhoeffer the authority to say this? Living in Germany in the 1940s, he began to publicly call for the overthrow of Hitler. As a result, in 1943, SS officers broke into the church where he was preaching and hauled him off to a concentration camp. Upon his arrival, the commandant said, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the famous preacher and writer, come up here and address the assembly. I will give you two minutes.” “I don’t need two minutes,” Bonhoeffer said, “just two words: Watch me.” Although the Nazis beat him mercilessly, every time they lifted a hand or used a club, Bonhoeffer would smile, lift his eyes toward heaven, and say, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” He shared a portion of every meal with either a fellow prisoner or one of the Nazi guards. He was constantly smiling, constantly praying, constantly lovingto the point that revival began to break out in the concentration camp. It wasn’t because of a word he said, but because of what he did. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed April 9, 1945. He could have asked, “Why,” but instead He asked, “who"and was satisfied. If I had the power, I would change the punctuation for the language of the believer. I would eradicate the question mark and replace it with the mark of the Cross. Whenever people ask questions, put the mark of the Cross at the end, and you’ll have the ultimate answer. If you have been wondering what’s happening, consider once more what the Lamb of God did for youand you will find every question answered conclusively.

Luke 20:41

After being questioned concerning His authority, integrity, and theology, Jesus now has a question for His questioners. Because the Jewish leaders did not want to acknowledge His deity, they tried in vain to trip up Jesus intellectually, philosophically, and theologically. But Jesus silenced them the same way He silenced Satan in the wilderness and the same way we silence Satan as well: through the Word.

Luke 20:45

Although He denounces the scribes for their self-serving religiosity, because God always has a remnant of faithful ones (1Ki_19:18), Jesus is about to draw the attention of His disciples to a widow exhibiting sacrificial generosity.