Luke 20:13-19 - The stone the builders rejected

20:13-16

So the owner decided to send his own son. Clearly this is representing Jesus. Instead of respecting the son, the tenants got it into their heads that if they killed the son they would then have possession of the vineyard. This thinking was both wrong and wrong-headed. What about the landowner himself? Their action would bring an even worse retribution upon themselves. The Jewish religious leaders, and mankind in general, are blind imagining that we can take over the world if we simply declare that God is dead! So the tenants killed the son. Jesus then asks the people about what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will kill the tenants. The people’s reaction is against the stupidity of the tenants’ rebellion. They also sensed that the teaching was about what was going to happen to Israel.

We see here, yet again, clear teaching from Jesus on judgement. Any picture of Jesus that does not include judgement is seriously deficient.

20:17

The people were horrified at the judgement that Jesus seemed to imply was going to come upon them. Jesus responded by pointing to the Old Testament, in particular Psalm 118:22. Go and look up Psalm 118 and read all of it. It is a psalm that extols the Lord’s goodness, talks about the security that the Lord provides, it is about joy and salvation. Then we get verse 22, “the stone the builders rejected ..”. The religious leaders had rejected Jesus, the Son of God, yet He is the source of salvation. He is the One around whom all of God’s plans are designed.

20:18,19

While Jesus is a saviour to all who come in repentance and faith, to everyone who rejects Him, who takes offence at Him, there is only a terrible judgement awaiting.

The teachers of the Law and chief priests knew exactly what Jesus was saying. Sceptics often make the claim that there isn’t enough evidence, or that it is unreasonable to expect people to believe in God. At the end of day, everyone will be without excuse.

They knew Jesus was speaking about them, and against them. They could have responded by repenting, this would have been the sensible thing to do. Instead they  wanted to arrest Jesus, as if that would have changed the truth. However, they were afraid to do so, for they were afraid of the reaction of the people.

Luke 20:9-12 - Tenants

20:9

Jesus knew exactly what was going on and what was in the hearts of the religious leaders.  Jesus told a parable to the people to explain to them what was going on. Part of the mission of the church is to explain to the world what is going on. It most definitely is not to go along with the world’s direction of travel, which sadly is how much of the church is responding to the sexual revolution. Why do people think the world is wiser than God?

2:10-12

In the parable a man planted a vineyard. This represents God. In the immediate context it represents God having created the nation of Israel. Without God there would have been no Israel. More generally, it represents God having created the world. Without God, no us! He rented it out to the farmers and went away. In genesis God gave Adam and Eve stewardship of the earth. We are stewards, not owners.  At harvest time the owner sent servants to collect his due income from the vineyard, but each time the tenants beat up the servant, giving him nothing. This represents their rejection of the prophets. The rejection of the servants became ever more intense.

Luke 20:3-8 - Neither will I tell you

20:3,4

Jesus turned the issue back on the religious leaders, and He did so by going for one of their weak spots. Earlier John the Baptist had been around. He had caused some trouble for the religious leaders, but not that much. They could probably have regarded him as a bit of an oddity, but someone who would only be around for a time. In one sense John was only around for a time, his being killed for his bold proclamation of the truth, but he continued to have an influence. They knew that the people also liked John.  Note that neither John the Baptist nor Jesus preached “nice” messages, not “seeker-friendly” sermons! Yet the people found something enticing about their preaching. So Jesus asks the religious leaders where John’s authority came from. Note also that Jesus focuses on John’s baptism, and the essence of John’s teaching, and what was represented by his baptism, was repentance. This was the one thing the religious leaders refused to do.

20:5-8

The religious leaders were ultimately weak men, driven by fear. So they could not answer the question. If they said John’s authority came from heaven then the next question would be, why then did they not repent? But if they said John was acting merely on his own authority then the people would stone them, for the people regarded John, rightly, as a prophet.

So the religious leaders refused to answer, claiming they did not know. Jesus likewise refused to answer. Why did He do this? He wanted them to realise the state they were in. There are times for a direct refutation of an argument, there are times just to get the people making the false argument to think about the weakness of their case.

The only truly solid foundation is to build our lives on God’s truth.

Set free to serve!

Just read something very interesting in “An Introduction to the Old Testament” by John Goldingay. On the Exodus he points out that “The aim of God’s action is not so much to liberate the Israelites from oppression so that they are free to live their own lives as to remove them from the service of Egypt to the service of Yahweh” (Section 2-19 in his book). In verses like Exodus 3:12; 4:23 and 7:16 many translations (eg NIV, NLT, Message (though this isn’t actually a translation of course!)) talk about the people worshipping God, but it is better translated as serving God (as in KJV, ESV, NASB).

This highlights a vital point in understanding our salvation, and in highlighting the error in the thinking of many people. We were set free from slavery to sin so that we could serve the Lord. That is why you and I were saved, so that we could serve the Lord. Our culture wants everything to be about “me”, and tries to get us to see everything in terms of “me”. We see this in things like liberation theology, or feminist theology, or currently in LGBT “theology”, everything is seen in terms of fulfilling “me”. The oppression may have been very real, but they are totally wrong in what we are saved to.

But we need to understand this most of all in terms of our own personal lives, our own personal salvation. There will be constant pressure from society, from within yourself, and sometimes from within the church (eg prosperity teaching) to see things in terms of “me”, to understand what is going on in our lives in terms of “me”. When we do that we will never find God, we will never find the fullness of life that Jesus came to give us. It is only when we lose our lives for His sake that we find our life (Matt 16:15).

We were set free to serve the Lord. Therein lies true freedom

Luke 20:1,2 - By what authority?

20:1

Part of the power and authority of Jesus is shown in the fact that he was allowed to teach in the temple courts. This was someone the religious leaders hated and wanted to do anything they could to stop, but they could do nothing. In fact, if we look at the life of Jesus during His ministry He lived in almost perpetual conflict. Each day the Pharisees and chief priests were out to get Him, and with increasing intensity. Yet He continued to do the stuff that God had sent Him to do. He taught the truth, He welcomed and mixed with various people, He cast the demons out and healed the sick. Why was He able to do all this? Because He was completely devoted to the Father. We need to do the same. We need to be always working on increasing our devotion to the Lord. This is what will enable us to thrive in an increasingly hostile environment. We should also remember that this devotion to the Father included Jesus going to the cross, and we too are called to carry our cross.

20:2

In typical fashion it seems that all the religious leaders came to Jesus to confront Him. “By what authority ..” They were incensed that this man was teaching and attracting such a following and attention from the people. Today the world questions our authority to teach the word of God. This questioning expresses itself in various forms. At a general level there is the question of how can we claim the gospel to be the only way to God, and similar questions. Then there are more specific issues like sexual morality where we are mocked and scorned.

Luke 19:45-48 - Casting out the money changers

19:45,46

Jesus then entered the temple courts and began to drive out those who were selling various stuff. Various items were sold that were necessary for sacrifice, such as animals, doves, wine, oil and salt. Moneychangers would also exchange Roman and Greek money into temple shekels, while of course taking a cut. Now at one level all of this might have seemed very sensible, and could be justified on the grounds that it facilitated the keeping of the Law. Yet Jesus reacted so strongly against it. We should be careful with any practices that we have in our churches. We may be able to argue that they help with the worship or whatever, but this does not necessarily mean that they are acceptable to God. Jesus quotes from Jer 7:11. The passage from which it comes is one where God is condemning the people who come to worship because they oppressed the poor and worshipped idols. God’s house is meant to be a house of prayer, not a trading floor.

Note that Jesus entered on a donkey, a symbol of peace, yet here we see Him acting in a very non-peaceful way. The real Jesus does not always fit our conceptions of Him.

19:47,48

Jesus taught in the temple.  Remember He is about to be crucified, even so He continued to teach. Again emphasising the importance of teaching. The chief priests and teachers of the Law were trying to kill Him. This was the febrile atmosphere of the time. At this stage they were unable to do anything because the people were so attracted by Jesus and His teaching. It was Jesus who was in control of events, not the religious leaders.

Luke 19:39-44 - Weeping over Jerusalem

19:39,40

As always the Pharisees were casting their baleful eye over proceedings, and they told Jesus to rebuke His disciples. So we see that the crowd consisted of a whole mixture of people, disciples of Jesus, hangers on and Pharisees. The reasons for the Pharisees reaction is probably twofold. First they saw Jesus as a threat to their own position, and as effectively recognising Him as the Messiah, which they did not want. Secondly, they may have been worried about the reaction of the Romans. They did not want the Romans thinking there was an uprising in Jerusalem.

Jesus dismisses their instruction, declaring that if the crowd kept quiet the stones themselves would utter praise. Jesus knew the significance of what was happening, and creation was made by the Lord and through the Lord and for the Lord. So men’s efforts to stop Jesus being praised are ultimately futile.

19:41-44

When Jesus saw the city He wept over Jerusalem. In the very near future He was going to endure acute physical, emotional and spiritual agony, but His weeping is over what is going to happen to Jerusalem. We see here some important aspects of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Jesus knew what was going to happen in AD66-70, when Rome would besiege and then destroy the city with terrible suffering. Yet the responsibility lies with Jerusalem. They had the chance to avoid it. This is the real tragedy. If only they had recognised Jesus for who He is, if only they had recognised their own sin and need of forgiveness all this could have been avoided. So an onslaught on Jerusalem would happen, and it would happen because they “did not recognise the time of God’s coming”.

This, of course, raises many questions in us, perhaps most of all “how could God will such a thing?” There is no easy answer, but the question itself actually points to the problem. We look to God and say “how could God”, or  “why doesn’t God ...” What we need to do is to look at ourselves and ask “what should I do”, “what could I do”. You see God created us in His own image, He gave us responsibility, responsibility we were meant to exercise under His lordship. But we chose to rebel, and as with most rebels, we then start denying all responsibility, seeking to blame someone else. We do not realise what a wonderful creation God made, and what a wonderful part we would have had in it, as creatures made in His image. Some may argue about how can we be free if we are under His Lordship? Well, look at Jesus. He is the freest man whoever walked on planet earth, and He lived his life under perfect lordship to His Father.

Israel’s rebellion against God was a tragedy, our rebellion against God is a tragedy, but it is a tragedy we can choose to end by repenting and believing.