Luke Chapter 20.

Luke Chapter 20.

The demand for authority.  20:1-8.   The Temple now became the centre in which Jesus preached to the nation.  This aroused the hostility of the priests and the Sanhedrin, or Supreme Jewish Council.  They did not think that Jesus had any permission to speak in the Temple.  Jesus counters their demand for proof of His authority, by raising the awkward question of John's baptism.  The ministry of Jesus in the Temple appeared to them as a presumptuous usurping of authority. 

           

Creed described the challenge of Jesus' question in this manner, "If Jesus had been baptized, and believing John's preaching to the people to have been the preliminary to his own, it was right that he should require his critics to face the issue which John had already presented to them, before he consented to discuss the question of His own authority.  If they had acknowledged the Divine authority of John, then they would have to acknowledge that Jesus was the Messiah. (Moorman).  If the religious leaders acknowledge their ignorance concerning the authority of John's baptism, they leave themselves open to the charge of incompetence, and a lack of integrity, and insufficient courage to give a decision.

           

The parable of the Vineyard.  20:9-19.   The parable marks the turning point in the career of Jesus.  It made it clear:

*   That the Messiah was the Son of God, and that Jesus was the Messiah.

*   That the authority of Jesus was that of the Son, to whom the Father has given full authority.

*   That the Son would be raised again, for in the proverb of the stone is intimated that a new greatness awaits the Son.

           

This parable hits the religious leaders of the nation, for the vineyard is the Jewish nation. (Isaiah chapter 5).  Jesus summed up the whole of their history and its culmination in the murder of the Son, who was in a more evilly treated, than the servants.  Thus the evil deliberation of the husbandmen stands in contrast to the generous hope of the owner.  The real nature of the guilt of the Jewish leaders is disclosed.

           

The vineyard would be given to others.  The mission to the Gentiles was the inevitable sequence to the Jewish rejection of Christ.

           

The question about tribute.  20:20-26.   The coin may have been in the form of a poll-tax laid on every adult male Judean.  "If Jesus maintained that it was unlawful to pay the tribute, he made himself liable to the penalties of the Roman Government; if he said that the payment was lawful, he would alienate popular support." - Creed.

           

Jesus would refuse to side with those who would offer armed resistance to Rome.  He could not be accused of revolution.  He did not accept the popular nationalistic hopes of Judaism.  But, Jesus was not uncritical in his recognition of Rome's authority and sovereignty.   The authority of Caesar had definite limits.  The Emperor had no right to Divinity.

           

On the resurrection.  20:27-40.    A theological problem.  For the Sadducee teaching, see Acts 23:8.   For Levirate marriage, see Deut.25:5-6.

           

The Sons of the resurrection have a distinct mode of existence.  20:34-36.   The Lord provides Biblical proof from Ex.3:1-6.   The Sadducees clung more to the Books of Moses.  The quotation from Exodus 3 suggests that the patriarchs are still alive. God is the God of the living.

           

It is not possible to think that man's brief span of life on earth shall exhaust the love of God.  The fellowship into which He brings His loved ones must be greater than 70 or 80 years.  It may be argued that the words demand no more than the continuance of the soul.  But this would be a shallow conclusion, for Hebrew sentiment could never accept such an imperfect state as God's complete purpose for His people.

David's Son.  20:41-44.   In this passage, Jesus does not deny that He is descended from David, but he means that the designation, "Son of David" was quite inadequate.  Those who interpreted the Messiah as 'David's Son' were concerned with a National Deliverer.  Jesus had never at any time, sanctioned a political interpretation of the salvation of God.  The Messiah was descended from David, but is immeasurably exalted above him. (Psa.110:1;  Acts 2:25-26).

           

The attack on the Scribes.  20:45-47.

             *   Their vanity.                                      *   Their covetousness.

              *   Their hypocrisy.                               *   Their judgment.