Life Project Blog

Luke 20:20-26

What do you do when your best troops fail to defeat your opponent in a full frontal assault? Well naturally, you cheat!

At least that’s what the Jewish leaders tried to do.

You’ll recall that they have sent their best and brightest to Jesus in an attempt to turn the people against Him with a direct challenge to His authority to clear the Temple and teach. This really should have worked, for everyone knew who the authorities were in Jewish life, yet Jesus made fools of them in 19 words. Like I said before, if you want to start a war of words, never underestimate your opponent.

The Jewish leadership decided to use spies to trick Jesus.

The spies pretended to be sincere. They positively dripped with sincerity as they asked him the question; naturally it was a trap question, for any answer He gave would ensnare Him, either with the people or with the Romans. The Jewish leaders really didn’t care who killed Him, as long as someone did…

The question was so innocently simple:  “Is it right that we pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (20:22)

It was certainly a question that would interest everyone present. If He said yes, He would anger everyone and if He said no He would be subject to treason charges by the Romans…

He said neither.

“Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (20:24-25)

That was all it took to shut the spies up, they had no choice but to retreat in failure. The third assault team would pose a much more fascinating threat…

Luke 20:9-19

We continue the story of the assault of the Jewish leaders against Jesus in the Temple courtyards; we pick up from last time with the chief priests and teachers of the law, the best and the brightest, on the ropes. Jesus finishes them off with a little story about a vineyard…

The owner of the vineyard hired some tenants to operate the vineyard; He has gone away. At harvest time he sends a servant to collect his portion of the harvest, but the tenants beat him up and kick him out. The owner sends two more servants with the same result. The owner decides to send his son for surely those tenants will respect his son.

The tenants see an opportunity; they reason that if they kill the son, they will inherit the vineyard themselves. They murder him. When the owner hears of this what will he do?

He will go to the vineyard and kill the tenants!

“Heaven forbid” say the people in the crowd, and Jesus poses a question:

Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” (20:17-18)

The best and the brightest knew exactly what the meaning was…

God was the owner. The vineyard was Israel, the servants were the prophets, Jesus is the son and they were the tenants!

They desperately wanted to seize Jesus right then and there, but they were afraid of the crowd, for they had utterly failed in their attempt to turn the crowd against Him: They withdrew…

Luke 20:1-8

Here’s another trustworthy saying: “When you start a war, whether military or verbal, never underestimate your opponent.”

Yep, that one is me too.

The time has come for the first assault wave to attack Jesus. He is teaching the crowds about the good news, when He is approached by the chief priests and teachers of the law. These are the best and the brightest of the Jewish leadership; this is strength against strength, a full frontal attack. They demand to know by whose authority He is doing the things He’s doing; namely clearing the Temple and ruining their cash flow…

Jesus’ reply is less than 20 words in two short sentences. He will answer their question, if they answer His, which is, “John’s baptism was it from heaven or of human origin?”

A simple theological question for such giants of scholarship and piety…

Luke tells us of their dilemma:

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” (20:5-6)

They held an impromptu caucus. They knew right off they were in trouble… and everyone was watching! They came up with a solution… They replied that they didn’t know.

It’s very important for us to think carefully about this: This was to be a clash of power against power. The Jewish leaders, who were the highest authorities in the Jewish world on such matters, were in the process of challenging the authority of a carpenter’s son from the provinces who had never been educated, and in 19 words, He had them in a corner.

Whose authority is in question now?

Jesus declined to address their question since they had ducked His question.

Again I ask: Whose authority is in question now?

The best and the brightest are on the ropes, and Jesus is about to deliver the knockout with a nice little story…

When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Every day he was teaching at the temple. But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.

Luke 19:45-48

Here’s a trustworthy saying: “When the leaders fear their own people, something is very wrong with their leadership.”

What’s that who said that?

I did.

At least in this case, the Jewish leaders had a great deal to fear from their people; something had to be done.

Sadly, there were no overnight polls in those days; I sure would like to see what clearing the Temple did to Jesus’ approval ratings. Of course, I suspect it might have been a “push” for it might well have delighted about the same number of people He angered, for the Temple was big business at Passover; there were jobs that depended on it. Come to think of it, I’ll bet His approval dropped.

In clearing the Temple, He asserted His role as Messiah; this would be difficult for the Jewish leaders to have missed. Coupled with His entry into the city as King, they were certainly had a second good reason for concern: Not only was He very popular with the people, He was the agent of God.

Yes indeed, something had to be done to preserve their positions, and nothing scares a politician, and make no mistake they were politicians, than losing office.

How could they turn the tide?

Their first move would be to issue a very public challenge to His authority, for in clearing the Temple, hadn’t He broken a law of some kind? It seems likely that nobody had made up a law for clearing the Temple and asserting that it is a house of prayer; who would dare? Yet He had challenged their authority in the most public of ways.

They concocted a plan…

They would send the best and the brightest to trap Him, He might win a round or two, but in the end, He would surely make a mistake…

Surely He would, after all, they were the great ones, He was only an uneducated Galilean!

Luke 19:28-44

Jesus and His party left Jericho and headed up the steep Roman road to Jerusalem; Luke doesn’t provide as many details about this part of the trip as Matthew did, although he does discuss briefly the procurement of the colt. Luke does however, make it clear that most of the crowds Jesus encountered upon His arrival believed He was there as a king to seize power. Yet, Luke’s main focus is at the end of his account; it isn’t how the people reacted to Jesus, but instead it is about how Jesus reacted to Jerusalem:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” (19:41-44)

Try to imagine the scene: The crowds were welcoming Him as their king in full expectation that He is about to seize control of the city and restore the Nation to its ancient glory with the help of the armies of God. Jesus is astride the colt representing His divine kingship in His hour of triumph, and when He sees the city, He weeps. But these are not tears of joy, they are tears of mourning, for He knows as no one else does at that moment that Jerusalem’s disastrous fate is about to be sealed. To make matters even more tragic, He knows that the fate that is about to be sealed is utterly unnecessary.

In these verses, Jesus speaks of what will happen here to God’s beloved city, the city that symbolized God dwelling in the midst of His people, when Roman armies encircle it and impose one of history’s most brutal sieges culminating in the utter destruction of the city and its remaining inhabitants.

Jesus knows at that precise moment, that He is coming here to die for the sins of Mankind, that His death will be brought about by the leaders of Jerusalem who will reject Him as they had rejected the prophets of God before Him. Of course He also knew that His death will be in fulfillment of God’s plan of redemption. Yet even so, He also knew that the very leaders, who will have Him killed, will lead the vast majority of the people against Him after the resurrection… and to their destruction.

Is it any wonder that He wept?

Luke 19:11-27

This parable is similar to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, however while it may be similar, it is unique to Luke. Jesus is still at the home of Zaccaeus when He told this story and will soon be departing for the last leg of His journey to Jerusalem; there is a grave misconception about His purpose there, and He seeks to set the record straight.

In the first verse, Luke makes this point clear; the people thought the Kingdom would appear at once, and Jesus wants them to understand that He will be “away” for a time.

In the story, there is a “man of noble birth” who represents Jesus. He is going to a distant city to be appointed king, and when this is finished he will return to rule. Jesus as he tells the story, is about to complete His trip to nearby Jerusalem, but He is not going there to, as many believe, be made their king, He is going to die for their sins, after which He will be “away” for some time.

The nobleman in the story gives a mina (3 or 4 month’s wages for a common man) and tells them to put the money to work for him while he is gone. After this, the nobleman heads off. His servants don’t like him very much, and they send a delegation ahead to speak against him, but in due course he is made king and eventually returns home. Upon his arrival he calls his servants together to settle their accounts. One servant has invested the mina he was given and earned 10 more; an excellent job. This man is rewarded with a big job; he will rule over 10 cities in the nobleman’s kingdom. The next man realized a profit of 5 minas, and is put in charge of five cities. Then came the third servant…

This man completely disobeyed his master, and didn’t put his mina to work for the master. Instead he has carefully placed it into safekeeping for his master’s return.

The master was not at all pleased with this disobedience, for he had been quite clear in giving his instructions, and the first two servants’ actions proved it. This man had everything taken from him as a result of his failure to serve the master’s interests. His mina was given to the servant who had the ten. Some onlookers pointed out that this might not be all that fair, for the first servant already had quite a lot, and the third one had nothing. Yet the new king did not change his mind. In his view, the man got what was coming to him because of the choices he had made.

Then the new king had those servants who had been in the delegation that had tried to prevent his being made king brought in and killed. They also got what they had coming, for everyone knows it isn’t a good idea to oppose the king.

I’ve already mentioned that the nobleman represents Jesus. He went to a distant place and was made king. Jesus was going to a “distant” place also, for He would soon ascend to heaven in glory, but the day will come when He returns to settle accounts. The servants represent the followers of Jesus. We have been given much to use (put to work) for our Master while He is away, and upon His return, He wants to see a return on investment.

This may seem strange to some people because most of the time Jesus used agricultural metaphors, but here He used metaphors from the world of finance…

Those who have produced good returns will be reward accordingly. Those who put their gifts and talents away for safekeeping will also be rewarded accordingly.

The delegation who attempted to prevent him from being made king represents the Jewish leadership who arranged His death… for them His return means the Final Judgment; they are done for.

After this, Jesus heads off to fulfill His destiny.

Luke 19:1-10

As Jesus and the crowds were passing through Jericho, a chief tax collector named Zaccaeus wanted to lay eyes on Jesus, but being a short man, he couldn’t see above the crowd, so thinking quickly, he ran ahead of the procession and climbed a tree so that he could have a good view. When Jesus came to the tree, He commanded Zaccaeus to come down from the tree, for He was heading to his house.

To the amazement of everyone, Zaccaeus came down and greeted Jesus happily, but the crowd muttered about Jesus consorting with “sinners”.  Once at his house, Zaccaeus made an amazing declaration: He, a very wealthy man, would give half his fortune to the poor, and anyone he had cheated, and he was in the business of cheating people, he would repay fourfold.

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (19:9-10)

And so there you have it, dear reader; a camel can in fact, pass through the eye of a needle, for where the Kingdom is, lives will change.

Luke 18:35-43

Jesus was drawing ever closer to Jerusalem. As He approached Jericho there was a blind man begging in the street. When he heard the crowd passing by he asked what was going on; “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by” was the answer (18:35-37).

“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” he cried out, but those near him rebuked him; he cried out yet again, louder this time. Jesus heard his cry and asked that the man be brought to him. Upon his arrival Jesus asked him what he wanted Jesus to do:

“Lord, I want to see,” was his reply. Jesus told the man that his faith had healed him, and immediately he received his sight. The man gave praise to God and followed Jesus; everyone present gave praise to God for Jesus had given the man sight to see (18:37-43).

In the previous passage, Jesus had, for the third time, revealed to His disciples the nature of His Messianic mission to Jerusalem. Yet, for the third time, they simply could not comprehend it for they were blind to its truth. Even after their arrival in Jerusalem, even as Jesus was fulfilling His mission on the cross, they would not comprehend what was happening, but soon, very soon, they would receive their sight just as the man in the streets outside Jericho had received his. May we too receive our sight!