Welcome to Luke 20 in our certainty of faith series through the Gospel of Luke.
Today we read again about Jesus interacting with the religious leaders who are hostile to him and his teaching about the Kingdom.
It seems most of the religious leaders genuinely believe he is a false teacher. And we continue to see the stark gap between those who think they know God—and God himself—as we consider in what ways we too might be blind to God’s work in our lives.
(CHIME)
Luke 20 begins with Jesus in the temple courts proclaiming the good news. And the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders ask him, “By what authority do you do these things?”
From our perspective, the Son of God needs not to report to any mere human, but from their perspective, a rougue religious leader, like some hot social media influencer, is tredding on their territory.
But Jesus responds to their question with a question—and silences the leaders.
He then shares a parable, which is the passage we will drink in slowly today. A parable is a made-up story that symbolizes a larger reality. It teaches a lesson using imagry and was a favorite tool of Jesus’ when he taught in the presence of the religious leaders. . . especially when he corrected them in public and used them as a teaching tool.
Before I read, take a moment to breathe in and out, fpcusing completely on the Lord.
Come, holy spirit, come, wash us in your word.
As you listen to the passage, consider what the Spirit might be prodding in your heart as a lesson from this passage.
Luke 20:9-19
9 He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
17 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’[a]?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
19 The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.
What is going on in this passage. Take a moment to pause and ponder.
I am going to re-read verses 13-18.
The owner of the vineyard is God
The tenants are the jewish leaders
Slowly soak in this shorter passage.
13 “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’
14 “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
“What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”
When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!”
17 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’[a]?
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
The Jewish leaders were rejecting the Jesus, pictured as the cornerstone—the stone upon which all things are built—because they just could not set aside their ideas of how God would come and establish His kingdom on earth.
The rest of the chapter, the leaders continue to go back and forth with Jesus questioning him about taxes and what really happens when the resurrection comes—and Jesus questions them as well—and then Jesus warns his disciples to beware of the teachers of the Law who appear to be religious, but devour widows houses—
in other words, they do not honor GOD—and then he declares, they will be severely punished
This is where our chapter ends—in the tense pingpong of Jesus and the religious leaders who want him killed.
And it seems crazy to us that these teachers of the LAW could not see Jesus as the one who came to fulfill the Law. . .
But we should be careful how quickly we judge.
Sometimes we have our own ideas of how we think God should do things too.
Take some time to consider your own heart and pray. What is something you think God should be doing that you do not see him doing your way?
Ask God to help you see what He is doing and join Him in HIS work, even if it’s different than you imagine—or pray about whatever else is on your heart.
Let’s pray.
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Now, if you would like to study the book of Luke more deeply than the podcast allows, I encourage you to look at the resources linked in the show notes.
I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Sandra Glahn for her Latte with Luke Bible study and Brian Vasquez productions, who has made this podcast possible. This episode is sponsored by socialremix.co to SocialRemix.co, a social media generating website that saves you hours of content creation with just a click of a button. For more information, see the Links in the show notes.
God bless you and I pray that you have a well soul.