One day when Jesus was teaching the people in the Temple and preaching
the Gospel, the chief priests and religious teachers with the elders confronted
him
and asked, “Tell us — by what authority do you do these things? Who
gave you this authority?”Jesus answered, “I will also ask you a question.
Tell me — was the baptism of John from heaven or from people?”They
discussed this among themselves: “If we say ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘So
why did you not believe John?’And if we say ‘From people,’ then all the people will stone us to death because they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
7 So they replied, “We do not know where it came from.” 8 Jesus
said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
9 Then he told the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenant farmers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 At harvest time
he sent a servant to the farmers to get some of the fruit from the vineyard. But
the farmers beat the servant and sent him away with nothing. 11 So the owner
sent another servant, but they beat him too and treated him badly, and sent
him away with nothing. 12 Then he sent a third servant, but they wounded him
and threw him out. 13 The owner of the vineyard wondered, ‘What should I
do? I will send my beloved son. Maybe they will respect him.’ 14 But when the
farmers saw the son, they talked among themselves and decided, ‘This is the
owner’s heir. Let us kill him so we can take his inheritance.’15 They threw
him out of the vineyard and killed him. So what will the owner of the
vineyard do to them?
16 He will come and destroy those farmers and give the
vineyard to others.” When they heard this they said, “That should never be!” 17 But Jesus looked at them and said, “Why then is it written, ‘The stone the
builders rejected became the chief cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on that
stone will be broken to pieces, but whoever it falls on will be ground to
dust.’”
[459] 19 At that very time the religious teachers and the chief priests tried to arrest
Jesus. They realized that Jesus had directed this parable against them, but
they feared the people. 20 So they watched Jesus and sent spies who pretended
to be sincere, to try to catch him in something he said, so that they could hand
him over to the rule and the authority of the governor. 21 They asked him,
“Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and are not influenced
by what others think, but teach the way of God in truth. 22 Is it lawful for us topay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
23 But he saw through their trick question and
said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius coin. Whose image and inscription is on
it?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” 25 He said to them, “Then pay to Caesar what
belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” 26 They were not able to
catch him out in front of the people. They were amazed at his response and
became silent. 27 Then some Sadducees came to him. They say that there is no
resurrection. They asked him this question: 28 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us
that if a married man dies childless, then his brother should marry his widow
and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there once were seven brothers.
The first married and died without having children. 30 The second brother
31 and then the third married the widow. Likewise all seven married her without having children. 32 Finally the woman died too. 33 So in the resurrection whose
wife will she be, because she was married to all seven brothers?” 34 Jesus said to them, “People in this age marry and are given in marriage, 35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that future age[460]
and the
resurrection from the dead do not marry or are given in marriage.
36 They cannot die any more, because they are like the angels, and they are sons of
God by resurrection. 37 As to whether the dead will be raised, even Moses
proved this at the burning bush when he called the Lord ‘the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live[461] to Him.” 39 Some of the religious
teachers said, “Teacher, you gave a good answer.” 40 And no one was brave
enough to ask him any more questions. 41 He then asked them, “How is it that people say that the Messiah is the
son of David? 42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my lord,[462] “Sit at My right hand 43 until I make your enemies a footstool
for your feet.”’
[463] 44 So David calls him ‘lord,’ and how is he his son?” 45 While all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,
46 “Watch out
for the religious teachers, who like to walk around in long robes, and love
respectful greetings in the market places, chief seats in the synagogues and
places of honor at banquets. 47 They cheat widows out of their property and
then pretend to be pious by praying long prayers. They will receive more
severe condemnation.”
Commentary
Luke
[458]
Bible readers today find themselves similarly on the horns of a dilemma when asked, “Is the
creed of Jesus in Mark 12:29 a unitarian or Trinitarian creed?” If they say “unitarian,” then the question
arises as to why they do not believe and affirm this central teaching of Jesus. If they say, it was a
Trinitarian creed, then it may be asked, how is it that a Jewish expert could have believed in the
Trinity? The question about the creed of Jesus will reveal the awful fact that Christians are not too
concerned with the teaching of Jesus even when he defined the true God as the Father alone.
[459]
Conversion involves the breaking of our human wills in order to obey God and Jesus. This is a
good thing, compared with being ground to dust if we refuse obedience.
[460]
The Coming Age of the Kingdom of God at the future return of Jesus in visible power and
glory.
[461]
That is, they will come to life from death by the future resurrection. At present they are dead (Ecc. 9:5, 10; Jn. 11:11, 14).
[462]
adoni, my lord, not Lord. All 195 times this title (adoni) is a non-Deity title, applied to human superiors and occasionally to angels. This gives rise to the NT’s constant use of “our lord” for Jesus and also the frequently used title Son of Man for Jesus. Jesus constantly called himself Son of Man, and the NT creed giving the simple relationship between Jesus and God is 1 Tim. 2:5: “There is one God and one mediator between God and humans, the human being Messiah Jesus.” This creedal statement preserves the unique position of God the Father as the One God of the Bible, of Israel, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of David and of Jesus and of course of the whole NT. The idea of a triune God is unknown to Scripture. It took a learned Church historian, Rev. Charles Bigg, DD, Regius Professor of church history at Oxford, to point out the obvious fact that when Paul calls Jesus “lord” (1 Cor. 8:6), “we are not to suppose that the Apostles identified Christ with Jehovah; there were passages which made this impossible: Ps. 110:1; Mal. 3:1…It was God who gave Jesus the ‘name which is above all names’ (Phil. 2:9) and who made Jesus lord (Acts 2:36 [quoting Ps. 110:1])…It would be rash to conclude that Peter meant to identify Jehovah with Christ. No such identification can be clearly made out in the NT” (International Critical Commentary on 1 Peter, pp. 191, 127). Ps. 110:1 has been suppressed, since it clashes with the later “coequal” “orthodoxy” of church councils.
[463]
This verse, coupled with Ps. 8 which describes the destiny of man, under whose feet God
subjects everything, forms the backbone of all that is taught in the NT about the identity of Jesus as the
Son of Man (human being), certainly not GOD Himself, but the unique, sinless, virginally begotten Son
of God (Lk. 1:35).
Luke