Welcome to the weekend. On the weekend in our reading thru the New Testament, we only have one day’s readings. Today, we are reading from Luke 20:1-26. After reading the Scripture - first - come back and we’ll think a bit more about what we’ve read.
When reading Scripture, one principle that is helpful is to try to put yourself in the place of the people in the scripture passage who are both present and listening. There are several people in this section. Even though we seem to have 3 different scenes here, they are all interconnected. Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey, with much praise and adulation from the people. His disciples were certainly excited, and there was an expectancy of something great is going to happen. But it didn’t take long for that expectancy to change. Jesus entered into the busy Temple and seeing the money-changers and the sellers of goods...a proverbial flea market...Jesus began a cleansing of the Temple proper by turning over tables of money, chasing the sellers out of the Temple and reminded everyone around him that he’s not here to join the religious circus. As the temple is emptied, he begins to teach those who gather why he is there, and what the Temple was all about - a place of prayer, worship, not a place of merchandising. He also raises the ire of the religious leaders, especially 2 classes - the Chief Priests and the elders, which probably were the ruling class from the Sanhedrin.
We step into the scene and what we feel is tension. The conflict surrounding Jesus with these rulers is thick. The leaders ask, “By whose authority are you doing these things?” They got their authority through a combination of the families they were born into, and the wealth they accumulated. They were credentialed by their Pharisaical education and the ruling class’ promotions. Jesus was a nobody to them... a man with a reputation, but with no standing in their elite community... “just who do you think you are?” might be another way of reading their question.
Jesus is masterful. A good teacher learns to take a question, turn it around and ask a question back. “I will ask you a question”, as he turns to look at the well dressed in clerical robed rulers, “John’s baptism, tell me, was it from God, or was he just doing his own thing?” They were stuck. They knew the people thought of John the Baptist as a prophet, and hundreds if not thousands had gone out to John to be baptized. They knew that John had been arrested for standing up to King Herod, and they knew that John had been martyred. The rulers knew that the people had a great deal of respect and love towards John; but they also knew that having John taken care of by Herod had relieved them of this prophet’s messages, which proved to be a thorn in their side. John had called the Pharisees out when they came to be baptized, and they didn’t like it. They were stuck. Jesus caught them off-guard, so they took the easy way out...”we don’t know”. Jesus has made the point. “What difference would it make it if I told my authority, you wouldn’t believe it anyway.”
Jesus turns to the crowd watching and his disciples who were present too. He begins to tell another parable - a story that makes a point. This time it's about a land-owner who has a vineyard and puts some tenants in charge of the vineyard as he moves away. It was not an uncommon thing in Jesus’ day. It’s a lot like a farmer who owns land and rents it out to another farmer. The owner should get a portion of the goods back, and the tenants get the rest. It is his land, their labor...a fair equity of trade. In the story though, Jesus points out that repeatedly the land-owner sent people, his servants, to the tenants to gain some of the fruit of the vineyard. Each time they mistreat the servants and send them home empty-handed. Look around the crowd in your mind...what do you see? People shaking their heads, some smiling, others with furrowed brows and quizzical looks. What are the ruling leaders doing? Shifting feet, a certain uncomfortability?
Jesus goes on. Finally, the owner - which is incredibly patient and willing to keep trying - sends his Son. “I will send my son, whom I love, perhaps they will respect him.” When the tenants see the Son, they must have thought, “perhaps the old man is dead and this is the heir...let’s kill him and we’ll take it all for ourselves!”
Pause...Jesus stops to let it all sink in... “what will the owner do?” That question presupposes two things: “what should he do?” And “what would you do?” Again, I imagine some angry looks, some conversations, murmuring, and some shifting feet among the rulers standing in front of Jesus.
Jesus is telling everyone the history of Israel. God had sent to his people his law and the prophets - whose task was to proclaim their identity as God’s people, who live in God’s place under God’s rule. What did Israel do over and over again? They killed the prophets, disregarded the law, even as God kept sending them anyway. It was a long time since a prophet had appeared and then 3 years before John the Baptist had come on the scene: “repent, and be baptized, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The religious leaders had come out to watch him but had no desire to enter into any of what he was calling the nation to. When John was killed by Herod, they were happy - “now this fanatic is out of our way...” - everything continues as it was before. The story Jesus tells might as well have been done in God’s court of law.
There was something else: the primary point of that parable was not merely to reflect on the history of Israel, but rather, to explain to these leaders why they were going to be removed from office by the Lord. They would be replaced by followers of Jesus. “What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill them and give the Vineyard to others!” They said, “Certainly not”... they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. The scribes and elders did not miss the meaning of what Jesus was saying, and they were outraged by it (19). Jesus looked right at them and in (vs17) responded to their objection with a quotation from Psalm 118.
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken into pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
This seems likes an abrupt change of subject. After all, they have been talking about vineyards and messengers and sons, and now suddenly the topic has shifted to builders and stones. But most likely Jesus is using a play on words here. The words for “son” and “stone” in Hebrew and Aramaic (which is most likely the language Jesus was speaking) are similar (ben and eben, respectively). And so it is likely that Jesus is creating a play on words and mixing his metaphors. He tells a story about a rejected son (ben) and then quotes a psalm about a rejected stone (eben). Jesus is both the Son of God and the cornerstone on which the people of God are built and on which the enemies of God’s Son will be broken.
“When the parable and the quotation from Psalm 118 are put together, we see that the leaders of Israel are like both the tenants who rejected the owner’s son and also the builders who rejected the most important stone. In rejecting Jesus, the leaders of Israel were missing out on the thing that they needed most. They were like builders who were tasked with creating a building but who had foolishly rejected the one stone that was crucial to holding the whole structure together.” (God’s Word For You, Mike McKinley)
I imagine a lot of quietness as Jesus finishes his story. Soon, the religious leaders turn and leave. They are angry and they want to get rid of Jesus. Like John, like all Prophets, speaking the truth is not welcomed by some. I can imagine the disciples smiling... “way to go, Jesus, you got them.” I can imagine the disciples and the crowd with a renewed vigor of “maybe Jesus is going to turn it all upside-down soon.” No one but Jesus knows where this is all headed - and he is in control of it all.
The rulers didn’t give up...they began to plot ways of upending him. One trick of the trade is to pit Jesus either against the people or the Romans. So they send spies to ask him “teacher we know you are good and right...should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?” It’s an old trick...answer “no” and the Romans will come and arrest him as a trouble-maker, an insurrectionist, a traitor to Rome...answer “yes” and the people will see Jesus as just another Jew who is willing to allow the Romans to rule over the Jews. Jesus asks for a coin - Roman denarii - and asks “whose image, inscription is on the coin?” “Caesars” was the reply. “Well, then give it back to Caesar, it belongs to him, but also make sure you give back to God what belongs to him too!” Jesus reminds them that Caesar’s rule is temporal and in fact, couldn’t occur unless God sovereignly had not established it.
It seems that we have to re-learn that principle after every election in our own country. Do we have a God who sovereignly is ruling overall? Or is your God too small?
Peace, happy Sunday to you too!
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