Luke 20:1-26 “Pharisees Ask Jesus What Authority He Works
Under / Parable of Ungrateful Vinegrowers / Is it lawful to pay taxes to
Caesar?’”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at verses 28-48 of chapter 19.
1.1.1. Jesus made His triumphal entry into
1.1.2. Jesus wept over
1.1.3. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple.
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at verses 1-26 of chapter
20.
1.2.1. In this last week of Jesus’ life we see many confrontations occur for
the Pharisees are continually plotting a way to have Jesus put to death as they
now hate Him and are very concerned about His popularity as well as the fact
that He has pronounced stinging judgments and rebukes upon them. Bound together with the elders of
1.2.2. The Pharisees are refusing to acknowledge that Jesus might be their
Messiah and they instead see Him only as a teacher and one who is leading the
people astray. Chapter 20 contains a few
difficult confrontations between Jesus and the Pharisees as well as a parable
which He speaks against them.
1.2.3. What we see also in this week is more of what we have seen so far: whenever anyone of the Pharisees tries to
trap Jesus, they are the one who ends up being trapped. These stories of Jesus’ encounters reveal
again that He is always in control of every situation. It will only be when Jesus determines to
willingly lay down His life that men will be able to arrest, torture, and crucify
Him, otherwise no attempt would ever have been successful.
1.2.4. We will see first of all that the Pharisees directly confront Jesus
asking Him by what authority He is doing the things He is doing. Jesus’ wisdom is yet again displayed as His
answer confounds them.
1.2.5. Next, Jesus speaks a parable against the Pharisees about some
ungrateful and treacherous vine growers whom a man placed in charge of his
vineyard.
1.2.6. Lastly, a man who is sent as a plant by the Pharisees seeks to trap
Jesus by asking Him whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.
2. VS 20:1-8 - “1 On
one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching
the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him,
2 and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are
doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” 3 Jesus
answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: 4
“Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” 5 They
reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why
did you not believe him?’ 6 “But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the
people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.”
7 So they answered that they did not know where it came from.
8 And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I
do these things.”” - The Pharisees try to trick Jesus by asking
Him by what authority He does the things that He does
2.1.
In these verses, we see that
Jesus is found teaching the people in the temple. We saw in our last study that just after
triumphantly entering into Jerusalem as her king seated upon a donkey, that
Jesus immediately drove all of the money changers and merchandisers out of the
temple. Then, we saw that after that He
was daily teaching the people in the temple.
Here now we see that this chapter picks up where we left off, with Jesus
teaching the people within the temple.
2.2.
It says here that Jesus was
not only ‘teaching’ the people, He was also ‘preaching the gospel.’ Jesus was telling the people the “good
news” that the
2.3.
Here the group that ‘confronted’
Jesus is described as consisting of ‘chief priests,’ ‘elders’ and
‘scribes.’ These were the leaders
in
2.4.
The Pharisees did not see
Jesus as more than a renegade itinerant preacher and trouble-maker, therefore
they sought initially to trap Him by asking Him by what authority He was doing
the things that He was doing. If Jesus
said that God was His authority the chief priests and scribes would contest
this and say that they had not certified Jesus’ ministry as being from God and
therefore He was a false teacher and should be killed. They would likewise have Him condemned if
Jesus said that He was acting by His own authority. As in each of the other times that the
Pharisees tried to trap Jesus they thought that they had an open and shut case
and would be successful in trapping Jesus and calling for Him to be put to
death.
2.5.
By the way, this passage
brings up an interesting point. What
does certify the authority under which a man of God ministers? Most churches and denominations today would
say that it is their seminaries that do this.
However, I would put it before you that going to seminary does not
ensure that a person is called by God for ministry. What seminary did the apostles go to in
preparing for ministry? It was just
being with Jesus and called by Him. What
seminary did the men whom the apostles raised up to pastor churches attend? None, they just were under the ministry of a
particular apostle. Etc., etc. Now, there is nothing wrong with going to
seminary, if you go to a good seminary and under the Lord’s leading, however
God’s calling of a person to ministry is not validated by the institution of a
seminary nor the things that are taught at seminaries. Seminaries as we have in our day are a very
new thing and exist primarily in the more civilized parts of the world. I also believe that many of the seminaries in
2.6.
The connection between Jesus
and John the Baptist:
2.6.1. In defending the authority He has to do the things that He does, Jesus
points these Pharisees to John the Baptist.
Jesus and John the Baptist are joined together and cannot be separated,
their ministries stand or fall together.
Jesus cannot be the Messiah without John being a prophet called of God,
for John testified about Jesus and prepared the way for Him (coming in the
spirit and power of Elijah), and John cannot be a prophet called of God without
Jesus being the Messiah for he continually testified of Jesus as being the
Messiah.
2.6.2. John the Baptist said many things which demonstrated to all the fact
that he believed that Jesus was indeed the Messiah, including what he said in
the following passages:
2.6.2.1. John 1:27, “27
“It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal
I am not worthy to untie.””
2.6.2.2. John
1:29-30, “29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 “This
is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank
than I, for He existed before me.’”
2.6.2.3. John 1:32, “32
John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove
out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.”
2.6.2.4. John 1:36, “36
and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of
God!””
2.6.2.5. John
3:28-30, “28 “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am
not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 “He
who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who
stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So
this joy of mine has been made full. 30 “He must increase, but I
must decrease.”
2.6.2.6. Matt. 3:11, “11 “As for
me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is
mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire.””
2.7.
Jesus’ answer to the
question posed to Him shows His infinite wisdom for He asked them a question in
return that they were not willing to answer, namely, whether or not John the
Baptist (and His baptism) was called from God.
The dilemma that the Pharisees were in is the following:
2.7.1. The people in
2.7.1.1. Exodus 17:4,
“4 So Moses cried out to the Lord,
saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me.””
2.7.1.2. Numbers
14:10, “10 But all the congregation said to stone them with
stones. Then the glory of the Lord
appeared in the tent of meeting to all the sons of Israel.”
2.7.2. If the Pharisees were to say that John the Baptist was from God, then
they knew that Jesus would ask them why they did not listen to John because
John consistently proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah. The Pharisees ignored John’s ministry even
though the majority of the people in
2.8.
Rather than truthfully
answer Jesus’ question, the Pharisees chose to be hypocrites instead and tell
Jesus that they didn’t know whether or not John was from God. Now, since the Pharisees were unwilling to
answer Jesus’ question concerning the legitimacy of John the Baptist’s
ministry, He was under no obligation to answer their question, and the
discussion was over.
2.9.
If you think about it, for
the religious leaders of
2.10.
What these Chief Pharisees
and scribes ought to have been doing at this point in time is searching their
own scriptures to see if in fact that it taught that the Messiah would in fact
be saying and doing the things that Jesus said and did. They should have sought out from their
scriptures whether or not Jesus’ teaching contradicted what the Old testament
taught. Had they simply done these
things they would have begun to see that Jesus was fulfilling all of the
prophecies of the Old Testament relative to the Messiah.
3. VS 20:9-19 - “9 And
He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented
it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. 10 “At
the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would
give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat
him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 “And he proceeded to send
another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him
away empty-handed. 12 “And he proceeded to send a third; and this one
also they wounded and cast out. 13 “The owner of the vineyard said,
‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ 14
“But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another,
saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that 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 destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” When
they heard it, they said, “May it never be!” 17 But Jesus looked at
them and said, “What then is this that is written: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This became the chief corner stone’?
18 “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but
on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” 19 The scribes
and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared
the people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them.” - Jesus tells the parable of the
ungrateful and treacherous vineyard growers
3.1.
Going straight from a
defense of Himself and the authority that He has to be doing the things that He
does, Jesus now tells the people a parable that is aimed at revealing both the
manner in which the Pharisees are handling their God given responsibilities as
God’s leaders as we as the judgment that awaits them because of doing these
things.
3.2.
This parable is one that
reveals the great corruption of human nature that sin has brought about in people’s
lives since the fall of Adam. No nation
of people ever had more blessings given them by God, no people had more
opportunities to be able to serve God and be a blessing upon the earth, and no
people ever received any more warnings from God about their behavior, however
this parable reveals how the nation of Israel squandered all of her
opportunities. However, the nation of
Israel is no different than any other people, for we have all inherited a
sinful nature from Adam since his fall in the Garden of Eden, and thus we all
have broken God’s laws and sin.
3.3.
This parable that Jesus
tells is more than just a story symbolizing what the leaders are doing, it is
really a representation of the history of the nation of
3.4.
This parable also reveals
the mercy, patience and long-suffering nature of God towards sinful people who
live their life in rebellion against Him.
All of us as people have missed many of the messages that the Lord has
tried to communicate to us, and many of His warnings to us have gone
unheeded. Yet, the Lord has been very
patient and long-suffering with us.
3.5.
In this parable, we see that
a man planted a vineyard upon the field that he owned. Then, he rented out his vineyard to some
vine-growers and went on a long journey.
The arrangement that the man made with the vine-growers was that he
would send people back periodically to get some of the produce from the land
and the vine-growers could keep the rest of the produce as their profit.
3.6.
However, these vine-growers
were dishonest and treacherous and when the man sent a slave to get some of the
produce they beat up the slave and sent him away empty handed. A second slave they beat and treated
shamefully and sent away empty handed also.
A third slave was wounded and sent out.
3.7.
Finally, the owner of the
field thought that the problem was that the vine-growers just didn’t have
enough respect for the slaves that had been sent to them, so he decided to send
to the vine-growers his son thinking that these men would surely respect him
and send him back the due produce.
However, the men begin to scheme after the owner’s son arrives. They consider that perhaps if they kill the
son then because they have been tending this field that they will somehow be
able to be given rights to the land.
However, this was faulty thinking on their part for such a thing should
never occur in
3.8.
Interpreting the parable, we
have to understand the symbols:
3.8.1. The ‘field’
represents the
3.8.1.1. Many interpreters see the field representing only the nation of
3.8.2. The ‘slaves’ represent the prophets that the Lord sent to the
nation.
3.8.2.1. We have already seen in our study of the book of Luke that throughout
the history of the nation the children of
3.8.3. The ‘vine-growers’ represent the leaders in Israel who were
raised up among God’s people and given the responsibility of conducting
business for the Lord and His kingdom, including the responsibility of
teaching, preaching, executing justice, and remaining true to the calling they
had been given.
3.8.4. The ‘son’ represents Jesus, the Son of God and the final one of
God’s prophets (He is a prophet, priest, and king) sent to the nation of
3.9.
No parables match in every
detail to the spiritual principles which they symbolize and there is one detail
in which this parable does not represent reality. This has to do with the owner considering
after a while that since the vine-growers have beaten and wounded all the
slaves he had sent to them that if he sent his son that they might treat his
son nicely. Sending Jesus to the earth
to be the sin sacrifice for all mankind was not an after thought by the Lord,
not a plan B since plan A didn’t work.
The scriptures are clear that from all eternity it was determined that
Jesus, God the Son from all eternity, would come to earth and be the sin bearer
for mankind. Unlike us faulty and finite
humans, there is nothing that the Lord sets out to do about which He does not
know beforehand everything that will happen as a result. Here are some of the many scriptures that
reveal that God foreknows all that will happen:
3.9.1. 1 Peter
1:20, “20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the
world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.“
3.9.2. Revelation
17:8, “8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to
come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. And those who dwell on the
earth, whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation
of the world, will wonder when they see the beast, that he was and is not and
will come.”
3.9.3. Isaiah
46:8-10, “8 “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind,
you transgressors. 9 “Remember the former things long past, For I am
God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10
Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which
have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will
accomplish all My good pleasure’.”
3.10.
Finally, Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22 to the people which
indicates the fact that Old Testament had long before foretold that many in
Israel would in fact not recognize and accept the Messiah when He came to the
nation, ‘The stone which the builders
rejected, This became the chief
corner stone’? 18 “Everyone who falls on that stone
will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like
dust.”
3.10.1.
Jesus is the ‘CHIEF CONRER stone’ and the corner stone of a building was one on the corner
of a foundation which had to bear the weight of two walls.
3.10.2.
Note this is from the same chapter that contains the
phrase that the people chanted just days before when Jesus made His Triumphal
Entry into
3.11.
These verses also intimate the severity of judgment
that will fall upon everyone who stumbles over this chief corner stone when He
comes, for that person will be crushed to dust when Jesus, the stone, falls
upon them. The Lord will one day judge those
who refuse to repent and turn in obedience to the Lord and believe upon Christ
for their salvation. As there is no love
that is greater than the love of God, there is also no wrath that is greater
than the wrath that the scriptures tell us is in store for those who refuse to
be God’s people in this life. Heb. 12:29
tells us that the Lord is “a consuming fire,” and one day He shall judge
the rebellious without mercy and this is a threat that should be taken
seriously by those who refuse to surrender their lives to the Lord.
3.11.1.
Many scriptures reveal God’s wrath that will one day
be poured out on the unrepentant. For
instance, in Rev. 6:12-17, when Jesus, the Lamb, opens the seven seals
unleashing God’s wrath upon the unrepentant people of the earth we see that
this wrath is so great that people are asking the rocks to fall upon them to
hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, “12 I
looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became
like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig
tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky
was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the
earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and
every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the
mountains; 16 and they said
to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of
Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for
the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?””
4. VS 20:20-26 - “20
So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in
order that they might catch Him in some statement, so that they could deliver
Him to the rule and the authority of the governor. 21 They
questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly,
and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. 22 “Is
it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 23 But He detected
their trickery and said to them, 24 “Show Me a denarius. Whose
likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25 And
He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to
God the things that are God’s.” 26 And they were unable to catch Him
in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they
became silent.” - The Pharisees and scribes send to Jesus a man
as a spy who asks another question trying to trap Jesus by His response: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
4.1.
Since the direct approach
had not worked when the Pharisees and Scribes had previously confronted Jesus
by asking Him by what authority He was doing the things He does, they now chose
to work more covertly and send a man who was a plant into the group to try and
to trap Jesus with a question. We see
here that this man came in and ‘pretended to be righteous.’
4.2.
From this passage we can
surmise that the Pharisees have now determined that rather than get the people
angry at them for confronting and arresting Jesus that it would be best if they
got Jesus in trouble with the Romans.
The Jews did not have the authority to put anyone to death anyway, they
would need to get
4.3.
Look for a moment at the
hypocritical words of flattery spoken by this man asking Jesus this question,
and note that on this day that he didn’t realize how correct he was in these
things that he was saying about Jesus, ‘Teacher, we know that You speak and teach
correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.’ This man accurately describes
Jesus’ teaching and ministry.
4.4.
As was said, Jesus’
responses to the traps that the Pharisees set for Him reveal His wisdom, and
Christ is wisdom to us as Christians:
4.4.1. In 1 Cor. 1:20-25, the apostle Paul writes about how Christ is the
wisdom of God and how that the Lord has made foolish the wisdom of this world
and that the gospel message that the Lord has given to us contains the wisdom
of God, “20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is
the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come
to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message
preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs
and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to
Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those
who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men.”
4.4.2. Paul
likewise wrote to the Colossians in Col. 2:1-3, 8-10 about how all wisdom and knowledge
was found in Christ, “1 For I want you to know how great a
struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all
those who have not personally seen my face, 2 that their hearts may
be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all
the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in
a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself, 3
in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge…8 See
to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception,
according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of
the world, rather than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the
fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been
made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.
4.5.
The trap that now is planned
for Jesus consists of the following:
4.5.1. The Jews deeply resented the fact that they were being heavily taxed by
4.5.2. If Jesus answers that the Jews should not pay taxes to
4.6.
The infinite wisdom of Jesus
is yet again revealed in His answer.
4.6.1. Jesus discerned that this question was a set up for it says here that
He ‘detected their trickery.’
4.6.2. Jesus asks for someone to give Him a denarius, the amount of one day’s
wage. He then asks who it is whose
inscription is found on the coin? It was
Caesar’s image! The coin itself reminded
the people on this day of the fact that they all made commerce under
4.6.3. Jesus tells the people to ‘render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ The Jews had a responsibility to
4.7.
The apostle Paul wrote
Romans chapter 13 in order to teach Christians the fact that they are to give
proper obedience and respect to the governing authorities over their lives,
whatever those authorities may be, “1 Every
person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2
Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and
they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For
rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to
have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the
same; 4 for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do
what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is
a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5
Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath,
but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay
taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very
thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due;
custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear…”
4.8.
Because of Jesus’ wisdom
displayed in His answer, we read here that ‘amazed at His answer, they became
silent.’
5. CONCLUSIONS:
5.1.
As we consider this study
and the things we have talked about, lets first of all see the wisdom of Christ
in that no one was ever able to successfully trap Him, and lets trust our lives
to His wisdom. Lets resolve it in our
hearts that the Lord really does know what is best for our lives. His will and His ways are ways of wisdom and
lead to a blessed life filled with godly contentment. The ways of the world may bring a transitory
thrill or joy but never lasting contentment and peace.
5.2.
As we consider the
unfaithful and ungrateful vine-growers who refused to honor the owner of the
vineyard and pay what was their due to the owner, lets make sure that we always
take note of the mercies and grace of the Lord that He shows to us. Lets commit ourselves to never taking the
Lord and His blessings in our life for granted.
5.2.1. Has the Lord not given you innumerable privileges, blessings,
opportunities to seek and learn of His grace and goodness, and warnings to keep
you from going down wrong paths?
5.2.2. Do you not realize today that it is imperative that you learn the
things that the Lord is trying to teach you each day, and that you honor Him
above all things?