Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
The Last Supper
7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."
9"Where do you want us to prepare for it?" they asked.
10He replied, "As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters, 11and say to the owner of the house, 'The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?' 12He will show you a large upper room, all furnished. Make preparations there."
13They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
14When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. 15And he said to them, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God."
17After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, "Take this and divide it among you. 18For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
19And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me."
20In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. 21But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. 22The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him." 23They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.
Dig Deeper
One of my favorite childhood memories, although I do have many, is going to my aunt and uncle’s house each year for Christmas Eve for a big party. Every year the entire family on my mother’s side would gather together and go there to celebrate Christmas Eve together with a lot of food and fun. One of the great traditions of that evening would be when my Uncle Joe would gather all of us kids around him later on into the evening. He would sit on a chair and all of us kids would sit on the floor around his feet and he would read us “The Night Before Christmas.” It was a wonderful tradition that me and my sister and all of our cousins still cherish. My Uncle Joe died many years ago now and somehow the tradition of reading that story has passed on to me and it’s something that I’ve been doing for 19 Christmases now. There were a few years right after he died where the gatherings were a little sparse but in the last ten or fifteen years the tradition has picked up steam again and there is a whole new crop of young cousins and kids running around everywhere. We still gather together ever year and we eat, we laugh, we catch up, and we have our traditions like the reading of “The Night Before Christmas” and the fact that my sister and my cousin Denny will always be twenty minutes late for the party. What is quite interesting, though, is to consider why we do this every year. It’s not because it is the best party in town. I’m sure there are better parties going on that people could scatter and go to. It’s not because we are all best friends. That’s evidenced by the fact that many of us only see each other that one time a year. So why do we have that meal with all of it’s traditions? It’s because we are family. If nothing else, getting together each year and eating together and sharing in those traditions declare and remind us all that we are family. It’s an important connection.
Meals and traditions bring people together like nothing else really. Special meals and special traditions can become among the most cherished and important things that people ever do and they certainly can create some of the very best memories. The ancient Jewish people were second to none when it came to placing a primary importance on family and no one had more important festivals, meals, celebrations, and traditions than they did. Chief among those traditions and festivals was that of Passover. Passover was a powerful declaration to one another and to the world that the Jewish people were one family and that nothing was more important than their identity as that family. That is why this meal that Luke describes for us here was and continues to be so indescribably powerful. Jesus intentionally took the strongest and deepest tradition that the Jewish people had and he quite intentionally re-cast it to be the family-forming and identifying event of his new family, the new people of God. This would be the tradition and meal that would constantly remind his people that they were, above all else, a family.
But all families have their problems. Many people are shocked and almost don’t know what to do with the fact that one of Jesus’ closest followers could betray and him turn him over to those who wanted to get rid of Jesus. We simply don’t know all of Judas’ motives, though many have tried to speculate, but in the end speculation is all it is. It played right into the hands of chief priests because now they could quietly arrest Jesus away from the crowds and get him before the end of Passover, before he might leave Jerusalem again. But that still leaves us with the uncomfortable truth that someone who knew Jesus intimately and followed him for years, betrayed him and fooled all of Jesus’ other disciples. He didn’t fool Jesus, of course. And it is always deeply convicting to consider that even though Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, he continued to love Judas, even washing his feet on his final night (Jn. 13), to the extent that Jesus never treated Judas differently than the others. Judas’ motivation seemed so confusing for Luke that all he could comprehend was that this was one of the more opportune times that Satan had been waiting for since 4:13. The only thing Luke could attribute Judas’ behavior to was satanic inspiration. Whatever Judas’ motivations might have been, he was a perfect opportunity for Satan to try to take Jesus down. If nothing else, though, Judas is a great reminder in the midst of this powerful, family-creating meal that was taking place, that families are not always perfect. Even Jesus’ family had those who were not loyal to the cause, unbeknownst to everyone else except the Master. Yet, the family survived and even prospered. As much as Satan might take the advantage to use those who don’t remain loyal to the Messiah and his people, God will use that very opposition to make his people even stronger and more equipped to carry on.
With the details of the betrayal out of the way, Luke can return to this very Passover-inspired meal. The Passover meal itself was Israel’s great celebration of the Exodus, the time when God brought them out of slavery and created them as his people, his family, through the sacrifice of the blood of the spotless lamb that was spread on the top and sides of their doorframes in a cross-type pattern. Passions ran high during Passover as it stirred up Messianic and nationalistic hopes, but more than anything else, Passover was a family meal that was eaten together in families.
Jesus sent his disciples off to make preparations for the meal, and just as when he sent them to find a young colt for him to ride into Jerusalem on, Luke is not clear whether Jesus had made preparations ahead of time and just not told his guys until they needed to know or whether this was a case of his miraculous foreknowledge. Whatever the case, they went upstairs to have a Passover meal together as a family. Jesus had declared to them throughout his ministry that they were being formed into a family group, the fulfillment of the promises that God had given Abraham to bless the whole world through one family. Now they would engage in this most of family-forming and identifying meal.
Luke, as is his custom, gives us some details of this meal but certainly not all of the details that we might like to fulfill our curiosity. With the details that he has given us, though, we can learn that Jesus clearly followed many of the elements of a traditional Passover meal while changing others. As they came together for this family meal, Jesus took the role of father while they all reclined in the customary Passover fashion, laying on their stomachs while propping themselves up on their left arms. There were four specific cups that were taken during the Passover meal and it appears that Luke has described the second and third cups of this new Passover that Jesus administered. The bread that he offered up would have come from the third course of the meal which was eaten along with the lamb and the bitter herbs.
As Jesus gave them this new Passover meal, he infused it with the meaning of his new meal. Like Passover it would be a meal of remembering. The remembering aspect of Passover was vitally important because it solidified them as a larger community and a people but also reinforced the family groups in which they took the meal. It took them back to their roots, back to the events that formed them as a community and called them to affirm, as one people, their common heritage. It both reinforced the family bonds while continuing to forge them at the same time. This was precisely what Jesus was doing with this new meal of the new covenant. The cups would not just remind them of Passover events any longer, but would be infused with the new meaning of the blood that Jesus was about to shed to create them as a family. This cup would be a remembrance and not something that they would do with Jesus again until the kingdom of God came. (We are not told whether Jesus was referring to the aspect of the kingdom that would come at Pentecost in Acts 2 or the fullness of the kingdom coming in the resurrection age. A case can be made for either option but either way it doesn’t effect the meaning of this passage.) The bread would be a reminder not only of Jesus’ body and sacrifice but of the body in Christ that he was creating in his upcoming actions on the cross.
This would be the family-forming and roots-reminding meal of the new covenant community. It would be the central aspect of them coming together. They would proclaim the Lord’s death and all that it meant to create them as the body of Christ and the family of God (1 Cor. 11:23-26). This was the new covenant that Jeremiah promised (Jer. 31:31) and which would become a common theme in the New Testament (see Matt. 26:28; 2 Cor. 3-4; Heb. 8-10).
Luke told us all the way back in 9:51 that Jesus’ march towards Jerusalem was, above all else, an exodus. It was the new exodus and it was now coming towards an end with a new Passover meal. Jesus was coming to do for all nations of the world what God had done for Israel so long ago. He was giving them the opportunity for freedom from the slavery that entangled them and form them into a new people, God’s family. He would be the Passover lamb, whose death would allow his people to escape into freedom. Just as Pharaoh tried to defy God’s purposes and hardened his heart, only to see God use that hardening to bring about his plan, so Satan and those who aligned themselves against Jesus would give their best effort to derail Jesus and his new exodus, but God would use that very opposition to bring about his purposes.
When we come together, then, to celebrate this meal that Jesus gave us, we should take the time to not just remember what he did for us in the actions on the cross, but that at the heart of this meal is to remember that it forms us into a family. It has it’s food. It has it’s traditions. It is a family meal. And that’s an important connection.
Devotional Thought
In the 21st century we often think of “salvation” as a private and individual event but that’s not the picture that the Bible presents. Biblical salvation is the act of leaving our own autonomous “you-niverse” and becoming members of God’s family. The communion meal of the early church was a weekly family reunion of sorts. Have you become part of a true and genuine church family that lives and interacts together as God’s family? Does your Christian community really show the rest of the world an example of God’s people living together in your hearts as family?
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Luke 21:34-38 Commentary
34"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man."
37Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
Dig Deeper
When I was in the tenth grade in high school I was moved into an advanced English class. The class seemed to have a little more work that was required in comparison to the regular classes but it was apparent that one of the big differences between this advanced class and the normal classes was that we were given much more independence in getting our work done and in the ability to do it with more creativity. But with that independence also came the responsibility of getting the work done. Our teacher would not coddle us and make sure that we got the work done. She would assign it and then it was up to us to finish it off well.
On one of the very first days of the year, she told us that we would have to keep a writing journal. Each day we would write on a topic of our choosing but we had to fill up a page. It was up to us to find the time to do it and keep it up. She reminded us about the journal each week for the first few weeks but then it was up to us to keep it up. It was one of those things that wasn’t very difficult if you stayed alert and on top of things and did it each day. It just required a little discipline and the occasional self-reminder that the teacher had promised that she was going to grade these things at the end of the year.
But as a school year wears on, you don’t realize just how long it can be. I started out quite disciplined with my journals. I wrote with energy and creativity and sometimes went over the required page. I actually was enjoying the writing and kept up with them well into November and December even though I knew that many of my classmates had already started to fall off the pace. Eventually I began to make little compromises. I lost my fervor and would miss a day here and a day there. I comforted myself that many others were much farther behind than I. Before I knew it, it was May, we had one week before we had to turn our journals in, and I was over 40 journal pages behind what I needed to get an “A” for the journal assignment. I had not stayed prepared and alert and the due date had snuck up on me like a thief.
I cannot begin to imagine the excitement and energy that the very first Christians must have felt. It must have been simply enthralling for Jesus’ followers to hear this promise that he would be vindicated as the Son of Man just as Daniel had promised so long ago. One of the great struggles of the first century for early Christians, though, was to hold on to the belief that they were truly the people of God. That was not such an easy position to maintain in the face of public opinion. The Jews rejected Jesus’ Messianic claims outright and could easily dismiss a so-called Messiah who had died at the hands of the very pagans that, in their view, the Messiah should have been defeating. Plus, they still had the Temple and it would have been easy to point to the many Scriptures that spoke of the importance of the Temple in worshipping God. Christians could claim that Jesus was the true Temple but what did they possibly have to back that claim up other than the cherished words of a dead Messiah? The sledding wasn’t any easier with the pagan world. The message of a crucified Messiah who died the most shameful of deaths was utter foolishness to most in the pagan world. They considered those who did embrace Christ as “atheists” who denied the existence of their long-cherished gods.
The thrilling excitement of coming into the family of God and hearing the promises that Jesus would judge those opposed to God and bring their Temple down could easily fade into the long march of days, months, and years. Year after year the mocking questions of where this Messiah was had to wear on the early Christians. Where was he? When would he return? Take a look, the Temple was still there and the world was marching on just as it always had. Conditions in Israel had gotten bad for the first few years following Jesus’ death, but then Agrippa, one of Herod’s sons was given power over Judea and things seemed up. But through the convening decades of the 40’s and 50’s AD, things in both Israel and Rome went up and down, but nothing seemed like anything different beyond just the normal twists and turns of life for most people. The Christian communities, however, faced constant persecution and pressure from the pagans, from the Jews, and even from their own physical families.
The very real danger, then for the Christian community in the middle of the first century was to get weary. Jesus knew that it would be so easy to get bogged down with life. The temptations could be many. They might lose discipline and begin to slip back into the routine of a normal life that would be much easier if they just made small little compromises to fit in with their neighbors better. They might start to lose heart and faith as days melted into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, and it would be easy to start to doubt that the Messiah was ever going to come in the clouds of judgment or that the Temple would ever be destroyed as Jesus had promised.
There were many things that could cause them to become sleepy and lose their grip, forgetting that they had a mission to constantly announce and expand the kingdom of God. But the judgment of the Messiah would come. They must never lose heart, even though many would and many more would be tempted to. Jesus’ warning was intended to head some of that off. Losing faith or falling asleep and returning to their regular lives, especially for those Christians that were Jewish could wind up being disastrous when the Son of Man did come in judgment through the Roman armies as they finally descended upon Israel and destroyed the Temple. They should pray, then, Jesus urged them that they would be able to stand faithfully before the Son of Man when all that he prophesied about actually did happen. When the people of God were finally vindicated along with their Messiah, the true Temple, and the rival Temple stood in ruins, woe to those who had fallen asleep and didn’t keep up their faith in the Messiah and his family.
It is important to remember that Luke’s first readers would most likely have been reading this Gospel in that very time that Jesus had warned of. They were several decades removed from Jesus’ death but had still not seen the Temple fall. They were the very ones that needed to take to heart Jesus’ words and not fall asleep at the wheel. To drive this point home well, Luke gives one more reminder of why those early believers or those that were reading his Gospel many years later after the Temple had fallen should continue to cling to Jesus and his family as the true Temple in the true kingdom of God.
Each day throughout that final week, Jesus would do what so many other pilgrims at Passover time did. He would go into the Temple during the week but then, because Jerusalem was so overloaded with visitors, he would go into the outlying areas at night to bed down for the evening. But each day the residents of Jerusalem and the Passover pilgrims from all over Israel could find Jesus teaching in the Temple, warning them of the crisis to come for the nation of Israel and revealing the will of God for all of the people. Jesus was, Luke once again makes clear, fulfilling the role that the Temple itself should have but had failed to because of the rebellious and faithful people of Israel, especially the religious leaders. He was serving as the place where all people could come for the revelatory words concerning God’s kingdom and his promised family. The fact that Jesus was doing this in the physical structure of the Old Temple only heightened the irony and highlighted the fact that the Old Temple must eventually go so as to clearly vindicate Jesus as the true Messiah and demonstrate that he is the true Temple of God. He was the place where the fullness of the presence of God could be found. It was no longer in that building.
This passage is so intimately relevant for us today because the malaise of sleep and stupor can often be often be the greatest enemy of the Christian community in our time. We all want to fight the glorious spiritual battle and there certainly can be many exciting moments when we engage in the mission of continuing to spread the message of reconciliation around the world, but much more often than some ongoing, adrenalin pumping battle, is the slow and steady work of building community, praying together for the same things day after day, and the slow but rewarding work of digging into God’s word and learning more and more each day. Building a Temple of living stones is, after all, long, slow, and difficult work. But we must always remember that Jesus will return one day regardless of how easy it might be to forget that. We need to be patient and stay alert.
Devotional Thought
Has the grind of the daily Christian life come to make you feel more like you’re falling asleep sometimes? Jesus tells us to keep awake and to pray constantly, and Luke follows that up with the picture of Jesus teaching at the Temple. The implication is that constant prayer and devotion to the word of God are two major components in keeping us awake and alert. Are you awake and alert right now? Are you ready? If not, what do you need to do to get that way?
37Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple, and each evening he went out to spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives, 38and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple.
Dig Deeper
When I was in the tenth grade in high school I was moved into an advanced English class. The class seemed to have a little more work that was required in comparison to the regular classes but it was apparent that one of the big differences between this advanced class and the normal classes was that we were given much more independence in getting our work done and in the ability to do it with more creativity. But with that independence also came the responsibility of getting the work done. Our teacher would not coddle us and make sure that we got the work done. She would assign it and then it was up to us to finish it off well.
On one of the very first days of the year, she told us that we would have to keep a writing journal. Each day we would write on a topic of our choosing but we had to fill up a page. It was up to us to find the time to do it and keep it up. She reminded us about the journal each week for the first few weeks but then it was up to us to keep it up. It was one of those things that wasn’t very difficult if you stayed alert and on top of things and did it each day. It just required a little discipline and the occasional self-reminder that the teacher had promised that she was going to grade these things at the end of the year.
But as a school year wears on, you don’t realize just how long it can be. I started out quite disciplined with my journals. I wrote with energy and creativity and sometimes went over the required page. I actually was enjoying the writing and kept up with them well into November and December even though I knew that many of my classmates had already started to fall off the pace. Eventually I began to make little compromises. I lost my fervor and would miss a day here and a day there. I comforted myself that many others were much farther behind than I. Before I knew it, it was May, we had one week before we had to turn our journals in, and I was over 40 journal pages behind what I needed to get an “A” for the journal assignment. I had not stayed prepared and alert and the due date had snuck up on me like a thief.
I cannot begin to imagine the excitement and energy that the very first Christians must have felt. It must have been simply enthralling for Jesus’ followers to hear this promise that he would be vindicated as the Son of Man just as Daniel had promised so long ago. One of the great struggles of the first century for early Christians, though, was to hold on to the belief that they were truly the people of God. That was not such an easy position to maintain in the face of public opinion. The Jews rejected Jesus’ Messianic claims outright and could easily dismiss a so-called Messiah who had died at the hands of the very pagans that, in their view, the Messiah should have been defeating. Plus, they still had the Temple and it would have been easy to point to the many Scriptures that spoke of the importance of the Temple in worshipping God. Christians could claim that Jesus was the true Temple but what did they possibly have to back that claim up other than the cherished words of a dead Messiah? The sledding wasn’t any easier with the pagan world. The message of a crucified Messiah who died the most shameful of deaths was utter foolishness to most in the pagan world. They considered those who did embrace Christ as “atheists” who denied the existence of their long-cherished gods.
The thrilling excitement of coming into the family of God and hearing the promises that Jesus would judge those opposed to God and bring their Temple down could easily fade into the long march of days, months, and years. Year after year the mocking questions of where this Messiah was had to wear on the early Christians. Where was he? When would he return? Take a look, the Temple was still there and the world was marching on just as it always had. Conditions in Israel had gotten bad for the first few years following Jesus’ death, but then Agrippa, one of Herod’s sons was given power over Judea and things seemed up. But through the convening decades of the 40’s and 50’s AD, things in both Israel and Rome went up and down, but nothing seemed like anything different beyond just the normal twists and turns of life for most people. The Christian communities, however, faced constant persecution and pressure from the pagans, from the Jews, and even from their own physical families.
The very real danger, then for the Christian community in the middle of the first century was to get weary. Jesus knew that it would be so easy to get bogged down with life. The temptations could be many. They might lose discipline and begin to slip back into the routine of a normal life that would be much easier if they just made small little compromises to fit in with their neighbors better. They might start to lose heart and faith as days melted into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, and it would be easy to start to doubt that the Messiah was ever going to come in the clouds of judgment or that the Temple would ever be destroyed as Jesus had promised.
There were many things that could cause them to become sleepy and lose their grip, forgetting that they had a mission to constantly announce and expand the kingdom of God. But the judgment of the Messiah would come. They must never lose heart, even though many would and many more would be tempted to. Jesus’ warning was intended to head some of that off. Losing faith or falling asleep and returning to their regular lives, especially for those Christians that were Jewish could wind up being disastrous when the Son of Man did come in judgment through the Roman armies as they finally descended upon Israel and destroyed the Temple. They should pray, then, Jesus urged them that they would be able to stand faithfully before the Son of Man when all that he prophesied about actually did happen. When the people of God were finally vindicated along with their Messiah, the true Temple, and the rival Temple stood in ruins, woe to those who had fallen asleep and didn’t keep up their faith in the Messiah and his family.
It is important to remember that Luke’s first readers would most likely have been reading this Gospel in that very time that Jesus had warned of. They were several decades removed from Jesus’ death but had still not seen the Temple fall. They were the very ones that needed to take to heart Jesus’ words and not fall asleep at the wheel. To drive this point home well, Luke gives one more reminder of why those early believers or those that were reading his Gospel many years later after the Temple had fallen should continue to cling to Jesus and his family as the true Temple in the true kingdom of God.
Each day throughout that final week, Jesus would do what so many other pilgrims at Passover time did. He would go into the Temple during the week but then, because Jerusalem was so overloaded with visitors, he would go into the outlying areas at night to bed down for the evening. But each day the residents of Jerusalem and the Passover pilgrims from all over Israel could find Jesus teaching in the Temple, warning them of the crisis to come for the nation of Israel and revealing the will of God for all of the people. Jesus was, Luke once again makes clear, fulfilling the role that the Temple itself should have but had failed to because of the rebellious and faithful people of Israel, especially the religious leaders. He was serving as the place where all people could come for the revelatory words concerning God’s kingdom and his promised family. The fact that Jesus was doing this in the physical structure of the Old Temple only heightened the irony and highlighted the fact that the Old Temple must eventually go so as to clearly vindicate Jesus as the true Messiah and demonstrate that he is the true Temple of God. He was the place where the fullness of the presence of God could be found. It was no longer in that building.
This passage is so intimately relevant for us today because the malaise of sleep and stupor can often be often be the greatest enemy of the Christian community in our time. We all want to fight the glorious spiritual battle and there certainly can be many exciting moments when we engage in the mission of continuing to spread the message of reconciliation around the world, but much more often than some ongoing, adrenalin pumping battle, is the slow and steady work of building community, praying together for the same things day after day, and the slow but rewarding work of digging into God’s word and learning more and more each day. Building a Temple of living stones is, after all, long, slow, and difficult work. But we must always remember that Jesus will return one day regardless of how easy it might be to forget that. We need to be patient and stay alert.
Devotional Thought
Has the grind of the daily Christian life come to make you feel more like you’re falling asleep sometimes? Jesus tells us to keep awake and to pray constantly, and Luke follows that up with the picture of Jesus teaching at the Temple. The implication is that constant prayer and devotion to the word of God are two major components in keeping us awake and alert. Are you awake and alert right now? Are you ready? If not, what do you need to do to get that way?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Luke 21:20-33 Commentary
20"When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. 21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. 22For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. 23How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people. 24They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
29He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32"I tell you the truth, this generation[b] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Dig Deeper
A few weeks ago my youngest son came up with a stroke a brilliance. He was eating a treat and had left the wrapper on the dining room table. I had just come in from doing some work out on the lawn on a sunny Saturday afternoon and saw not only his wrapper but also that he had created quite a mess of scattered toys, thrown pillows, and scattered shoes and socks throughout the downstairs while I was outside. His older brother was quietly sitting in the corner with some headphones on while working on his homework for the weekend on the computer. I told him that I had to run a quick errand but I expected everything to be put back into place by the time I returned. I then left for my errand fully expecting that he would comply with my orders while I was away. Much to my chagrin, however, I discovered upon my return that he had chosen to not pick up one thing. When I asked him why he had not picked up anything his response was sheer genius. He looked at me with all the sincerity that he could muster up in his little face and said that he thought I was talking to his brother. He would have picked everything up just as I had wanted, he claimed, if he had only known that I was talking to him and not his older brother. Of course to follow his line of reasoning you would have to ignore many facts, like the fact that everything laying around the house was his, I had not even been speaking to his brother, and of course, that his brother had headphones on. It was a nice try but he still had to clean up and had now added some extra punishment onto himself for not obeying.
When we read passages like this, they can quite admittedly be difficult to discern and understand. It is full of figures of speech and imagery that is just not very familiar to us who are separated by thousands of years and a huge cultural gap. Figures of speech and language of imagery and metaphor can be the most difficult things for people of other languages or cultures to understand because you cannot simply translate a figure of speech from one language into another. If I say that I was “flying down the road,” simply translating that into another language would do little good unless you understood that this was a figure of speech meaning I was driving fast. The key, then, to understanding such passages is to start with things that are familiar or obvious and let that dictate the more difficult portions. This passage, thankfully, has some clear markers that help us to understand what this passage is all about. Things like “Jerusalem being surrounded by armies,” Jesus telling his disciples that at that time they should “lift up your heads,” that they would know that when certain things happened that the kingdom of God was near, and that “this generation” would not pass away until these things happened, all let us know that, despite how end-of-the-world some of the language and imagery sound, Jesus was clearly talking about things that would happen in the lifetime of many who were standing there listening to Jesus.
Those who wish to interpret this passage as being about the time of the resurrection and the end of the present age are left to claim that Jesus imperceptibly and quite confusingly jumps back and forth between prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and speaking of his yet-to-come return at the time of the resurrection. They even go so far as to claim that “this generation” refers to a generation that is yet to come. To imagine, however, that Jesus was looking at those men and women two thousand years ago and telling them that “this generation would see all of these things, but was not actually referring to them but to some other future generation is about as logical as my son claiming that he thought I wasn’t talking to him. The judgment and national calamity that was going to come upon Israel for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and the time of God’s visitation is certainly a metaphor and a foreshadowing, in many ways, of the ultimate and final judgment that will accompany the king when he returns to claim his people as his own and usher in the age to come, but we simply cannot force that interpretation into Jesus’ words here. The events that he was prophesying over would happen to the generation that had rejected him.
Verses 20-24 fall in that category of fairly safe ground to interpret. When they, meaning the people who were standing there listening to Jesus, saw Jerusalem being surrounded by armies they would know that the time of Jerusalem’s being left as a desolate house (Lk. 13:35; see also Isaiah 5:9; 24:1-10) was very near. Jesus didn’t specifically say that these armies would be Roman but that was certainly a fairly obvious guess for anyone in the first century. If Jerusalem was going to be surrounded by enemy forces they would almost surely be Roman, and that is exactly what happened in 70 AD (nearly forty years, or the typical biblical span of a “generation” after Jesus spoke this prophecy) as Roman forces led by Titus came and surrounded the city of Jerusalem. For disciples who were still in Judea and the area surrounding Jerusalem this would be no time for some sudden pangs of nationalistic fervor or misplaced loyalties. When the armies came they needed to get out quickly (the pieces of evidence that we do have indicate that the Christians in Jerusalem at this time did exactly that and fled before the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem). No one in Jerusalem would be safe when the calamity finally struck, warned Jesus. Even those that would normally be protected like pregnant and nursing mothers would be in great peril and even be killed. Jerusalem would surely be trampled as God allowed the Gentile armies of Rome to fulfill their time and purpose as God’s instrument of judgment for his people that rejected him.
In the next group of verses from 25-28, we find ourselves on much more unfamiliar ground. We shouldn’t just jump to the conclusion, however, that these figures of speech need to be understood woodenly literal any more than it would help to insist, in the example above, that I had sprouted wings and could actually fly. It was rather common imagery at the time that this was written to describe great moments of national and political upheaval in terms of celestial signs and monumental cataclysmic events, not unlike we might call a major event “earth shattering.” Even a quick survey of the latter half of the late 60’s up through 70 AD would show that just such nerve-wracking upheavals were happening throughout the Roman Empire. The relative peace and comfort of the Roman world seemed on the verge of collapse after Nero’s suicide in 68 AD as a litany of emperors came in the next few years and civil war was constantly a very real possibility. At the same time, the relations between Rome and Jerusalem had basically disintegrated and by 70 AD war with Rome was looming for Jerusalem.
With all of this unrest swirling about, that would be when they would “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (again, the group of people that he was talking to was certainly included into that “they will see”). As much as we might like to infuse the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud talk with thoughts of the return of Christ at the time of the resurrection, it’s just very unlikely that this is what is in view here. Not the least of the reasons that this was not what Jesus was referring to in the overall context of this passage and in the Gospel of Luke as a whole. This is where we must let the clear referents in passages like this help guide us through the shadows.
References to the Son of Man come from the great prophecy of Daniel 7, an extremely important and popular passage in the first century that was written, so the Jews of Jesus’ day as well as the early Christians believed, concerning the time when God’s Messiah and his family would be vindicated after suffering at the hand of those opposed to God. The coming in the clouds was familiar Old Testament language used when God came in judgment against those opposed to him (see Ex. 34:5; Isa. 19:1; Ps. 18:11; 19:1; 104:3; Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15). So, the picture of the Son of Man coming in the clouds is a different event than the promised physical and visible return of Christ (Acts 1:11) that we know today as the “Second Coming”. Luke certainly believed that that was a reality to look forward to but that’s just not primarily what Jesus was talking about here (although certainly the exaltation and vindication of the Son of Man was a foreshadowing and a guarantee of his final return and judgment of the entire world). Jesus was connecting with familiar imagery to to make clear that when he came in judgment, his people would be vindicated as the true people of God. The surprising thing for the people of Israel that continued to reject the Messiah was that they would be the ones that would be treated as the enemies of God. When Jerusalem was besieged and the Temple in ruins, God’s true people would be shown for who they were. The Son of Man’s coming in judgment would show clearly that he was sitting at the right hand of the Lord with his enemies as a footstool (Lk. 20:42-43).
Just as they could look at fig trees and see the signs that summer is near, so they would be able to take Jesus’ words to heart and know that when they saw the signs of Jerusalem being besieged and great turmoil in the known world, they would know that this was no accident. They had nothing to fear. This is precisely what Jesus predicted would happen. This was what must happen in order for God’s Messiah to be finally vindicated over and against the people that rejected him and for God’s true family to be revealed.
As we enter into verses 32-33 we find mixed ground once again. Verse 32 is rather solid and obvious, while, for us, verse 33 can be a bit difficult because it is another Jewish figure of speech. “This generation,” the one that Jesus was speaking to would see these things. That places these events squarely in the first century and shows that attempts by some commentators to apply “this generation” to some some random generation that is still in the future just do not hold water. As mentioned in the previous passage, Jesus was consistently and crystal clear that the generation that rejected him would be the one to feel the judgment for their actions (see Matt. 11:16; 12:41-42; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 11:30-32, 50-51: 17:25; 21:32). The generation that rejected the Messiah would be the one to see him coming on the clouds in judgment. That much could be taken to the bank.
Just as my last sentence was a figure of speech that cannot be taken literally, so was the promise that “heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” It probably meant something along the lines of the figure of speech I used about the bank. It would be easier and sooner happen, implied Jesus, that the present age of heaven and earth pass into the age to come than it would be for his words to not be correct. It should not be missed, then, that Jesus was basically equating his own words with the authority and permanence of the words of God. He was likely playing off of a common rabbinic saying at the time that used a similar figure of speech: “Everything has its end, the heavens and earth have their end; only one thing is expected which has no end, and that is the Law of God.”
All of the things that Jesus was warning of would come on the generation of the vineyard’s tenants that had rejected and killed the son, because once the son came, there would be no other messengers. Yet we should not suppose that this passage has nothing of importance for us. We might not have been part of “that” generation but we do live in a time when people regularly reject the Messiah and his kingdom. It is our calling to boldly warn them, just as Jesus warned his generation of the disaster that will surely come upon those who reject the king. But it is also part of our calling to show the world a living image of what it will look like to live in God’s future age and to call all humans to be reconciled to God and to be part of his promised family.
Devotional Thought
Jesus warned that rejecting him would lead to disaster for the nation of Israel. The Bible is clear that rejecting Christ’s offer of salvation is equally disastrous for all humans. Are you as bold about declaring the danger of rejecting Christ as Jesus and his first disciples were? Who do you need to gently but firmly warn today of the disastrous consequences of continuing to live out their rejection of God’s Messiah?
25"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."
29He told them this parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. 30When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. 31Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.
32"I tell you the truth, this generation[b] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Dig Deeper
A few weeks ago my youngest son came up with a stroke a brilliance. He was eating a treat and had left the wrapper on the dining room table. I had just come in from doing some work out on the lawn on a sunny Saturday afternoon and saw not only his wrapper but also that he had created quite a mess of scattered toys, thrown pillows, and scattered shoes and socks throughout the downstairs while I was outside. His older brother was quietly sitting in the corner with some headphones on while working on his homework for the weekend on the computer. I told him that I had to run a quick errand but I expected everything to be put back into place by the time I returned. I then left for my errand fully expecting that he would comply with my orders while I was away. Much to my chagrin, however, I discovered upon my return that he had chosen to not pick up one thing. When I asked him why he had not picked up anything his response was sheer genius. He looked at me with all the sincerity that he could muster up in his little face and said that he thought I was talking to his brother. He would have picked everything up just as I had wanted, he claimed, if he had only known that I was talking to him and not his older brother. Of course to follow his line of reasoning you would have to ignore many facts, like the fact that everything laying around the house was his, I had not even been speaking to his brother, and of course, that his brother had headphones on. It was a nice try but he still had to clean up and had now added some extra punishment onto himself for not obeying.
When we read passages like this, they can quite admittedly be difficult to discern and understand. It is full of figures of speech and imagery that is just not very familiar to us who are separated by thousands of years and a huge cultural gap. Figures of speech and language of imagery and metaphor can be the most difficult things for people of other languages or cultures to understand because you cannot simply translate a figure of speech from one language into another. If I say that I was “flying down the road,” simply translating that into another language would do little good unless you understood that this was a figure of speech meaning I was driving fast. The key, then, to understanding such passages is to start with things that are familiar or obvious and let that dictate the more difficult portions. This passage, thankfully, has some clear markers that help us to understand what this passage is all about. Things like “Jerusalem being surrounded by armies,” Jesus telling his disciples that at that time they should “lift up your heads,” that they would know that when certain things happened that the kingdom of God was near, and that “this generation” would not pass away until these things happened, all let us know that, despite how end-of-the-world some of the language and imagery sound, Jesus was clearly talking about things that would happen in the lifetime of many who were standing there listening to Jesus.
Those who wish to interpret this passage as being about the time of the resurrection and the end of the present age are left to claim that Jesus imperceptibly and quite confusingly jumps back and forth between prophesying about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD and speaking of his yet-to-come return at the time of the resurrection. They even go so far as to claim that “this generation” refers to a generation that is yet to come. To imagine, however, that Jesus was looking at those men and women two thousand years ago and telling them that “this generation would see all of these things, but was not actually referring to them but to some other future generation is about as logical as my son claiming that he thought I wasn’t talking to him. The judgment and national calamity that was going to come upon Israel for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and the time of God’s visitation is certainly a metaphor and a foreshadowing, in many ways, of the ultimate and final judgment that will accompany the king when he returns to claim his people as his own and usher in the age to come, but we simply cannot force that interpretation into Jesus’ words here. The events that he was prophesying over would happen to the generation that had rejected him.
Verses 20-24 fall in that category of fairly safe ground to interpret. When they, meaning the people who were standing there listening to Jesus, saw Jerusalem being surrounded by armies they would know that the time of Jerusalem’s being left as a desolate house (Lk. 13:35; see also Isaiah 5:9; 24:1-10) was very near. Jesus didn’t specifically say that these armies would be Roman but that was certainly a fairly obvious guess for anyone in the first century. If Jerusalem was going to be surrounded by enemy forces they would almost surely be Roman, and that is exactly what happened in 70 AD (nearly forty years, or the typical biblical span of a “generation” after Jesus spoke this prophecy) as Roman forces led by Titus came and surrounded the city of Jerusalem. For disciples who were still in Judea and the area surrounding Jerusalem this would be no time for some sudden pangs of nationalistic fervor or misplaced loyalties. When the armies came they needed to get out quickly (the pieces of evidence that we do have indicate that the Christians in Jerusalem at this time did exactly that and fled before the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem). No one in Jerusalem would be safe when the calamity finally struck, warned Jesus. Even those that would normally be protected like pregnant and nursing mothers would be in great peril and even be killed. Jerusalem would surely be trampled as God allowed the Gentile armies of Rome to fulfill their time and purpose as God’s instrument of judgment for his people that rejected him.
In the next group of verses from 25-28, we find ourselves on much more unfamiliar ground. We shouldn’t just jump to the conclusion, however, that these figures of speech need to be understood woodenly literal any more than it would help to insist, in the example above, that I had sprouted wings and could actually fly. It was rather common imagery at the time that this was written to describe great moments of national and political upheaval in terms of celestial signs and monumental cataclysmic events, not unlike we might call a major event “earth shattering.” Even a quick survey of the latter half of the late 60’s up through 70 AD would show that just such nerve-wracking upheavals were happening throughout the Roman Empire. The relative peace and comfort of the Roman world seemed on the verge of collapse after Nero’s suicide in 68 AD as a litany of emperors came in the next few years and civil war was constantly a very real possibility. At the same time, the relations between Rome and Jerusalem had basically disintegrated and by 70 AD war with Rome was looming for Jerusalem.
With all of this unrest swirling about, that would be when they would “see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (again, the group of people that he was talking to was certainly included into that “they will see”). As much as we might like to infuse the coming of the Son of Man in a cloud talk with thoughts of the return of Christ at the time of the resurrection, it’s just very unlikely that this is what is in view here. Not the least of the reasons that this was not what Jesus was referring to in the overall context of this passage and in the Gospel of Luke as a whole. This is where we must let the clear referents in passages like this help guide us through the shadows.
References to the Son of Man come from the great prophecy of Daniel 7, an extremely important and popular passage in the first century that was written, so the Jews of Jesus’ day as well as the early Christians believed, concerning the time when God’s Messiah and his family would be vindicated after suffering at the hand of those opposed to God. The coming in the clouds was familiar Old Testament language used when God came in judgment against those opposed to him (see Ex. 34:5; Isa. 19:1; Ps. 18:11; 19:1; 104:3; Joel 2:2; Zephaniah 1:15). So, the picture of the Son of Man coming in the clouds is a different event than the promised physical and visible return of Christ (Acts 1:11) that we know today as the “Second Coming”. Luke certainly believed that that was a reality to look forward to but that’s just not primarily what Jesus was talking about here (although certainly the exaltation and vindication of the Son of Man was a foreshadowing and a guarantee of his final return and judgment of the entire world). Jesus was connecting with familiar imagery to to make clear that when he came in judgment, his people would be vindicated as the true people of God. The surprising thing for the people of Israel that continued to reject the Messiah was that they would be the ones that would be treated as the enemies of God. When Jerusalem was besieged and the Temple in ruins, God’s true people would be shown for who they were. The Son of Man’s coming in judgment would show clearly that he was sitting at the right hand of the Lord with his enemies as a footstool (Lk. 20:42-43).
Just as they could look at fig trees and see the signs that summer is near, so they would be able to take Jesus’ words to heart and know that when they saw the signs of Jerusalem being besieged and great turmoil in the known world, they would know that this was no accident. They had nothing to fear. This is precisely what Jesus predicted would happen. This was what must happen in order for God’s Messiah to be finally vindicated over and against the people that rejected him and for God’s true family to be revealed.
As we enter into verses 32-33 we find mixed ground once again. Verse 32 is rather solid and obvious, while, for us, verse 33 can be a bit difficult because it is another Jewish figure of speech. “This generation,” the one that Jesus was speaking to would see these things. That places these events squarely in the first century and shows that attempts by some commentators to apply “this generation” to some some random generation that is still in the future just do not hold water. As mentioned in the previous passage, Jesus was consistently and crystal clear that the generation that rejected him would be the one to feel the judgment for their actions (see Matt. 11:16; 12:41-42; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 11:30-32, 50-51: 17:25; 21:32). The generation that rejected the Messiah would be the one to see him coming on the clouds in judgment. That much could be taken to the bank.
Just as my last sentence was a figure of speech that cannot be taken literally, so was the promise that “heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.” It probably meant something along the lines of the figure of speech I used about the bank. It would be easier and sooner happen, implied Jesus, that the present age of heaven and earth pass into the age to come than it would be for his words to not be correct. It should not be missed, then, that Jesus was basically equating his own words with the authority and permanence of the words of God. He was likely playing off of a common rabbinic saying at the time that used a similar figure of speech: “Everything has its end, the heavens and earth have their end; only one thing is expected which has no end, and that is the Law of God.”
All of the things that Jesus was warning of would come on the generation of the vineyard’s tenants that had rejected and killed the son, because once the son came, there would be no other messengers. Yet we should not suppose that this passage has nothing of importance for us. We might not have been part of “that” generation but we do live in a time when people regularly reject the Messiah and his kingdom. It is our calling to boldly warn them, just as Jesus warned his generation of the disaster that will surely come upon those who reject the king. But it is also part of our calling to show the world a living image of what it will look like to live in God’s future age and to call all humans to be reconciled to God and to be part of his promised family.
Devotional Thought
Jesus warned that rejecting him would lead to disaster for the nation of Israel. The Bible is clear that rejecting Christ’s offer of salvation is equally disastrous for all humans. Are you as bold about declaring the danger of rejecting Christ as Jesus and his first disciples were? Who do you need to gently but firmly warn today of the disastrous consequences of continuing to live out their rejection of God’s Messiah?
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Luke 21:5-19 Commentary
5 Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, 6 "As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down."
7 "Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"
8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away."
10 Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
12 "But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
Dig Deeper
We have always expected our two sons to do a few chores around the house and to chip in with things and we have never given them an allowance but just expected that they would help out. This summer, however, we decided to crank things up a bit for the season and told them that we were going to give them each an allowance. They immediately got extremely excited and started to chatter over the things that they could save for and buy and try to figure out how long it would take them to save for certain items that they really wanted. In their excitement, though, I had to step in and tell them not to get too carried away. The allowance would come but the amount of chores that they had to do each week was going to greatly increase. In other words, the thing that they really wanted would come but it would not be immediate and there would be a whole lot of labor and hard work in between their present excitement and the actual fulfillment. They just needed a good stiff dose of reality.
I think the above example is important to understanding this passage because it is so easy for us to get off on the wrong foot. We have a great tendency to misunderstand the meaning and language within this passage and the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 and to find them to be dark, mysterious, and ominous. Yet, that is not entirely how the disciples would have heard theses words. In fact, it seems that throughout the passage, at least in the early going, Jesus wants to comfort his disciples, but he really wants to keep them grounded and to understand that it’s not quite time to get over-excited yet. A lot of tough times are ahead. But why would Jesus have to do that at all? Why would talk of the Temple being utterly destroyed and the final end of the Old Covenant coming be something that would excite Jesus’ disciples. Why would he need to hit them with a good stiff dose of reality? Once we discover the full meaning of Jesus’ words here, the answer to those questions become relatively clear.
The first thing that we have to get out of the way when we read this chapter is the idea that Jesus is somehow talking about the end of the world or the end of the present age. When we consider the context of the book of Luke going all the way back to chapter 9 and look at what is actually said here, we realize that the idea of this being about “the end of the world as we know it” is more due to the fanciful imaginations of modern American writers and televangelists looking to bilk well-meaning people out of a quick buck than anything that is actually said here. What does confuse matters a bit for modern readers is the first century apocalyptic-style figures of speech that are used throughout this passage, especially in the portion that we will consider in the next section. We will consider these figures of speech when we get to them and examine why they shouldn’t automatically lead us to thinking about the end of the world. It is true that passages like this that speak of the coming judgment of the Son of Man on Israel certainly carry echoes of his ultimate return and Matthew’s gospel seems to play to that element of foreshadowing more than the other gospels. But Luke is particularly careful to make sure that his primarily Gentile readers don’t make any such misunderstandings. This passage is a clear and important prophecy from Jesus about the coming destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, an event that would take place nearly forty years after Jesus first uttered these words.
The previous passage has clearly set the table for the meal that we are about to eat for the rest of chapter 21. Those who had come in control of the Temple and the direction of the nation of Israel had turned it from a house of prayer into a den of rebels, the very charge that Jesus made when he symbolically took authority over the Temple. So now that Luke has adequately set the table, he tells us that the disciples were walking along marveling just how stunningly beautiful the Temple was (and by all accounts it was one of the most beautiful buildings ever constructed). But Jesus makes it clear once again that the Temple will be destroyed. He begins by declaring that the “days are coming” (the TNIV renders it “the time will come”) which connects this with the common Old Testament prophetic declaration of judgment (see Jer. 7:1-14; 22:5; 27:6; 52:12-13; Isa. 39:6; Hos. 9:7; Amos 4:2; Zech. 14:1). The Temple has been judged. It is no longer the place where heaven and the will of God will be revealed. Jesus is the true Temple and the false Temple must tumble. But in order for that to happen, it goes almost without saying that something cataclysmic must happen to Jerusalem as well.
As Jews it might have been a sad thing in some respect to hear that this beautiful building would be brought to the ground but it was also a source of great joy. The destruction of the old Temple meant the vindication of the Messiah as the true Temple. It meant a clear marker to those with open hearts that those who were in Christ and had put their faith in him by entering into his life would also be vindicated as the true people of God. One of the great arguments of the first century was who were the true people of God. Both the Jewish people and the early Christians claimed this distinction. But the Jewish Temple fell, never to be rebuilt, and Jerusalem along with it. The Temple that was the Messiah, however, would be “destroyed” but rebuilt in three days (John 2:19-20) and he would be declared to be the Son of God through his resurrection (Romans 1:1-4). The combination of the fact that the Jewish Temple would be utterly destroyed just as Jesus predicted, while Jesus, the true Temple, would be killed but resurrected three days later and would continue to live on in the Temple of his people, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), were clear and exciting demonstrations that Jesus’ people really were the true family of God.
When would all of this happen was the obvious and expectant question. How long would they have to wait? In fact there was a common belief in the ancient world that major socio-political events would be portended by great celestial signs or similar phenomenon. Should they expect something like that, or even another messenger from God to declare that the moment had come? Jesus wouldn’t give them any signs of that sort, although he would give them some signs, of sorts, later on in this passage for which they could keep a look out. But the time itself will happen quickly. It will be a time of war and great tumult. There will be terrible things going on all around them.
The point of all of this is that as exciting and encouraging as the thought of Jesus and his people being vindicated as God’s true people and the Temple, the very thing that had now become a symbol of opposition to God’s true purposes in the world, it would not be a pleasant process. Some would come claiming to be Messiahs or to be messengers from God but they need not be fooled by all of that. It would be a time of earthquake, famine, war and destruction. These were all things that were commonly associated in the Old Testament with great periods of God’s judgment.
These terrible events, however, need not cause them fear. When all of this breaks loose, they could rest assured that the time was near, but it wouldn’t happen immediately. This would be a process that would take awhile. In fact, before this all happened and they would be shown as God’s true people, they would be devastatingly persecuted. When the going got tough for Israel, they would soon turn things around and come down on Jesus’ people, and the non-Jewish world would quickly pick up that example and persecute them as well. They should not take this constant persecution as a sign of God’s disfavor with them or his favoring of the Jews who would also claim to be the true people of God. They could rest assured that this was all part of the process. Just as Jesus was persecuted before his ultimate resurrection and vindication, so would they be persecuted before the Temple would fall and they would be justified as God’s true family (that would not, of course, mean that their persecution and suffering for the name of Christ would be over).
They would be persecuted. That was a fact. In fact, much of what Jesus predicted will be described by Luke in the book of Acts (Acts 4:16-18; 8:1-3; 12:1-5). But as was already made clear in 12:11-12, they need not worry about whether they will be faithful during this time. Some of them would be put to death and would be betrayed by their physical families and brought before the authorities to renounce their loyalty to the Messiah, but they need not worry about how to prepare for that. When the time came, Jesus would be with them (in chapter 12 the promise was that God would be with them, showing just how closely the work of Jesus and the Spirit would be) and would guide them in what they needed to say. Notice in all of this how it related to the disciples within the lifetime of many of them. Jesus was not talking about some far off future events, still in the future for us. He was talking about very real things that would happen during that generation that had rejected the Messiah (see Matt. 11:16; 12:41-42; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 11:30-32, 50-51: 17:25; 21:32).
Although Jesus’ words to his followers that they would soon be persecuted was specific to his first-century disciples, the principles continue to apply to Jesus’ family wherever they are persecuted right down to this very day. We don’t need to worry about finding the right words or doing the right thing at the right time. As long as we are committed to follow Christ wherever it leads, the Spirit will guide us when the worst of times comes. Of that, Jesus’ brothers and sisters can always be assured.
Devotional Thought
The amazing thing about this passage is that Jesus was telling them that they would go through many difficult times in waiting for it to be made clear that they were truly the people of God. That can be a long and tempting wait. God’s people today have a similar wait as we look forward to Christ’s return and his resurrection. What can you learn from this passage that helps you to stand firm and faithful in our waiting time?
7 "Teacher," they asked, "when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?"
8 He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away."
10 Then he said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
12 "But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13 And so you will bear testimony to me. 14 But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15 For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17 Everyone will hate you because of me. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 Stand firm, and you will win life.
Dig Deeper
We have always expected our two sons to do a few chores around the house and to chip in with things and we have never given them an allowance but just expected that they would help out. This summer, however, we decided to crank things up a bit for the season and told them that we were going to give them each an allowance. They immediately got extremely excited and started to chatter over the things that they could save for and buy and try to figure out how long it would take them to save for certain items that they really wanted. In their excitement, though, I had to step in and tell them not to get too carried away. The allowance would come but the amount of chores that they had to do each week was going to greatly increase. In other words, the thing that they really wanted would come but it would not be immediate and there would be a whole lot of labor and hard work in between their present excitement and the actual fulfillment. They just needed a good stiff dose of reality.
I think the above example is important to understanding this passage because it is so easy for us to get off on the wrong foot. We have a great tendency to misunderstand the meaning and language within this passage and the parallel passages in Mark 13 and Matthew 24 and to find them to be dark, mysterious, and ominous. Yet, that is not entirely how the disciples would have heard theses words. In fact, it seems that throughout the passage, at least in the early going, Jesus wants to comfort his disciples, but he really wants to keep them grounded and to understand that it’s not quite time to get over-excited yet. A lot of tough times are ahead. But why would Jesus have to do that at all? Why would talk of the Temple being utterly destroyed and the final end of the Old Covenant coming be something that would excite Jesus’ disciples. Why would he need to hit them with a good stiff dose of reality? Once we discover the full meaning of Jesus’ words here, the answer to those questions become relatively clear.
The first thing that we have to get out of the way when we read this chapter is the idea that Jesus is somehow talking about the end of the world or the end of the present age. When we consider the context of the book of Luke going all the way back to chapter 9 and look at what is actually said here, we realize that the idea of this being about “the end of the world as we know it” is more due to the fanciful imaginations of modern American writers and televangelists looking to bilk well-meaning people out of a quick buck than anything that is actually said here. What does confuse matters a bit for modern readers is the first century apocalyptic-style figures of speech that are used throughout this passage, especially in the portion that we will consider in the next section. We will consider these figures of speech when we get to them and examine why they shouldn’t automatically lead us to thinking about the end of the world. It is true that passages like this that speak of the coming judgment of the Son of Man on Israel certainly carry echoes of his ultimate return and Matthew’s gospel seems to play to that element of foreshadowing more than the other gospels. But Luke is particularly careful to make sure that his primarily Gentile readers don’t make any such misunderstandings. This passage is a clear and important prophecy from Jesus about the coming destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, an event that would take place nearly forty years after Jesus first uttered these words.
The previous passage has clearly set the table for the meal that we are about to eat for the rest of chapter 21. Those who had come in control of the Temple and the direction of the nation of Israel had turned it from a house of prayer into a den of rebels, the very charge that Jesus made when he symbolically took authority over the Temple. So now that Luke has adequately set the table, he tells us that the disciples were walking along marveling just how stunningly beautiful the Temple was (and by all accounts it was one of the most beautiful buildings ever constructed). But Jesus makes it clear once again that the Temple will be destroyed. He begins by declaring that the “days are coming” (the TNIV renders it “the time will come”) which connects this with the common Old Testament prophetic declaration of judgment (see Jer. 7:1-14; 22:5; 27:6; 52:12-13; Isa. 39:6; Hos. 9:7; Amos 4:2; Zech. 14:1). The Temple has been judged. It is no longer the place where heaven and the will of God will be revealed. Jesus is the true Temple and the false Temple must tumble. But in order for that to happen, it goes almost without saying that something cataclysmic must happen to Jerusalem as well.
As Jews it might have been a sad thing in some respect to hear that this beautiful building would be brought to the ground but it was also a source of great joy. The destruction of the old Temple meant the vindication of the Messiah as the true Temple. It meant a clear marker to those with open hearts that those who were in Christ and had put their faith in him by entering into his life would also be vindicated as the true people of God. One of the great arguments of the first century was who were the true people of God. Both the Jewish people and the early Christians claimed this distinction. But the Jewish Temple fell, never to be rebuilt, and Jerusalem along with it. The Temple that was the Messiah, however, would be “destroyed” but rebuilt in three days (John 2:19-20) and he would be declared to be the Son of God through his resurrection (Romans 1:1-4). The combination of the fact that the Jewish Temple would be utterly destroyed just as Jesus predicted, while Jesus, the true Temple, would be killed but resurrected three days later and would continue to live on in the Temple of his people, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21), were clear and exciting demonstrations that Jesus’ people really were the true family of God.
When would all of this happen was the obvious and expectant question. How long would they have to wait? In fact there was a common belief in the ancient world that major socio-political events would be portended by great celestial signs or similar phenomenon. Should they expect something like that, or even another messenger from God to declare that the moment had come? Jesus wouldn’t give them any signs of that sort, although he would give them some signs, of sorts, later on in this passage for which they could keep a look out. But the time itself will happen quickly. It will be a time of war and great tumult. There will be terrible things going on all around them.
The point of all of this is that as exciting and encouraging as the thought of Jesus and his people being vindicated as God’s true people and the Temple, the very thing that had now become a symbol of opposition to God’s true purposes in the world, it would not be a pleasant process. Some would come claiming to be Messiahs or to be messengers from God but they need not be fooled by all of that. It would be a time of earthquake, famine, war and destruction. These were all things that were commonly associated in the Old Testament with great periods of God’s judgment.
These terrible events, however, need not cause them fear. When all of this breaks loose, they could rest assured that the time was near, but it wouldn’t happen immediately. This would be a process that would take awhile. In fact, before this all happened and they would be shown as God’s true people, they would be devastatingly persecuted. When the going got tough for Israel, they would soon turn things around and come down on Jesus’ people, and the non-Jewish world would quickly pick up that example and persecute them as well. They should not take this constant persecution as a sign of God’s disfavor with them or his favoring of the Jews who would also claim to be the true people of God. They could rest assured that this was all part of the process. Just as Jesus was persecuted before his ultimate resurrection and vindication, so would they be persecuted before the Temple would fall and they would be justified as God’s true family (that would not, of course, mean that their persecution and suffering for the name of Christ would be over).
They would be persecuted. That was a fact. In fact, much of what Jesus predicted will be described by Luke in the book of Acts (Acts 4:16-18; 8:1-3; 12:1-5). But as was already made clear in 12:11-12, they need not worry about whether they will be faithful during this time. Some of them would be put to death and would be betrayed by their physical families and brought before the authorities to renounce their loyalty to the Messiah, but they need not worry about how to prepare for that. When the time came, Jesus would be with them (in chapter 12 the promise was that God would be with them, showing just how closely the work of Jesus and the Spirit would be) and would guide them in what they needed to say. Notice in all of this how it related to the disciples within the lifetime of many of them. Jesus was not talking about some far off future events, still in the future for us. He was talking about very real things that would happen during that generation that had rejected the Messiah (see Matt. 11:16; 12:41-42; 23:36; 24:34; Mark 13:30; Luke 11:30-32, 50-51: 17:25; 21:32).
Although Jesus’ words to his followers that they would soon be persecuted was specific to his first-century disciples, the principles continue to apply to Jesus’ family wherever they are persecuted right down to this very day. We don’t need to worry about finding the right words or doing the right thing at the right time. As long as we are committed to follow Christ wherever it leads, the Spirit will guide us when the worst of times comes. Of that, Jesus’ brothers and sisters can always be assured.
Devotional Thought
The amazing thing about this passage is that Jesus was telling them that they would go through many difficult times in waiting for it to be made clear that they were truly the people of God. That can be a long and tempting wait. God’s people today have a similar wait as we look forward to Christ’s return and his resurrection. What can you learn from this passage that helps you to stand firm and faithful in our waiting time?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Luke 20:41-21:4 Commentary
Whose Son Is the Messiah?
41 Then Jesus said to them, "Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:
" 'The Lord said to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
43 until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet." ' [c]
44 David calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?"
Warning Against the Teachers of the Law
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."
Luke 21
The Widow's Offering
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I was having a brief online conversation with someone from a different country than the one in which I live. Normally that goes fine and the fact that I am from a different country than someone else poses no problem at all. This was a little different, though. This friend mentioned that they thought it was pretty cold where they were at which caused me to chuckle a bit. I know for a fact that the country in which this person lives almost never gets below 50° F. To me that’s just not cold so I replied that I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t that cold. They argued back that it got extremely cold in their country and that I sure didn’t know what I was talking about. She then asked how cold it got where I lived. When I told her that it was currently about 0°, she replied back that that was pretty cold but not too bad. I agreed that it wasn’t terrible but I would prefer it get about around 32° because that’s a really pleasant temperature to run in. She mentioned that this seemed like a really warm day to run in. Then it suddenly hit me that we had a big problem. We were working with two entirely different measurement scales. I was speaking in Fahrenheit while she was using Celsius. This means that when I said it was 0° F, she was hearing 0° C, which is about 32° F. But 0° F is is -17° C And when I said that I wished it was 32°, she was hearing 32° C, which would be about 90° F, a truly warm day to go running in. The problem was not necessarily with either Celsius or Fahrenheit but with the fact that we were using completely different scales. Unless one of us changed our paradigm we would never be able to understand one another.
This is what is at the heart of these three little passages that all seem, on the surface, to be unrelated but are actually quite related if we follow Luke’s line of thinking. At the core of each of these stories is the problem that happens when you are using different scales to measure things. If two different groups are using two different scales for measuring, they will never be able to understand one another without some serious re-interpreting. The point of each of these stories is that those opposed to Jesus were looking at things with an entirely different measuring scale than God is and if they didn’t transform their thinking rather quickly they were going to be left behind when God’s new family marched forward into history.
In the span of Luke’s narrative, Luke 21:40 brought to an end the last chances that the religious leaders and the nation of Israel had to turn to Jesus and ask him questions. Rather than asking him sincere questions and trying to find truth, they squandered their opportunities by trying to catch him in traps and induce him into blasphemous statements so that they could get rid of him. Now, as verse 40 made clear, they had no more questions. That tactic simply wasn’t working. Jesus was too smart for them so they would drop the questions and would soon simply arrest him, railroad him in a mock trial, and do to Jesus exactly what he predicted would happen to him in Jerusalem. But not before Luke will give Jesus his clear say about why they have failed to recognize his authority and what the terrible results of that would be.
Jesus now acts in the role in the role of questioner and commenter. The people of Israel were waiting expectantly for the Messiah but did they even know who he really would be? The problem was that they did not. They were using an entirely different measuring scale and needed to change their thinking radically. That’s where Jesus’ question comes in. It was a much beloved belief that came directly from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Jesus points out a problematic issue from what would become one of the favorite Old Testament passages of the early church (see Acts. 2:30-36; 7:55-56; 13:33-39; 1 Cor. 15:22-28; Eph. 1:19-23; Heb. 1:3-14; 5-7). In that passage, which describes what Israel’s ideal and promised king would be like, David refers to this Messiah as his Lord. So how can the Messiah be both David’s Lord and his son (a word that was often used synonymously for descendant)? Descendants were always considered lesser than their ancestors so how could this be?
The problem wasn’t with the ancient Scriptures but with their understanding of the Messiah. They were hoping for nothing more than an earthly king who would lead them to great military victories over their enemies, particularly the Romans. But they were missing the little hints from passages like these that when the king arrived he would be the embodiment of God himself. God would come and shepherd his own people just as he had promised (Ezek. 34:10-12). The rejection that Jesus was facing, that would culminate in his own death was the action of God himself. God did not send another to die in his place. The living God was completely and personally present in the Messiah. Until they understood that they would not be able to grasp the truth of the Messiah. Psalm 110 is a beautiful passage written about the Messiah who would rightfully be enthroned after defeating and subjecting those who opposed him. But this king would not just be David’s descendant but also the one that David called “Lord”. He would be the one that would share the very throne of God. David didn’t just envision a son but one who would also rightly be his Lord. The people that Jesus was addressing, though, were using the scale that included “son” but their scale had no room for the “Lord” aspect that they were missing.
Did people need evidence that the religious leaders of Israel were using the wrong measuring system? His disciples need look no further than the teachers of the law. Were they being the humble servants of God and the spreaders of God’s will the way that those who claim to serve the living God should? Were the defending the cause of the poor and needy as embodied in their treatment of the most vulnerable among them, the widows? Were they showing the nations of the world what God’s future age would look like? The answer to all of those was a resounding no. Rather than measuring their worth by God’s measuring standard they judged it by how long and fancy their robes were, by how much honor and pomp surrounded them wherever they went. They made a show of their religion all the while they were ripping off the weakest and most in need of being cared for in order to strengthen their own position. Their religion was a sham, so no wonder they were using the wrong standard to measure the Messiah with. Their actions demonstrated loud and clear that they were not close to living as the kind of people that Jesus had spent years teaching his disciples that God wanted, so how could they possibly recognize God’s Messiah when he actually came? They would, Jesus ensured, be punished most severely for their ungodly injustice. This is a topic to which he will turn more fully in chapter 21.
To make the point clear about their mistreatment of widows, which was emblematic of a entire wholesale rejection of the love of mercy and justice that God demanded of his people (Matt. 23:23), Luke tells us of a scene in the Temple as Jesus observes a poor widow contribute her last two coins as an offering to God. In this short but powerful account Luke has given us much to think about as he continues to show us that the measuring standards are quite different than anyone might expect. He takes us, once again, to God’s scale where two insignificant coins are an immeasurable sacrifice.
The reality of this scene is that its primary function is to serve as a buffer between the denunciation of the religious leaders of Israel and the stark prophecies of the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem herself that will take up the remainder of Luke 21. Jesus denounced the teachers of the law for their mistreatment of widows and now Luke shows an example of that in the Temple itself. Because of their oppressive and self-advancing policies, the priests, teachers of the law, and other religious leaders had put this woman in a position where she was giving God her last two coins. Rather than the Temple being a house of prayer that showed people what it looked like when heaven broke into the present age, it had became a place of robbery. It truly was a den of thieves that would soon receive its just punishment.
But even though Jesus didn’t specifically commend this woman for giving generously in the face of the shameful practices of those who had put her in that position, there is much to learn from her example. She is commendable not because she gave a great amount but because she gave sacrificially and faithfully. When God measures our giving he doesn’t count, rather he weighs. She gave more than anyone who put in much larger amounts. But this woman trusted in God more than she trusted in those two coins. This is significant because it is so hard to do that when you are down to your last few resources. (Certainly, we must note, that this woman obediently gave her last but this passage should not be used by greedy men claiming to be ministers who would use such a passage to bilk the poor out of their last few cents. She is a positive example because she gave willingly, but the men who called her to do so and did not help her in her situation are soundly being criticized.)
Another important thing to be learned from this woman is that she gave a very small amount and yet this was enough for Jesus because she gave everything she had. In the end, that’s always what God wants from us whether it be our resources, our time, our hearts, or anything else. Yet sometimes when we have very little to give to God, we are the ones who disparage that as not enough. If we genuinely have only two hours a week, for instance, to serve in a ministry that we’ve wanted to be a part of, then we have to trust that this is pleasing to God because we are giving all we have. We must remember the truth mentioned above that God does not count but he measures. It is our challenge to make sure that we are judging things based on the same measuring standard that he is using.
Devotional Thought
Are you truly giving God everything you have? When you do, is that enough or do you beat yourself up for not doing more? If your resources or time are very limited but you are genuinely giving everything you have, is that enough? Are you using God’s measuring standard or the world’s?
41 Then Jesus said to them, "Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David? 42 David himself declares in the Book of Psalms:
" 'The Lord said to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand
43 until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet." ' [c]
44 David calls him 'Lord.' How then can he be his son?"
Warning Against the Teachers of the Law
45 While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, 46 "Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely."
Luke 21
The Widow's Offering
1 As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."
Dig Deeper
Not too long ago I was having a brief online conversation with someone from a different country than the one in which I live. Normally that goes fine and the fact that I am from a different country than someone else poses no problem at all. This was a little different, though. This friend mentioned that they thought it was pretty cold where they were at which caused me to chuckle a bit. I know for a fact that the country in which this person lives almost never gets below 50° F. To me that’s just not cold so I replied that I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t that cold. They argued back that it got extremely cold in their country and that I sure didn’t know what I was talking about. She then asked how cold it got where I lived. When I told her that it was currently about 0°, she replied back that that was pretty cold but not too bad. I agreed that it wasn’t terrible but I would prefer it get about around 32° because that’s a really pleasant temperature to run in. She mentioned that this seemed like a really warm day to run in. Then it suddenly hit me that we had a big problem. We were working with two entirely different measurement scales. I was speaking in Fahrenheit while she was using Celsius. This means that when I said it was 0° F, she was hearing 0° C, which is about 32° F. But 0° F is is -17° C And when I said that I wished it was 32°, she was hearing 32° C, which would be about 90° F, a truly warm day to go running in. The problem was not necessarily with either Celsius or Fahrenheit but with the fact that we were using completely different scales. Unless one of us changed our paradigm we would never be able to understand one another.
This is what is at the heart of these three little passages that all seem, on the surface, to be unrelated but are actually quite related if we follow Luke’s line of thinking. At the core of each of these stories is the problem that happens when you are using different scales to measure things. If two different groups are using two different scales for measuring, they will never be able to understand one another without some serious re-interpreting. The point of each of these stories is that those opposed to Jesus were looking at things with an entirely different measuring scale than God is and if they didn’t transform their thinking rather quickly they were going to be left behind when God’s new family marched forward into history.
In the span of Luke’s narrative, Luke 21:40 brought to an end the last chances that the religious leaders and the nation of Israel had to turn to Jesus and ask him questions. Rather than asking him sincere questions and trying to find truth, they squandered their opportunities by trying to catch him in traps and induce him into blasphemous statements so that they could get rid of him. Now, as verse 40 made clear, they had no more questions. That tactic simply wasn’t working. Jesus was too smart for them so they would drop the questions and would soon simply arrest him, railroad him in a mock trial, and do to Jesus exactly what he predicted would happen to him in Jerusalem. But not before Luke will give Jesus his clear say about why they have failed to recognize his authority and what the terrible results of that would be.
Jesus now acts in the role in the role of questioner and commenter. The people of Israel were waiting expectantly for the Messiah but did they even know who he really would be? The problem was that they did not. They were using an entirely different measuring scale and needed to change their thinking radically. That’s where Jesus’ question comes in. It was a much beloved belief that came directly from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Messiah would be a descendant of David. Jesus points out a problematic issue from what would become one of the favorite Old Testament passages of the early church (see Acts. 2:30-36; 7:55-56; 13:33-39; 1 Cor. 15:22-28; Eph. 1:19-23; Heb. 1:3-14; 5-7). In that passage, which describes what Israel’s ideal and promised king would be like, David refers to this Messiah as his Lord. So how can the Messiah be both David’s Lord and his son (a word that was often used synonymously for descendant)? Descendants were always considered lesser than their ancestors so how could this be?
The problem wasn’t with the ancient Scriptures but with their understanding of the Messiah. They were hoping for nothing more than an earthly king who would lead them to great military victories over their enemies, particularly the Romans. But they were missing the little hints from passages like these that when the king arrived he would be the embodiment of God himself. God would come and shepherd his own people just as he had promised (Ezek. 34:10-12). The rejection that Jesus was facing, that would culminate in his own death was the action of God himself. God did not send another to die in his place. The living God was completely and personally present in the Messiah. Until they understood that they would not be able to grasp the truth of the Messiah. Psalm 110 is a beautiful passage written about the Messiah who would rightfully be enthroned after defeating and subjecting those who opposed him. But this king would not just be David’s descendant but also the one that David called “Lord”. He would be the one that would share the very throne of God. David didn’t just envision a son but one who would also rightly be his Lord. The people that Jesus was addressing, though, were using the scale that included “son” but their scale had no room for the “Lord” aspect that they were missing.
Did people need evidence that the religious leaders of Israel were using the wrong measuring system? His disciples need look no further than the teachers of the law. Were they being the humble servants of God and the spreaders of God’s will the way that those who claim to serve the living God should? Were the defending the cause of the poor and needy as embodied in their treatment of the most vulnerable among them, the widows? Were they showing the nations of the world what God’s future age would look like? The answer to all of those was a resounding no. Rather than measuring their worth by God’s measuring standard they judged it by how long and fancy their robes were, by how much honor and pomp surrounded them wherever they went. They made a show of their religion all the while they were ripping off the weakest and most in need of being cared for in order to strengthen their own position. Their religion was a sham, so no wonder they were using the wrong standard to measure the Messiah with. Their actions demonstrated loud and clear that they were not close to living as the kind of people that Jesus had spent years teaching his disciples that God wanted, so how could they possibly recognize God’s Messiah when he actually came? They would, Jesus ensured, be punished most severely for their ungodly injustice. This is a topic to which he will turn more fully in chapter 21.
To make the point clear about their mistreatment of widows, which was emblematic of a entire wholesale rejection of the love of mercy and justice that God demanded of his people (Matt. 23:23), Luke tells us of a scene in the Temple as Jesus observes a poor widow contribute her last two coins as an offering to God. In this short but powerful account Luke has given us much to think about as he continues to show us that the measuring standards are quite different than anyone might expect. He takes us, once again, to God’s scale where two insignificant coins are an immeasurable sacrifice.
The reality of this scene is that its primary function is to serve as a buffer between the denunciation of the religious leaders of Israel and the stark prophecies of the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem herself that will take up the remainder of Luke 21. Jesus denounced the teachers of the law for their mistreatment of widows and now Luke shows an example of that in the Temple itself. Because of their oppressive and self-advancing policies, the priests, teachers of the law, and other religious leaders had put this woman in a position where she was giving God her last two coins. Rather than the Temple being a house of prayer that showed people what it looked like when heaven broke into the present age, it had became a place of robbery. It truly was a den of thieves that would soon receive its just punishment.
But even though Jesus didn’t specifically commend this woman for giving generously in the face of the shameful practices of those who had put her in that position, there is much to learn from her example. She is commendable not because she gave a great amount but because she gave sacrificially and faithfully. When God measures our giving he doesn’t count, rather he weighs. She gave more than anyone who put in much larger amounts. But this woman trusted in God more than she trusted in those two coins. This is significant because it is so hard to do that when you are down to your last few resources. (Certainly, we must note, that this woman obediently gave her last but this passage should not be used by greedy men claiming to be ministers who would use such a passage to bilk the poor out of their last few cents. She is a positive example because she gave willingly, but the men who called her to do so and did not help her in her situation are soundly being criticized.)
Another important thing to be learned from this woman is that she gave a very small amount and yet this was enough for Jesus because she gave everything she had. In the end, that’s always what God wants from us whether it be our resources, our time, our hearts, or anything else. Yet sometimes when we have very little to give to God, we are the ones who disparage that as not enough. If we genuinely have only two hours a week, for instance, to serve in a ministry that we’ve wanted to be a part of, then we have to trust that this is pleasing to God because we are giving all we have. We must remember the truth mentioned above that God does not count but he measures. It is our challenge to make sure that we are judging things based on the same measuring standard that he is using.
Devotional Thought
Are you truly giving God everything you have? When you do, is that enough or do you beat yourself up for not doing more? If your resources or time are very limited but you are genuinely giving everything you have, is that enough? Are you using God’s measuring standard or the world’s?
Friday, June 18, 2010
Luke 20:27-40 Commentary
The Resurrection and Marriage
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
34 Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' [b] 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
39 Some of the teachers of the law responded, "Well said, teacher!" 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Dig Deeper
I love being a minister and having the incredible privilege and responsibility of being able to spend my time serving in God’s church. I especially love the various aspects of my responsibilities that come with my role. Among those jobs and responsibilities is the need for me to respond to many biblical inquiries and questions that come mostly as a result of the online ministry at our church. It’s rare that a day goes by that I don’t get many requests or questions that require me to respond and answer as quickly as I can. The vast majority of those questions are very sincere questions that are important and are just great questions. They can range from doctrinal questions, to general questions about a biblical topic, to issues of praxis, and just questions of general advice and guidance. Occasionally, however, I get questions that just seem to be of a different nature. These are questions from people that I affectionately call “doctrinal snipers.” These types of questions generally come from people that have never actually been to our church, although occasionally it is someone who has visited once or twice, but usually it is people who read things or listen to sermons on our website. I can honestly say that I’ve never had anyone contact me and just complain about something that they’ve read or heard but we do get the doctrinal snipers. These are people who will ask specific questions about specific belief or doctrine, one after the other. They don’t seem to be sincerely interested in finding truth. They generally seem to be of the mindset that they are going to keep asking questions until they can find some belief or doctrine that they don’t agree with and have thus found the excuse they were looking for to not come to our church. It’s sad really, because in the few cases that I have seen this happen, it always turns out that these people do this ritually, going from church to church and dismissing them due to their doctrinal sniping, and they never commit themselves to a church family. They don’t really want to find truth they want to justify themselves.
I can’t help, as I read passages like this, to think of those doctrinal snipers. As Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he has been consistently challenged in his authority, in his view of Rome and the political situation, and now we have another group arriving on the scene to challenge him. This group, like those doctrine hunters, don’t seem to be genuinely interested in the truth. They have their beliefs and they don’t want to accept Jesus so they bring up a pet doctrine of theirs in order to justify their rejection of him. Sadly, though, in doing so, they will miss out. They will miss out on the kingdom of God and they would miss out on the very thing that they were denying.
The Sadducees were an aristocratic group of religious leaders and priests who were largely wealthy and had a fair amount of influence in Jewish religious and political affairs at the time of Jesus. They largely disappeared from the pages of history, though, following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Despite a few similarities, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were generally bitter rivals and disagreed on far more things than they agreed upon. The Sadducees were often priests and teachers of the law so they had a more formal presence than did the Pharisees who were largely a non-official pressure and opinion group. One of the striking features of the Sadducees that differentiated them from the Pharisees was that the Sadducees rejected any Old Testament Scriptures other than the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Because of this, they flatly rejected any belief in resurrection and believed that consolidating their formidable power base and passing on their legacy to their children would be the only way that anyone could experience eternal life of any kind. The Sadducees saw the belief in resurrection as dangerous because people who believe in resurrection don’t care as much about current power balances and you simply can’t control in the present age people who believe in a resurrection age.
The belief in resurrection or the rejection of this doctrine then, became the signature difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. As we can see demonstrated here, the Sadducees had honed down their arguments against the resurrection and surely saw the question that they presented to Jesus as one of their favorite and more “irrefutable” points against what they saw as a silly belief in resurrection.
But Jesus was gaining a great deal of popularity and notoriety which was an obvious threat to their power base, so they went to question him. Not because they had any desire to know the truth but because they wanted to go doctrine sniping, which would then allow them, in their own minds, to reject him outright. In that sense, they were so opposed to Jesus that they would eventually become willing to work with the Pharisees to bring him down and get rid of him.
The scenario that set up was a ridiculous one based on the real practice that came to be know as levirate marriages, a practice that found its basis in the Old Testament Scriptures (Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5). In those cases where a man died, his brother could step in with his widow and continue the dead brother’s line of descent even after his death. There is a bit of humor or even ridicule in bringing up such an example. If a woman were to exercise the full extent of the levirate marriage laws and go through all seven brothers of a family, a true black widow, then what would that mean for the beloved doctrine of resurrection? In the Sadducees mind the ridiculousness of an imaginary situation like this rendered the thought of some age of physical resurrection life in God’s age to come, as the Pharisees and most Jews believed in (as did the early church), quite impossible.
Jesus corrected them on two accounts. The first was that they fundamentally misunderstood, or refused to accept, the reality of the age to come. It certainly would be a physical existence in which God would raise the dead to life in a way that they were not currently alive. But the resurrection age will not be exactly like the present age in many ways. There will evidently be no need for reproduction so the need to continue a particular family line will be irrelevant. In that sense, people in the resurrection age will be like the angels that are in the presence of God. This does not mean that people will become angels, nor does it mean that resurrection will be some sort of ghostly spirit-like existence. Rather, the point is that people in the resurrection will live in a state that is beyond the reaches of death and decay. Jesus does not mean that those in the resurrection would not have bodies; quite the opposite. People will have bodies that have been redeemed (Rom. 8:23) and are quite appropriate for the reality of the resurrection age. Thus, their argument about the levirate marriages is a moot point because they completely misunderstood the resurrection and what God’s world will be like.
Their second problem was that they were completely wrong in assuming that there is no future physical and tangible resurrection age. To make his point, Jesus appealed to the book of Exodus, one of the books that the Sadducees actually accepted as authoritative. Even in a situation where opponents were coming to Jesus to try to ridicule him and snipe at his doctrine, Jesus demonstrated grace and patience in trying to appeal to a book that they could accept and show them the truth through that. Jesus pointed out for them that in Exodus 3 God identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God, says Jesus, is the God of the living not the dead. Why would he appeal to his covenant and promises to those men if they were long dead? It would only make sense if their souls were still alive somehow and they were awaiting the resurrection. God is the God of promise to those patriarchs and to all the righteous and for them to have their part in the promise of resurrection they must be alive to see it. That God identified himself, in the present tense, as the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was a clear indicator that there was the hope of resurrection life for them even centuries after their death.
Some of the teachers that were present were impressed by Jesus’ response. Luke doesn’t tell us for sure, but we can presume that these were Pharisees or those that shared in the Pharisaical belief in resurrection. It is unlikely that these were Sadducees who had been convinced by Jesus’ arguments, and Luke doesn’t give us any reason to believe anything that dramatic had happened. The most probable thing is that they simply applauded the fact that Jesus had put the Sadducees in their place. What was clear, though, was that Jesus was wise and knew the Scriptures beyond anything that anyone had ever seen. Asking him any more questions would have only invited more embarrassment so no one dared to try any more doctrine sniping with Jesus.
There is one other important point that we shouldn’t miss in this passage. Admittedly marriage is not the primary point of teaching here but Jesus did reveal something important about our understanding of marriage, although there simply isn’t the space here to develop this topic fully. Marriage was instituted by God from the very beginning (Gen. 2:24) as his ideal plan for humans to live in community in this age but Jesus here reveals that marriage will not last in its present form in the age to come. This is important because it means that there must be a specific purpose for marriage in this age beyond two people coming together to form a union for eternity. In Ephesians 5:25-32, Paul says: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies . . . . After all, people have never hated their own bodies, but they feed and care for them, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
What Paul revealed here is that there is a purpose for marriage that stretches beyond marriage itself. He says distinctly that that marriage is a great mystery that teaches human beings about the truth of the relationship between Christ and his Church. The institution of marriage is not something designed to make humans happy but it is the context in which we can develop the holiness that God calls us to have as his people and to learn about the reconciliation between God and his people.
Devotional Thought
The Sadducees perfectly display a common technique among those who would try to fight against Scriptural truths even down to this day. They try to find outlandish and ridiculous scenarios to make God’s truth look ridiculous and shut up those who would embrace God’s truth. What can we learn from Jesus’ response here to help us in dealing with those types of ridicule? What can you learn from Jesus today that will better prepare you to answer those who would reject part or all of God’s word?
27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
34 Jesus replied, "The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God's children, since they are children of the resurrection. 37 But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' [b] 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
39 Some of the teachers of the law responded, "Well said, teacher!" 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
Dig Deeper
I love being a minister and having the incredible privilege and responsibility of being able to spend my time serving in God’s church. I especially love the various aspects of my responsibilities that come with my role. Among those jobs and responsibilities is the need for me to respond to many biblical inquiries and questions that come mostly as a result of the online ministry at our church. It’s rare that a day goes by that I don’t get many requests or questions that require me to respond and answer as quickly as I can. The vast majority of those questions are very sincere questions that are important and are just great questions. They can range from doctrinal questions, to general questions about a biblical topic, to issues of praxis, and just questions of general advice and guidance. Occasionally, however, I get questions that just seem to be of a different nature. These are questions from people that I affectionately call “doctrinal snipers.” These types of questions generally come from people that have never actually been to our church, although occasionally it is someone who has visited once or twice, but usually it is people who read things or listen to sermons on our website. I can honestly say that I’ve never had anyone contact me and just complain about something that they’ve read or heard but we do get the doctrinal snipers. These are people who will ask specific questions about specific belief or doctrine, one after the other. They don’t seem to be sincerely interested in finding truth. They generally seem to be of the mindset that they are going to keep asking questions until they can find some belief or doctrine that they don’t agree with and have thus found the excuse they were looking for to not come to our church. It’s sad really, because in the few cases that I have seen this happen, it always turns out that these people do this ritually, going from church to church and dismissing them due to their doctrinal sniping, and they never commit themselves to a church family. They don’t really want to find truth they want to justify themselves.
I can’t help, as I read passages like this, to think of those doctrinal snipers. As Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he has been consistently challenged in his authority, in his view of Rome and the political situation, and now we have another group arriving on the scene to challenge him. This group, like those doctrine hunters, don’t seem to be genuinely interested in the truth. They have their beliefs and they don’t want to accept Jesus so they bring up a pet doctrine of theirs in order to justify their rejection of him. Sadly, though, in doing so, they will miss out. They will miss out on the kingdom of God and they would miss out on the very thing that they were denying.
The Sadducees were an aristocratic group of religious leaders and priests who were largely wealthy and had a fair amount of influence in Jewish religious and political affairs at the time of Jesus. They largely disappeared from the pages of history, though, following the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Despite a few similarities, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were generally bitter rivals and disagreed on far more things than they agreed upon. The Sadducees were often priests and teachers of the law so they had a more formal presence than did the Pharisees who were largely a non-official pressure and opinion group. One of the striking features of the Sadducees that differentiated them from the Pharisees was that the Sadducees rejected any Old Testament Scriptures other than the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. Because of this, they flatly rejected any belief in resurrection and believed that consolidating their formidable power base and passing on their legacy to their children would be the only way that anyone could experience eternal life of any kind. The Sadducees saw the belief in resurrection as dangerous because people who believe in resurrection don’t care as much about current power balances and you simply can’t control in the present age people who believe in a resurrection age.
The belief in resurrection or the rejection of this doctrine then, became the signature difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. As we can see demonstrated here, the Sadducees had honed down their arguments against the resurrection and surely saw the question that they presented to Jesus as one of their favorite and more “irrefutable” points against what they saw as a silly belief in resurrection.
But Jesus was gaining a great deal of popularity and notoriety which was an obvious threat to their power base, so they went to question him. Not because they had any desire to know the truth but because they wanted to go doctrine sniping, which would then allow them, in their own minds, to reject him outright. In that sense, they were so opposed to Jesus that they would eventually become willing to work with the Pharisees to bring him down and get rid of him.
The scenario that set up was a ridiculous one based on the real practice that came to be know as levirate marriages, a practice that found its basis in the Old Testament Scriptures (Gen. 38:8; Deut. 25:5). In those cases where a man died, his brother could step in with his widow and continue the dead brother’s line of descent even after his death. There is a bit of humor or even ridicule in bringing up such an example. If a woman were to exercise the full extent of the levirate marriage laws and go through all seven brothers of a family, a true black widow, then what would that mean for the beloved doctrine of resurrection? In the Sadducees mind the ridiculousness of an imaginary situation like this rendered the thought of some age of physical resurrection life in God’s age to come, as the Pharisees and most Jews believed in (as did the early church), quite impossible.
Jesus corrected them on two accounts. The first was that they fundamentally misunderstood, or refused to accept, the reality of the age to come. It certainly would be a physical existence in which God would raise the dead to life in a way that they were not currently alive. But the resurrection age will not be exactly like the present age in many ways. There will evidently be no need for reproduction so the need to continue a particular family line will be irrelevant. In that sense, people in the resurrection age will be like the angels that are in the presence of God. This does not mean that people will become angels, nor does it mean that resurrection will be some sort of ghostly spirit-like existence. Rather, the point is that people in the resurrection will live in a state that is beyond the reaches of death and decay. Jesus does not mean that those in the resurrection would not have bodies; quite the opposite. People will have bodies that have been redeemed (Rom. 8:23) and are quite appropriate for the reality of the resurrection age. Thus, their argument about the levirate marriages is a moot point because they completely misunderstood the resurrection and what God’s world will be like.
Their second problem was that they were completely wrong in assuming that there is no future physical and tangible resurrection age. To make his point, Jesus appealed to the book of Exodus, one of the books that the Sadducees actually accepted as authoritative. Even in a situation where opponents were coming to Jesus to try to ridicule him and snipe at his doctrine, Jesus demonstrated grace and patience in trying to appeal to a book that they could accept and show them the truth through that. Jesus pointed out for them that in Exodus 3 God identified himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God, says Jesus, is the God of the living not the dead. Why would he appeal to his covenant and promises to those men if they were long dead? It would only make sense if their souls were still alive somehow and they were awaiting the resurrection. God is the God of promise to those patriarchs and to all the righteous and for them to have their part in the promise of resurrection they must be alive to see it. That God identified himself, in the present tense, as the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was a clear indicator that there was the hope of resurrection life for them even centuries after their death.
Some of the teachers that were present were impressed by Jesus’ response. Luke doesn’t tell us for sure, but we can presume that these were Pharisees or those that shared in the Pharisaical belief in resurrection. It is unlikely that these were Sadducees who had been convinced by Jesus’ arguments, and Luke doesn’t give us any reason to believe anything that dramatic had happened. The most probable thing is that they simply applauded the fact that Jesus had put the Sadducees in their place. What was clear, though, was that Jesus was wise and knew the Scriptures beyond anything that anyone had ever seen. Asking him any more questions would have only invited more embarrassment so no one dared to try any more doctrine sniping with Jesus.
There is one other important point that we shouldn’t miss in this passage. Admittedly marriage is not the primary point of teaching here but Jesus did reveal something important about our understanding of marriage, although there simply isn’t the space here to develop this topic fully. Marriage was instituted by God from the very beginning (Gen. 2:24) as his ideal plan for humans to live in community in this age but Jesus here reveals that marriage will not last in its present form in the age to come. This is important because it means that there must be a specific purpose for marriage in this age beyond two people coming together to form a union for eternity. In Ephesians 5:25-32, Paul says: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies . . . . After all, people have never hated their own bodies, but they feed and care for them, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.”
What Paul revealed here is that there is a purpose for marriage that stretches beyond marriage itself. He says distinctly that that marriage is a great mystery that teaches human beings about the truth of the relationship between Christ and his Church. The institution of marriage is not something designed to make humans happy but it is the context in which we can develop the holiness that God calls us to have as his people and to learn about the reconciliation between God and his people.
Devotional Thought
The Sadducees perfectly display a common technique among those who would try to fight against Scriptural truths even down to this day. They try to find outlandish and ridiculous scenarios to make God’s truth look ridiculous and shut up those who would embrace God’s truth. What can we learn from Jesus’ response here to help us in dealing with those types of ridicule? What can you learn from Jesus today that will better prepare you to answer those who would reject part or all of God’s word?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Luke 20:20-26 Commentary
Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
25 He said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Dig Deeper
When I was teaching high school history I had begun to develop a pretty good history book collection. I loved buying new history books as well as going to used bookstores or even antique stores and buying much older books. I got to the point where I had so many books that I could take bookshelves and put them around my desk, leaving just a small doorway-size opening to create a mini-office space. My students were free to come in and borrow any books that they wanted. What I discovered after a while, however, was that many of the books just weren’t coming back. Students would mistreat the books or would lose them and my collection began to dwindle a bit. On top of that I would forget after a time who had borrowed what books and if they didn’t bring them back on their own I was out of luck. To try to help with this problem I began to make students sign books out but I also got a really nice stamper. This thing would imprint a seal on the first page of each book that reminded anyone who opened the book that it belonged to me. It was stamped with the image that I had chosen as a stern reminder to anyone who might misuse, mistreat, or even throw the book away. This helped the situation quite a bit but I had one book that I was rather found of that I noticed was missing one year near the end of the school year. I looked on the sign-out list and asked the student who had signed that book out where it was. They said they would go look for it but came back the next day to inform me that they had actually given the book to one of their non-school friends and that the friend had given to someone else. My question was how could they do such a thing? The book had my seal on it. How could he give away something that had my seal on there?
If we had no other account of Jesus that survived the annals of history other than this short account in verses 20-26, then the one thing that we would still know for sure is that Jesus was probably the most brilliant man that ever lived. His constant ability to avoid traps and turn the tables in situations in which it seemed that there was no possible way to answer is simply awe-inspiring. Similarly, if this was the only passage that survived that Luke had written, we would still know that Luke was an absolutely brilliant writer with an ability to finely craft a story that marvelously painted a memorable scene in just a few short words. This scene is stunning in its ability to capture what actually happened and make the clear point that Jesus was getting at it. If something is stamped with the seal or image of its true owner, then that thing ultimately belongs to the owner and that should give pause to anyone who thinks of misusing that item without considering the owner.
As the scene opens up, we are informed that the religious leaders had apparently become nearly obsessed with Jesus. They were watching his every move, waiting for a mistake; waiting for an opening. They knew that he was dangerous to their positions of authority for if someone claiming the kind of authority that Jesus was claiming was left unopposed, it just might mean that they would lose everything that they valued so dearly. Jesus must be stopped.
The lengths that they were now willing to go to shows just how dangerous they believed Jesus to be. They sent in spies who had a plan to catch Jesus in a trap. What this tells us is about the great amount of planning and forethought that they were putting into stopping Jesus. They had carefully listened to and noted his every word. They had studied the reaction of the crowds and carefully considered what might turn the people against Jesus. They so valued and craved the adulation and acceptance of the people that it never occurred to them the thought that Jesus might not need the approval of the crowds in the way that they did. But more importantly, if they could turn the crowds against Jesus then they could get rid of him with no negative repercussions for themselves.
What is more, if they could catch him saying something incriminating then they could hand him over the Romans with evidence that he was an anti-Roman revolutionary and could stand by and claim innocence while the hated Romans put Jesus to death. If handled perfectly, the chief priests could have Jesus killed by the Romans while actually consolidating the will of the people behind them.
These spies went along with Jesus pretending to be serious disciples who wanted to hear his words. They acted as though they were sincere questioners with a very difficult question that they needed him to work out for them. The reality was that it was a clever and well thought out trap. In fact, the question seemed absolutely perfect. It was a loaded question and put Jesus in a no-win situation, similar to the famous old question “have you stopped beating your wife?”. How do you answer that question? Should the people of God pay taxes to Caesar or not? If Jesus answered that they should not, the chief priests would have everything they needed to turn Jesus over to Rome as an anti-Roman revolutionary who was inciting people to not pay this yearly tax (the yearly tax was not that heavy but it was still much-hated by the Jews as an annual reminder of their subservience to Rome). But if Jesus answered that they probably should pay taxes, then he would lose the support of the crowds and be seen as just another Roman shill. Without the crowd support, the priests could then have Jesus quietly removed without fear of opposition or negative public opinion for them. In their eyes, this question was fool-proof. It was brilliant because no matter what Jesus answered, he would be right where they wanted him. There was no way out of this trap.
Or wasn’t there? Luke has perfectly built up the tension in a few short verses but then tells us that Jesus saw through their duplicity. But what could he do? How could Jesus possibly get out of this one? Would this be the beginning of the violent end that Jesus had talked about so often? As regular readers of the Gospels, we know that Jesus would eventually meet a violent death but it would happen in his timing, when he laid down his life and made himself a willing sacrifice. It would not come through the clever scheming of the chief priests and teachers of the law. What Jesus did in response to this seemingly fool-proof trap was nothing short of sheer brilliance. Rather than playing their game, he took the issue back to God. He made the issue a God thing.
First, he asks them to produce one of the hated Roman coins. They were so hated and despised by the Jews because they believed these coins to be in clear violation of God’s commandments against idolatry. The coins had Caesar’s image on them and for any Jewish coin, or anything, else to have the image of a living being was considered blatant idolatry and in violation of the second Commandment. To make matters worse, the denarius at the time had an inscription which read “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus son of the divine Augustus.” In asking them to produce such a blasphemous item, Jesus has already put them on the defensive and in an embarrassing situation. Why would they have such an item that was allegedly so offensive? Jesus didn’t have one on him but they had one. The tables were already beginning to turn. Being able to produce such a coin out of their “pockets” was clear evidence that they were in the “pocket” of Rome.
Once the coin had been produced, Jesus asked a seemingly obvious question. Whose image appeared on the coin? I have seen some of these coins in person and it does not take a rocket scientist to determine that the image on it is none other than the mighty Caesar. Putting his image on those coins reminded everyone instantly who was in charge, who ultimately owned the coins, and who had the authority of everything that was based on the necessity of those coins. The coins were a constant reminder that Caesar was, in the earthly sense, Lord of all.
Jesus then gave one of the shortest and most brilliantly devastating answers of all time to a question that seemed like it was impenetrable. He simply declared that they should “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” This should not be reduced to some sort of principle on the relationship between church and state as some have attempted to do (although those are important issues to work out). The genius of Jesus’ answer relies on understanding one of the more subtle but most important themes in all of Scripture.
In Genesis 1:26-27, we are told that part of God’s original purpose for man was to be made in his image. The Hebrew word “Tselem” or “image” is the literally the word “idol” and it meant to be a representative of something (the Greek word for “image” is “eikon” from which we get our word “icon”). Thus, humans were made to represent God in the world of his creation, in other words, to bear his image and rule wisely. But sin corrupted that image and made humans incapable of fully doing this (Gen. 5:1-3). Jesus, however, was the complete human being, the perfect image of God (Col. 1:15; 2: Cor. 4:4). This is all vitally important because human beings were made to worship God, so if we cease to worship God we will worship something (Ps. 97:7; 106:20; Isa. 40:18; Jer. 10:14; Rom. 1:23). The fact of the matter is that we slowly become like what we consistently worship (Ps. 135:15-18). The New Testament is clear that if we worship parts of the creation, we will become corrupted just like those created things (Rom. 1:18-23), but if we enter into the life of Christ and worship the true and living God, then and only then will we be renewed in the image of God (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).
When we understand all of that, Jesus’ point becomes crystal clear. If Caesar wanted his money back through taxes, fine. It was his anyway and God does not need such things to provide for his people. We can tend to get so caught up in worry over material things, wealth, and even whether we will have jobs or not to provide for us but Jesus was quite adamant that the one who committed to worshiping God with their life will seek God’s agenda first and trust that God will provide those things (see Matt. 6:25-34). Giving taxes to Caesar was unimportant from God’s point of view. They could go ahead and do it without any thought that they were submitting themselves to Caesar. Caesar wanted what had his image on it and that was just fine.
But God also wanted what was his and had his image imprinted on it. Jesus was not saying “give the portion of your money that belongs to Caesar and then be sure to give your tithes to God.” His point was that God owned each human being (Ezek. 18:4) so the most appropriate act that any human being could do was to give themselves to God and fulfill the ultimate purpose for each human being. Give to Caesar the pittance that was Caesar’s. Money was just money. But God wanted their allegiance to his Messiah so that they could be restored in the image of their creator. This is what he wants for each of us from that day to this one.
But there is one final and important note here. Jesus had shown the logic of their little trap to be faulty and has exposed them as hypocrites who were more concerned about matters of this present age while missing the things that were truly important to God. We all have those times when our hearts are revealed as being distant from God’s will and we have the choice to carry on with our agenda or to repent. Sadly, though, rather than this episode leading to the understanding and repentance of thsoe opposed to Jesus it led to their astonishment and silence. They would move no closer to God. It is truly a cautionary tale for us.
Devotional Thought
What do you worship? What takes priority in your life? Do you truly seek to grow in and display the image of God in your life or do you far too often get caught up in the details of other images and other things?
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 "Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"
"Caesar's," they replied.
25 He said to them, "Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."
26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Dig Deeper
When I was teaching high school history I had begun to develop a pretty good history book collection. I loved buying new history books as well as going to used bookstores or even antique stores and buying much older books. I got to the point where I had so many books that I could take bookshelves and put them around my desk, leaving just a small doorway-size opening to create a mini-office space. My students were free to come in and borrow any books that they wanted. What I discovered after a while, however, was that many of the books just weren’t coming back. Students would mistreat the books or would lose them and my collection began to dwindle a bit. On top of that I would forget after a time who had borrowed what books and if they didn’t bring them back on their own I was out of luck. To try to help with this problem I began to make students sign books out but I also got a really nice stamper. This thing would imprint a seal on the first page of each book that reminded anyone who opened the book that it belonged to me. It was stamped with the image that I had chosen as a stern reminder to anyone who might misuse, mistreat, or even throw the book away. This helped the situation quite a bit but I had one book that I was rather found of that I noticed was missing one year near the end of the school year. I looked on the sign-out list and asked the student who had signed that book out where it was. They said they would go look for it but came back the next day to inform me that they had actually given the book to one of their non-school friends and that the friend had given to someone else. My question was how could they do such a thing? The book had my seal on it. How could he give away something that had my seal on there?
If we had no other account of Jesus that survived the annals of history other than this short account in verses 20-26, then the one thing that we would still know for sure is that Jesus was probably the most brilliant man that ever lived. His constant ability to avoid traps and turn the tables in situations in which it seemed that there was no possible way to answer is simply awe-inspiring. Similarly, if this was the only passage that survived that Luke had written, we would still know that Luke was an absolutely brilliant writer with an ability to finely craft a story that marvelously painted a memorable scene in just a few short words. This scene is stunning in its ability to capture what actually happened and make the clear point that Jesus was getting at it. If something is stamped with the seal or image of its true owner, then that thing ultimately belongs to the owner and that should give pause to anyone who thinks of misusing that item without considering the owner.
As the scene opens up, we are informed that the religious leaders had apparently become nearly obsessed with Jesus. They were watching his every move, waiting for a mistake; waiting for an opening. They knew that he was dangerous to their positions of authority for if someone claiming the kind of authority that Jesus was claiming was left unopposed, it just might mean that they would lose everything that they valued so dearly. Jesus must be stopped.
The lengths that they were now willing to go to shows just how dangerous they believed Jesus to be. They sent in spies who had a plan to catch Jesus in a trap. What this tells us is about the great amount of planning and forethought that they were putting into stopping Jesus. They had carefully listened to and noted his every word. They had studied the reaction of the crowds and carefully considered what might turn the people against Jesus. They so valued and craved the adulation and acceptance of the people that it never occurred to them the thought that Jesus might not need the approval of the crowds in the way that they did. But more importantly, if they could turn the crowds against Jesus then they could get rid of him with no negative repercussions for themselves.
What is more, if they could catch him saying something incriminating then they could hand him over the Romans with evidence that he was an anti-Roman revolutionary and could stand by and claim innocence while the hated Romans put Jesus to death. If handled perfectly, the chief priests could have Jesus killed by the Romans while actually consolidating the will of the people behind them.
These spies went along with Jesus pretending to be serious disciples who wanted to hear his words. They acted as though they were sincere questioners with a very difficult question that they needed him to work out for them. The reality was that it was a clever and well thought out trap. In fact, the question seemed absolutely perfect. It was a loaded question and put Jesus in a no-win situation, similar to the famous old question “have you stopped beating your wife?”. How do you answer that question? Should the people of God pay taxes to Caesar or not? If Jesus answered that they should not, the chief priests would have everything they needed to turn Jesus over to Rome as an anti-Roman revolutionary who was inciting people to not pay this yearly tax (the yearly tax was not that heavy but it was still much-hated by the Jews as an annual reminder of their subservience to Rome). But if Jesus answered that they probably should pay taxes, then he would lose the support of the crowds and be seen as just another Roman shill. Without the crowd support, the priests could then have Jesus quietly removed without fear of opposition or negative public opinion for them. In their eyes, this question was fool-proof. It was brilliant because no matter what Jesus answered, he would be right where they wanted him. There was no way out of this trap.
Or wasn’t there? Luke has perfectly built up the tension in a few short verses but then tells us that Jesus saw through their duplicity. But what could he do? How could Jesus possibly get out of this one? Would this be the beginning of the violent end that Jesus had talked about so often? As regular readers of the Gospels, we know that Jesus would eventually meet a violent death but it would happen in his timing, when he laid down his life and made himself a willing sacrifice. It would not come through the clever scheming of the chief priests and teachers of the law. What Jesus did in response to this seemingly fool-proof trap was nothing short of sheer brilliance. Rather than playing their game, he took the issue back to God. He made the issue a God thing.
First, he asks them to produce one of the hated Roman coins. They were so hated and despised by the Jews because they believed these coins to be in clear violation of God’s commandments against idolatry. The coins had Caesar’s image on them and for any Jewish coin, or anything, else to have the image of a living being was considered blatant idolatry and in violation of the second Commandment. To make matters worse, the denarius at the time had an inscription which read “Tiberius Caesar, Augustus son of the divine Augustus.” In asking them to produce such a blasphemous item, Jesus has already put them on the defensive and in an embarrassing situation. Why would they have such an item that was allegedly so offensive? Jesus didn’t have one on him but they had one. The tables were already beginning to turn. Being able to produce such a coin out of their “pockets” was clear evidence that they were in the “pocket” of Rome.
Once the coin had been produced, Jesus asked a seemingly obvious question. Whose image appeared on the coin? I have seen some of these coins in person and it does not take a rocket scientist to determine that the image on it is none other than the mighty Caesar. Putting his image on those coins reminded everyone instantly who was in charge, who ultimately owned the coins, and who had the authority of everything that was based on the necessity of those coins. The coins were a constant reminder that Caesar was, in the earthly sense, Lord of all.
Jesus then gave one of the shortest and most brilliantly devastating answers of all time to a question that seemed like it was impenetrable. He simply declared that they should “give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.” This should not be reduced to some sort of principle on the relationship between church and state as some have attempted to do (although those are important issues to work out). The genius of Jesus’ answer relies on understanding one of the more subtle but most important themes in all of Scripture.
In Genesis 1:26-27, we are told that part of God’s original purpose for man was to be made in his image. The Hebrew word “Tselem” or “image” is the literally the word “idol” and it meant to be a representative of something (the Greek word for “image” is “eikon” from which we get our word “icon”). Thus, humans were made to represent God in the world of his creation, in other words, to bear his image and rule wisely. But sin corrupted that image and made humans incapable of fully doing this (Gen. 5:1-3). Jesus, however, was the complete human being, the perfect image of God (Col. 1:15; 2: Cor. 4:4). This is all vitally important because human beings were made to worship God, so if we cease to worship God we will worship something (Ps. 97:7; 106:20; Isa. 40:18; Jer. 10:14; Rom. 1:23). The fact of the matter is that we slowly become like what we consistently worship (Ps. 135:15-18). The New Testament is clear that if we worship parts of the creation, we will become corrupted just like those created things (Rom. 1:18-23), but if we enter into the life of Christ and worship the true and living God, then and only then will we be renewed in the image of God (2 Cor. 3:18; Col. 3:10; Eph. 4:24).
When we understand all of that, Jesus’ point becomes crystal clear. If Caesar wanted his money back through taxes, fine. It was his anyway and God does not need such things to provide for his people. We can tend to get so caught up in worry over material things, wealth, and even whether we will have jobs or not to provide for us but Jesus was quite adamant that the one who committed to worshiping God with their life will seek God’s agenda first and trust that God will provide those things (see Matt. 6:25-34). Giving taxes to Caesar was unimportant from God’s point of view. They could go ahead and do it without any thought that they were submitting themselves to Caesar. Caesar wanted what had his image on it and that was just fine.
But God also wanted what was his and had his image imprinted on it. Jesus was not saying “give the portion of your money that belongs to Caesar and then be sure to give your tithes to God.” His point was that God owned each human being (Ezek. 18:4) so the most appropriate act that any human being could do was to give themselves to God and fulfill the ultimate purpose for each human being. Give to Caesar the pittance that was Caesar’s. Money was just money. But God wanted their allegiance to his Messiah so that they could be restored in the image of their creator. This is what he wants for each of us from that day to this one.
But there is one final and important note here. Jesus had shown the logic of their little trap to be faulty and has exposed them as hypocrites who were more concerned about matters of this present age while missing the things that were truly important to God. We all have those times when our hearts are revealed as being distant from God’s will and we have the choice to carry on with our agenda or to repent. Sadly, though, rather than this episode leading to the understanding and repentance of thsoe opposed to Jesus it led to their astonishment and silence. They would move no closer to God. It is truly a cautionary tale for us.
Devotional Thought
What do you worship? What takes priority in your life? Do you truly seek to grow in and display the image of God in your life or do you far too often get caught up in the details of other images and other things?
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Luke 20:9-19 Commentary
The Parable of the Tenants
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, but 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.
Dig Deeper
There is a rather amazing trend that is currently going on in American politics since the last presidential election. It seems at every turn that politicians, regardless of their party, their geographic location, or their past experience and popularity are being unceremoniously voted out of office, one after the other. The one thing that all of these people have in common is that they are incumbents. The people of the United States have spent years demanding, to one degree or another, politicians that go to Washington DC and look out for the best interests of the country. But it seems clearer, with each passing election, that the politicians get there, cut their little deals and really look out for no one except themselves. There are many decent people who love their country and the idea of America who are just sick and tired of these politicians who go to Washington and then look out for only themselves. By their actions they show that they don’t really care about what is good for the country. They care about themselves and their own positions, first and foremost. So, people have finally become fed up. Regular people are starting to come out of the woodwork, people that have never been in politics before, and are running for major offices. And they are winning left and right. It seems that our country has finally hit a tipping point where the political games will no longer be tolerated. Those who promise change and then come and engage in the same old behavior are getting tossed out and people are turning things over to an entirely new generation of leaders, whom they hope will once again embrace the American ideals and return the country to its true ideals.
Of course Jesus was not talking of politicians in this parable but he certainly was talking about leaders that had become so self-focused that they had completely lost sight of what they were supposed to be doing. God had given so much to the nation of Israel and expected them to use it to hold to his will, his purposes, and his ideals. But they had long ago abandoned that. They had ceased to think of the Temple as a shining light for the world. Nowhere in sight was God’s promise of his people being the one true family of all nations. They had taken all that God had given them and begun to think that it belonged to them. They had, in fact, become so entitled that they were much more acting in their own interests rather than God’s. God had warned the people, especially the leaders, that they needed to return to him and his agenda or they would find themselves outside of the covenant with God, but they had failed to listen. The tipping point had finally come. Yet, God would give his people one more chance. He would send his own Son as a final warning. But would they listen? Would they cling to the true ideals of the family of God or would they try to fight back against God’s agenda? With this parable, Jesus answered that question loud and clear.
In the previous encounter, in verses 1-8, Jesus squared off with the chief priests who demanded to know the source of his authority and just why Jesus thought he had the right to enact judgment and authority over the Temple. With this parable, Jesus turns to the regular people and takes his case to them. Why is he exercising authority over God’s house and why are the chief priest and religious leaders so worked up about it? In fact where is this all leading and what will happen in the end? This is what Jesus is gong to explain in this parable. He will make clear who he believes himself to be, why he is coming and assuming authority, and why the leaders will oppose him all the way to his death.
It is clear that one of the more important Old Testament passages to Jesus was that of Isaiah 5:1-7. In fact it is so vital that it is next to impossible to fully understand important New Testament passages like John 15 and this parable without a at least some knowledge of Isaiah 5. Isaiah 5 depicts God as a loving gardener and his people Israel as his vineyard. The loving gardener denies no amount of love and care for his vineyard but whenever he goes to his garden to look for the good fruit of obedience and keeping his covenant, he finds nothing but the sour grapes of a people that rebel against their God. What does God say he will do in Isaiah 5? He will make it a wasteland and cut it down to nothing.
Jesus’ parable is built on the imagery of that song from Isaiah 5 but Jesus has made important changes to relate it directly to his situation. The direct point of Isaiah 5 likely had to do with the exile that Israel would face at the hands of the Babylonians, but that exile was the precursor that pointed to the ultimate exile for an Israel that continued to produce nothing but bad fruit. In John 15, Jesus promised that those who would enter into his life and remain there would finally be able to do what not even God’s people, the nation of Israel could do, they would bear fruit that would last. They would be able to keep the covenant by remaining in Christ and would become the body of Christ, the true Israel.
But what of this parable? The overall meaning of this parable is rather obvious. God is the landowner while the vineyard is the promised family. In Isaiah 5 the people of God were virtually one in the same with the vineyard but now Jesus changes that in an important way. The vineyard is indeed the promised people and family of God, but the people of Israel, particularly the religious leaders, are now cast as the tenants. They have completely misused the vineyard and began to feel so entitled to it that they thought of it as their own to do with as they pleased. The owner continued to send one slave, (rendered “servant” in the TNIV) after another, but the tenants didn’t care. They were unconcerned with what the owner wanted so they beat and drove out the owner’s messengers. Yet, they would not leave his land because they thought they had a right to it. The slaves in this parable are clearly the prophets, from the Old Testament prophets right down to John the Baptist (it was common in the Old Testament to refer to God’s prophets as slaves: 1 Ki. 14:18; 15:29; 2 Ki. 9:7; 10:10; 14:24; Isa. 20:3; 44:26, etc., although the TNIV also renders all of these references as “servants”).
Left with no other options, the owner will give his wayward tenants one more chance and send his son, the one whom he loves. Surely they will listen to the sole possessor of the father’s inheritance. This is a clear indicator of who Jesus thought he was. The chief priests demanded to know where Jesus’ authority came from and here, Jesus gave the crowd the deafening answer. He is the beloved Son, the one whom the Father declared to be the Son that he loved at his baptism (Lk. 3:22). He is the rightful heir who was coming on the authority of the Father to warn the tenants that their time was up. The owner was not pleased and it was time for them to go if they would not fall in line with the owner’s purposes. But the tenants had things so backwards that they killed the son. In their twisted thinking they somehow believed that they could kill the son and take his inheritance and then the vineyard really would be theirs. In so doing they proved that they underestimated the Son and they didn’t know the true nature or plan of the Father at all.
So what will the owner do? How will he respond? He would respond swiftly and decisively. He would, said Jesus in a thinly veiled promise, come to the vineyard and kill the tenants. He would remove them forcefully from his vineyard and give the promise of the resurrection, the covenant family of all nations, the kingdom of God, in short, the inheritance, to others. It would be given to those who would, as Jesus stated so succinctly in John 15, enter into his life and trust nothing more than that.
When the people heard this, they knew precisely what Jesus was saying. He was claiming that the nation of Israel was being removed as the tenants of the family of God and the family would be given to someone else. They simply could not believe that he was teaching this. Could this possibly be? But Jesus appealed immediately to Psalm 118:22, a Psalm that was often used in connection with the annual rite of re-enthronement of the king. There is a bit of irony here in that, according to scholar Joseph Fitzmeyer, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day referred to themselves as the “builders of Israel.” Psalm 118 promised that God would build a gate for all to enter into his kingdom, but the finishing stone, the most important one, would be the very one that the builders rejected. “Yes,” Jesus was saying, this is how it had to go down. The “builders” were before their very eyes rejecting the Son, the cornerstone. What was the response of the people going to be? Were they going to side with the tenants or the Son?
In fact, said Jesus, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” Simeon had taken the infant Jesus in his arms and prophesied that he would be the cause of great trouble for and division in Israel (LK. 2:25-35). That was happening and Jesus, with his seemingly enigmatic reference to everyone being broken up and crushed by the stone, was confirming that prophecy by appealing to Daniel 2:44-45. The passage in Daniel prophesied that God would set up a kingdom one day that would never be destroyed and that this kingdom, depicted as a great stone, would crush all kingdoms that were opposed to God’s kingdom. The nation of Israel had clung to the belief that this would happen to the pagan nations one day, but they failed to see that they had become the chief among those opposed to God. All nations, all peoples, including Israel would be judged by this stone and anyone who opposed it would be smashed to pieces.
We must wonder if the chief priests understood Jesus’ point. Did they understand that he was denouncing them and declaring quite clearly his identity, his authority, and the judgment that was about to come down on the nation of Israel? Were they clear on the idea that they vineyard was going to be handed over to someone else? Did they grasp his claim that the nation of Israel would no longer be the true Israel, the true people of God (Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6; Gal. 3:7)? Yes, they understood well his point and they wanted to lay their hands on him to arrest him, to shut him up, and eventually to kill him. They, evidently, did not catch the irony of wanting to kill Jesus for the fact that he was declaring himself to be the Son that they wanted to kill.
As Jesus’ people, members of his family, we cannot ever forget that just as he went into places of power, religion, injustice, and opposition to God and was soundly rejected, we must be prepared to go preach the true gospel in the same types of places and expect similar reactions. But there is one important difference. The vineyard owner already has returned to restore his vineyard and it is our job to call people to be part of that grand kingdom and bear the fruit of the life of Christ. We don’t have to declare that the owner of the vineyard is coming but that he has already come and that all people and all nations can be part of his family right now.
Devotional Thought
The main problem that Israel’s leaders had was that they began to turn the benefits of the vineyard in on themselves rather than serving as a light to all nations. How does this challenge you to constantly work to make sure that your church family is committed to the ministry of reconciliation rather than making your church a comfortable place for those already there?
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, but 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.
Dig Deeper
There is a rather amazing trend that is currently going on in American politics since the last presidential election. It seems at every turn that politicians, regardless of their party, their geographic location, or their past experience and popularity are being unceremoniously voted out of office, one after the other. The one thing that all of these people have in common is that they are incumbents. The people of the United States have spent years demanding, to one degree or another, politicians that go to Washington DC and look out for the best interests of the country. But it seems clearer, with each passing election, that the politicians get there, cut their little deals and really look out for no one except themselves. There are many decent people who love their country and the idea of America who are just sick and tired of these politicians who go to Washington and then look out for only themselves. By their actions they show that they don’t really care about what is good for the country. They care about themselves and their own positions, first and foremost. So, people have finally become fed up. Regular people are starting to come out of the woodwork, people that have never been in politics before, and are running for major offices. And they are winning left and right. It seems that our country has finally hit a tipping point where the political games will no longer be tolerated. Those who promise change and then come and engage in the same old behavior are getting tossed out and people are turning things over to an entirely new generation of leaders, whom they hope will once again embrace the American ideals and return the country to its true ideals.
Of course Jesus was not talking of politicians in this parable but he certainly was talking about leaders that had become so self-focused that they had completely lost sight of what they were supposed to be doing. God had given so much to the nation of Israel and expected them to use it to hold to his will, his purposes, and his ideals. But they had long ago abandoned that. They had ceased to think of the Temple as a shining light for the world. Nowhere in sight was God’s promise of his people being the one true family of all nations. They had taken all that God had given them and begun to think that it belonged to them. They had, in fact, become so entitled that they were much more acting in their own interests rather than God’s. God had warned the people, especially the leaders, that they needed to return to him and his agenda or they would find themselves outside of the covenant with God, but they had failed to listen. The tipping point had finally come. Yet, God would give his people one more chance. He would send his own Son as a final warning. But would they listen? Would they cling to the true ideals of the family of God or would they try to fight back against God’s agenda? With this parable, Jesus answered that question loud and clear.
In the previous encounter, in verses 1-8, Jesus squared off with the chief priests who demanded to know the source of his authority and just why Jesus thought he had the right to enact judgment and authority over the Temple. With this parable, Jesus turns to the regular people and takes his case to them. Why is he exercising authority over God’s house and why are the chief priest and religious leaders so worked up about it? In fact where is this all leading and what will happen in the end? This is what Jesus is gong to explain in this parable. He will make clear who he believes himself to be, why he is coming and assuming authority, and why the leaders will oppose him all the way to his death.
It is clear that one of the more important Old Testament passages to Jesus was that of Isaiah 5:1-7. In fact it is so vital that it is next to impossible to fully understand important New Testament passages like John 15 and this parable without a at least some knowledge of Isaiah 5. Isaiah 5 depicts God as a loving gardener and his people Israel as his vineyard. The loving gardener denies no amount of love and care for his vineyard but whenever he goes to his garden to look for the good fruit of obedience and keeping his covenant, he finds nothing but the sour grapes of a people that rebel against their God. What does God say he will do in Isaiah 5? He will make it a wasteland and cut it down to nothing.
Jesus’ parable is built on the imagery of that song from Isaiah 5 but Jesus has made important changes to relate it directly to his situation. The direct point of Isaiah 5 likely had to do with the exile that Israel would face at the hands of the Babylonians, but that exile was the precursor that pointed to the ultimate exile for an Israel that continued to produce nothing but bad fruit. In John 15, Jesus promised that those who would enter into his life and remain there would finally be able to do what not even God’s people, the nation of Israel could do, they would bear fruit that would last. They would be able to keep the covenant by remaining in Christ and would become the body of Christ, the true Israel.
But what of this parable? The overall meaning of this parable is rather obvious. God is the landowner while the vineyard is the promised family. In Isaiah 5 the people of God were virtually one in the same with the vineyard but now Jesus changes that in an important way. The vineyard is indeed the promised people and family of God, but the people of Israel, particularly the religious leaders, are now cast as the tenants. They have completely misused the vineyard and began to feel so entitled to it that they thought of it as their own to do with as they pleased. The owner continued to send one slave, (rendered “servant” in the TNIV) after another, but the tenants didn’t care. They were unconcerned with what the owner wanted so they beat and drove out the owner’s messengers. Yet, they would not leave his land because they thought they had a right to it. The slaves in this parable are clearly the prophets, from the Old Testament prophets right down to John the Baptist (it was common in the Old Testament to refer to God’s prophets as slaves: 1 Ki. 14:18; 15:29; 2 Ki. 9:7; 10:10; 14:24; Isa. 20:3; 44:26, etc., although the TNIV also renders all of these references as “servants”).
Left with no other options, the owner will give his wayward tenants one more chance and send his son, the one whom he loves. Surely they will listen to the sole possessor of the father’s inheritance. This is a clear indicator of who Jesus thought he was. The chief priests demanded to know where Jesus’ authority came from and here, Jesus gave the crowd the deafening answer. He is the beloved Son, the one whom the Father declared to be the Son that he loved at his baptism (Lk. 3:22). He is the rightful heir who was coming on the authority of the Father to warn the tenants that their time was up. The owner was not pleased and it was time for them to go if they would not fall in line with the owner’s purposes. But the tenants had things so backwards that they killed the son. In their twisted thinking they somehow believed that they could kill the son and take his inheritance and then the vineyard really would be theirs. In so doing they proved that they underestimated the Son and they didn’t know the true nature or plan of the Father at all.
So what will the owner do? How will he respond? He would respond swiftly and decisively. He would, said Jesus in a thinly veiled promise, come to the vineyard and kill the tenants. He would remove them forcefully from his vineyard and give the promise of the resurrection, the covenant family of all nations, the kingdom of God, in short, the inheritance, to others. It would be given to those who would, as Jesus stated so succinctly in John 15, enter into his life and trust nothing more than that.
When the people heard this, they knew precisely what Jesus was saying. He was claiming that the nation of Israel was being removed as the tenants of the family of God and the family would be given to someone else. They simply could not believe that he was teaching this. Could this possibly be? But Jesus appealed immediately to Psalm 118:22, a Psalm that was often used in connection with the annual rite of re-enthronement of the king. There is a bit of irony here in that, according to scholar Joseph Fitzmeyer, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day referred to themselves as the “builders of Israel.” Psalm 118 promised that God would build a gate for all to enter into his kingdom, but the finishing stone, the most important one, would be the very one that the builders rejected. “Yes,” Jesus was saying, this is how it had to go down. The “builders” were before their very eyes rejecting the Son, the cornerstone. What was the response of the people going to be? Were they going to side with the tenants or the Son?
In fact, said Jesus, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.” Simeon had taken the infant Jesus in his arms and prophesied that he would be the cause of great trouble for and division in Israel (LK. 2:25-35). That was happening and Jesus, with his seemingly enigmatic reference to everyone being broken up and crushed by the stone, was confirming that prophecy by appealing to Daniel 2:44-45. The passage in Daniel prophesied that God would set up a kingdom one day that would never be destroyed and that this kingdom, depicted as a great stone, would crush all kingdoms that were opposed to God’s kingdom. The nation of Israel had clung to the belief that this would happen to the pagan nations one day, but they failed to see that they had become the chief among those opposed to God. All nations, all peoples, including Israel would be judged by this stone and anyone who opposed it would be smashed to pieces.
We must wonder if the chief priests understood Jesus’ point. Did they understand that he was denouncing them and declaring quite clearly his identity, his authority, and the judgment that was about to come down on the nation of Israel? Were they clear on the idea that they vineyard was going to be handed over to someone else? Did they grasp his claim that the nation of Israel would no longer be the true Israel, the true people of God (Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6; Gal. 3:7)? Yes, they understood well his point and they wanted to lay their hands on him to arrest him, to shut him up, and eventually to kill him. They, evidently, did not catch the irony of wanting to kill Jesus for the fact that he was declaring himself to be the Son that they wanted to kill.
As Jesus’ people, members of his family, we cannot ever forget that just as he went into places of power, religion, injustice, and opposition to God and was soundly rejected, we must be prepared to go preach the true gospel in the same types of places and expect similar reactions. But there is one important difference. The vineyard owner already has returned to restore his vineyard and it is our job to call people to be part of that grand kingdom and bear the fruit of the life of Christ. We don’t have to declare that the owner of the vineyard is coming but that he has already come and that all people and all nations can be part of his family right now.
Devotional Thought
The main problem that Israel’s leaders had was that they began to turn the benefits of the vineyard in on themselves rather than serving as a light to all nations. How does this challenge you to constantly work to make sure that your church family is committed to the ministry of reconciliation rather than making your church a comfortable place for those already there?
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