Luke · chapter 20 of 24
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Luke 20 presents a series of debates in the Jerusalem temple. The leaders question Jesus' authority, and he answers with a question about John and with the parable of the wicked tenants. He then answers about paying taxes to Caesar and about the resurrection, asks whose Lord David was and warns against the scribes.
During his last week in Jerusalem, Jesus teaches daily in the temple, and the religious leaders try to test him and trap him in his words. Luke 20 gathers those confrontations, in which Jesus answers with wisdom, exposes the hardness of his opponents and reveals who he is.
One day, as Jesus is teaching in the temple, the chief priests, scribes and elders ask by what authority he does these things. Jesus answers with another question: was John the Baptist's baptism from heaven or from men? Because they fear the answer, they say they do not know, and Jesus says he will not tell them by what authority he acts. He then tells the parable of a man who planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants. He sends servants to collect his share and the tenants beat them or send them away; finally he sends his beloved son, and they kill him by casting him out of the vineyard. Jesus says the owner will destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. He cites the psalm of the stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone; the scribes understand he spoke of them and look for a way to lay hands on him.
The opponents send spies who pretend to be sincere to catch him in something he says and hand him over to the governor. They ask whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. Jesus asks to see a denarius, asks whose image and inscription it bears, and answers that they should give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. They marvel and fall silent. Then some Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, pose the case of a woman who had seven brothers as husbands: whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus says that in that age people neither marry nor are given in marriage and are like angels and sons of God; and that Moses, by calling the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, shows that God is God of the living. No one dares to ask him more.
Jesus asks how they can say the Christ is David's son when David himself calls him Lord in the Psalms. Finally he warns the disciples, in the hearing of all the people, to beware of scribes who love the best seats and devour widows' houses, and who will receive greater condemnation.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The vineyard owner decides to send his beloved son, thinking they will respect him. The parable announces that God sent his Son and that Israel's leaders would reject and kill him.
Jesus cites that the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The one rejected by the leaders is the foundation of God's plan.
Jesus says to give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. The coin bears Caesar's image; the human being bears God's image and belongs to him entirely.
Jesus uses what Moses called God at the burning bush to show that the dead are raised: God is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive. The resurrection is in Scripture itself.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Whether John's baptism was from heaven or from men. — Luke 20:3-4
Answer: His beloved son, whom the tenants killed. — Luke 20:13-15
Answer: A denarius, to see whose image and inscription it had. — Luke 20:24
Answer: The resurrection of the dead. — Luke 20:27
Answer: Seven brothers. — Luke 20:29-33
Answer: Of loving the best seats and devouring widows' houses while praying long prayers for show. — Luke 20:46-47
Luke 20 teaches that Jesus does not fall into the traps of those who ask without wanting to learn. In a class you can reflect on when we ask questions to discover truth and when to defend ourselves from it.
The answer about Caesar reminds us that we belong entirely to God: we bear his image. Giving to God what is God's includes our time, our talents and our whole life. And the final warning challenges us to check whether we seek to appear pious or to serve with humility, especially toward the most vulnerable.
Luke 20 ends with the warning against those who feign piety and exploit the weak. In Luke 21 Jesus watches a poor widow give all she had and then speaks of the future of Jerusalem and of his coming.
He recognizes that government has a legitimate place, as in paying taxes, but that God is above all power. Jesus does not resolve every possible tension between state and faith in detail; he affirms that civic duties do not cancel supreme loyalty to God.
He says that in the resurrection there will be no marriage as now, and that the risen will be like angels in that they no longer die, and sons of God. He does not describe every detail, but affirms that the coming life is real and different.
They accepted only the five books of Moses and did not find in them a clear teaching on resurrection. Jesus answers them from those same books, citing the burning bush passage in Exodus, where God presents himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.