DAY #129: Luke 20:1-19

Soon after Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple, Jesus returned to the Temple to teach and preach. While he was there, a delegation of leading priests, teachers of religious law, and other leaders stopped Jesus. These were representative of the three groups that made up the Jewish ruling council. Apparently the council had met after the clearing of the Temple, enraged by Jesus’ actions, but unable to decide how to handle him. They then sent this representative group to question Jesus regarding his actions, hoping he would say something treasonous or blasphemous. They demanded to know by whose authority he had thrown out the merchants from the Temple.

These leaders weren’t interested in Jesus’ authority or in the truth. They really didn’t want an answer; instead, they wanted to trap Jesus. But they found themselves looking completely foolish. His authority was the same as John the Baptist’s. John was clearly a prophet of God, and Jesus also was commissioned by God to call all who would listen to him.

After his confrontation of the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus told a parable that revealed the spiritual realities behind his conflict with them. The parable indirectly answered their question about his authority, showed them that he knew about their plan to kill him, and revealed the judgment that awaited them.

The characters in this story are easily identified. The owner of the vineyard is God; the vineyard is Israel; the tenant farmers are the religious leaders; the servants are the prophets and priests God sent to Israel; the son is the Messiah, Jesus; the others are the Gentiles. The comparison of Israel to a vineyard is common in the Old Testament. It pictures God’s work and patient care in tending and caring for his people.

Jesus described a common business method of the time—an absentee owner who hired tenant farmers to care for the fields and crops. The tenant farmers paid their “rent” by giving a portion of the crop to the landowner, who would send servants at harvest time to collect it. Tensions often arose; records exist of bitter disputes between landowners and their tenants.

When the grape harvest came, the landowner sent one of his servants to collect the “rent”—namely his share of the crop. The “servants” represented the prophets and priests whom God had sent over the years to the nation of Israel. The picture of angry farmers beating the landowner’s servants and sending them on their way without any “rent” pictured the religious leaders who were entrusted with the care of the vineyard. Instead of listening to the prophets, they had treated them shamefully and sent them away, stubbornly refusing to listen. Some had been beaten and some had been killed. Jesus was reminding the religious leaders that God’s prophets often had been ridiculed and persecuted by God’s people.

The fact that this landowner had not already punished the farmers for their treatment of his servants shows a man of great patience. This pictures God, who has been very patient with his people over the centuries, even when they stubbornly refused to listen to his messages through the prophets. So the landowner sent his son to collect the fruit of the vineyard in hopes that the farmers would give him due honor and respect. This “son” refers to Jesus. With these words, Jesus implicitly answered the religious leaders’ question regarding the source of his authority. Like the son in this parable, Jesus had been sent on behalf of the Father. He was acting with God the Father’s authority. The son had been sent to the stubborn and rebellious nation of Israel to win them back to God.

Jesus asked his listeners what they thought the owner would do to his tenant farmers when he found out that they had killed his son. The answer: He will come and kill those tenants. Over hundreds of years, Israel’s kings and religious leaders had rejected God’s prophets—beating, humiliating, and killing them. Most recently, John the Baptist had been rejected as a prophet by Israel’s leaders. Finally Jesus, the beloved Son of God, already rejected by the religious leaders, would be killed. Jesus explained that the Jewish leaders would be punished for his death because in rejecting the messengers and the Son, they were rejecting God himself.

This delegation that had been sent to demand answers from Jesus realized that Jesus was pointing at them—they were the farmers in the story. They would have arrested Jesus on the spot, but he was still surrounded by crowds of eager listeners, and they were afraid there would be a riot. There was nothing to do but go away to gather new ideas and think of new questions to try to trap Jesus.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

Lord, I am mindful of the folks who here the message of the Gospel here in the San Ramon Valley - week after week in many cases - and they reject the message, they reject You. Lord, I mourn for them. I ask You to send Your Holy Spirit and descend upon this valley. Bring people to You. Make them aware of the Your plan for them. Make them aware of Your love for them. Send revival Lord and let it start with me.

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." Psalm 51:1-2 (NIV)