However, as we have seen countless times in this study so far, His authority was questioned – if not directly, then from afar. But the setting is now not “out there” in Galilee, it is front and center in Jerusalem. And, as we pick up the story today, the setting is in the temple grounds – specifically in the Court of the Gentiles.
Over the next four weeks, we are going to see seven different challenges or controversies – all which happen in the Court of the Gentiles, and I would argue, all which happen within the same day. We will review the first two today, two more next week, one on the 15th, and conclude the challenges followed by a story about the poor widow over the course of this month. Four of the first five controversies are instigated by others. The attempt is to trap Jesus and expose Him as a fraud. As such, I am going to position these first five by exploring the trap set for Jesus, the response of Jesus, and the lesson we can take from the situation.
The Trap: A Contrived Plan
Notice who approaches Jesus – the chief priests and the scribes and elders. The chief priests and scribes are a part of the Sanhedrin – the same group present when Jesus created quite the stir in the temple the previous day. Consider that the night before, just as Jesus and the disciples left the temple for the night, so too had the religious leaders. Remember verse 18 – they sought to destroy Jesus, but feared Him, because of the crowd.
That Monday night, Jesus’ disciples no doubt talked about what they saw Jesus do – most likely because they were amazed. But so did the religious leaders – most certainly because they were angry. So, the leaders schemed in order to confront Jesus and ultimately to defraud Him. They do so with four questions:
- By whose authority do you do what you do?
- Should we pay taxes to Caesar or give our offerings to God?
- What happens at the resurrection related to God’s law about marriage?
- What is the greatest commandment?
Four questions. Four traps. What is amazing is that Jesus doesn’t attempt to escape the trap, He confronts each trap, and destroys them in their own argument each time. Each time they were seeking to destroy the credibility of Jesus, but only end up destroying their own and thus, Mark 12.34 says that after these four questions “no one DARED to ask Him any more questions.”
What is important in this first question is that these leaders may not like what Jesus is doing, but the question is not about what He is doing, it is about the source of His authority. Jesus has been critiqued before. For instance, while He was in Galilee performing miracles, the leaders examined the evidence of the miracles and attributed Jesus work to demon possession (Mark 3.22). I think this is why the first question is directed at by “what authority?” The second question is directed at “whose authority?” Again, Jesus has been asked something similar before. In Mark 8.11, the Pharisees want a sign from heaven (from God) to prove Jesus is really acting under God’s authority.
But now in Jerusalem, the question wasn’t just a question – it was a loaded question. Their intent wasn’t to learn about Jesus real purpose and who authorized it. If so, they would have had to have answered His question as we shall soon see. Rather the reason for their question is really an underlying statement. Hear it this way: “You may have done some miracles when you were north in Galilee, but this is Jerusalem, and we are in control here. Who authorized you to do this? It certainly was not us!”
The Response: A Calculated Proposition
The religious leaders believe they have Jesus trapped. If Jesus provides the wrong answer, the crowd will see through His apparent façade. But Jesus doesn’t back down. Instead, He engages in traditional rabbinic debate by responding to their question with a question of His own. (See Mark 11.29)
So, like good politicians, they deliberated. But they realized that they were now trapped. Notice verse 32 – they knew what the polls said – the people loved John and were amazed at Jesus, so now if they answer wrong, it will give people a reason to turn from their leadership.
The problem was that they did not really believe John was sent by God. If they had, they should have shown stronger support for Him and listened to his message (Deuteronomy 18.18-19). But if John’s authority was merely human, they should have squashed what He was doing much earlier (Deuteronomy 18.20). Thus, the religious leaders chose not to answer at all. In doing so, they showed themselves not to be worthy of leadership at all. (It is important to remember that John was the son of a temple priest – Luke 1.5.)
By their not answering Jesus, Jesus does not have to answer them. Please note that Jesus was willing to answer their question. His approach was not evasive. First, as I said before, it was the standard operating procedure of the day among rabbis – answer a question with a question. Jesus did that, and the ball was back in their court. More importantly, I believe He absolutely wanted to answer the question because I believe Jesus was giving these leaders an opportunity to repent.
But, the leaders would not repent, and thus, Jesus told a parable to confront them with this truth.
The Lesson: A Condemning Parable
When Jesus began to tell this story, the leaders, and probably many of the people, would have recognized the passage from Isaiah 5 (verses 1-7). In Isaiah 5, the vineyard represents Israel and the allegory shares that Israel will be destroyed because it has not been fruitful (much like the fig tree from two weeks ago). This parable starts the same, but this one has a different focus – the tenants.
First, note that the landowner made all of the preparations – planted a vineyard, put a fence around it (to keep out animals), built a watchtower, and then leased it to the tenants. This was a VERY common practice in Palestine in the first century. The people listening would have been nodding their heads in agreement with the details. What came next, however, would have been unthinkable.
The tenants (or stewards) harmed a servant of the landowner. The servant had been sent to collect fruit and/or profits. In Jesus’ day, one-fourth to one-half of the harvest was the appropriate fee, and somebody would have been sent to collect. The challenge for the tenants is that a good vineyard usually took three to four years to take shape, which would have made it difficult for the tenants to sustain themselves for the first few years. Regardless, it was the arrangement. However, in Jesus story the tenants rebel. Notice how they treat those sent by the landowner.
- They beat the servant and send him away.
- They struck the next one on the head and treated him with shame.
- The next one was killed.
- Others were sent and were beaten or killed.
By now, the crowd would have been appalled at these tenants. How dare they do this? And then Jesus introduces the son – a beloved son. When the people heard this, they would not have thought of Jesus, they would have thought of Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham. (Read Genesis 22 sometime and see how often the word “son” appears.)
But the tenants killed the son as well. Why? They thought the inheritance would be theirs (Mark 12.7). Perhaps they thought the owner himself was dead or would be too scared to come knowing the son was dead. However they reached their conclusion, they reasoned with the son out of the way, they would be in control.
Jesus then stops the parable to ask a question? How will the owner of the vineyard react?
Rather than allowing the audience to respond aloud, Jesus answers the question. The owner will not destroy the vineyard (as in Isaiah 5) for the vineyard hasn’t done anything wrong. Rather, the owner will destroy the tenants and give others the chance to manage. And Jesus has the authority from the Father to do exactly this – I will build My Church – as we know from having read the story.
Then, Jesus asked (tongue-in-cheek) if they (the Sanhedrin) had read this Scripture: Psalm 118.22-23. This was not just any Scripture, this was about the temple. Not only had they read it, they had it memorized. They taught it. They said it every time they came toward the temple during one of the holy feasts. But now, Jesus is saying, “That all may be true – you have read it, you do recite it, you do teach it, but you don’t understand it, because I am that cornerstone!”
And with that, the Sanhedrin realized the parable was about them. Specifically, it was about their leadership. The most recent rejection was John the baptizer, and now the son was before them. What would they do? How would they respond? Well, for the third time in 27 verses going back to 11.18, they reacted in fear. Again, Jesus offered them a change to come clean – to repent. But they were focused on saving their power, not empowering the Savior.
CONCLUSION:
And so it often is with us. We often focus on preserving our place, our pride, or our possessions in a way that does not allow room for us to be confronted with the truth. As I have said numerous times, God is never concerned about our asking Him questions, but will we accept His answers? The Sanhedrin asked about the source of Jesus authority. He said He would answer if they would. Instead they tried to escape the situation, and therefore they were the ones exposed as the frauds.
The Sanhedrin’s answered that they did not know. But the truth is they were not willing to truly know. The truth is that they did not want to reveal their thoughts. But without being willing to make themselves vulnerable to the truth, they could not truly know Jesus. Again, Jesus stood waiting to answer their question, but they were unwilling to answer His because of how the people might respond.
Are we any different? We must be honest with ourselves before we can be honest with Jesus. We must realize we are not God before we can turn to the One True God. We must give up whatever control we think we have over our lives and submit to the Lord of all Creation. And we must not let Satan dupe us into giving him control of our life. Remember, Jesus said, “All authority has been given to me.”
JOURNEY: That is why the JOURNEY letter for today is: J – Jesus.
If Jesus has all authority, then that means Satan has none.
If Jesus has all authority, then that means you and I have none.
Yet, Jesus offers to empower us with His authority if we will simple submit to His call to “Follow Me.”
OPPORTUNITY: Be honest with yourself. Be honest with Jesus. And then you can recognize His authority for your life.
REMEMBRANCE: Our remembering begins with His sacrifice – “Do this in remembrance of me.”
NEXT STEP(S):
Learn: Make this a year to learn about Jesus and the Bible like never before. We should never stop learning about Jesus. The religious leaders thought they knew all they could about God and His Word. But their arrogance forced them to miss God standing in their midst. Therefore, not only did they not submit to His authority, but as the parable shows, they usurped God’s authority and exercised their own.
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