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| Chapter 20 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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1 ¶ And it came to pass that on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the Gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon Him with the elders 2 and spoke unto Him, saying, "Tell us by what authority doest thou these things? Or who is he that gave thee this authority? 3 And He answered and said unto them, "I will also ask you one thing, and answer Me: 4 The baptism of John--was it from Heaven, or of men?" 5 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we shall say ’From Heaven,’ he will say, ’Why then have ye not believed him?’ 6 But if we say, ’Of men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet." 7 And they answered that they could not tell from whence it was. 8 And Jesus said unto them, "Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." 9 ¶ Then He began to speak to the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. 10 And at the season, he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard; but the husbandmen beat him and sent him away empty. 11 And again he sent another servant; and they beat him also, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12 And again he sent a third; and they wounded him also and cast him out. 13 Then said the Lord of the vineyard, ’What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him when they see him.’ 14 But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ’This is the heir; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 So they cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them? 16 He shall come and destroy these husbandmen and shall give the vineyard to others." And when they heard it they said, "God forbid!" 17 And He beheld them and said, "What is this then that is written, ’The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner’? 18 Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." 19 And the chief priests and the scribes that same hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people; for they perceived that He had spoken this parable against them. 20 ¶ And they watched Him and sent forth spies, who should feign themselves to be just men, that they might take hold of His words and so they might deliver Him unto the power and authority of the governor. 21 And they asked Him, saying, "Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no?" 23 But He perceived their craftiness and said unto them, "Why tempt ye Me? 24 Show Me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it?" They answered and said, "Caesar’s." 25 And He said unto them, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s." 26 And they could not take hold of His words before the people. And they marveled at His answer and held their peace. 27 ¶ Then came to Him certain of the Sadducees, who deny that there is any resurrection, and they asked Him, 28 saying, "Master, Moses wrote unto us that if any man’s brother die, having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother should take his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. 29 There were therefore seven brethren, and the first took a wife and died without children. 30 And the second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 And the third took her, and in like manner the seven also; and they left no children, and died. 32 Last of all the woman died also. 33 Therefore, in the resurrection whose wife is she, for seven had her as wife?" 34 And Jesus answering said unto them, "The children of this world marry and are given in marriage. 35 But they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage, 36 neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. 37 Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush when he called the Lord ’the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ 38 For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living, for all live unto Him." 39 ¶ Then certain of the scribes answering said, "Master, thou hast said well." 40 And after that they dared not ask Him any question at all. 41 And He said unto them, "How say they that Christ is David’s son? 42 For David himself saith in the book of Psalms: ’The Lord said unto my Lord, "Sit Thou on My right hand, 43 until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."’ 44 If David therefore calleth Him ’Lord,’ how is He then his son?" 45 Then in the audience of all the people, He said unto His disciples, 46 "Beware of the scribes who desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers. The same shall receive greater damnation." |
v1-8 Authority of Jesus. Matt 22:23-27; Mark 11:27-33. Compare Luke 20:19-40. Jesus is teaching in the temple daily as they approached the Passover Feast, the religious leaders are desperate to find something to charge Him with. Here we have a man from Nazareth, Galilee who is performing miracles, telling the people about a different God to what they teach and telling what was wrong with the religious system which they controlled. By whose authority is He doing it? They therefore planned to make Him claim something which the people would not accept and so destroy Him. Unfortunately, they still thought of Jesus as a man with limitations, He knows what they are planning. When they ask the question, He asks them a question about John the Baptist and his baptism in return. "Did John come by divine power and authority or human authority"? If John had come by divine authority then the Pharisees would have to acknowledge that they had rejected a messenger from God, or if they said by human authority, the crowd would be against them because many accepted the message of John as from God. They were not willing to answer Jesus, they had not accepted the authority of John, so neither is He willing to tell them by what authority He has. v9-18 The parable of the vineyard. Matt 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-11. Also consider Isaiah 5:1-7. Jesus having stopped the religious leaders now turns to the crowd and using this parable explains how God will deal with the nation. A similar story is used by Isaiah. A man buys some land and creates a large vineyard, he has to leave the country so rents out the vineyard to farmers. Under Jewish law the owner would have expected about a third of any crop produced by the farmers as rent. This rent would be collected by a servant or agent of the master. The farmers refuse to pay the rent and beat up the servants sent. Finally the master decides to send his own son, he believes the people will respect the son. On seeing the son, the farmers think up the idea that if they kill the son there will be no heirs and they will become the owners. Jesus asks the crowd what should be done, "destroy the farmers and let other farmers rent the land" was the answer. The reaction of the people, "God forbid!" suggests they understood that they were like the ‘farmers.’ The Pharisees taught that they the Jewish nation was the true heirs of God. They had killed the prophets and rejected their message from God. Jesus now puts himself above the prophets by telling them that as a final act the master,God, sends the son. The final days of the life of Jesus on earth were approaching, Jesus prophecies of His coming rejection and death. The crowd could not understand that the Messiah they were looking for first had to suffer. v17 Psalms 118:22. Previous verse of the same Psalm that was used by the crowd as Jesus rode into Jerusalem a few days earlier. See Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7. v18,19 Anyone who chooses to reject, fall over the death of Christ will be hurt, judged, "grind him to powder," by Christ and finally lost for eternity. v19 The reaction of the priests was immediate, within an hour they setup a system of people, pretending to be good people seeking the truth, they were to watch every move and action of Jesus, hoping to find something to arrest Him with. However, they had realized that under the Roman laws they were not legally able to condemn Jesus to death, they planned to trap Him breaking the Roman laws. v21-26 Payment of Tax money. Matt 22:15-22; Mark 12:13-17. v21-23 With pure flattery and false praise, though really true, the spies put a question to Jesus, "Should we pay tax to Caesar, or not?" If Jesus said "yes," then the people would consider him a supporter of the Roman rule and turn against him, if he said "no, do not pay" then Jesus would be considered a threat by the Roman authority. The priests still did not appreciate the power and understanding of Jesus, he knew what they were up to. v24 Jesus asks for a penny, a denarius, a silver coin issued by Rome and was the main unit of money. The lower value bronze coins did not have the emperor’s image stamped on them. "Whose image and superscription," an image of the emperor’s face and his title were stamped on each penny. The Jews were using this Roman coin with no problem and so were acknowledging the rule of the emperor. If the Jews were willing to admit that Caesar was their ‘lord’ they could not challenge Jesus. He gave the perfect answer, there was nothing said which could be used by Rome against Him. He also reminded them that they should worship God as their Lord. v27-38 Resurrection and the Sadducees. Matt 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27. There were many more Pharisees than Sadducees, they would only accept the law as given in the first five books of Moses, any traditional understanding of the meaning was not accepted. Therefore their question is based upon these five books. v28 It was normal practice to keep the family name and possession for the family, it was expected that a younger brother would marry the older brother’s wife if he died without any children and then raise a male child in the older brothers name. This was done to prevent the family name die out, The idea is base on Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The question put to Jesus by the Sadducees would have been very hypothetical, (based upon an imagined situation). This question was often used by the Sadducees to prove that there was no life after death. If there was life after death then the woman in the afterlife would be married to seven husbands at the same time, which was illegal under the Law in normal life. Therefore there can not be a life after death. v34-40 Jesus had to explain that in the coming kingdom of God, in the world after death marriage would not exist, as children of God they will have become like angels. v37,38 Jesus now points out the error of their belief, Moses referred to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, showing they were still alive. v41 Jesus further asks them a question to highlight their wrong thinking, "If David called the Messiah Lord, how is the Messiah the son of David"? The Messiah was divine, not an earthly Messiah. Jesus does not continue with this statement, instead He gives warnings about the scribes religion. They were fake, wanting to show off there religion which was completely false, they had no real love, happy to cheat the poor whenever they could. These who should have known what was the Will of God for each person would receive a greater punishment for their behaviour. |
Easy English Translation
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