Bible School · The Gospels · Class 64 of 89

Questions in the temple: authority, the rejected son and David's Lord

Luke 20 · about 20 minutes

By the end of this class you should be able to

Identify the five confrontations in Luke 20 and what each question was meant to accomplish.
Explain how the parable of the tenants draws on Isaiah 5 and Psalm 118 and what it claims about Jesus' identity.
Describe the Sadducees' denial of the resurrection and the two arguments Jesus gives from the Law of Moses.
Trace how Psalm 110:1 shows that the Messiah is David's son and also David's Lord.
Place Luke 20 within Luke's Gospel, noting where Luke follows Mark and where he adds his own emphasis.

Read the passage

20One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and scribes, together with the elders, came up to Him. ²“Tell us,” they said, “by what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” ³“I will also ask you a question,” Jesus replied. “Tell Me: ⁴John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?” ⁵They deliberated among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷So they answered that they did not know where it was from. ⁸And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” ⁹Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time. ¹⁰At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹So he sent another servant, but they beat him and treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed. ¹²Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out. ¹³‘What shall I do?’ asked the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!” ¹⁷But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? ¹⁸Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” ¹⁹When the scribes and chief priests realized that Jesus had spoken this parable against them, they sought to arrest Him that very hour. But they were afraid of the people. ²⁰So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor. ²¹“Teacher,” they inquired, “we know that You speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. ²²Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” ²³But Jesus saw through their duplicity and said to them, ²⁴“Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. ²⁵So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” ²⁶And they were unable to trap Him in His words before the people; and amazed at His answer, they fell silent. ²⁷Then some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to question Him. ²⁸“Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁹Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a wife, but died childless. ³⁰Then the second ³¹and the third married the widow, and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. ³²And last of all, the woman died. ³³So then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.” ³⁴Jesus answered, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. ³⁶In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God. ³⁷Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” ³⁹Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, You have spoken well!” ⁴⁰And they did not dare to question Him any further. ⁴¹Then Jesus declared, “How can it be said that the Christ is the Son of David? ⁴²For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand ⁴³until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’ ⁴⁴Thus David calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?” ⁴⁵In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to His disciples, ⁴⁶“Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

Open Luke 20 in the reader (BSB)

01Background

comes from the third Gospel, which is the first volume of a two-part work that continues in Acts. The author never names himself. The church from the second century onward held that he was Luke, the physician and traveling companion of Paul (; Philemon 24; ), and the 'we' passages in Acts (for example ) fit that view. Some modern scholars doubt that the author knew Paul personally, but most accept a Gentile Christian of the second generation who drew on eyewitness tradition, as claims. The dedication is to a man named Theophilus, whose identity is unknown.

The date is disputed. Those who think Acts ends where it does because Paul's Roman imprisonment was still going on place Luke in the early 60s AD. Most critical scholars place it after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, often between 75 and 90, partly because Luke is thought to have used Mark. The study of how the first three Gospels relate is called the synoptic problem. The most widely held solution is that Mark was written first and that Matthew and Luke used it, along with a shared collection of sayings called Q and material of their own. Other scholars deny Q and argue that Luke used Matthew, and a minority hold that Matthew came first. For this matters little, because the chapter follows to closely.

The setting is Jesus' final week in Jerusalem. He has entered the city (), driven out the traders from the temple, and begun to teach there daily while the chief priests and scribes look for a way to destroy him (). is a single long day of teaching in the temple courts. The people who question him are the powers who ran the temple: the chief priests, scribes and elders (the three groups of the Sanhedrin), and the Sadducees, the priestly party that accepted only the books of Moses as final authority and denied resurrection. Luke's purpose is to show that Jesus is innocent of every charge brought later and that those who rejected him did so in the face of clear claims. Here the claim is stated most openly in a parable.

02Outline

The authority question and the question about John's baptism
The parable of the tenants and the rejected stone
The trap about tribute to Caesar
The Sadducees and the resurrection
Whose son is the Christ? David's Lord
The warning about the scribes

03How to read it

is a chain of controversy stories, a form used in all the Gospels. Each follows a pattern: opponents put a question, Jesus answers with a counter-question, a parable or a text of Scripture, and the opponents are silenced. Their questions are not requests for information. The reader is told several times what the motive is (), so the genre teaches by contrast: they ask in order to trap, and Jesus answers in order to reveal. The reader should ask of every exchange what the trap was and what the answer shows about Jesus.

The parable of the tenants has a feature that sets it apart from most of Jesus' parables. It is close to an allegory, in which the details stand for something: the vineyard, the owner, the servants, the son. Jesus' hearers knew this because had already used a vineyard to speak of Israel and its leaders, and Luke tells us they understood it (). The rule, then, is to let the Old Testament image decide the meaning and not to press every detail beyond what the first hearers would have recognised. The chapter also leads straight into the temple discourse of and the passion in and 23, and the quotations from and matter for the whole book.

04What the text says

Verses 1–8

The question about authority is the direct result of the temple cleansing. Authority (exousia) means the right to do something, and the leaders want to know who gave Jesus the right to act in the temple and to teach there. Jesus answers with a question about the baptism of John. Was it from heaven or from men? The leaders reason that 'from heaven' will bring the question why they did not believe John, and 'from men' will bring the crowd, who held John to be a prophet, down on them. They say they do not know. Jesus declines to tell them the source of his own authority. John had pointed to Jesus, so whoever refused John had already refused Jesus.

Verses 9–12

A man plants a vineyard, rents it to farmers and goes to another country for a long time. At harvest time he sends a servant to collect his share. The tenants beat him and send him away empty-handed. A second is shamefully treated, and a third is wounded and thrown out. The servants stand for the prophets whom Israel's leaders had mistreated (compare and ).

Verses 13–16

The owner decides to send his 'beloved son', thinking they will respect him. The word 'beloved' (agapetos) is the title the Father spoke over Jesus at his baptism and transfiguration (; ). Jesus places himself in the story as the last messenger. The tenants see that he is the heir, throw him out of the vineyard and kill him. This anticipates Jesus' death outside the city. The owner will come, destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When the people hear this they cry out that such a thing must never happen. They understand that the parable concerns them.

Verses 17–19

Jesus looks at them and quotes Psalm 118:22: the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone (literally 'head of the corner'). In the psalm, the stone is Israel itself, despised by the nations and raised by God. Jesus applies it to himself: rejected by the builders (Israel's leaders), then vindicated by God. adds that whoever falls on that stone will be broken and that on whomever it falls it will crush him. This joins the stone images of and , -45. The scribes and chief priests wanted to arrest him at once but feared the people.

Verses 20–26

Spies pretend to be honest and ask whether it is lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. If he said no, they could hand him to the governor; if yes, he would lose the people who hated Roman rule. Jesus asks for a denarius and asks whose image and inscription it carries. The coin most likely bore the image of the emperor Tiberius. 'Caesar's,' they answer. 'Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's.' The verb is 'give back' (apodote): the coin already belongs to Caesar, as his image shows. The second half may echo Genesis 1:27: human beings bear God's image, so what belongs to God is more than a coin. The state has a real but limited claim, and God's claim is total.

Verses 27–40

The Sadducees tell a story based on the levirate law of , in which a man must marry his dead brother's widow to raise up offspring for him. A woman marries seven brothers in turn; whose wife is she in the resurrection? Jesus answers in two steps.

First, those counted worthy of the age to come and of the resurrection do not marry, because they can no longer die and are like the angels, children of God, children of the resurrection. Marriage serves a mortal race, and resurrection life is not mortal.
Second, he goes to the Law of Moses, which the Sadducees honored. At the burning bush Moses calls the Lord 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' (). God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and Luke alone adds that all live to him. The relationship God made with the patriarchs cannot end in the grave. Some scribes, who were Pharisees and believed in resurrection, say that he has answered well.

Verses 41–44

Now Jesus asks a question. How can they say the Christ is David's son, when David himself says in the book of Psalms that the Lord said to his Lord to sit at his right hand until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet? If David calls him Lord, how is he his son? Jesus does not deny that the Messiah is David's son (compare ). The answer is true but not the whole truth. The Messiah is also the one whom David, speaking by the Spirit, calls Lord, and who is invited to sit beside God.

Verses 45–47

In the hearing of all the people, Jesus warns his disciples about the scribes, who like long robes, greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats and places of honor, who devour widows' houses and say long prayers for show. Their judgment will be heavier. This leads into the poor widow at the start of .

05Key terms

authority exousia: The right and power to act. The leaders ask by what exousia Jesus teaches in the temple, and the question is about the source of his right, not his skill.
beloved agapetos: Beloved, dearly loved, often 'only' in the sense of unique. It is the word the Father speaks over Jesus at his baptism () and the title the owner gives his son in the parable.
cornerstone kephale gonias: Literally 'head of the corner', from . It may mean the stone that holds two walls together or the capstone that completes the building. Either way it is the key stone of the structure.
sons of the resurrection huioi tes anastaseos: A Hebrew-style phrase meaning those who belong to the resurrection and share its life. In they are also called 'sons of God'.
Lord kyrios: In the Greek Old Testament uses kyrios for both 'the LORD' (God) and 'my Lord' (the king). Jesus asks how the Messiah can be David's Lord.

06In the whole Bible

The chapter touches several doctrines that the rest of the Bible develops.

The first is the authority of Christ. The leaders ask who gave him authority, and the chapter answers in layers: he is the beloved Son of the parable, the cornerstone of and the Lord of .
The second is the resurrection. The Old Testament speaks of it with increasing clarity (; ), but the Sadducees held to the books of Moses and found no teaching about it there. Jesus shows from that God's covenant faithfulness extends beyond death. Paul builds on the same conviction ().

The third is the relation of God's people to earthly government. The saying about Caesar became a foundation text for Christian thinking about the state, together with and . It affirms that the state has a real claim and denies that the claim is ultimate.
Finally, the parable presents a pattern that runs from the Old Testament to Revelation: God sends messengers, they are rejected, God sends his Son, and the rejection brings judgment on those who refuse and new fruit among those who accept him.

07Where Christ is

makes some of the Gospel's clearest claims about who Jesus is, and he makes them himself. In the parable he is the beloved son sent after the servants, the last messenger and the heir (compare -2: God spoke through the prophets and in these last days by a Son). The words 'beloved son' recall the voice at the baptism. The son's death outside the vineyard anticipates the cross outside Jerusalem's walls ().

is applied to Jesus here, and the apostles repeat it: Peter quotes it before the Sanhedrin () and in his first letter, where he joins it to (). This is fulfillment. The rejection and vindication the psalm describes in Israel's story come to their full form in Jesus.

is the Old Testament verse most often quoted in the New Testament. Jesus uses it to show that the Messiah is more than a descendant of David: David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord. Peter reads the psalm the same way at Pentecost, linking it to the resurrection and ascension (), and Hebrews returns to it (; ). At his trial Jesus will join this psalm to and speak of himself as the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the power of God (). The question in is left unanswered in the temple, and the rest of Luke and Acts supply the answer.

08How traditions read it

The parable's line that the owner will give the vineyard to others has been read in different ways. In much of Christian history the 'others' were taken to be the church, which replaced Israel. Many Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran and Orthodox writers today reject that reading. They note that the parable condemns the leaders of the day, that the first believers were Jews, and that Paul says God has not rejected his people (). The class follows this narrower reading: the warning falls on the temple leadership, and the vineyard passes to new stewards, the apostles first and then believers from the nations.

09Review questions

What was the trap in each of the three questions put to Jesus (authority, tribute to Caesar, the resurrection), and how did he answer?
How does help explain the vineyard in the parable, and who do the servants and the son represent?
What two arguments does Jesus give the Sadducees for the resurrection, and which books of the Bible did the Sadducees accept?
How does show that David's son is also David's Lord, and where else in the New Testament is this psalm used?
Why does Luke place the warning about the scribes who devour widows' houses at the end of the chapter?

Prepared with AI assistance. A scholar's review is still to come; if you spot anything to correct, please tell us.