Luke 20 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Luke 20:1-8: Challenges about authority

A. Find Out:

1. Who came to challenge Jesus? v.1
   • One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him.
2. What challenge did they give him? v.2
   • ‘Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,’ they said. ‘Who gave you this authority?’
3. What question did he give in return? v.3,4
   • He replied, ‘I will also ask you a question. Tell me: 4 John’s baptism – was it from heaven, or of human origin?’
4. What first alternative did they consider? v.5
   • They discussed it among themselves and said, ‘If we say, “From heaven,” he will ask, “Why didn’t you believe him?”
5. What second alternative did they consider? v.6
   • But if we say, “Of human origin,” all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.’
6. So what was the outcome? v.7,8
   • So they answered, ‘We don’t know where it was from.’ 8 Jesus said, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

B. Think:

1. What do you think was really behind their challenge?
2. How was Jesus’ question a clever response?
3. Why do you think Jesus didn’t want to give an answer?

C. Comment:

It’s the week before Passover and Jesus is teaching the crowds of Jerusalem in the area surrounding the Temple . The religious authorities from within the Temple, together with some of the community leaders, come to challenge him, basically saying, “Who said you could do this?”

The obvious answer is “My father in heaven”, but Jesus doesn’t want to provoke anything prematurely so wants to avoid having to give that answer.  In return, therefore, he poses a question that puts them in an awkward spot. They could have replied, “No you give us an answer first and then we’ll answer you,” but they realised that if he gave an answer they’d have to commit themselves to an answer and be in trouble.

The possible answers before them were clear: Yes John, was from God, or, no he wasn’t. It was the things that followed on from those answers that caused the problem!  A ‘ye’s answer was difficult because they had opposed John, and a ‘no’ answer would have upset the crowds, so they didn’t want to say that.

The lack of their authority becomes even more obvious when Jesus refuses to give them an answer and they do nothing, except leave him to carry on teaching! If they had authority they could have demanded he left the Temple precincts. He stays! They’re upset!

D. Application:

1. Carping challenges are of turned away by appeals to the truth.
2. The kingdom is all about truth, not man-made rules. 

Passage: Luke 20:9-19: Parable of the Vineyard

A. Find Out:

1. What scene does Jesus set in this parable? v.9
   • He went on to tell the people this parable: ‘A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time.
2. What did the owner do at harvest? v.10a
   • At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.
3. What response did he get? v.10b-12
   • ut the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 11 He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. 12 He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.
4. So what did the owner decide to do, with what result? v.13-15a
   • ‘Then the owner of the vineyard said, “What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.” 14 ‘But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. “This is the heir,” they said. “Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
5. What would the owner then do? v.15b,16
   • ‘What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.’ When the people heard this, they said, ‘God forbid!’
6. What does Jesus then quote to make the point? v.17
   • Jesus looked directly at them and asked, ‘Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone”?
7. How did the authorities react and why? v.19
   • The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people.

B. Think:

1. Summarise the story in one sentence.
2. What point was Jesus making by it?

C. Comment:

Jesus now goes on to tell a further parable. There are certain similarities in it to the one told in Luke 19:12. It starts out with a man who goes away. Both parables give remind us that God leaves us responsibility for the way we live on earth while He remains in heaven. In both parables there is a time of accounting which tells us that we will be answerable to God. But then there are differences.

In the first parable it was all about how the servants used the talents they had been given. In this parable it is about how the tenants responded to first the servants and then the son of the owner. Their rejection of all those coming form the owner means eventually their destruction. Jesus clearly speaks about Israel. The servants were the prophets sent from God who were constantly rejected, and of course he himself is the Son who will be killed.

The parable is told not just to say what has happened and will happen to those sent from God, but to warn those who have rejected them, that their day WILL come, there will be an accounting, there will be a judgement.

When Jesus told stories they had a point to them and the religious authorities know that he is talking about them and so again they think how they can remove him, because he is a constant thorn in their side. Truth often is when our sins are being exposed. That’s why Jesus has to die.

D. Application:

1. Our time on earth is strictly limited. There will be an accounting.
2. The crucial issue will be how we have responded to God here.

Passage: Luke 20:20-26: Jesus is given a test question

A. Find Out:

1. What was going on at this time and why? v.20
   • Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.
2. What did they say about Jesus? v.21
   • So the spies questioned him: ‘Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
3. So what did they ask? v.22
   • Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’
4. How did Jesus respond? v.23,24
   • He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 ‘Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied.
5. What was their response and his instruction? v.25
   • He said to them, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’
6. What was the result? v.26
   • They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

B. Think:

1. What is beginning to now happen in Jerusalem here?
2. What do you think the spies hoped would happen?
3. How did Jesus prevent that?

C. Comment:

Again Luke gives us personal commentary about what was taking place. It is the final week before Passover, Jesus is teaching daily in the Temple precincts, and the authorities are becoming more and more upset. Now they devise a trap. They’ll ask him about paying taxes. If he says yes, he’ll be unpopular with the crowds who hate the Romans, and if he says no, we’ll tell the Romans he is inciting rebellion against them.

Jesus saw right through this and with the wisdom that was his from heaven, gave an answer that was right and true and which offended no one. His enemies were silenced.

We see in all this the gradual rising of the antagonism of the authorities against Jesus. It was all right while he was up in Galilee, he was just another Galilean prophet who could be ignored, but now he has arrived on their doorstep with great fanfare and has the temerity to be teaching on a daily basis right outside the Temple.

Worse than that, his teaching is under-girded with subtle criticisms of the religious authorities, past and present. Yet even worse, every time they send someone outside to try and find some grounds to criticize and even arrest him, he manages to turn the situation round and turn it back against them. As far as they are concerned this situation is going nowhere, only worse and worse. Something will have to be done – soon!

D. Application:

1. Don’t try to catch Jesus out – you won’t!
2. Don’t criticize God. It only reveals things about you!

Passage: Luke 20:27-40: Another test question

A. Find Out:

1. Who next came to test Jesus? v.27
   • Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question.
2. What was the question they set up? v.28-33
   • ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?’
3. What did Jesus say happens now in this life on earth? v.34
   • Jesus replied, ‘The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.
4. What did he say about eternal life? v.35,36
   • But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.
5. What did he say the story of Moses shows? v.37,38
   • But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord “the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’
6. What was the outcome? v.39,40
   • Some of the teachers of the law responded, ‘Well said, teacher!’ 40 And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

B. Think:

1. Why was the Sadducees question hypocritical?
2. What did Jesus teach about marriage in eternity?
3. What did he teach about eternity itself?

C. Comment:

First it was the teachers of the law, but now it is the Sadducees, and Luke reminds us, or tells us if we didn’t know, that they are the ones who were religious but didn’t actually believe in an afterlife. So, they come with a question about something they don’t believe in! Possibly they come to try to show, in their logic, why the afterlife can’t be. They speak about the practice of the next brother marrying the widow to maintain the Jewish name and set up a scenario where there are several brothers who marry her.

What happens in heaven? Answer from Jesus – nothing, because heaven is a completely different existence where there is no marriage. We’re told elsewhere in Scripture that it is a spirit-existence, or at least we have spirit-bodies, so the material body experiences, such as marriage, will no longer exist.   

With such an explanation does Jesus answer their question, but he’s not happy to leave it there. He wants to challenge their false beliefs. Look, he says, when Moses was talking to God he referred to his ancestors in the present tense. They may not be alive on the earth but they are alive in heaven. Now we may not have interpreted Moses’ words like that but the Son of God does. This is the truth. If you are one of God’s children, when you die here on earth, you simply go into an eternal existence in heaven with God. Your future is assured!

D. Application:

1. Rest in the promise of eternal life as a child of God.
2. Understand that it is wonderfully different from this life.

Passage: Luke 20:41-47: The Messiah & sonship

A. Find Out:

1. What question did Jesus then ask the teachers of the law? v.41
   • Then Jesus said to them, ‘Why is it said that the Messiah is the son of David?
2. What prophecy does he quote? v.42,43
   • David himself declares in the Book of Psalms: ‘“The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand 43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”
3. What does he ask about that quote? v.44
   • David calls him “Lord.” How then can he be his son?’
4. To whom did Jesus then speak? v.45
   • While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples,
5. What did he say about the teachers of the law? v.46,47a
   • Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted with respect in the market-places and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.
6. What does he say will happen to them? v.47b
   • These men will be punished most severely.’

B. Think:

1. What had Jewish tradition decided?
2. How did Jesus show it couldn’t be that simple?
3. What effect do you think his closing words would have had?

C. Comment:

The teachers of the law have just applauded Jesus for the way he corrected the liberal-theologian Sadducees and so now Jesus turns on them to correct them. He chooses the subject of the Messiah. They believed that the Messiah would be from David’s family. Very well, says Jesus, how do you square that with the prophecy you accept to be Messianic from Psalm 110? In that, David refers to one who is his ‘Lord’ who speaks to one greater than he, presumably God. So David is not going to call one of his sons, Lord. No, clearly the Messiah is someone much greater than a simple member of David’s family.

That is interesting for both us and them. It’s interesting for us because often in the New Testament Jesus accepts the designation, “Son of David”, so he accepts that naturally he comes from that human line. It is interesting for them because it must have left them thinking, wondering how the Messiah can be greater than a member of David’s family. For us the answer is now obvious – he’s also the Son of God from heaven – God in the flesh.

To round this off, Jesus turns to his disciples and publicly warns them against the hypocrisy of the teachers of the law. That would have delighted the crowd but angered the teachers. Yet another nail in Jesus’ coffin – but then that is exactly what he intends it to be!

D. Application:

1. Jesus is God in man’s clothing. Worship him.
2. The truth always angers unrighteous people.