Luke Chapter 20

Jesus’ Authority Challenged

            ¹ One day he was teaching the people in the Temple and delivering good news. The chief priests, scribes, and elders confronted him: ² “What right do you have to do this? Who gave you that right?”

            ³ “I’ll ask you something too. Tell me, ⁴ Was John’s baptism from heaven or humans?”

            ⁵ They talked it over, ⁶ “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he’ll say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ If we say, ‘From humans,’ the people will stone us; they’re convinced John was a prophet.” ⁷They said they didn’t know.

⁸ Jesus said, “I won’t tell you either what right I have to do what I’m doing.”       

Lk 20:1-8

Story About a Vineyard

            ⁹ He started telling the people this story:

“A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and went on an extended trip. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent the tenants a servant to receive the fruit from the vineyard. But the tenants beat him up and sent him away empty-handed.

¹¹ “He proceeded to send another servant. They beat him up, too, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away with nothing. ¹² He sent a third. They wounded him and threw him out. ¹³ The owner said, ‘What am I going to do? I’ll send my dear son. Maybe they’ll respect him.’ ¹⁴ When the tenants saw him, they started talking among themselves, ‘That’s the heir. Let’s kill him so the vineyard will belong to us.’ ¹⁵ They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What’s the owner going to do to them? ¹⁶ He’ll come and destroy them and give the vineyard to other tenants.”         

            The audience said, “Surely not!”

            ¹⁷ He looked at them and said, “What then does this scripture mean,

‘The stone the builders rejected

                                                has become the cornerstone’ [Ps 118:22]?

¹⁸ Everybody that falls on that rock will get bruised. Whoever it falls on will get crushed.”

¹⁹ The scribes and chief priests were ready to seize him right then, but they were afraid of the people. They knew he’d told that story on them.                                                                                                                                            

Lk 20:9-19

The Question About Tribute to Caesar

            ²⁰ They kept a close eye on him and sent spies pretending to be honest men so they could latch onto something he said. That way they could turn him over to the governor’s authority.

            ²¹ They asked him, “Rabbi, we know you’re straightforward when you teach. It doesn’t matter who you’re talking to; you teach the way of God correctly. ²² Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?”

            ²³ He saw through their deception, ²⁴ “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have on it?”

            “Caesar’s.”   

            ²⁵ “Then pay Caesar what you owe Caesar and pay God what you owe God.”

²⁶ They couldn’t make anything out of what he said in front of his audience. They were dumbfounded by his answer and didn’t say anything.                                                                                                                                           

Lk 20:20-26

The Question About the Resurrection

            ²⁷ Some Sadducees—who deny there’s resurrection—came and asked him,

²⁸ “Rabbi, Moses wrote to us, ‘If a brother dies and has a wife but no children, his brother is to marry his wife and raise up offspring to his brother’ [Deut 25:5; Gen 38:8]. ²⁹There were seven brothers, and the first married a wife and died childless. ³⁰ The second and ³¹ third through the seventh married her and died and didn’t leave any children. ³² Last of all, the woman died too. ³³ Whose wife will she be in the resurrection? They all had her as a wife.”

            ³⁴ Jesus said,

“People in this age get married. ³⁵ The ones considered worthy of receiving that age and the resurrection of the dead don’t get married. ³⁶ They can’t die anymore either, they’re like angels. They’re like God and participate in the resurrection.

            ³⁷ “But, that the dead are raised, even Moses showed when he said in the ‘bush passage,’ ‘I’m the LORD, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s God’ [Ex 3:6, 15-16]. ³⁸ He’s not a God of the dead, but of the living; everybody is alive to him.”

³⁹ Some scribes responded, “Rabbi, that was a good answer.” ⁴⁰ After that, nobody tried to trip him up with loaded questions.  

Lk 20:27-40

The Question About the Son of David

            ⁴¹ He said to them, “How do they say the Messiah is David’s son? ⁴² He says himself in the Book of Psalms,

‘The LORD said to my Lord,

                                    “Sit at my right hand

                                                ⁴³ till I make your enemies your footstool”’” [Ps 110:1].

⁴⁴ If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”                                                    

Lk 20:41-44

Denouncing the Scribes and Pharisees

⁴⁵ Right in front of everybody, he told the crowd and his disciples, ⁴⁶ “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes and love greetings in the marketplaces, chief seats in the synagogues, places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They confiscate widows’ houses and offer long prayers for show. They’ll get a more severe condemnation.”                                         

Lk 20:45-47