Lesson 65L Spies and Plans to Destroy Jesus. Luke 20:19- 38

Parables Against the Scribes and Pharisees 20:19- 26

King James Version Chapter 20

19 And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them.

20 And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that 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,

It can never be said that there is not drama and intrigue in the Bible pages. Plans are being made according to verse 19. It says that the Scribes and Chief priests/Pharisees want Jesus dead, and so much so that they are laying the grounds for plans to do just that. Willing to be the judge and jury in Christ’s death, but not the executioner. What ever must be done about his, it is being done with a drawing back the bow of envy, hurrying to bury the arrow into the Son of God. A commentator, Joseph Excel said this about this passage:

St. Luke, Vol. III Vers. 20–26

The chief priests and rulers of the Jews watched Jesus, but not to learn the way of salvation. They watched Him with the evil eyes of malice and hatred, desiring to take hold of His words, to entangle Him in His talk, that they might accuse Him, and deliver Him up to die. He loved all men, yet He was hated and rejected of men; He went about doing good, yet they tried to do Him harm. The enemies of Christ are ever watching for our fall, eager to hear or to tell any evil thing about us, ready to cast the stone of slander against us. You know that the whitest robe first shows the stain, let us remember whose purity we wear if we have put on Christ. Let us strive “to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

This murderous crowd is lashing out threats of death to the one who has called them unto life. They are attacking the one who came to save them. He humbled Himself to take own our low estate. The one who came to abolish death is having His funeral planned by force. But at this very hour as Luke so amply describes they were afraid of what the people would say because they knew he had spoken the previous parable about the greedy tenant farmers, about them. This crowd was the wicked tenants who had slain the prophets and now are going after the Son. Have they no shame? Holy men of God? Hardly. Their greed and rejection had provoked this Holy man to literally give the farm to someone else.

Ever willing and able to bring accusation against the Lord of Heaven, they plied Him with tricky questions to trap Him into something they could use to bring Him to His death. They wanted it to be a “cut and dry” case so they could just hand Jesus over to the local Roman authorities. So they asked a government question. “ is it permitted ( in God’s law) to pat taxes to Caesar or not?” As Jesus got them to show Him a denarius with Caesar’s picture, he said “ Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and God God, the things that are God’s.” In front of the people the evil spies had been shown up by the Savior again. Astonished at His answer they went into silent mode. You might say God hit their mute switch.

To Marry or not to Marry 20:27- 38

King James Version Chapter 20

27 Then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection; and they asked him, 28 Saying, Master, Moses wrote unto us, 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 to 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 of them is she? for seven had her to wife.

34 And Jesus answering said unto them,

I believe verses 27- 33 assumed quite a lot. First, it assumed there was an answer that they had in their own minds in order to trap Jesus. Secondly, they assumed that this scenario was valid. The process of time to go through all of those husbands would be enough to bring the woman to a point where she would no longer be of child bearing age. Thirdly, they assumed no one would think that this was a “set up?” And lastly, they assumed the Savior to not have a solution and they could say, “Aha! We have caught you in a lie of being a holy man of God.

Jesus does not answer them according to their folly. You see, Sadducees denied that there was any resurrection. They were deniers of one of the Bible’s chief doctrines. They were the religious liberals of the day, asking a question about something they did not know much about themselves. What a sham and Jesus was on top of it. One commentator said he thought the whole story was an abomination.

Here’s how Jesus shut them down:

It is an Earthly question and not for heaven. vs The children of this world...This is a key phrase

Those who get to go to heaven, or are accounted worthy to obtain heaven and the resurrection of the dead, “ Neither marry, nor are given in marriage.”

The doubters are then told that Neither can they die any more(they will live forever).

They will be “equal to angels.” That is not the same but equal.

As children of God, they are children of the resurrection.

He who calls on the Lord, as Moses did, will find that the Lord is not a God of the dead , but the living.

Every time we proclaim something about eternity, will Jesus be happy with what we say. These men that Jesus rolled over were not even believers. They believed what they were saying as valid, but it wasn’t. There is a lot of things published about heaven that Jesus says is not true. As believers of Jesus and His resurrection, let’s be quick to make sure that others believe just as Jesus taught, not because someone tells us some made up story.