A Question of Authority

Now Luke does not give us every event in passion week, and he does not always signal clearly when one day ends and another begins. But by comparing the gospels we can figure it out. Luke does not relate the annointing of Jesus in Bethany, since he already told a similar account earlier, but it is clear that Jesus actually arrived the week before passover in Bethany, since John tells us this (John 12:1).

Now since the crowds were all going towards Jerusalem, most of them would be required to travel all the way to Jerusalem and stay there, since Bethany was more than a Sabbath day’s journey. So what happens is that the whole crowd has been witnessing Jesus doing miracles and teaching, and they are excited that he is the Messiah. No activity takes place on Saturday since it is the Sabbath; but that day is important because the crowds find lodging in Jerusalem and tell everyone about the healer from Nazareth who would soon be coming. So on Palm Sunday, the whole town had heard and was ready.

It was these large crowds that kept Jesus safe until he was ready to sacrifice his life. During the entire week, he stayed in the open with those crowds, and the leaders did not dare do anything because if they did they would start a riot.

This is why they sent people to challenge Jesus with impossible questions. They needed to discredit him before the people, so that the crowds would turn on him or at least no longer follow him so they could kill him. Thus, the riddles they gave him weren’t honest questions, they were meant to be catch-22 situations, where they could catch him no matter what he said. Of course, every time Jesus stays one step ahead of them so their plans don’t work; but that’s the reason for the next set of problems Jesus has to deal with.

A Challenge of Authority

The first problem Jesus has to deal with is the angry response from the leaders about his cleansing of the temple. After all, they are the ones responsible for the sacrificial system; and they are the ones who also profit off of the temple market. They are incensed that Jesus would dare to disrupt their temple.

Also, they think that no matter how Jesus answers the question, he will end up discredited before the people. The straightforward answer, the true answer, is that his authority to do this is from God; it is his right as the Messiah to purify the temple.

2 Kings 23:4 NKJV

And the king [Josiah] commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

2 Chronicles 29:4–10 NKJV

Then he [Hezekiah] brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity. “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us.

However, if Jesus just says that, then he will look like he is trying to circumvent the priesthood and destroy the temple instead of what he really was doing. Just giving the plain answer would lead to the opposite effect of what he wants.

On the other hand, claiming authority from any other source is not only lying - which he clearly can’t do, but would result in an even worse problem. So you see the difficulty - the first person to actually say the real source of Jesus authority loses.

So what does Jesus do? He responds by turning the tables on them. His question - the source of John’s authority, implies that he gets his authority from the same place that John did. The real genius of Jesus’ answer is that this is a political game, and Jesus understands how much John the Baptist is still respected in the crowds.

Everyone is convinced that John is a Prophet; and for once, the crowds are right. Therefore John’s authority to preach comes directly from God himself. Now since John was so respected, trying to trash John the Baptist would result in another riot.

Jesus also knows that the religious leaders never did believe John was truly from God. So they are trapped. Unlike Jesus, they have no scruples about being honest; they would say anything if it would get Jesus in trouble. They’d fit right in in Washington. If they say “from heaven,” to avoid getting in trouble with the crowds, then Jesus would challenge them on the obvious point that they had in the past clearly stated that they did not believe that, and once their bias had been revealed to the multitude, the crowds would riot and kill them. If they say what they really think - that is, that John was not from God and just preached out of his own mind, then the crowds would riot again and kill them. They find themselves caught on the horns of the same dilemma they thought they had caught Jesus on.

Since they can’t answer without a riot beginning, they pretend ignorance - an obvious lie too. They are Bible experts. If they know anything, they know the answer to this question. The crowds would recognize that this was political nonsense, but they figured would rather look stupid than look dead, so this was their way out.

And this gives Jesus the right to not answer the question, either, since now the religious leaders are just looking for the nearest exit. But the political screen is so transparent, that any thinking person listening to this exchange would realize that Jesus is actually claiming to have his authority from God.

The Parable of the Vineyard

The leaders are done, but Jesus is just getting started. He tells a parable. Many of Jesus’ parables were intended to obscure the truth; not this one. Everyone gets the point of the parable immediately. But because it was in the form of a parable, it was not so easy to use it to claim Jesus was trying to set up an insurrection against the leadership.

Now the mechanics of the parable regarded tenant farmers. In the first century, rich men with land to spare would sometimes rent out their land to farmers in exchange for a cut of the harvest. That way, the farmer got a place to grow food and the rich man got extra money. It benefited both parties.

Now any landlord can end up with bad renters; that’s the risk you take when loaning out your stuff. But these renters were absurdly bad, because they beat up and kill anyone who tries to collect the rent that is due the landowner; It seems really unlikely that any real renter would do something like this.

The real reason they are so bad is that this is an allegory for Israel’s history. The vineyard owner is clearly God the Father; the tenants are the Israelites leadership. the servants are the prophets God sent over the years to urge Israel to follow him.

Not all of the prophets died at the hand of Israel, but many of them were shamefully treated. Elijah had to hide for three years and lived by himself and was fed by ravens. Isaiah was sawn in half. Jeremiah almost died in a pit. And yet all of the prophets ought to have been celebrated and honored. It’s easy to say that now. It would not have been so easy when they lived.

The Vineyard owner’s son is obviously Jesus himself. He is warning them that he knows exactly what they want to do to him, and if they continue to try to kill him instead of submit to his authority, they will be destroyed.

The others that Jesus talks about is a later generation of Jews who will actually do what God says. The church does not replace Israel, but in the present age, God is working through the church. He is not currently working through Israel, except to ensure that they survive.

the response of the religious leaders is “surely not.” Under normal circumstances, you might think that this is exactly what a real vineyard owner might do. But the religious leaders aren’t dumb. They know exactly what Jesus means and they don’t like the implication.

The Stone Rejected

So Jesus’ parable accuses the religious leaders of being in a long line of those who oppose God by killing his messengers rather than render to God the worship he is due. They flatly deny that this is the case, because that would be to admit wrong.

Jesus replies to this idea with Scripture that proves that the Scripture teaches that the Messiah will be rejected, but will one day judge those who oppose him. There are actually three Scripture passages here, all using the metaphor of a stone. First, let us look at the passage Jesus quotes, Psalm 118:22-23

Turn to Psalm 118

Now Psalm 118 has no author given, but we can figure out the point as we read. It begins with a exhortation to thank the Lord for his steadfast love/mercy (1). חֶסֶד is a difficult word to translate; it sometimes means mercy or kindness, but it generally carries the idea of showing favor based on a prior relationship - it comes nearer “loyalty” at times, though with the difference that God’s lovingkindness is something shown by a king to his subjects, while we usually understand loyalty as from a subject to the king.

But God’s general mercy to Israel isn’t really the subject of the psalm; it is more specific than that. We get more specific detail by the repeated exhortation in v.2-4 - it is Israel that ought to celebrate it, but not just Israel, Israel led by the priests; and not all Israelites, only those who “fear the Lord.” That is this is meant to be a celebration of believing Israel led by godly priests of the house of Aaron. Already we are quite a bit removed from what Israel was like in history. Israel has always had a few people who feared the Lord, but also many who did not.

In many psalms we find the point of the psalm at the beginning, this time, however, we start zoomed way out looking at the whole multitude praising God for his loyal love; we find that this multitude is a redeemed Israel with the priesthood leading them properly in worship. At this point, one speaker comes forward; we don’t yet know who this guy is, only that he is celebrating God’s deliverance for him personally. Is he just a random guy? something more? we will find out, but for now, let us listen to his praise (5-9)

He was in distress and the Lord answered him. He declares that because God is on his side, he has nothing to fear and is confident that he will triumph over his enemies. Everyone who fears the Lord can say this with him - either you have been delivered from your distress, or you can be confident that the Lord will deliver you so ultimately you have nothing to fear. We should all recognize that it is better to make the Lord your refuge than any man, even a powerful political leader. “Prince” translates a Hebrew Word that indicates some kind of political leader without specifying what kind or how powerful. Ancient Hebrew developed before there were hereditary Kings and therefore before “princes” were a thing. “prince” was chosen because it is the closest English word we have.

But at this point we get a hint that this anonymous speaker is not just some random guy. He now launches into more detail about the calamity the Lord rescued him from - All nations surrounded him. That’s something a King would say - if you were a soldier in battle, you would not say the nations surrounded you; you would say the nations surrounded us. But more than that, this is a victorious king. He was attacked but because God was on his side, he claimed the Name of the Lord and destroyed them (10-13).

So you see that this Psalm looks forward to a redeemed believing Israel, led by godly priests, but also led by a godly and righteous King, who is victorious over Israel’s enemies because the Lord fights for Israel. The only proper response is to celebrate the reality that the Lord is your strength because it is in the “tents of the righteous” that celebrations of God’s deliverance happen (14-16).

We get the first hint that this King has come from a difficult situation - he declares that he will not die but live, yet he has come through a severe discipline without being given over to death. The word “discipline” is neutral. It often means correction or chastening, but not always. Sometimes it just means to learn from a difficult situation. Ultimately it is not clear exactly what or why the king has suffered, only that he has suffered and the Lord brought on this suffering.

And v.19 is why this is a song sang on the way to Jerusalem. The King then arrives at the gate and demands entrance to a righteous city. Those on watch reply that this gate “of the Lord” meaning that this is Yahweh’s city so only the righteous may enter (20). Notice that all this celebration is contingent on Israel being a righteous and redeemed people. The King can enter with joy because the city of Jerusalem is righteous and will only tolerate the righteous to enter. The King then responds back that the Lord has answered him and delivered him - as the King enters through the gates of the city (21).

For the second time we get the idea that the King has been through something really difficult, without really being able to say what. It seems like the people are still talking, rather than the King, for they say “Our” (v.23-24). And the people confess that the one who has become the cornerstone - in other words, the one who is now acclaimed as King as he rides through the gates of the city of Jerusalem - this one was rejected by the builders. Wait, if the King is the stone, then the builders must be?! that’s right, the builders must be the leadership of the city of Jerusalem. This is the first time we have heard about it. But notice the perspective of the people. They are proclaiming that this rejected stone is now the cornerstone. That is, the rejection of the King is in the past; the people are now celebrating that he is rejected no longer. And they say that this change - from rejected and suffering servant to victorious king - is the Lord’s doing. That is, the King did not become accepted because those builders changed their mind. The king became accepted because the Lord did a marvelous work (23).

You’ve probably sung v.24. In context, it isn’t just a random day that they are celebrating. They are celebrating the return of the rejected King to Jerusalem. They are celebrating the fact that Israel is now believing and redeemed, and God has worked a marvelous victory.

Up to this point we have been zooming in from the crowd to a single figure that turned out to be the Messiah; now we zoom out again as the crowd continues to chant - save us O Lord. Meaning that they are placing their entire trust in God to deliver and prosper them.

We move to a new speaker - the priests. We know this is a new speaker because they are not standing at the gates; they are in the temple. As priests they have the right to confer a blessing, and they do so, confessing that this one comes in the Name of the Lord - this is God’s Messiah, and the priests are proclaiming it (26). But in addition, the priests also say that because the Lord God favors Jerusalem, the sacrifice is going ahead as well. This celebration isn’t just a royal celebration, it’s a worship service.

Finally, the Messiah speaks one more time, this time a benediction full of praise to God, and an exhortation that we ought to praise the Lord for his eternal loyal love.

But now let’s take that to Jesus’ day - Psalm 118 looks forward to a redeemed Israel, a righteous Jerusalem and a believing priesthood who are eager to welcome their king. But when the Messiah actually came the first time, that’s not what he found. He found a people that made lip service to God, that continued performing sacrifices and rituals, but who did not actually have believing, changed hearts. He did not find a priesthood ready to accept Israel’s King, but one that was hostile and wanted to kill the Messiah.

Psalm 118 hints that before the glorious celebration that the crowds thought was already here, first the Messiah - the Stone - would be rejected by Israel’s leaders. Though he would be apparently defeated and suffer great pain, God was ultimately on his side and he would be the victor. And as victor he would destroy all of his enemies.

The Religious leaders then, are showing themselves to be the builders who reject, not part of the believing multitude. Jerusalem isn’t a righteous place, but full of pretended ritual and unbelieving hearts. The crowds are cheering just as Psalm 118 said, but they don’t have the righteous hearts that would make those events possible.

Isaiah 8:14 NKJV

He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Daniel 2:34–35 NKJV

You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Daniel 2:44–45 NKJV

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure.”