Challenge and Counterchallenge

How many of you played “Mother May I?” as a child? I never liked that game because all the authority rested upon “mother” so she could do whatever she pleased (even if it wasn’t fair to all the children).

Since then I have learned that there are some overlapping words that challenge my concept of fairness. The Language of the Bible includes 2 words that are important here: one word is normally translated power; and the other word appears 3x in today’s first 7 verses – authority.

Sometimes people flex their authority beyond their power to see it through. We tend to call that overstepping.

On the other hand people who exercise power without the proper authority (or permission) are called brutes, terrorists, criminals, or thugs.

The crisis in today’s Scripture is that Jesus was saying and doing things, and the establishment wanted to know where He got permission (authority) to do these things.

The first verse of one of the other gospels states exactly where and when was the source of Jesus’ permission/authority.

John 1:1 ESV:2016

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The fact that Jesus was God means that He needed no permission, because He was the original authority. And as we look forward to the end of time we are reminded that Jesus has the wisdom to know when to assert authority and when to demonstrate His power.

Revelation 5:12 ESV:2016

12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

Transition: In Jesus’ day the priests, scribes and elders could be heard saying the same thing we may hear from children in the park in 2021—“you’re not the boss of me!” That mindset doesn’t disappear when children grow up. How many times have you heard in the last 18 months about guidelines and mandates that go beyond one’s authority? Just as we may demand “Who gives you the right to demand that I… Jesus encounters a group who questions His right to cleanse and teach in the temple and accept praise from the crowds.

The Religious Establishment Rejected Jesus’ Authority (vv.1-8)

Jesus was teaching AND PREACHING in the Temple (v.1)

1. Notice the 2 words: teaching and preaching

a. The authority to teach was derived from having been tutored by a certified Rabbi until the Rabbi petitioned the Sanhedrin to declare the student to have mastered his teaching. Jesus had never been approved by a Rabbi, but throughout Luke we have seen his teaching in a way that the crowd was shocked by his authority.

b. The word translated preaching the gospel is literally the word evangelizing. It is the verb form of the noun good news—he was good newsing in the temple.

c. We must be aware that there is a world of difference between discussing religion (teaching) and proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. People can look at the past week and say, “hasn’t God given us great weather?” but that won’t get a person saved!

Acts 4:12 ESV:2016

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

2. In 19:39 they tried to silence Him, but by 19:47 their annoyance is moving to a whole new level.

Check and Checkmate (vv.2-7)

1. The villains in Luke’s telling are the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. We can thing of them as the chairs of Senate committees, the law professors, and congressional aids. Today these three would include both Democrats and Republicans. In Jesus’ day it included the Pharisees, the Saduccees, and the Herodians. Luke description is like saying there was broad bi-partisan agreement that Jesus was draining the swamp of corruption within the beltway.

2. Their silence is moving toward violence. They know that He believes Himself to be God. If they can just get him to say the words, then the law permitted Him to be stoned to death. They ask the question in the most straight forward way they can think and they think they have moved him into a corner where he will make a desperate claim.

3. But Jesus knows he is to be offered as the ultimate Passover Lamb and Passover lambs were sacrificed by bleeding out on Friday of that week. Stoning would not have accomplished His Messianic purpose. So He foils their plan by the common rabbinic tradition of asking a probing question to deepen their thoughts.

I think many of us have seen hearings and political drama where a politician brags and rants for a while then asks a gotcha question. They press for a yes or no, when the truth is more nuanced.

4. John had preached a baptism of repentance. A baptism that says, “I’ve not been doing right.” As temple leaders they were supposed to be experts in all things God related.

5. The leaders could not bring themselves to claim John had God’s permission to say what he said. Because if John was right, and they had gotten it wrong about some God thing they would be exposing their weakness.

6. Yet if they say John did not have God’s permission to say what he said, the people would turn on them.

Mike Drop (v.8)

1. Jesus is fully submitting to the Father’s will as He offers Himself as the ultimate once-for-all Passover Lamb.

2. He isn’t about to let these big fish in a little pond intimidate Him into saying something that would lead to His stoning, rather than His atoning.

3. So He drops the mic by declaring CheckMate.

Transition: Before his words have stopped echoing against the stones of the temple, He proceeds to tell a parable that illustrates the absolute foolishness of flexing their power when they don’t have any authority behind it.

Rejecting the Son has Dire Consequences (vv.9-18)

Defining the Vineyard (v.9)

1. Distant landlords who allowed their property to be used by others was just as common as it is today. Tenants may lease a pasture and contract with the landlord a set amount of the crops in contractual payment.

2. Many believe that the vineyard in this story is the nation of Israel. But I think Darel Bock is on to something when he says that “The vineyard is the place of blessing or promise, and the tenants are Israel, especially its leadership”.[i]

3. The tenants (mentioned 5x in this parable) are the Levitical system and those who align with their power.

4. We will see in v.16 that a new manager takes over the ranch, but the vineyard remains. This is why I think the vineyard is the place of promised provision and abundance. Even though the temple leaders are evicted, the Holy Spirit on Pentecost will assume management of the vineyard.

5. This fits into the bigger picture of Luke’s 2 volume History. The Gospel is the promise made, Acts is the promise fulfilled.

3 servants and a Son (vv.10-15a)

1. So if the tenants are the religious system and the people who follow them, who are the servants?

2. I heard a sermon yesterday where a famous West Coast preacher claimed that the 3 servants are the prophets. But I think the treachery of the tenants predates the prophets.

3. Soon after the descendants of the Abrahamic blessing arrive in the promised land, God sends Judges. The Judges were ignored, disrespected and the people increasingly did what was right in their own eyes.

4. Then God gave them Kings, from the first King forward the people found that kings were not dependable and they revolted.

5. Overlapping the Kings were prophets who called the people to the repentance that would magnify blessing, but they mistreated the prophets.

6. In Jesus’ description the first servant was beaten, the second was beaten and treated shamefully (traumatized), and the 3rdwas wounded and cast out.

7. Beaten, traumatized and wounded is a good summary of how the judges, kings, and prophets were all treated as a whole.

8. Notice the Mercy of the owner.

a. The first servant goes to simply collect what is due, what was already contractually agreed. Rather than follow the terms of the contract, they refuse to comply.

b. It is a great demonstration of mercy that the owner would send a 2ndrepresentative to collect what was already agreed to.

c. And it goes beyond all definitions of justice that he would send a 3rdto collect on the debt.

9. Since the tenants are NOT concerned with the authority of the contract, they are overstepping any concept of rightful permission in their displays of power.

10. When the SON appears, the tenants assume that the Father may have passed. With the Father gone, if the Son was also gone, they could legally assume ownership of the land if 3 years passed without another heir claiming the land. They are acting selfishly out of brute strength (which is a strong prophecy of Thursday and Friday of Christ’s passion week).

A change of management (vv.15b-16)

1. Matthew’s account is a little different than Luke. In Luke, Jesus tells them what happens next. In Matthew, Jesus asks the people what should happen to the tenants. They respond

Matthew 21:41 ESV:2016

41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

2. The people’s own sense of justice demands that these wretched tenants deserve a miserable death! But this whole scenario is so brutal they can’t even imagine it happening in their society.

3. Regardless of if the people say it and Jesus repeats it, or if Jesus makes the statement, everyone agrees that a new manager is needed.

4. This new manager is not a sharecropper or tenant holding onto a land lease, it is the Holy Spirit Himself who pours out the new Covenant where he rules from within rather than from the Temple with ongoing sacrifices.

Exalting Jesus (vv.17-18)

1. In chapter 19 the crowds are singing from the Hallel (Psalm 118) to describe the Messiah who is in their midst.

2. In v.17 Jesus (the Son who was rejected and killed) identifies Himself as the rock in Ps 118:22

Psalm 118:22 ESV:2016

22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

We used to sing a song in my teen years, “Jesus is the Rock and He rolls my blues away. Bop shoo-bop, Shoo-bop Woo!

Transition: As we have seen the villains move from silence to violence and the tenants progress from beating to killing, while at the same time we’ve seen the praise of Jesus increasing throughout His later ministry, It reminds me of a modern reality.

Your Response can Spiral (v.19)

If you accept Jesus as the promised Messiah who died and rose for your sin, your praise and awareness of His goodness will spiral upward

1. You will see His hand of blessing and provision in unlikely places.

2. You will experience His peace in unbelievable circumstances.

3. Romans 1:17 describes our experience as moving from faith for faith.

If you choose to reject Jesus as Savior of the World, your sadness will only spiral downward (Romans 1:21-26)

Romans 1:32 ESV:2016

32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

1. Anxiety and debauchery seem to correlate. The further one goes down the pit of despair, the easier it is to take the next step.

2. The longer a rockslide or avalanche continues, the stronger the destruction becomes.

Conclusion:

I’m not going to stretch out a long appeal, I simply want to conclude by saying, “Rejecting Jesus Never Turns Out Well!” and you will never regret saying yes to Jesus!

Song of Response #350.. “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus”

Benediction: Romans 15:13 (ESV:2016) —13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

[i]Darrell L. Bock, Luke: 9:51–24:53, vol. 2, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1996), 1591.