Luke 20

Lu 20:1-19.

THE

AUTHORITY OF

JESUS

QUESTIONED, AND

HIS

REPLY--PARABLE OF THE

WICKED

HUSBANDMEN.

(See on

Mt 21:23.)

2. these things--particularly the clearing of the temple.

4. baptism of John--his whole ministry and mission, of which baptism

was the seal.

5. Why then believed ye him not?--that is, in his testimony to Jesus,

the sum of his whole witness.

7. could not tell--crooked, cringing hypocrites! No wonder Jesus gave

you no answer

(Mt 7:6).

But what dignity and composure does our Lord display as He turns their

question upon themselves!

9-13. vineyard--(See on

Lu 13:6).

In

Mt 21:33

additional points are given, taken literally from

Isa 5:2,

to fix down the application and sustain it by Old Testament authority.

husbandmen--the ordinary spiritual guides of the people, under whose

care and culture the fruits of righteousness might be yielded.

went, &c.--leaving it to the laws of the spiritual husbandry

during the whole length of the Jewish economy. (See on

Mr 4:26.)

10. beat, &c.--

(Mt 21:35);

that is, the prophets, extraordinary messengers raised up from time to

time. (See on

Mt 23:37.)

13. my beloved son--Mark

(Mr 12:6)

still more affectingly, "Having yet therefore one son, his

well-beloved"; our Lord thus severing Himself from all merely

human messengers, and claiming Sonship in its loftiest

sense. (Compare

Heb 3:3-6.)

it may be--"surely"; implying the almost unimaginable guilt of

not doing so.

14. reasoned among themselves--(Compare

Ge 37:18-20;

Joh 11:47-53).

the heir--sublime expression of the great truth, that God's inheritance

was destined for, and in due time to come into the possession of, His

Son in our nature

(Heb 1:2).

inheritance . . . ours--and so from mere servants we may become

lords; the deep aim of the depraved heart, and literally

"the root of all evil."

15. cast him out of the vineyard--(Compare

Heb 13:11-13;

1Ki 21:13;

Joh 19:17).

16. He shall come, &c.--This answer was given by the Pharisees

themselves

(Mt 21:41),

thus pronouncing their own righteous doom. Matthew alone

(Mt 21:43)

gives the naked application, that "the kingdom of God should be taken

from them, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits

thereof"--the great evangelical community of the faithful, chiefly

Gentiles.

God forbid--His whole meaning now bursting upon them.

17-19. written--(in

Ps 118:22, 23.

See on

Lu 19:38).

The Kingdom of God is here a Temple, in the erection of which a

certain stone, rejected as unsuitable by the spiritual builders,

is, by the great Lord of the House, made the keystone of the whole. On

that Stone the builders were now "falling" and being "broken"

(Isa 8:15),

"sustaining great spiritual hurt; but soon that Stone should fall upon

them and grind them to powder"

(Da 2:34, 35;

Zec 12:3)

--in their corporate capacity in the tremendous destruction of

Jerusalem, but personally, as unbelievers, in a more awful sense

still.

19. the same hour--hardly able to restrain their rage.

Lu 20:20-40.

ENTANGLING

QUESTIONS ABOUT

TRIBUTE AND THE

RESURRECTION--THE

REPLIES.

20-26. sent forth--after consulting

(Mt 22:15)

on the best plan.

spies--"of the Pharisees and Herodians"

(Mr 12:13).

See

Mr 3:6.

21. we know, &c.--hoping by flattery to throw Him off His guard.

22. tribute--(See on

Mt 17:24).

25. things which be Cæsar's--Putting it in this general form, it

was impossible for sedition itself to dispute it, and yet it dissolved

the snare.

and unto God--How much there is in this profound but to them startling

addition to the maxim, and how incomparable is the whole for fulness,

brevity, clearness, weight!

27-34. no resurrection--"nor angel nor spirit"

(Ac 23:8);

the materialists of the day.

34. said unto them--In

Mt 22:29,

the reply begins with this important statement:--"Ye do err, not

knowing the Scriptures," regarding the future state, "nor the power of

God," before which a thousand such difficulties vanish (also

Mr 12:24).

36. neither . . . die any more--Marriage is ordained

to perpetuate the human family; but as there will be no breaches by

death in the future state, this ordinance will cease.

equal--or "like."

unto the angels--that is, in the immortality of their nature.

children of God--not in respect of character but nature;

"being the children of the resurrection" to an undecaying existence

(Ro 8:21, 23).

And thus the children of their Father's immortality

(1Ti 6:16).

37, 38. even Moses--whom they had just quoted to entangle Him.

38. not . . . of the dead, . . . for all,

&c.--To God, no human being is dead, or ever will be; but all sustain

an abiding conscious relation to Him. But the "all" here meant "those

who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world." These sustain a

gracious covenant relation to God, which cannot be dissolved. In

this sense our Lord affirms that for Moses to call the Lord the "God"

of His patriarchal servants if at that moment they had no existence,

would be unworthy of Him. He "would be ashamed to be called

their God, if He had not prepared for them a city"

(Heb 11:16).

How precious are these glimpses of the resurrection state!

39. scribes . . . well said--enjoying His victory over the Sadducees.

they durst not--neither party, both for the time utterly foiled.

Lu 20:41-47.

CHRIST

BAFFLES THE

PHARISEES BY A

QUESTION ABOUT

DAVID AND

MESSIAH, AND

DENOUNCES THE

SCRIBES.

41. said, &c.--"What think ye of Christ [the promised and expected

Messiah]? Whose son is He

[to be]? They say unto Him, The son of David.

He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit [by the Holy Ghost,

Mr 12:36]

call Him Lord?"

(Mt 22:42, 43).

The difficulty can only be solved by the higher and

lower--the divine and human natures of our Lord

(Mt 1:23).

Mark the testimony here given to the inspiration of the Old

Testament (compare

Lu 24:44).

46, 47. Beware, &c.--(See on

Mt 23:5;

and

Lu 14:7).

47. devour, &c.--taking advantage of their helpless condition and

confiding character, to obtain possession of their property, while by

their "long prayers" they made them believe they were raised far above

"filthy lucre." So much "the greater damnation" awaits them. What a

lifelike description of the Romish clergy, the true successors of "the

scribes!"