Sermon Outline, February 22

Peter J. Leithart, February 18, 2004

INTRODUCTION
Once Jesus has cleared out the buyers and sellers in the temple, he turns the temple into a house of teaching (19:47-48). Furious at his attacks on them and the provocative action in the temple, and envious of the crowds, the chief priests, scribes, and other leaders look for ways to get rid of Him. The order of the chapter is important: Jesus reminds His enemies of John's baptism (vv. 3-8), claims to be the Son who is rejected by the vineyard tenants from whom He has come to collect the tribute (vv. 13-16), and His enemies try to catch Him so they can hand Him over to the Romans (v. 19). A discussion about the resurrection naturally follows (vv. 27-40), ending with the announcement that David's Messianic Son is David's Lord (vv. 41-44) and moving into a lengthy description of the destruction of the temple (ch. 21). The chapter is an overview of the whole gospel.

BY WHAT AUTHORITY?
By His actions in the temple, Jesus has gained a brand new set of enemies: the chief priests, who do not appear earlier in Luke (19:47; 20:1). Well-connected and holding positions of ancient respect and authority, the chief priests are formidable enemies. Jesus is playing with the big boys now. They are among the delegation that issues the first challenge to Jesus. As priests, they had the authority and duty of teaching the Law (Deuteronomy 33:10), and demand to know who authorized Jesus to toss things around and teach in the temple. They believe that Jesus is an unaccredited teacher. Worse, He acts as if He owns the place (cf. Luke 2:49).

Jesus' response has sometimes been seen as a kind of red herring: Instead of answering the question, He changes the subject. But the question about John's baptism is an answer to the question. Jesus was designated as Messianic "Son of God" by His baptism (Luke 3:21-22), and it is as Son that He has authority in the house of His Father. Jesus' own baptism, which was accompanied by a heavenly voice, confirms that John's baptism was from heaven. Jesus' question stymies his enemies. Since they have already rejected John's ministry (Luke 7:29-30), they can hardly affirm it now without losing face. Being man-pleasers, however, they don't want to say anything that will upset the crowds, and criticizing John will upset the crowds. Jesus answers their demand, and silences them in a single question.

CARETAKERS OF THE VINEYARD
Jesus was designated as Son by His baptism, and the parable of the vineyard that follows assumes that He has that status (v. 13; cf. "beloved son" in 3:22; also 9:35). Jesus' parable is about Israel's history. The "vineyard" was a common way of describing Israel, and Israel's entire history could be told as the story of a vineyard (cf. Psalm 80:8-13; Isaiah 5:1-7). The vineyard could refer to the nation of Israel, but here it refers more specifically to the blessings that God bestowed on Israel that Israel could forfeit.

Jesus' parable, like the vine story in Isaiah 5, tells the story of Israel as a story of unfaithfulness, with Israel's reaction to Jesus' ministry as the climax. Yahweh gave Israel the privilege of caring for His vineyard, but Israel refused to pay proper tribute to Him as the vineyard owner. Yahweh sent servant after servant, prophet after prophet, calling for Israel to repent and produce the fruit of repentance (cf. Luke 3:7-9), but they refused. Finally, the owner sends His Son, who is now only mistreated but killed. As a result, the vineyard will be taken from Israel and given to a new nation, the new Israel of Jesus' disciples.

When His listeners object to the story, Jesus quotes Psalm 118:22 as the punch line of the parable. That verse uses an architectural rather than an agricultural image. Israel's history is a story of house-building, the erection of a temple. Jesus is the cornerstone rejected by the builders (Israel), but made the chief cornerstone of a new Temple by the Master of the house. Verse 18 describes two possible outcomes of an encounter with this stone: Those who fall on the stone in submission and worship will be broken unto salvation, but those who are underneath the stone will be crushed.

RENDER TO CAESAR
Jesus' enemies have failed in their challenge to His teaching credentials, and they are unable to seize Him without arousing the anger of the people. So they attempt to trap Him into saying something that could be construed as politically subversive. After all, He has just caused a public stir in the temple, and this could be taken as a prelude to a nationalist resistance movement against Rome. To a Roman governor, this would be a plausible interpretation of Jesus' actions. Israel was then (as now) a political volcano, ready to erupt at the least provocation. Over and over, there had been violent clashes between Romans and Jews, and the various parties within Judaism were like the various parties within Islam today. There were even terrorists, known as the sicarii or "dagger-men," and a number of revolutionary movements. Given that the temple was so central to Israel's sense of national identity, anyone doing provocative things in the temple must not unwatched go. If the priests could connect Jesus with these, they would have ammunition to take Him to Pilate (v. 20). They ask a question about taxation: Should faithful Jews be supporting the Gentile Romans who were occupying the country? Wouldn't that be a kind of cooperation with paganism? Besides, Caesar's coins are inherently idolatrous, since they bear Caesar's image and proclaim him as a son of a god.

Jesus' answer is multi-layered: First, His answer implies that taxes should be paid to Caesar, a point that Paul reiterates (Romans 13:6-7). Jesus leaves no room for tax revolt.

Second, the second part of His answer ("Render to God") is a challenge to the spies who ask the question. Because Caesar's image is on the denarius, it should be paid to Caesar; something stamped with Caesar's image is Caesar's and should be rendered to him. But what are the things that should be rendered to God? By the logic of Jesus' argument, things stamped with God's image belong to God and should be rendered to Him. Scribes and priests, knowing Torah, would see a reference to Genesis 1:26-28, the creation of man in God's image. By His question, then, Jesus is challenging the scribes and priests to give themselves to God, and implicitly accusing them of rendering God's things to another  Ethat is, accusing them of idolatry. Specifically, He is accusing revolutionary Jews of idolatrously adopting pagan methods for resisting paganism. Finally, His answer is also a challenge to the divine pretensions of Caesar. So, Jesus' teaching is subversive of Rome after all, but also subverts the Jewish way of subverting Rome.

GOD OF THE LIVING
Finally, the Sadducees come to challenge Jesus. They were another of the "sects" of first-century Judaism. Socially, they tended to be members of the aristocracy, and many of the priests were in this party. Theologically, their most notable teaching, as Luke mentions, is a denial of the resurrection of the dead (v. 27). Their question is an effort to make a mockery of resurrection faith by showing what they consider its absurd consequences.

Jesus answers in two ways: First, He points out that resurrection life is not the same as life prior to the resurrection. In particular, marriage and sex and procreation will not be part of human life in the resurrection. Second, He proves from Scripture that the patriarchs are alive before God, awaiting the final resurrection. Jesus does not say that the patriarchs are already raised, but that they are alive after death until the time they are raised from the dust in glorified bodies.

The question Jesus poses in verses 41-44 is part of the same conversation (cf. "them" in v. 41). It is another response to the question about the resurrection. Jesus has shown that the resurrection is true in general, but the quotation from Psalm 110 is about one particular resurrection, His own, which will demonstrate that He is the One at the right hand of Yahweh. "Messiah" means much more than the Jews realize; the Messiah is not merely another human king in the line of David, but one who shares rule with Yahweh as David's Lord. The Psalm quotation ends with a warning to the Jews: The Messiah will vindicate Himself against His enemies.