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At the end of the previous chapter Jesus has just had encounter with the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law who demanded to know His authority. Jesus would not tell them unless they expressed an opinion about John the Baptist’s authority - from God or man? They wouldn’t answer because they were either afraid of people’s opinions or unwilling to confront their own unbelief.
So now Jesus moves right into the very subject they were asking about - but He does in it a very interesting way.
Today we’re mostly going to see why the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were so wrong in pitting themselves against Jesus - and we start out by looking at a parable that Jesus told - asserting God’s ownership over not just the petty little kingdom these men had set up, but over the whole earth - then we move into two attacks these men level against Jesus - and, next week in the end of the chapter the amazing story of a teacher of the law that actually got what the Lord was about - followed by Jesus trying to get people beyond their comfort zone when thinking about who God is - and ending up with turning the tables on the ownership idea - that God, despite owning everything, is blessed when someone gives a tiny miniscule amount.
1 He then began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.
Storytelling was a high art back then - and whenever someone told stories, especially Jesus, there would have been rapt attention. This agricultural picture would have been very common to them - and in fact, the production of wine is very common to us in the Yamhill area of Oregon, where some of the finest wines are grown and produced.
They did it very differently than we do today - in Jesus day a person would dig a shallow pit from a hard rocky surface - tilted barely downhill. Someone would come along and dump baskets of grapes into the pit and someone else would stomp on them. The juice would flow through little channels into little chambers. It reminds me of digging moats around sand castles and then connecting them and watching the waters flow from moat to moat.
The juice was then collected into clay pots with a mud cork - and a small hole to let carbon dioxide escape during fermentation.
A couple of points:
1. The "man" is the Father - it is His vineyard - but the religious leaders acted like they owned Israel.
2. God planted and dug - He set up a system for redemption - it is not man’s creation
3. God hired farmers - those given the gospel (or the covenant) were expected to carry out tasks for the farmer’s good.
4. And He expected fruit from these endeavors. God expected His name to be spread abroad and for people to be encouraged to come to Him.
5. The workers would have very little supervision, but very great expectations.
2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.
Notice he didn’t say "all" the fruit - God is fair, and does reward His servants.
3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
I don’t know about you, but if those were my employees they’d have gotten the boot right away.
4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
If you haven’t guessed by now - Jesus is referring probably to the prophets, who came one after another, telling Israel to get right with God - many of them were beaten or killed.
6 "He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ’They will respect my son.’
So this, of course, is Jesus.
7 "But the tenants said to one another, ’This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
9 "What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Haven’t you read this scripture:
"’The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; 11 the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?"
The coming of the son in the story probably meant that the landowner had died. The law in that time allowed that the person who claimed unowned property first would own it - so the workers figured this was a wise real estate deal waiting for them.
But the analogy is that Jesus has come to His own land, His own people - and yet they rejected Him and now sought to kill Him.
Do you ever hear a story being told and suddenly it begins to dawn on you that its more than just a story, that the fictional characters have a real life component - and that its focused on you?
David had that happen after he had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed - and Nathan the prophet told a story about a poor man’s sheep and David got all up in arms about it - then Nathan told him: "you are the man." David, to his credit, realized his sin and repented.
But these guys hearts can’t be touched I guess - look at the reaction:
12 Then they looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.
These guys were so bent on holding on to their power and authority and saw no way to beat Jesus at His own game - that killing Him became the only answer.
They had been backed into a corner - and you know what - that was okay. I think Jesus likes to back us into corners as well. He takes away every argument or excuse we have so that we’ve either got to make Him our Lord or kill Him - reject Him.
I pray that your response to Jesus won’t be like these men - instead be like David, realize that you’ve fallen short, that you are guilty of sin - but that Jesus holds the key to your future - to those who will fall on Him He is a loving Father who gives His life for His sheep - not a harsh judge.
But to those who reject Him there is eternal death and separation from all that is good. Which one do you want to meet? Remember now - it’s the stone the builders rejected - just because the world rejects Jesus doesn’t mean He isn’t exactly who He says He is.
Well, these religious leaders were not done:
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15 Should we pay or shouldn’t we?"
First of all - beware of flattery. Heart felt praise can warm the soul - but flattery is often a hidden knife right to the heart. These men were trying to catch Jesus off guard - He responds very directly, and doesn’t play the false flattery game.
A little background - the Herodians and Pharisees were enemies - The Herodians supported Rome as a way to keep Israel under the thumb of the family of Herod. The Pharisees hated Rome. But they had a common enemy in Jesus.
Their question was fool proof - or maybe it was the proof of fools! There were several taxes the Jews were forced to pay. The one in question here was either the poll tax - everyone 14 to 65 had to pay one days wages - or it was about taxes in general - but their trap was this: if Jesus said don’t pay the tax then they could accuse him of treason before Rome. If He said to pay the tax then He would lose favor with the people who hated Rome and their taxes.
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar’s," they replied.
17 Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s."
And they were amazed at him.
The coin, probably bearing the image of Tiberius Caesar (AD 14-37) and the inscription that claimed Caesar to be the "chief priest." Jesus is saying that if you are a citizen of a country it is not wrong to pay your debts to that government. He even uses a different word than His opponents. They used the word that means "to give" while Jesus used the word "to pay a debt."
Paying a debt for a government which provides services does not mean that you become in submission to its beliefs about God. Caesar was not God - but God had set up this government at that time. And the people should willingly pay taxes to it - but at the same time their allegiance is to God with their lives and hearts and worship.
This same sentiment is expressed in several other places in the New Testament - including Romans 12, for instance. God is the one that sets up governments - He has ultimate control, even if that government is Rome.
So next we move from the political trap to the philosophical trap - with another group, the Sadducees. The Sadducees were the other major religious group in Israel. They only accepted the Pentateuch - the first 5 books of the Old Testament and they rejected most of the Pharisees rules and regulations. The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection because they could find no mention of it in the Pentateuch.
18 Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 19 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother.
20 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving any children. 21 The second one married the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It was the same with the third. 22 In fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. 23 At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
The law these men refer to is:
Deut 25:5-6 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. 6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
They took this - and then considered an illogical conclusion about what would happen if all these people were resurrected and the resulting confusion - thus concluding that there can’t be a resurrection.
24 Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? 25 When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
Jesus goes right to the heart of the problem - lack of knowledge about the Word of God and a lack of faith in the power of God. That’s pretty common today, isn’t it - and its why so many get twisted all around themselves trying to get God to fit into their box.
Jesus isn’t here giving the last word on relationships in heaven - but He is refuting the Sadducees claims - we’ll be like angels in that we won’t have weddings (except the wedding feast of the Lamb) and there won’t be sexual relationships like on earth.
And that’s just the point - the Sadducees were anthropomorphisizing God and His universe. They figured life in heaven must be like life on earth - but its not. Our bodies are different and it is a different dimension altogether.
So what will heaven be like? We don’t know a lot, but we do know a few things:
What We Know About our Bodies in Heaven
They will be recognizable. 1 Cor 13:12
They will be like Christ’s body. 1 John 3:2
They will be bodies in which the spirit predominates. 1 Cor 15:44,49
They will be unlimited by space. Luke 24:31; John 20:19,26
They will be eternal. 2 Cor 5:1-5
They will be glorious. Rom 8:18; 1 Cor 15:43
They will not have pain. Rev 21:4
They will not die. 1 Cor 15:26; Rev 21:4
They will not hunger or thirst. Rev 7:16
They will not sin. Rev 21:27
26 Now about the dead rising-have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ’I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"
The Sadducees only accepted Genesis through Deuteronomy, Jesus answers their underlying theological error from Exodus 3:6. Saying "I am" instead of "I was" is a clear statement that God knew these men to be alive - well after their physical lives on earth had ended.
Be a good steward
What has God placed you in charge of? Take a hint from Jesus’ story - He has laid the structure for you - saved you, given you gifts, anointed you with His Spirit - now its your job to: tend the farm, grow crops, protect it from harm, then hand it over to the owner.
Sometimes we react like - well God’s done it all so I can just sit back and relax and wait for the rapture - no. Jesus tells us to "occupy the time" until He comes back. He expects us to work - that is, let our lives be transformed and then used for Him in obedience.
And we should also protect the farm from raiders - watch out for others to make sure no one is tempting them or pulling them out of the faith or causing them to sin or hurting them. Be in the watch tower.
Another mistaken attitude is that God gave us the farm to do with it anything we want - and we get power hungry and selfish. Don’t make that mistake either - it is God’s farm - your life, your ministry, your family and your marriage and your job.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to fit God into our world view or philosophical framework.
Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. 9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
That doesn’t mean that God is not understandable - but it means we should take Him at His Word - and if He says something is so, then it is so even if it doesn’t make sense to us.
Don’t think that because you believe something that it is automatically true - be open for correction.
Jesus told the Sadducees that they were "badly mistaken" in their interpretation of God’s Word. Let the Word interpret itself where possible - and if you think something is true, then read something that contradicts it from the Word, let yourself be open to correction.
Its like I’m going along in my car and never getting to where I want even though I’m following the map - until someone comes along and shows me that I’m holding the map upside down. Its not the map, its how I’m reading it that’s the problem.
