Luke 19:29 When he came near to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the mountain that is called Olivet, he sent two of his disciples, 30 saying, “Go your way into the village on the other side, in which, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, which no man had ever sat upon. Untie it and bring it. 31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say to him: ‘The Lord needs it.’”
32 Those who were sent went away, and found things just as he had told them. 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34 They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35 Then they brought it to Jesus. They threw their cloaks on the colt, and sat Jesus on them. 36 As he went, they spread their cloaks on the road. 37 As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Psalm 118:26 Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”
Although they don’t seem to completely understand it, the disciples are fulfilling Zachariah’s ancient prophecy:
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9
The Pharisees, however, aware of the prophecy and knowing what is going on, think it is blasphemy, and demand that the multitude of disciples singing, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, stop singing at once.
Luke 19:39 Some of the Pharisees from the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
40 He answered them, “I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out.”
Christ says, like it or not, the words of the prophecy that God gave to Zechariah will be fulfilled. If the disciples don’t sing out announcing the arrival of the Messiah then the stones will cry out the announcement!
Luke 19:41 When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come on you, when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, 44 and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. They will not leave in you one stone on another, because you didn’t know the time of your visitation.”
Jesus was weeping because he knew what the future held for Jerusalem. The Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9:6 as prophesied about long ago, had come to Jerusalem, but because they were looking for the Messiah to be a political and military leader they didn’t know the time of [their] visitation. Jesus was weeping because he knew what the future held for those who would reject the chief cornerstone. Psalm 118:22
Your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, surround you, hem you in on every side, and will dash you and your children within you to the ground. And this is exactly what the historian Josephus witnessed in 70 A.D. when Rome came against Jerusalem.
Indeed, though they had so great an army lying round about them, they bore a siege of five months, till some of Herod’s chosen men ventured to get upon the wall, and fell into the city, … and upon the pouring in of the army, there was slaughter of vast multitudes everywhere, … so they were cut to pieces, … nor was there any mercy showed either to infants, or to the aged, or to the weaker sex, … they slew people of all ages, like madmen.
(Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book 1, 18:2)
Luke 19:45 He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ Isaiah 56:7 but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’!” Jeremiah 7:11
47 He was teaching daily in the temple, but the chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him. 48 They couldn’t find what they might do, for all the people hung on to every word that he said.
The temple was to be where God’s children gathered to worship, however the religious leaders had come up with a scheme to enrich themselves. They sold space to vendors allowing them to house the sacrificial animals in stalls for sale. If you brought your own animal for sacrifice there was no guarantee that the priests would certify it “spotless.” However, if you bought a lamb from the vendor, who paid the priests a handsome kickback, your lamb was guaranteed to pass. In addition to the temple teeming with sacrificial animals the priests also took a cut from the money-changers who were allowed to have booths in the temple to accommodate the worshipers who had traveled from the far ends of the Empire. With close to a million pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, this whole area was bustling with thousands of animals and tens of thousands of people. Worship was the last thing on anyone’s mind.
The holy temple, the place where God dwelled with his people, was designed for worship, instead of being a house of prayer it had been taken over by robbers. So try to picture the scene that Luke describes here: while the massive throng, Matthew 21:9 of disciples following Jesus were still singing, Psalm 118, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord”, Christ entered the temple. Seeing this desecration of the temple, Christ intentionally wove a whip and with it cleared the thirty-acre area, driving out those who would monetize the worship of God.
What a scene! Picture Jesus, driving out, to the tune of Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, thousands of vendors and their animals while overturning tables. Hear the clanging of the coins that were being exchanged bouncing off the marble floor and the vendors themselves being whipped. By today’s evangelical standards, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah was not acting very Christ-like. It was certainly not consistent with the picture painted by the modern church of the tame “Jesus meek and mild.” In fact, such behavior is an embarrassment and described as toxic by many of today’s religious leaders.
The religious leaders, thinking only of storing up treasure on earth, were in shock. Jesus had gone too far. They couldn’t have Jesus upsetting their lucrative business arrangement. The chief priests, the scribes, and the leading men among the people sought to destroy him.
Luke 20:1 On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders. 2 They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?”
3 He answered them, “I also will ask you one question. Tell me: 4 the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?”
5 They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” 7 They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.
8 Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
After the temple had been cleared, Jesus was again teaching a multitude of people who hung on every word that he said. The religious leaders sent a delegation to Jesus composed of priests, scribes, and elders. They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things?” Who gave you the authority to kick our people out of the temple and disrupt worship? Did Herod authorize this? Or perhaps you have a letter from Caesar? Who do you think you are?
Jesus, again, figuratively turned the tables on them, answering their question by asking them the central question that defined his whole ministry, “I also will ask you one question. Tell me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?” If they said that the baptism of John was from heaven, they would be admitting that the authority to overturn the tables in the temple came from God who announced through John the Baptist, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
When they refused to answer, Jesus turned to the multitude of people listening in on the conversation and told them a parable, a parable that clearly condemned the delegation of priests, scribes, and elders who had come to trap him with their question.
Luke 20:9 He began to tell the people this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. 10 At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty. 11 He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12 He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out. 13 The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’
14 “But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’ 15 Then they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.”
When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!”
17 But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written,
‘The stone which the builders rejected
was made the chief cornerstone?’ Psalm 118:22
18 Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces,
but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”
In the Old Testament, Israel is often referred to as a vineyard. The vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel. Isaiah 5:7 Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord sent his prophets to the vineyard, Israel, to remind them of their Covenant obligation to their Lord. However, they always ultimately rejected the message of prophets. Finally, when the Lord sent his Son to the vineyard, Israel, what was their reaction? As we saw above in Luke 19:47 they sought to destroy him. Or as they said in this parable, “Let’s kill him.”
By rejecting the chief cornerstone, Christ warned that they will be broken to pieces and crushed in the dust. In answer to the disciples, Christ will get into much more detail, but that will have to wait until we reach Luke 21.
Because the parable was telegraphed directly at the Pharisees, they were furious, wanting to immediately kill Jesus. But they knew that if they apprehended Jesus they would have a riot on their hands because the people loved Jesus, his teaching, and his miracles. So again the Pharisees and elders designed a trap so that they could justify Jesus’ arrest.
Luke 20:19 The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them. 20 They watched him and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. 21 They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test me? 24 Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
25 He said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26 They weren’t able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer and were silent.
The priests had hoped to get Jesus to say something seditious so that he could be brought up on civil charges. Jesus perceived their craftiness and again outsmarted the doctors of the Law. Some things belong to Caesar, so give to the civil authorities that which is due to them. But, on the other hand, many things do not belong to Caesar. In that case, give to God that which is due to him. They marveled at his answer. But they still loathed and feared him.
The church would do well to heed Christ’s words, because today many pastors are frequently bringing compromises with Caesar into the church. These men and women, instead of preaching the whole counsel of God, Acts 20:27 and calling for repentance, are also embracing the societal values of intolerance, social justice, equity, socialism, transgenderism, feminism, abortion, transhumanism, and a host of other lies fabricated by Satan, designed to obscure the image of God.
The church is giving over to Caesar the things that are God’s, including capitulating to Caesar’s demand to inject experimental drugs and lock the church doors forbidding the people of God from meeting in community together, in direct contradiction of Hebrews 10:25 Do not forsake the assembling together.
Civil magistrates may not assume to themselves the administration of the Word or sacraments; or the power of the keys of the Kingdom of heaven… No law of any commonwealth should interfere with, let, or hinder, the due exercise thereof, among the voluntary members of any denomination of Christians… It is the duty of civil magistrates… that all religious assemblies be held without disturbance.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Of the Civil Magistrate)
Deuteronomy 6:5-8 instructs believers to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commands… are to be on your hears. Impress them on your children. Talk about them… Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. In other words, the things that are God’s are to inform and direct our behavior.
However, we learn in Revelation 13:16-17 that Caesar intends to force all people… to receive his mark on their right hands and on their foreheads. They could not buy or sell unless they had his mark. Caesar demands that even his decrees that contradict Scripture are to inform and direct our behavior.
Do you understand the conflict? Saying Jesus is Lord, Romans 10:9, is a political statement. Caesar wants total allegiance.
For example, C.S. Lewis warned, anticipating the dystopian totalitarian transhumanism of the World Economic Forum’s Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus, (referred to back on page 125):
The man-molders of the new age will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique… For the power of man to make himself what he pleases means the power of some men to make other men what they please.
(C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, Collier Books)
But when the government oversteps its God-given limits, we must say with Peter, “We must obey God rather than man.” Acts 5:29
Luke 20:27 Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 28 They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother. 29 There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 30 The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 31 The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 32 Afterward the woman also died. 33 Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife.”
34 Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry, and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36 For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels, and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Exodus 3:6 38 Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
39 Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you speak well.” 40 They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.
Because the Sadducees did not believe that there was life after death, they thought that they had come up with the perfect question to trap Jesus. The premise of their question was that the resurrection from the dead would lead to many inconsistencies in the afterlife. For example, they asked, “If a woman had seven husbands in this life, to whom would she be married in the afterlife?”
First, Jesus explained that their premise was wrong. After this life the children of God, being children of the resurrection… are like the angels.
Second, because every word in the Bible is true, Jesus pointed out that the Sadducees had overlooked the fact that their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are not dead and forever gone, but rather all are alive. The Sadducees were trapped and they knew it, saying, “Teacher, you speak well.”
But even with that compliment Jesus was not about to let their challenge go. He pressed them further.
Luke 20:41 He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son? 42 David himself says in the book of Psalms,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
43 until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’ Psalm 110:1
44 “David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
The blind beggar had addressed Christ as the Son of David. When Christ rode into Jerusalem on a donkey the crowd shouted to the Son of David. Matthew 21:9 Jesus, having accepted this praise in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, challenged the lawyers to acknowledge that he was the Messiah.
First, Christ pointed out that David’s Son is not merely David’s descendent. Although Psalm 110 was written by David, it says that David’s Son is actually David’s Lord.
Second, David’s Lord is the Son of God. And God the Father placed his Son on the throne at his right hand. The Apostle Peter made this very same argument:
David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Acts 2:34-36
Jesus is both the root and offspring of David. Revelation 22:16 In other words, Jesus is both David’s Creator and David’s descendant.
Third, Jesus will conquer all who oppose his rule over creation, making his enemies the footstool [at] his feet. In other words, in defeat, his enemies will by lying in the dust with Christ’s feet on their necks. Joshua 10:24 This is also the image first given by God in Genesis 3:15. The Messiah will crush the head of Satan in the dust.
Jesus is warning the Pharisees that if they refuse to acknowledge that he is the Messiah they will face ruin.
Having corrected the errant religious doctrine of the Pharisees, he moves on to expose their errant practice of religion.
Luke 20:45 In the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples, 46 “Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts; 47 who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these will receive greater condemnation.”
Luke 21:1 He looked up and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury. 2 He saw a certain poor widow casting in two small brass coins. 3 He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow put in more than all of them, 4 for all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on.”
Rather than being servants and shepherds of the people, the religious leaders strut around putting on airs. They love the honor of being called rabbi. They occupy the most desired seats up front at worship and at banquets so that they can be seen and respected. They make long-winded prayers pretending that God is pleased with them. But despite this outward show, inside they are corrupt, taking advantage of the poor and weak, devouring widows’ houses.
To buttress his point, Jesus turned their attention to the wealthy making a big show of their gifts in the temple so that they could receive the praise of men for their generosity. But when an impoverished woman quietly gave her last two coins to the temple Jesus said, that even though no one was impressed with her generosity, in reality it was greater then all the gifts of people seeking attention and acclaim. For all these put in gifts for God from their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. The widow’s devotion and worship was genuine, directed toward God alone. The devotion and worship of the Pharisees was not directed toward God but, rather, it was directed toward themselves, designed to garner for themselves the praise of men.
Does the church today truly worship God in reverence and awe, Hebrews 12:28-29, or do churches design their worship services to earn the praise of men? Is the focus of worship on God or on man?