THE KING'S AUTHORITY CHALLENGED AND MAINTAINED
(Suggested Reading: Chapter 20)
If you wished to lead an uprising against your government, you would not begin by taking up arms. The first thing you would do would be to agitate against it by challenging its authority in every possible way. In this way you would undermine it, cause the public to lose confidence in it, and prepare the way for its overthrow. This, in brief, explains the events recorded in the twentieth chapter, for they are nothing less than a series of challenges to the authority of Christ the King, Who had just entered His royal city, Jerusalem. The Pharisees in chapter nineteen had asked Christ to rebuke His disciples because they acclaimed Him as King. Here the chief priests, the scribes and the elders challenge Christ's authority directly. The whole chapter consists of a series of challenges to Christ's authority, carefully veiled to conceal their real intent, but having this as their common denominator.
It is astonishing how entrenched religious authority opposes Christ's authority and thinks it is doing God's Will in so doing. I should like to emphasize this principle by recounting the story of the conversion of my maternal grandfather before proceeding into the exposition of the twentieth chapter.
My grandfather was a proud religious man, financially independent, whose residence was Cluny Castle in Scotland. He was one of a group of seven young men who spent their time in idle pursuits, such as fox hunting. One day when the group got together, one of them remarked that Captain Cross, the evangelist, was coming to the village and was setting up a tent to preach the Gospel. Captain Cross and his brother were professional soldiers and crack swordsmen in the British Army. They once hired themselves out as mercenary soldiers and on a foreign battlefield fought back to back, leaving mounds of dead around them until their attackers dispersed. When Captain Cross was converted, he became a soldier of the Cross and wielded the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, more effectively than the sword of man. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" 2 Cor. 10:4. My grandfather did not know of Captain Cross' valor, but instantly challenged his authority to preach the Gospel. "I am a member of the established Church," he sputtered, "and will not have this man here with his tent," or words to that effect. They all agreed and decided to break up the Gospel meeting. They jumped on their horses, rode down to the tent, and sat at the back waiting for the preacher. When Captain Cross strode in with his erect military bearing, they all hesitated. His preaching was with power, and at the close of the meeting, the whole seven sinners were saved. There is a sad sequel to this story which should be mentioned. Captain Cross' brother never accepted Christ. It was suspected that he had murdered his wife. Her body was exhumed and he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Captain Cross went to the prison and pleaded with his brother to accept Christ, but alas, he went to the gallows unrepentant. Lost for eternity, unlike the seven young men who began challenging the Lord's authority over them, but ended up by bowing to it, and are now forever with the Lord.
The General Challenge to Christ's Authority and the Lord's Reply—20:1-18
The challenge to the King's authority occurs on "one of those days as He taught the people in the Temple and preached the gospel." He is now about to be offered up and the religious leaders are closing in on Him, seeking to find a pretext to deliver Him to the Romans. They begin by questioning His authority: "tell us, by what authority doest Thou these things? Or who is He that gave Thee this authority?" In asking such a question, they assumed that the Lord was accountable to them, whereas the reverse was the case. So He turns the question back to them, asking them one thing and demanding an answer. Before He healed the man with the withered hand, He had asked one thing: "is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? To save life or to destroy it?" 6:9. He had told Martha, "one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." He had told the rich ruler, "yet lackest thou one thing, sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me." These three "one things" tell us of His works, His words, and the responsibility to give up all for Him and become His disciple. All this is now being challenged. The Lord's answer is, "I will ask you one thing— the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?" "And they reasoned with themselves saying, If we shall say From heaven, He will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say of men, all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered that they could not tell whence it was. And Jesus said unto them, neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”
Now the believer need be in no doubt as to the source of the Lord's authority. It was the Father's voice from heaven. We know that John's baptism was from heaven and not of men. The Lord Jesus told John to baptize Him and the Father's voice then exclaimed, "Thou are My beloved Son in whom I have found all My delight." Then on the holy mount, the Father added these additional words, "hear ye Him." The Father's voice from heaven, then, was the authority by which He did these things, and so men are now responsible to hear the voice of God the Son Heb. 1:2. But these men had "neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape" John 5:37. For this reason, the Lord speaks a parable to them, not based on hearing the Father's voice, but on seeing the Son. And this parable is about the judgment that must fall on them for refusing the source of His authority— the Father's voice.
Israel was God's vineyard whom God, described here as "a certain man," had planted see Isa. 5 and Psa. 80:8-19. He left farmers over it to work it and obtain fruit from it in His absence. But God never got fruit from Israel. The parable condenses Israel's history of disobedience. God sent as many as three servants to collect fruit from Israel, but all were mistreated. Finally, He decided to send His Son. This story is summarized in even briefer fashion in the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son." Not content with ill treating God's servants, the prophets, the farmers rose up and slew His Son. Their motive is exposed— "This is the heir, come let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours." Now God tolerated the beating of His servants, but the Jewish farmers of His inheritance must be punished— for His Son is His Son. So the verdict is "He shall come and destroy those farmers"— this was done when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70— "and shall give the vineyard to others"— the Church. "And when they heard it they said God forbid." They did not say "God forbid" when it was a question of killing God's Son only when the consequence of their wickedness was revealed. Now they know the answer to their question "by what authority doest Thou these things? Or who is He that gave Thee this authority?" "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father" John 5:22, 23.
Should God forbid this? Not at all. Their own Scriptures told them that the stone which the builders rejected— Christ— should become the cornerstone. "Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." That means that in the days in which Christ walked the earth, men tripped over this divine stone, fell, and were broken like egg shells; in the future day, Christ will fall on His enemies— Antichrist and those who follow him, and grind them to powder. It also applies today. If we confess Christ, we fall on Him and are broken— that is, become useless for the way Satan hopes to use man in the world. But if we do not confess Him, He will grind us to powder in the Day of Judgment.
The Challenge to Christ's Authority As the Governor of the Nations (See Psa. 22:28)—20:19-26
Satan's servants next devised a most subtle trap for the Lord. The scribes watched Him here as the Pharisees had watched Him in the fourteenth chapter. They "sent forth spies which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of His words, that so they might deliver Him unto the power and authority of the governor." Notice how the question of power and authority fills this chapter. Christ had made man drink the wine of astonishment at the beginning— "they were astonished at His doctrine, for His word was with power" 4:32. He had given the twelve "power and authority over all demons" 9:1 yet man challenged His power and authority by tempting the Lord their God. They began with flattery, "Master, we know that Thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest Thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly." Then they say, "is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no?" They thought they would use the same tactic the Lord used on them when He said, "the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?" Then they would either silence Him as He had silenced them, or force Him to commit Himself to a damaging statement. If He said, "do not give tribute to Caesar," they would report Him to the Romans; if He said, "give tribute to Caesar," they would say, "Ah! You are not then the Messiah, the delivering King, after all" and report this to the crowds. Now the same Lord Who had reminded Satan not to tempt the Lord God, reminded His slaves of this injunction, too. The Lord asked them whose image and superscription was on a coin. When they replied, "Caesar's," He said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." This flattened them completely. "Render unto Caesar" told them that it was God's verdict that they should be under Gentile dominion, because they had rejected their true King. The reminder to render unto God the things which are God's, showed that they hadn't been doing so, and exposed the root of their trouble. No wonder they marveled at His answer and kept quiet! Later they were to accuse the Lord of forbidding to give tribute to Caesar 23:2 a false charge.
The Challenge to Christ's Authority Over the Dead—20:27-38
The Sadducees did not believe in angel or spirit or the resurrection of the body. They correspond to the "liberals" or "modernists" today, as the Pharisees correspond to present-day ritualists.
Because Christ and His Church are one, the order in which our foes confront us is the same as the way they confronted Christ— the Pharisees first, then the Sadducees. The Sadducees are mentioned last in Luke's Gospel here. Historically, ritualism ruled the early Church, as rationalism rules today. Having said this, let us examine the rationalist challenge for what it really is— a challenge to Christ's authority, not over the living, but over the dead. The Scripture says, "for to this [end] Christ has died and lived [again] that He might rule over both dead and living" Rom. 14:9.
The Sadducees tell the Lord a tall tale about a woman who had seven husbands, asking Him whose wife she should be in the resurrection. They hoped to ridicule a bodily resurrection. Unknown to them, the doctrine is vital and they stood in the Presence of One Who holds the keys of death and Hades. The Lord answered them by first pointing out that the resurrection body differs from the natural body which was created male and female Gen. 1:27. "Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." There is much instruction on our new body in 1 Cor. 15. Paul tells us that we cannot inherit the Kingdom of God in our present bodies of flesh and blood. "We shall all be changed." We will receive incorruptible bodies like Christ's own body of glory— effulgent with light, no doubt, as He was on the Mount of Transfiguration— possessing undreamed of power to traverse space, pass through solid objects, etc. It is a body of flesh and bone, not flesh and blood, whose life principle is spirit, not breath, as in our natural bodies. Such is the spiritual body believers will receive at the second coming of Christ. Need we add that believers are in view in these two passages and receive their glorified bodies at the second coming of the Lord, when the dead in Christ are raised incorruptible and living believers have their mortal bodies changed? Those who die in their sins, are resurrected at the close of the kingdom for judgment. All we know about their bodies is that "the dead, small and great, stand before God" Rev. 20:12. And they must finally acknowledge Christ's authority by bowing the knee to Him Phil. 2 and confessing Him as Lord.
Having disposed of their foolish question, the Lord refers them to Moses to prove the truth of resurrection, as they had appealed to Moses mockingly to deny it. Moses had called the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses would scarcely use such language unless the patriarchs had a conscious existence after death. If it were otherwise, how could God be a God to them? It is the very existence of man after death which proves the necessity of his bodily resurrection. If we die, we will not remain forever in the disembodied state— we await the Lord's assembling shout from heaven.
The Authority of Christ Established From the Scriptures—20:39-47
Instead of silencing the Lord, His enemies are silenced, and are afraid to ask Him any more questions. Only the scribes remain before Him and they say approvingly, "Master, Thou hast well said." It is now the Lord's turn to ask His foes a question— a question designed to prove Who He is. "And He said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's Son? And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit Thou on My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." David, therefore, calleth Him Lord, how is He then his Son? Now the Father's voice was shown to be the source of Christ's authority when it was first challenged 20:1-18. Here, the Lord quotes it as the source of a new authority about to be given Him. The quotation makes it clear that those who had just challenged Christ's authority are His enemies. Eventually, they will be made His footstool, but not for the present. He will be rejected and, although the rightful heir to David's throne, will not sit on it. As compensation, the Father tells Him to sit on His own throne— in heaven, not in earth see Rev. 3:21. Thus the Father seats His Son at His right hand— the figure of His throne, the place of supreme authority— although He is still rejected on earth.
The scribes had read about a triumphant Christ in the Scriptures and ignored the other Scriptures which told about a rejected Christ. Their slanted teachings deceived even the godly in Israel 24:25-27. Their failure to understand and teach the people such a basic truth as the temporary rejection of Messiah proved them blind leaders of the blind. So the Lord turns from doctrine to practice, exposing their self-exalting and hypocritical conduct. Their doctrine was wrong because their hearts were wrong. The subject mind, the tender heart, lowliness these are essential in those who would walk with God, learn His ways, and teach them to others.