In our last meditation we reached verse 19 of chapter 20. Now we enter, according to Luke, on the scene of the Lord's last conflict with His enemies. In this world, not only our sins but our enmities gave Him work. That you find continually. His sorrows on the cross, our sins put Him to; His sorrows through life, our enmities put Him to.
Now the Jews come to Him (Luke 20:2121And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly: (Luke 20:21)) with a subtle question. There were three great representatives of the people — the Herodians, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. The Herodian was a political religionist; the Sadducee, a free—thinking religionist; and the Pharisee was a legal religionist; but these were only different forms of enmity against God. The flesh can never form alliance with God's Christ. We must be born again for that. Now they come to Him with a question — “Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?” They thought they had Him, and it was a sharp—sighted, subtle question. At once, detecting the moral of the occasion, He approached it. “But He perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye Me? Show Me a penny.”
The Lord had no purse. When He wanted to preach on a penny, He had to ask to be shown one. The Lord had the wealthiest purse that anyone ever had in the world, but He never used a mite of it for Himself. He asked, “Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's.” Very well; the Lord was not going to treat Caesar as a usurper. He was the rod of God's indignation in the land of Israel. Whether Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, or Romans, they were no usurpers. So, when the Lord saw Caesar's coin passing through the land, He saw in it Israel's shame, not Caesar's usurpation. How beautifully He escapes the snare of the fowler! “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's, and unto God the things which be God's.” That was a golden rule ever since their captivity — the rule of returned captives — and so it is our rule. Do you treat the powers that are ordained of God as usurpers? No, but do not confound the rights of Caesar and the rights of God. If there is a collision between them, say with Peter, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.” It was a short, terse sentence, replete with divine wisdom for Israel's condition at the moment.
Then when the Herodians are dismissed, the Sadducees come forth. The enmity of Satan is never weary. If foiled in the Herodian, he will try his hand in the Sadducee. Now, Master, here is the strange thing! The Lord is ready for them. He knows how to answer every man: You are confounding heavenly and earthly things. You are mistaking things altogether, but that ye may know that the dead are raised, even Moses called the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He is not a God of the dead, but of the living. Now do you see the difference between the resurrection of the body, and a separate life in the spirit? If the only thing brought in had been a life in the spirit, do you see that God would not have have been fully glorified? So Paul lets them know in 1 Corinthians 15 that if they do not believe in resurrection, they do not know the glory of God. The enemy has brought in death to both soul and body, and God must meet him in the place of his power. If, when Satan had destroyed the body, God had said, I will now make another creature, His glory would not have been fully shown. If He took you out of the body, to dwell with Christ in spirit, it might satisfy you, but not His own glory. That is the need of resurrection.
Now He had silenced them. He confounded the interrogators, and then He put a question that baffled them: “David therefore calleth Him Lord, how is He then his son?” They were baffled, and none can answer that question who do not see the person of Christ, the precious mystery of the God—man. Is it not a sad and terrible thing that you have sent the Lord to the right hand of His Father, there to wait till His enemies are made His footstool? You will say, He has gone there to help me, a poor sinner. Yes, but you have sent Him there too. You have a very imperfect view, if while you see Him waiting on the necessity of poor sinners, you do not see Him waiting till He comes forth to judge His enemies, at the end of the world. His grace has put Him there as the High Priest of our profession; our enmity has put Him there as waiting for judgment.
Chapter 21 derives itself from this; and here I would just say, there is an exceedingly beautiful thing attending the close of the Lord's ministry.
At the early part of His ministry, He was getting consolation for Himself, as at the well of Sychar and the man blind from his birth. These were the fruits of His own labor; but, from the moment He leaves Jericho and meets Zaccheus, and up to the thief on the cross, these were cases on which He never spent a moment's toil. They were consolations provided by God. The Lord was about to enter upon the darkest scenes of His sorrow, and God provides here and there a cup of cold water to refresh Him on His way. His toil was over. He was preparing for Gethsemane, and Gethsemane was preparing Him for Calvary; and God said to Him, as it were, Now, You shall not toil — I will bring refreshment to an untoiling Jesus. He had not expended labor on Zaccheus, or on the thief on the cross. These were brought to Him.
Now, the Lord opens the story of “the times of the Gentiles.” He is up there waiting till His enemies be made His footstool, and He gives a sketch of the times of the Gentiles — the age of the depression of Israel. “The times of the Gentiles” intimates the supremacy of the Gentiles and the depression of Israel. He anticipates the whole of this age. In verse 24, He calls the whole age, “the times of the Gentiles,” in which the Gentiles are supreme; and Israel has no land or heritage in the earth. [While it is true that Israel again has land as a nation, the specific words of our Lord should be carefully noted: “And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:2424And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)). It was the city of their solemnities which they are not to regain until the period of Gentile supremacy runs out. The old city of Jerusalem, with its temple site and wailing wall, is in the hands of the Arabs, although it is a prime object of Israeli aspiration. They will probably get it from the beast of the revived Roman Empire when he makes a league with them for seven years (Dan. 9:2727And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)), but the Gentile soldiers of this Roman Empire will, in all likelihood, have to patrol it to guarantee its security. Thus the Lord's exact words are being literally fulfilled — Ed.]
Look in verse 7, when they ask Him, “When shall these things be?” “Take heed,” He says, People will be promising you rest before rest comes. Do you remember the mistake of the people in chapter 19, when they thought the kingdom would immediately appear? The Lord here anticipates the very same thing. He says, Now, do not mistake; the time cannot draw near till there has been judgment. And that is what I am bold to say to the world now. You are not going to have a kingdom; the time of glory is not drawing near, nor will it, till judgment has purged the earth. It is very different with the hopes of the church. Judgment is on the other side of my glory. I shall be glorified when I stand before the judgment seat; but will the earth enter its glory before it is purged from its iniquity? He cannot be Lord of lords till He has girt His sword upon His thigh. The world is promising itself glorious things. Do not believe it. Then He tells them, “In your patience possess ye your souls,” not in false expectation. “When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” That day has come, and Israel has been led captive into all nations. In verse 25, He anticipates the closing days of the times of the Gentiles. “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars;... men's hearts failing them for fear,... and then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Then, when fearful signs come to pass — then, ye Jewish remnant — lift up your heads, for your jubilee draws nigh. It is the same word as redemption.
In Leviticus we read that every fiftieth year God re—asserted His own principles. For forty-nine years they might corrupt God's order, but in the fiftieth year they were sent back, every man to his own property, and the family order and estate was resettled. The moment we get things under God's hand again, we are keeping a jubilee. God knew that He was entitled to call His world, the world where His principles reign, a jubilee. Are you wearied of man's world? God's world will be a jubilee. Man's best world is to get his vanity gratified. Are we ashamed to have a heart for such enjoyment? So when these purgings and purifyings take place, then “lift up your heads.” The sword of David is doing its business, and the throne of Solomon will be erected. “This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.”
You will never mind it. It is now the very same generation as in the days of Christ. The world may be advanced in the accommodations of civilized life, but does that mend it? God only can cure it, and that by making an end of it. If He were to put new wine into old bottles, the bottles would burst. Then, that beautiful admonition to everyone. Do not live as if this world were your portion. The life you nourish in this world is a very different thing from the one you have to cherish for the next. If you live as if this world were your portion, that day will come upon you as a thief. So if you and I are telling our hearts to eat, drink, and be merry, the coming of the Son of man will be as morally different as the coming of a thief at night would be circumstantially different to a family that went to bed in rest and quietness.