Stories from the Bible - Ep 33 Trick Questions (Luke 20)

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

In this episode we look at what happened in chapter 19, exploring the ways Jesus continues to irritate the proud and lift up the downtrodden. Then we hear the stories from Luke 20. The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® ⁠⁠⁠⁠http://netbible.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

Beauty, perfection, desire, deception, rebellion, judgment, hope. You're listening to Stories from the Bible. Bible stories told in order, using the words of the Bible, with introductions to give a recap and provide context. At the end of each story, you might want to pause and take a moment to reflect on what you noticed in the story. Things you liked or didn't like. Something the story showed you about God or about people. Don't worry if not everything makes sense. Keep listening to each

episode and sit with the journey. I'm stoked to have you on the ride. Hello and welcome to episode 33. Today we'll be hearing stories from Luke chapter 20. But before we hear those, what happened in the last chapter? In chapter 19, Jesus arrives at and enters three places, a home, a city, and a temple. Now the city he enters is of course the city of Jerusalem, the place that he's been heading since chapter 9. Jerusalem is the place from which King David, the ancestor of Jesus, ruled over all Israel. It's the royal city, the capital, the religious and political center of the Jewish nation. And most of those who have been following Jesus down the road believe that he is the long-promised descendant of David who has come to rescue them from their

oppressors. In their reasoning, the logical next step is for Jesus to enter Jerusalem, officially take up his title as their king, conquer the Romans, and bring all their sufferings to an end. Jesus knows their expectations of him. And just before entering the city, Jesus tells the crowd a parable to correct their thinking. Not that it sinks in at this point, but later when they look back, it'll give his friends clarity and comfort. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Just before he enters the city of Jerusalem, Jesus passes through the town of Jericho, and he chooses to stay in the home of its most unpopular resident. How did that happen? Well, in Jericho there lived a man called Zacchaeus, who Luke tells us was the rich

chief tax collector. Now this is interesting. The other tax collectors we've met so far in Luke's account have all been conscious of their neediness. There was the tax collector in the parable who knew he needed God's mercy. Way back in Luke chapter 5, there was Levi the tax collector who knew he needed to follow Jesus. And then before that in chapter 5, there was Levi the tax collector who knew he needed to follow Jesus. And then before that in chapter 3, there were the tax collectors who came out to be baptized by John who knew they needed to repent. As tax collectors, they felt the weight of their sins, and they were continually reminded of their sinful state by religious people who treated them as outcasts. Their low moral status in society meant they felt their need of the forgiveness, acceptance, and new life

Jesus brought with him. But Zacchaeus, we are also told by Luke, is rich. Not that the other tax collectors didn't have wealth, but at this point, when we hear about someone who has a lot of money, we should be recalling the self-sufficient rich ruler from the last chapter. Remember, he had come to Jesus assuming he could do something to inherit eternal life. His personal wealth, high social status, and outwardly good behavior meant he felt pretty satisfied with his potential. But the sad result of such a successful life in the world meant he was blinded to his eternal neediness. He had too much going for him to give it all up and depend entirely on God's mercy.

Loving God and loving money, Jesus had previously taught, are incompatible. How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus said after the rich man went away very sad. So Zacchaeus has lots of money. Will that be a problem for him to enter the kingdom of God? Additionally, Luke tells us that he was a short man, someone others physically looked down on. They would have looked down on him morally as well, despising him for his questionable occupation. And now Zacchaeus, we're also told by Luke, is seeking to see who Jesus is. But Jesus is surrounded by a huge crowd. Staying comfortably at home, away from the shoving bustle, is out of the question for this little guy who doesn't want to miss his chance to see Jesus. But joining the crowd was

also not going to work. He could never see over the shoulders of people and certainly no one was going to lift him up so he could. He was more likely to get trodden on and find himself being used as the stool. Well, Zacchaeus solves his dilemma by doing something most adults would be too embarrassed for. He hitches up his robes, runs on ahead, and scampers up a sycamore tree. The tree was at a place he knew Jesus would have to pass as he left the town. No respectable Middle Eastern man would run, let alone climb a tree. It's behaviour that's undignified and childish. But Zacchaeus has no reputation to care about anyways, so what has he got to lose? Now Luke has told us that Jesus was passing through Jericho,

which sounds like he wasn't intending to stay there. Surely there were many good people in that place who would have loved to have the honor of receiving Jesus as a guest, but he doesn't visit any of them. When Jesus comes to the spot where Zacchaeus is perched in his tree, he looks up and says, Zacchaeus, hurry andling that Jesus would even look at him. But Jesus not only knows his name, he honors him by choosing to stay at his house. His house, the unpopular little taxman everyone else loved to exclude. In that moment, Zacchaeus' heart opens to Jesus in joy and surprise. He gets his wish of seeing who Jesus is. In the face of Jesus, Zacchaeus

finds a tender love and welcome that goes beyond anything he might have dared hope to expect. Zacchaeus hurries down the tree and welcomes Jesus into his house. The crowd, however, is not happy. Their pride is threatened when Jesus singles out a sinner, and such a sinner, for special attention. Just as the Pharisees and scribes grumbled about Jesus including tax collectors in his circle of friends. The heart of the crowd is no different. Yet again, Jesus lifts up the lowly and wounds the proud.

Zacchaeus' money did not stop him from finding salvation. So moved was he by Jesus' acceptance that from now on, he cared more about pleasing Jesus than storing up treasure for himself. The joy of being welcomed by Jesus sets him free. Zacchaeus declares his intention to give away half his things to the poor and repay anyone he'd ripped off. Now that love for Jesus has filled his heart, there is no room there for the love of money. So this was Jesus entering the home of a sinner. Before he enters the city of Jerusalem, Jesus tells a parable because the people assume the kingdom of God is going to appear immediately.

Jesus, as the promised king of God's kingdom, is expected to look like what everybody expects a king to look like. The crowds think they will soon see with their eyeballs Jesus emerge as the strong, powerful, victorious leader of Israel. Instead of being crushed by the Romans, Israel will become the crusher. The Jewish people want to see Jesus flip reality in their favor. They are tired of being trod underfoot by Rome, and they can hardly wait to see Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem. This assumption is really stuck in the minds of Jesus' followers. Jesus has explicitly told his disciples that he will be rejected and killed in Jerusalem. But these words have just bounced straight off. His predictions just do not fit into how they see reality.

Back in chapter 17, Jesus told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God is not coming in visibly obvious ways and that it is actually already present in the midst of them. Back in chapter 13, Jesus described the kingdom of God as a mustard seed planted in the ground, something that doesn't begin with a big show but starts off invisible, hidden from the eye. And now in this parable, Jesus tells the story of a nobleman who leaves his people behind for a time before returning to rule as king. In the story, the nobleman gives ten of his servants each a sum of money and commands them to do business in his name until he returns. This is not going to be easy for them, since the land they are to do business in is occupied by citizens who outrightly reject the nobleman's claim to be king over them.

It will be dangerous and risky to engage in public trade for the absent king whom nobody wants or expects to return. And yet, true to his word and in total disregard of popular opinion, the nobleman does reappear with the full power of the kingship behind him. The servants who believed he would come back and treat them kindly, conducted trade in the marketplace with the money he had entrusted to them, and they are rewarded by the king for their loyal obedience. But another servant did not believe in the king's good character. While the king was absent, this servant indulged in suspicious thoughts of his absent monarch, imagining him to be unkind and mean. In fear, he disobeyed the command to do business with his portion of the money, and this servant

receives no reward. As for the citizens who hated the very idea of the nobleman reigning over them, well, they get what they want. They don't get to live under the rule of the king they rejected. Trouble is, there is nowhere that this king does not reign, and so their lives must be put to an end. Jesus is the nobleman in the story whose kingship will not be immediately visible either to his servants or his enemies. For a while, he will be the invisible king. It will be easy to ignore him and live in denial of his return. Yet, return he will. And what will matter most on the day he shows up is whether we took him seriously or not while he was hidden from us. So finally, Jesus comes near to entering the city of Jerusalem.

He prepares for this by sending a couple of his disciples to fetch him an unridden young donkey. They obediently retrieve the awkward animal and return to Jesus. Now apparently, untrained young donkeys are very prone to fear and stress caused by unfamiliar people and surroundings. They are liable to be strong-willed and energetic and unpredictable. A wrong move and they might spook and bolt. The only way to handle them is very gently and calmly. Why does Jesus choose such an impractical mode of transport for his entrance into the city. Well, 500 years before this, there was a prophet who wrote the words, Shout for joy, people of Jerusalem. Your king is coming to you. He does what is right, and he saves. He is gentle and riding on a donkey.

The long-expected king of Jerusalem was prophesied to ride on a donkey, and so Jesus does this to fulfill the prophecy. A young donkey is not the kind of animal that the average human king would be expected to ride. In ancient times, strong white stallions pulling a golden chariot followed by thousands of glittering soldiers would have been more like it. Normal kings displayed their strength and glory so that people would be forced to honour and obey them. But Jesus is no ordinary king. He is not going to establish his kingdom by the use of human strength and force. The donkey? Well, it wouldn't be possible to make a skittish young donkey quietly carry a person against its will. The donkey Jesus rides is not afraid.

It carries Jesus because it trusts him completely. Jesus is totally calm and gentle in his manner towards it, and so the animal relaxes and voluntarily surrenders to his control. As the king is with this donkey, so he is with his subjects. Jesus is the gentle king. He has come to save his people, but he will save them through quiet humility, not violent force. And then, as Jesus rides down the ridge into Jerusalem, the whole multitude of disciples who have been following him start crying out, Lest is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. They are excited about Jesus entering the city to become, as they think, the powerful king they have been longing for.

Luke tells us the reason they are loudly praising God is because of the mighty works they had seen Jesus do. They remember his powerful miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, feeding the crowds, calming the storms, walking on water, raising the dead. Here is the man, they think, who has the strength to set us free and bring us the peace we crave. At this point, they are excited about Jesus because their eyes have latched onto what they have seen, and their ears have forgotten everything Jesus has said about his upcoming rejection, suffering and death. They follow Jesus not because they personally love and adore him, but because of what they assume he is about to do for them. As Jesus goes down the slope and gets closer to the city. He weeps. What a strange reaction for someone who is being fanatically praised by crowds. But Jesus doesn't rest his emotional state on the fickle opinions

of people. He sees and feels according to what is really true. What does he see in the capital? He sees the state of the hearts of the leaders of Israel, hearts that are so blinded by self-importance that they cannot recognize God at the time he comes to visit them. And so he weeps. Once in the city, Jesus, God's king, goes to God's royal dwelling, the temple. The temple in Jerusalem was meant to be the place where people could come and enjoy life-giving relationship with their eternal creator, because it was the place where the thing that got in the way of that relationship was taken care of. Sin, the rejection of God and his ways, comes with the consequence of death.

But in the temple, God made a way for that penalty to be paid, so that sinful people could still draw near to him. Priests of Israel were to offer up the blood of innocent animals, doves, sheep, goats, bulls, as representative substitutes for the people. The temple showed that through the sacrifice of an innocent substitute, it was possible to come close to God and not die. When Jesus gets to the courts of the temple, he begins driving out the market stalls that have set up shop there.

At first glance, this seems a bit extreme and even violent. Where is the gentle king who rode in on a donkey? But Jesus doesn't leave his actions without explanation. As he clears the temple of commercial activity, he says, It is written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of robbers. The selling in the temple has been obscuring the way to God. And if there is one thing that Jesus cares deeply about, it is that the way to God be made clear. Those who sell are using God's presence to make a profit for themselves. Most ordinary people did not have the religious status to be allowed inside the inner parts of the temple. The outer court was the space set aside for them to come near to God in prayer.

But money-making in that location robbed them of that opportunity. So Jesus does something about it and drives out the sellers. We've seen that throughout Luke's narrative, there has been a growing tension between the gatekeepers of religion and Jesus. The gatekeepers love their special status and the human traditions they have built up in order to protect their position. But Jesus ignores their traditions and opens the gates wide to anyone who wants to be near him. When the gatekeepers grumble and complain about Jesus letting the sinners come close,

he defends them again and again. He deflects the anger of their hurt pride onto himself. Jesus is gentle towards anyone who knows they are oppressed by their sin. But towards those who are stubbornly blocking access to God for the sake of their own gain, Jesus is firm. He is absolutely bent on opening the way to God, and he will not let anyone or anything get in the way. He is the rescuer king, and he has come to permanently rescue people from being cut off from God. Today's stories from Luke chapter 20 start here. Now one day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and the experts in the law with the elders came up and said to him,

Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things, or who is it who gave you this authority? He answered them, I will also ask you a question and you tell me. John's baptism, was it from heaven or from people? So they discussed it with one another saying, if we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say from people, all the people will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet. So they replied that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by whose authority I do these things. Then he began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard, leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey for a long time.

When harvest time came, he sent a slave to the tenants so that they would give him his portion of the crop. However, the tenants beat his slave and sent him away empty-handed. So he sent another slave. They beat this one too, treated him outrageously and sent him away empty-handed. So he sent still a third. They even wounded this one and threw him out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, what should I do? I will send my one dear son. Perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, This is the heir. Let's kill him, so the inheritance will be ours.

So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When the people heard this, they said, May this never happen! But Jesus looked straight at them and said, Then what is the meaning of that which is written? The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces,

and the one on whom it falls will be crushed. Then the experts in the law and the chief priests wanted to arrest him at that very hour because they realised he had told this parable against them, but they were afraid of the people. Then they watched him carefully and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They wanted to take advantage of what he might say so that they could deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

Thus they asked him, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly and show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay the tribute tax to Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their deceit and said to them, Show me a denarius, whose image and inscription are on it. So he said to them, Thus they were unable in the presence of the people to trap him with his own words, and stunned by his answer, they fell silent.

Now some Sadducees, who contend that there is no resurrection, came to him. They asked him, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no children, that man must marry the widow and father children for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died without children. The second and then the third married her, and in this same way all seven died, leaving no children.

Finally, the woman died too. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For all seven had married her. So Jesus said to them, The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. But those who are regarded as worthy to share in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, since they are sons

of the resurrection. But even Moses revealed that the dead are raised in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live before him. Then some of the experts in the law answered, Teacher, you have spoken well. For they did not dare any longer to ask him anything. But he said to them, How is it that they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right

hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. If David then calls him Lord, how can he be his son? As all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, Beware of the experts in the law. They like walking around in long robes, and they love elaborate greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. They devour widows' property, and as a show make long prayers. They will receive a more severe punishment. The stories end here.

Thanks for joining us for today's stories. You might like to take a moment to pause and think about what you noticed. Things you liked, things you didn't like. Something the story showed you about Jesus. To read it for yourself, it's in the book of Luke chapter 20. If you can find someone willing to read it and talk about it with you, even better. You've been listening to Stories from the Bible. I'm Jen, and I look forward to sharing more stories with you. 한글자막 by 한효정