Overview / background to Luke chapter 20, and Luke 21:1-9

This lesson introduces Luke chapter 20 with a detailed look at the role of scribes and Pharisees.

Luke 20:1-9

Overview of and background to chapter 20

The previous chapter, Luke 19:47-48, ends and 20 begins with Jesus in Jerusalem teaching in the temple and preaching the gospel. The people are very attentive to what He is telling them and the religious leaders are also paying attention but for a different reason. They are concerned about Jesus’ popularity with the people.

After Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, the Sanhedrin, the council of seventy which was the main political body among the Jews, met in Jerusalem to discuss what should be done about Jesus. In John 11:45-48 we read:

45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him. 46 But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them the things Jesus did. 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation."

Luke 19 ends on the following note:

47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, 48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.

Over the course of this chapter, Jesus will be confronted repeatedly by the various factions that make up the religious leadership of Israel: the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees. In these confrontations, the religious leadership seeks to discredit Jesus before the people. We should say a brief word about each of these groups, just to set the stage for the interaction they will have with Jesus.

Chief Priests

The office of chief (or high) priest dates back to the time of Moses. Moses’ brother Aaron was the first high priest and the office remained in Aaron’s family. A high priest was appointed for life and had important responsibilities within the system of religious sacrifices outlined in the Torah and sometimes had political responsibilities as well. For example, Eleazar, Aaron’s son, worked closely with first Moses and his successor Joshua, and Eli and his two sons functioned simultaneously as high priests and judges.

 By the time of Christ, the office of high priest had undergone significant changes. Under the Herods, the position seems to have been reduced to a yearly office which could be purchased. In John 11:49-50 we read the following: “49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."” The high priest was the chief civil and ecclesiastical dignitary among the Jews. He was chairman of the Sanhedrin and head of the political relations with the Roman government. Because God had commanded in Numbers 3:10 that the high priest should hold his office for life, former high priests kept their rights to the dignity and title of the office, not unlike former presidents in our day. This explains why Luke refers to “chief priests” (plural) in verse 1 and helps to understand what is happening during Jesus’ interrogation in John 18:19-24 by first Annas (the high priest from 7 A.D. – 14 A.D.) and then Caiaphas (high priest from 27 A.D. – 36 A.D.).

Scribes

Originally scribes were valuable because they were able to read and write. In the Old Testament we read of scribes as secretaries for the kings of Israel and Judah. For example, in 1 Kings 4:2-4 we find the following list of King Solomon’s officials: “…Azariah the son of Zadok, the priest; 3 Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder….” The role of the scribe evolved over time. We find them keeping financial records of the temple monies (2 Kings 12:10-11),  mustering troops (2 Chron 26:11), counseling kings (1 Chron 27:32), and reading the Torah to the king (2 Kings 22:10).

During the period of Babylonian exile, the scribes copied and interpreted the Torah for the people of Israel in the foreign setting. This prominence continued when the Children of Israel return to Jerusalem. An excellent example of this is Ezra, who was both a priest and “a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given (Ezra 7).” Ezra In the Book of Nehemiah we read that Ezra, together with other priests and Levites, read the Law of God to the people and helped them to understand what was read. Ezra also instructed the heads of the fathers’ houses in the Law.

In Christ’s day, scribes comprised a significant portion of the Sanhedrin, the main governing body of Israel. Scribes “were responsible for making decisions in courts of law; they taught the Torah to their students; and they expounded the meaning and application of the Torah.” …[They]were the "possessors of divine esoteric knowledge" and, as such, "the immediate heirs and successors of the prophets" (Jerusalem, p. 241).” (From the article on SCRIBES in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, revised edition, Copyright © 1979 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All rights reserved)

Elders

Like the chief priest and the scribe, the elder was an ancient office among the Children of Israel. One of the first references to elders occurs in Genesis 50:7-8: “7 So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house.” The term “elder” did not merely connote an older person but one who because of the experiences they had gone through, was recognized as more wise. These men were individuals of some standing in their community or family, an in the case of the “elders of the land of Egypt”, perhaps even state officials. The elders of Israel with whom Moses interacted in Exodus and Numbers were most likely the heads of the different tribes and families.

In Christ’s day, the elders were a distinct body from the Sanhedrin but closely associated with it. We find the elders mentioned in conjunction with the chief priests and scribes (Luke 20:1-2); in verses 1 & 2 of our passage tonight. And in Luke 22:66-67, after Jesus has been taken prisoner,  we read that: “66 As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, 67 "If You are the Christ, tell us."”

Pharisees and Sadducees

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were two of the three most influential sects of Judaism that were prominent in the time of Christ, the third being the Essenes. These three sects emerged around the time of the Maccabean Revolt, in the middle of the second century B.C., which is when these sects are first mentioned by name.

During the third and second century B.C., the Hellenistic culture of the Greeks permeated the empire that Alexander the Great had created. During this time many Jews began to live in a manner that was little different than their Gentile neighbors. Both the Pharisees and the Essenes had their roots in a group of faithful Jews known as the Hasidim, who arose in the second century B.C. in response to the influence of Hellenism on the Jews. The Hasidim insisted on strict observance of Jewish ritual laws, both those contained in the Torah, and those that had become part of the oral tradition.

Matters in Israel came to a head under King Antiochus IV of Syria, who was the ruler of Palestine. Antiochus sought to transform Jerusalem into a settlement of gentile soldiers to achieve political stability in Palestine, since that country's religion was out of place in a predominantly Hellenized empire and its conservative party opposed him. In 167 B.C. he took the city by assault on the sabbath, slaughtered a large part of the inhabitants, and permitted his troops to sack the city. Antiochus then promulgated the decrees that have rendered his name infamous: the Jews were compelled under penalty of death "to depart from the laws of their fathers, and to cease living by the laws of God. Further, the temple in Jerusalem was to be polluted and renamed “Jupiter Olympius.”  The result was the successful revolt of the Maccabees, in which the Hasidim participated.

After the revolt, the Essenes later broke off from other Jews and formed their own communities. The Pharisees on the other hand remained an active part of Jewish life. The Pharisees were for the most part middle class, whose authority derived from their knowledge of the Law. The fundamental principle of all of the Pharisees, common to them with all orthodox modern Jews, is that by the side of the written law regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people there was an oral law to complete and to explain the written law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him by word of mouth. This oral law was developed by generations of teachers of the Law and scribes. After the time of Christ this oral law was finally written down. Called the Mishna or "second law," it makes up the first portion of the Talmud. The Mishna is a digest of the Jewish traditions and a compendium of the whole ritual law, and it came at length to be esteemed far above the sacred text (Based on the article on Pharisees in Smith's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright © 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)).

In contrast, the Sadducees were essentially aristocrats. They virtually dominated the higher echelon of the priesthood, and many Sadducees who were not priests held positions of authority as lay elders in the Sanhedrin. Thus the difference between the Sadducees and the Pharisees was not a simple one of priests versus laymen (many Pharisees were also priests — mostly of the lower ranks, but probably some even in the upper levels). Rather, the Sadducees derived their power from their class, while the Pharisees derived theirs from learning.

As a result of their high social status the Sadducees were dominated by political interests, and in these areas they were rigidly conservative, seeking to preserve the status quo. The Sadducees collaborated with the Romans, by whom their power was delegated, and maintained strict policies of law and order, which appeased the Romans and kept the Sadducees in power. Understandably they found any popular movement threatening, especially if it had political overtones as in the frequent messianic uprisings.

The Sadducees' concern to maintain their position of power may in part explain their rejection of oral tradition. As priests they insisted on exercising their prerogative of interpreting the Torah, and they accepted as binding only the laws and regulations recorded in Scripture. Thus they did not accept as authoritative the Pharisees' oral law. In fact, students were even encouraged to dispute with their own Sadducean teachers about the interpretation of the law.

The NKJV breaks Luke 20 into six sections, which I would give the following summarizing headings:

1. What is the source of Jesus’ authority [verses 1-8]
2. The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers [verses 9-19]
3. The Pharisees ask about taxation [verses 20-26]
4. The Sadducees ask about resurrection [verses 27-39]
5. The Messiah’s real Father [verses 40-44]
6. Warnings about the scribes [verses 25-47]

These six sections contain five different attempts by the religious leadership to discredit Jesus in some way, by challenging His authority and knowledge. But each time He is challenged, Jesus responds such wisdom that it is those who put Him on the spot who are silenced or discredited.

Jesus' Authority Questioned

1 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him 2 and spoke to Him, saying, "Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?"

3 But He answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one thing, and answer Me:  4 The baptism of John — was it from heaven or from men?"

5 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not 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 So they answered that they did not know where it was from.

8 And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

(Compare Matthew 21:23-27; Mark 11:27-33)

A couple weeks ago we talked about the different groups within the Jewish religious leadership that Jesus interacts with in Luke 20. In our passage tonight, as Jesus teaches in the temple at Jerusalem, He is approached by a group of chief priests, scribes, and elders. They question Jesus as to the source of His authority for the things He does and says.

The last Old Testament books from a chronological standpoint are believed to be Ezra, Esther, Malachi, and Nehemiah, which describe the end of the Babylonian captivity, the return to the Promised Land, and the building of the temple and Jerusalem. For roughly 400 years prior to the appearance of John the Baptist, we have no scriptural record of God speaking to His chosen people through His prophets.

Why this is we cannot say definitively. Who can know or understand the mind of God? But in the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, I believe we find a glimpse of the problems that the Lord was calling His people to repent from through His prophet. Let’s turn to Malachi now and read the entire 4 chapters.

The picture we just read in Malachi is a sad one. We see that:

• The people and priests were no longer offering their best as sacrifices to God [Malachi 1:7, 8, & 13].
• The priests had corrupted the covenant that the Lord had made with Levi [Malachi 2:8], had caused many to stumble at the law by their partiality [Malachi 2:8-9].
• The priests had been permitting divorce [Malachi 2:14-16] and had been incorrectly instructing the people regarding God’s justice, saying that God sees even evildoers as good and questioning why God did not punish the wicked[Malachi 2:17].
• The people had been robbing God by their tithes and offerings, not bringing into the storehouse of the temple what they should have been [Malachi 3:8-9].
• And finally the people have been complaining that was useless and unprofitable to serve God and keep His commandments because the proud and the wicked were not only unpunished but blessed and elevated [Malachi 3:13-15].

God concludes Malachi by confirming to Israel that His messenger, who will purify the priests, is coming [Malachi 3:1-3] and that the Lord will come to judge and punish proud, the wicked, and those who do not fear Him: sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, and exploiters of widows, orphans, and strangers [Malachi 3:5 and Malachi 4:1].

Although we cannot say for sure, it is likely that the problems catalogued in Malachi continued during those centuries of God’s silence. The corruption in the priesthood in all probability facilitated the scribes’ and Pharisees’ increase in prominence. As we discussed a couple weeks back, both of these groups were very familiar with the Old Testament and scrupulously observed the Mosaic Law. However, our understanding is that they came to place an equal – and in some cases greater - weight on the oral traditions and the commentaries on the Mosaic Law that had accumulated over the centuries. In effect they elevated the word of man to the status of the word of God.

When they taught the scriptures, we believe that the scribes and the Pharisees routinely cited as their authority these oral traditions and commentaries. “As the most learned Rabbi So-and-So taught, Moses permitted divorce in the following cases….”  They were no longer using scripture to interpret scripture but interpreted scripture on the basis of what other men had said. Thus when, in our passage this evening, the scribes, chief priests, and elders approach Jesus while He teaches in the temple, I believe that they are essentially asking Him to cite the rabbinical teachings on which He based His words and deeds. 

Scripture tells us that when Jesus taught, He did so with authority. In Mark 1:22 we read that when Jesus taught in the temple at Capernaum “… they [His audience] were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Matthew makes a similar observation regarding the reaction of the crowds listening to the Sermon of the Mount. But Jesus did not justify His words and actions by referencing any earthly authority, as the scribes and Pharisees did. Rather Jesus made it clear that His authority came from God. Jesus spoke the words and did the things that His Father in heaven had commanded Him to do. Listen to Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John where He makes this crystal clear.

Speaking to a crowd of Jews who hated and sought to persecute Him in John 5:19: “… Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.’” A few verses later, in verse 30, Jesus continues: “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” And again in John 5:36, Jesus tells them: “But I have a greater witness than John's; for the works which the Father has given Me to finish — the very works that I do — bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

A couple of chapters later, in John 7:16-17, Jesus addresses a group of Jews in the temple at Jerusalem: “16 … "My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”

And in John 8:26, Jesus tells another group of Jews in the temple: “I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him." He continues two verse later: “28 … ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.’“

Speaking to a crowd of Jews in Jerusalem regarding the source of His authority, Jesus says in John 12:49-50: “49 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.  50 And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak."

And finally, near the end of His life, Jesus addresses His disciples in John 14:10 with these words: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.” And a few verses later, in John 14:24, in response to a question from Judas Iscariot, Jesus answers: “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.”

As He often does when dealing with those who do not believe in Him, Jesus answers the scribes’, chief priests’, and elders’ question indirectly with a question of His own. “The baptism of John,” Jesus asks, “was it from heaven or from men?” Luke tells us that the scribes, chief priests, and elders reasoned among themselves and saw that Jesus had done the very thing they sought to do to Him: posed a question to which there was no good answer. They realized that if they admitted that John the Baptist was a prophet, then they were admitting that they had willfully disobeyed God by not repenting from their evil ways when John called them to do so. At the same time, they understood that if they denied that John was a prophet through who God spoke, they would turn the people against themselves. Therefore, they answered that they did not know. And in return Jesus refused to tell them the source of His authority.

If we look closely, I believe that Jesus’ question answers the question He had been asked. Although I cannot judge the hearts of the Pharisees, I suspect that several of them had at least suspected that John the Baptist was indeed a prophet of God. If so, then they chose to disobey God when John called on them to “bear fruits worthy of repentance.” (Matthew 3:7-9) This was, I suspect, a matter of pride. The scribes, chief priests, and elders were so accustomed to being the “go-to-guys” for righteousness that it was difficult for them to humble themselves and repent. They believed that they were righteous before God because of their scrupulous adherence to the law. Furthermore, they enjoyed the attention and acclaim they received from the people (the greeting, the best seats, etc.) and did not want to compromise that in any way, even if it meant disobeying God.

As we saw from looking at His words in the Gospel of John, Jesus made it plain that the authority for everything He said and did was God. Jesus was like an Old Testament prophet through whom God spoke, but unlike the prophets, Jesus always spoke and did the will of His Father. This is why Jesus’ teachings and actions seemed so much more powerful than those of the scribes and Pharisees.

Scripture reveals that even some of the religious leaders recognized the power and authority of Jesus. We will see this twice later in Luke 20, in verses 21 and 39. In John 3 we read how Nicodemus, one of the rulers of the Jews (i.e., probably a member of the Sanhedrin), came to Jesus by night to speak to Him. Joseph of Arimathea, who claimed Jesus’ body and buried Him in his own tomb, was also a member of the Sanhedrin ad a disciple of Christ. And among those who pledged to be a disciple of Jesus in Matthew 8 we find a scribe (Matthew 8:19).

In the end, I believe that the religious leader made the same choice about Jesus as they did about John the Baptist. They allowed the pleasures of this life and the fear of man to become more important to them then honoring and fearing their Creator. If they looked truthfully with Spirit-led hearts at their reaction to both John the Baptist and Jesus, they would have admitted that they recognized both men’s authority had come from God but had chosen willfully to disobey. But when we will not look to God as the source of truth and light, He will not reveal the truth to us.

What by way of summary can we take away from our passage tonight? There are three points I would like to touch on:

First, we need to always remember Who God is. Often God acts in ways that we do not understand or approve of. Sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper and we do not understand why. This was true of the Israel during the time that Malachi wrote. Sometimes we get sick or our loved ones die before we expect. At times like these we need to remember that our God is just, faithful, and all-powerful, and that He is on the throne and will attend to all things in His perfect timing. As He so concisely tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9:

8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.  9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Second, when God is silent we need to seek Him faithfully and wait for Him to speak to us. When God stopped speaking to the Children of Israel by His prophets, I believe that many of them turned for spiritual direction to the different religious factions for direction, to the scribes, the elders, the chief priests, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. We must resist the temptation to settle for man’s word rather than wait for God’s Word. To settle for man’s words is I believe to miss out on God’s best.

And third, when we feel that God might be speaking to us, we need to have the heart of Samuel and say, "Speak, for Your servant hears." We need to be careful that we do not become like the scribes, elders, and chief priests, loving the things of the world more than the things of God, willing to disobey God to keep their earthly treasures.

If we can do these things, I believe we have a better chance to draw nearer to our God, and to become more like His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We will be more likely to receive His grace and mercy in our lives than His wrath and judgment.