Interpreting the twenty-first chapter of Luke can be challenging. The chapter begins with Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple, including his call for discernment and warning of what would come. This leads us to begin interpreting the passage through that one historical event. But the destruction of the temple may also serve, as Charles Spurgeon puts it, as “a kind of rehearsal of what is yet to be,” like “the uprolling of the curtain on the great drama of the world’s doom.”[2] Jesus tells of what was to come and through it what is to come before he comes again.
Tag Archives: Gospel
Preserved to the End
Based on historical accounts, such as the writings of Jewish historian Josephus, when Jerusalem was attacked in April of A.D. 70 and destroyed over a lingering four months, it must have felt like the end of the world to its Jewish inhabitants and surrounding neighbors. But it wasn’t. And this is a helpful reminder in our own day. Every generation seems to think that theirs is the last, a fixation that is folly at its finest.
Faithful to the End
The Lord does not see as we see; while we may look at outward appearances, the Lord looks on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). God values things differently that we often do, from the inside out. And this should give us pause, to question ourselves: Are we valuing things according to the world’s standard or God’s?
Authentic Living and Giving
The Pharisees’ spies tried to entrap him, the Sadducees tried to refute him, but Jesus silenced them all. No one spoke but a lone scribe, a Bible scholar, saying, “Teacher, you have spoken well” (20:39). It’s heard as a compliment but given what Luke reveals about the murderous intentions of both the Pharisees and Sadducees, it’s hard not to question the man’s motives. Did he genuinely mean it? Perhaps. Or was the man’s compliment a kind of way to express his authority as a scribe, a compliment couched in self-regard? While we do not know for certain, I don’t think it is a coincidence that Jesus’ warning in our passage today is of this man and his kind. And what a warning it was!
The Lord Who Is Lord
In the two preceding passages, Jesus silenced his inquisitors. First, it was the Pharisees’ spies who asked him an entrapping question about the Roman tax. Second, it was the Sadducees who posed a theoretical scenario to disprove the resurrection. Neither were successful. Jesus stumped them both and silenced them all.
He Is God of the Living
Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are indeed beautiful things about this life. But we need not deny the blessings of God today to fix our hearts on the pleasures of heaven. This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it (Ps. 118:24). And we rejoice and are glad in it, because God is “preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17). Amen.
The Things That Belong to God
Our passage today answers this question, at least in part: “The scribes and the chief priests . . . perceived that [Jesus] had told this parable against them” (20:19). Notice, they are not confused about what Jesus has said. They understand that he is speaking about them. But like the tenants in the parable, rather than pausing to consider the charge, its truth, or its consequences, they continue in their determined pursuit of destroying Jesus.
The Son Rejected for Our Salvation
Such a sobering truth requires a question of us all: What will we do with the Son? God has been patient with sinners and sent his beloved Son in love. And though men rejected him, cast him out, and crucified him, God raised him from the dead and made him the cornerstone of his kingdom. We cannot undo his authority by rejecting it, nor prevent his reign by refusing it. But the wonder of the gospel is that this same cornerstone who will crush all who persist in unbelief receives every sinner who comes to him in faith.
When Heaven Has Spoken
There are questions asked that want an answer and questions asked because the answer already received wasn’t liked. I think this distinction is pertinent to our passage today. The chief priests, scribes, and elders approach Jesus with what appears to be a reasonable question: “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority” (Luke 20:2)….
When the King Draws Near
Let us not mistake nearness to the things of Christ for receiving Christ himself. The King draws near to us in the gospel, in the preaching of his Word, in the sacraments, in the gathered worship of his Church. These are great covenant privileges. But the question remains: What will you do when the King draws near?
