New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
All: “Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?”
Jesus: “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”
1. Where does Authority come from?
-Read Luke 19: 45-48. Do you see the connection to the question of Jesus’ authority and cleansing the temple? Why or why not?
Luke: He began to tell the people this parable:
Jesus: “A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time. When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants in order that they might give him his share of the produce of the vineyard; but the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. Next he sent another slave; that one also they beat and insulted and sent away empty-handed. And he sent still a third; this one also they wounded and threw out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance may 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.”
Luke: When they heard this, they said,
All: “Heaven forbid!”
Jesus: “What then does this text mean:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
1. Who is the owner of the vineyard?
2. Who were the servants sent to the vinyard?
3. Who was the son?
Luke: When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. So they asked him,
All: “Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
Jesus: “Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
1. What belongs to God?
All: “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”
1. Is this a question about marriage or about death?
Jesus: “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”
All: “Teacher, you have spoken well.”
Luke: Then he said to them,
1. Read Psalm 110
Luke: In the hearing of all the people he said to the disciples,
Jesus: “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
-Read Luke 11: 37 – 54
1. In what ways are we like the Pharisees Jesus critiques. How are we different.