@Lu 20:1-19. THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS QUESTIONED, AND HIS REPLY--PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.
(See on Mt 21:23.)
2. these things--particularly the clearing of the temple.
4. baptism of John--his whole ministry and mission, of which baptism was the seal.
5. Why then believed ye him not?--that is, in his testimony to Jesus, the sum of his whole witness.
7. could not tell--crooked, cringing hypocrites! No wonder Jesus gave you no answer (@Mt 7:6). But what dignity and composure does our Lord display as He turns their question upon themselves!
9-13. vineyard--(See on Lu 13:6). In @Mt 21:33 additional
points are given, taken literally from @Isa 5:2, to fix down the
application and sustain it by Old Testament authority.
husbandmen--the ordinary spiritual guides of the people, under whose
care and culture the fruits of righteousness might be yielded.
went, &c.--leaving it to the laws of the spiritual husbandry during
the whole length of the Jewish economy.
(See on Mr 4:26.)
10. beat, &c.--(@Mt 21:35); that is, the prophets, extraordinary messengers raised up from time to time. (See on Mt 23:37.)
13. my beloved son--Mark (@Mr 12:6) still more affectingly, "Having
yet therefore one son, his well-beloved"; our Lord thus severing Himself
from all merely human messengers, and claiming Sonship in its
loftiest sense. (Compare @Heb 3:3-6.)
it may be--"surely"; implying the almost unimaginable guilt of
not doing so.
14. reasoned among themselves--(Compare @Ge 37:18-20 Joh 11:47-53).
the heir--sublime expression of the great truth, that God's inheritance
was destined for, and in due time to come into the possession of, His
Son in our nature (@Heb 1:2).
inheritance . . . ours--and so from mere servants we may become
lords; the deep aim of the depraved heart, and literally
"the root of all evil."
15. cast him out of the vineyard--(Compare @Heb 13:11-13 1Ki 21:13 Joh 19:17).
16. He shall come, &c.--This answer was given by the Pharisees
themselves (@Mt 21:41), thus pronouncing their own righteous doom.
Matthew alone (@Mt 21:43) gives the naked application, that "the
kingdom of God should be taken from them, and given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof"--the great evangelical community of the
faithful, chiefly Gentiles.
God forbid--His whole meaning now bursting upon them.
17-19. written--(in @Ps 118:22,23. See on Lu 19:38). The Kingdom of God is here a Temple, in the erection of which a certain stone, rejected as unsuitable by the spiritual builders, is, by the great Lord of the House, made the keystone of the whole. On that Stone the builders were now "falling" and being "broken" (@Isa 8:15), "sustaining great spiritual hurt; but soon that Stone should fall upon them and grind them to powder" (@Da 2:34,35 Zec 12:3)--in their corporate capacity in the tremendous destruction of Jerusalem, but personally, as unbelievers, in a more awful sense still.
19. the same hour--hardly able to restrain their rage.
@Lu 20:20-40. ENTANGLING QUESTIONS ABOUT TRIBUTE AND THE RESURRECTION--THE REPLIES.
20-26. sent forth--after consulting (@Mt 22:15) on the best plan.
spies--"of the Pharisees and Herodians" (@Mr 12:13).
See @Mr 3:6.
21. we know, &c.--hoping by flattery to throw Him off His guard.
22. tribute--(See on Mt 17:24).
25. things which be Cæsar's--Putting it in this general form, it
was impossible for sedition itself to dispute it, and yet it dissolved
the snare.
and unto God--How much there is in this profound but to them startling
addition to the maxim, and how incomparable is the whole for fulness,
brevity, clearness, weight!
27-34. no resurrection--"nor angel nor spirit" (@Ac 23:8); the materialists of the day.
34. said unto them--In @Mt 22:29, the reply begins with this important statement:--"Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures," regarding the future state, "nor the power of God," before which a thousand such difficulties vanish (also @Mr 12:24).
36. neither . . . die any more--Marriage is ordained to perpetuate
the human family; but as there will be no breaches by death in the
future state, this ordinance will cease.
equal--or "like."
unto the angels--that is, in the immortality of their nature.
children of God--not in respect of character but nature;
"being the children of the resurrection" to an undecaying existence
(@Ro 8:21,23). And thus the children of their Father's immortality
(@1Ti 6:16).
37, 38. even Moses--whom they had just quoted to entangle Him.
38. not . . . of the dead, . . . for all, &c.--To God, no human being is dead, or ever will be; but all sustain an abiding conscious relation to Him. But the "all" here meant "those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world." These sustain a gracious covenant relation to God, which cannot be dissolved. In this sense our Lord affirms that for Moses to call the Lord the "God" of His patriarchal servants if at that moment they had no existence, would be unworthy of Him. He "would be ashamed to be called their God, if He had not prepared for them a city" (@Heb 11:16). How precious are these glimpses of the resurrection state!
39. scribes . . . well said--enjoying His victory over the Sadducees.
they durst not--neither party, both for the time utterly foiled.
@Lu 20:41-47. CHRIST BAFFLES THE PHARISEES BY A QUESTION ABOUT DAVID AND MESSIAH, AND DENOUNCES THE SCRIBES.
41. said, &c.--"What think ye of Christ [the promised and expected Messiah]? Whose son is He [to be]? They say unto Him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit [by the Holy Ghost, @Mr 12:36] call Him Lord?" (@Mt 22:42,43). The difficulty can only be solved by the higher and lower--the divine and human natures of our Lord (@Mt 1:23). Mark the testimony here given to the inspiration of the Old Testament (compare @Lu 24:44).
46, 47. Beware, &c.--(See on Mt 23:5; and Lu 14:7).
47. devour, &c.--taking advantage of their helpless condition and confiding character, to obtain possession of their property, while by their "long prayers" they made them believe they were raised far above "filthy lucre." So much "the greater damnation" awaits them. What a lifelike description of the Romish clergy, the true successors of "the scribes!"