Jesus' Authority and the Parable of the Tenants

Surely there are people in this room who have rejected Christ. Jesus said, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and everyone who falls on that stone, who trips over that stone, will be broken in pieces. And if it falls on anyone, it will crush him. You trip over Jesus, and He will crush you. When the chief priests and the scribes asked Jesus by what authority He did things and who gave Him that authority, Jesus didn't answer them directly. Instead, He asked them a question and told the people a crushing parable. Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thank you for joining us for this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Jesus said that the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, that this declaration comes at the culmination of an indicting parable.

As R.C. Sproul continues his sermon series through Luke's gospel, we come to the parable of the tenants. Here's Dr. Sproul. We're going to continue this morning with our study of the gospel according to St. Luke, and we're going to begin a whole new chapter, chapter 20, and I'll be reading beginning at verse 1 and reading through verse 18. I would ask the congregation please to stand for the reading of the Word of God. One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to Him, Tell us by what authority You do these things or who it is that gave You this authority.

He answered them, I will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? And they discussed it with one another, saying, If we say from heaven, He will say, Then why did you not believe Him? But if we say from man, all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.

So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. And He began to tell the people this parable. A man planted a vineyard and led it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. And when the time came, He sent a servant to the tenants so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And He sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And He said, Yet a third, and this one also they wounded and cast 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 said to themselves, This is the heir. Let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours. And 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. And when they heard this, they said, Surely not. But He looked directly at them and said, What then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush you. Again, sober and ominous words from the lips of our Savior, words given and superintended for our edification by God the Holy Spirit. I pray that we would receive them as such.

Please be seated. Let us pray. Again, our Father and our God, we ask that You would condescend to our weakness, to our fragile understanding, and give to us clear understanding of these words that were spoken by Jesus. Attend them by Thy Spirit, for we ask it in the name of Christ.

Amen. Chapter 20 of Luke's gospel begins with an account of Jesus' teaching in the temple and preaching. When He was visited by members of the Sanhedrin, the leaders of Israel that included the chief priests, the former high priests, the higher echelon of the Sadducees, along with the scribes, that is the theologians numbered among the Pharisees and as well of certain elders of the Sanhedrin. And together they approached Jesus with this question, by what authority do you do these things? That is to say, they came to Jesus and they said, who do you think you are? Coming into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, allowing these people to scream, Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, and then the next day coming into the sacred place of the temple and calling it a den of robbers. By what authority do you do these things?

Let me see your credentials. Now, when I look at this text and this confrontation between Jesus and the members of the ruling body of Israel, sometimes I let my imagination roam a little freely, and I ask myself why it was that Jesus didn't say this or why didn't He say that, why didn't He give some credentials that were plain before them. And as I speculate for a moment and think of what He might have said, I say, well, you want to know by what authority I say these things? Do you remember about 33 years ago when there was this astronomical phenomenon seen in the skies that drew wise men from 500 miles away to come and inquire of King Herod saying, who is this who was born King of the Jews?

Do you remember that? Some of you were certainly alive when that appearance in the sky was made manifest. Or when I came riding on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah, and appeared to you as the King of Israel, then this is my authority. I am your King, and that's my authority, and I can say to you, so let it be said, so let it be done. Or maybe just three years ago, you may recall the phenomenon that took place then when this man appeared out of the wilderness saying, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and he called all of Israel to the Jordan River to be baptized in repentance from their sins. You have to remember that because you sent a delegation all the way to the Jordan to see what this man, John the Baptizer, was doing and what he was all about. And maybe at the time you were visiting, you maybe saw me where John ushered me into the water, and he poured water on me. And maybe you were witnesses at that moment when you saw in the sky the Holy Spirit like a dove coming down and resting upon me. And if that didn't convince you, you heard the voice of God Himself audibly when He declared, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Maybe you were there, well, just a few days ago when I was starting my journey from the north of Galilee and coming down here to Jerusalem, I met with my disciples of Caesarea Philippi, and I said to them, who do men say that I am? And they gave me the scuttlebutt, and then I said, and who do you say that I am? And my disciple, Simon, looked at me and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

So you want my credentials? My credentials are I am the Messiah, and it's by the authority of the Holy Spirit resting upon me in that messianic office that I do these things and speak these things. Oh, you remember when John the Baptist was thrown in prison, and he began to have second thoughts, and he sent a message to me saying, Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for another? And I sent the message back to John, and I said, John, read your Bible. What does it say in Isaiah?

The Spirit of the Lord has come upon me and has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. That's the authority by which I do these things, that my Father has given me all authority on heaven and on the earth, and it's by that authority that I speak and act. That's not the answer he gave. He didn't say any of those things. Instead, as a typical Jew and Jewish scholar, he chose to answer a question with a question. And it wasn't simply being an act of evasion that any time that Jesus was engaged in these kinds of debates, he would use that technique of answering a question with a question and confounding the opposition and leaving them in ruins. Now, Jesus would loathe to fight a battle of wits with unarmed men, but they weren't totally unarmed. Jesus knew that they had all spent at least one semester or half a year in wits school, and so he engaged them in this debate.

Think about it, one semester, half a year in wits school. And so he said, I have a question for you. John the Baptist, by what authority did he baptize? And he knew what they would say, that if they answered by saying, his authority was from God, then he would reply to them, then why didn't you listen to him?

Why didn't you pay attention when he looked at me and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Or if they answered and said, well, his authority was from men, what kind of a reaction would that provoke? Jesus understood that if they said it was human authority only, not of God, the people would revolt against them and maybe even stone them to death.

And so they saw that the better part of valor was diplomacy. And so they said, we don't know. Of course they knew. They knew that John the Baptist was sent from God, but they lied right in the face of Jesus and tried to dodge his penetrating question. He said, we don't know. Jesus said, okay, then I won't give you my answer to your question. So instead of answering their question, he turned the tables on them and then proceeded to give a parable. Remember the word parable comes from the prefix para, which means alongside of, and the root of the verb valeo, which means to throw. And so if Jesus wanted to illustrate a point, he would throw a parable along the way, tell a story.

And he proceeds then to give this parable as part of the broader answer to the question. He said, a man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long time. Anybody that was a student of the Bible, of which these men obviously were, would be well aware of one of the most vivid metaphors ever used in the Old Testament by the prophet Isaiah at the beginning of the fifth chapter of the book that bears his name, where God likened his people Israel to a vineyard. And he said, I have made a vineyard for my beloved.

I've cleared the stones from the earth. I've planted and pruned and nurtured. But my people allowed this vineyard to grow wild grapes, to go unattended, and to become desolate. And so now Jesus freshens the Old Testament metaphor and speaks again of a man who plants a vineyard, who is the owner of the vineyard and goes into a far country while he hires tenants or sharecroppers to work the vineyard for him. And in those days, these tenant farmers would have to pay anywhere between 25 and 50 percent of the profits back to the owner at the appointed time. And so when the harvest came, the owner of the vineyard sent a messenger and sought to collect what was owed by the tenants and what happens.

The tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. The messenger comes from the owner of the vineyard, and they fall upon him, and they punch him and choke him, kick him, bruise him, wound him, and send him back with empty pockets, giving not one penny of the return that was owed to the owner. The owner saw this, saw his first messenger limping back empty-handed, and he said, I'll give them another chance. I'll send them another visitor so they send again another servant in what happened the second time.

But they also beat him and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed, strike two. And still, in his patience and benevolence, the owner of the tenant farmers said, maybe they didn't really understand the message. I'll tell them again, you have an obligation to me. I own this vineyard. I built this vineyard.

I leased it out to you to share in the profits. Now it's time to collect what you owe me, and so a third time he sent a servant, and this time they wounded him, and they cast him out. And at that point now the owner asks the question, strike three, now what do I do? Every messenger I send, every one of my servants I send to these workers, they beat him up, rob him blind, and they won't pay what they owe me. Okay, this time I'm not going to send a servant, simply be a spokesman. I'm going to send my own son, the heir of the vineyard, and I will send him, and surely they will listen and pay what they owe. And then what happens?

When the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, this is the heir. Let's kill him. We're not just going to beat him up and send him away empty-handed. We'll kill him and we'll bury him, and we will then possess the vineyard.

It will be all of ours. And so they threw him out of the vineyard, and they killed him. There wasn't a Jew in Israel that didn't get the point of this parable.

It was so simple and so basic. Every one of them understood the history of Israel and how God, who was the owner and builder of the original vineyard, had sent His prophets to His people. And every time He sent the prophets, they would beat Him or kill Him. And so now He sends His beloved Son, and they murder Him in order to take for themselves the vineyard. So then the question is this. Jesus says, what do you think the owner of the vineyard will do now?

Help me out here. I've told you the story. He sent three of His servants, and they beat Him up and left Him empty-handed. And He finally sent His beloved Son, and they killed Him.

Let me ask you a question. What do you think the owner of this vineyard will do now? Do you think He'll give up? Do you think He'll let you rob Him blind? Do you think He won't make you pay what you owe Him?

No. He will come and destroy the sharecroppers. He will come and destroy the tenant farmers. He will come and then take that vineyard that He so lovingly planted and cared for and give it to somebody else. That was the change from the original teaching of the prophet Isaiah, who said when the disobedient tenants of Israel ignored the beautiful vineyard that God the Father had made, He said He will let it go into ruins and desolation. But now the land will not just be desolate, but rather He will give it to someone else, that they would care for it and bring its fruit in its season. And then Jesus went on to say that when the people heard this, they said, God forbid, it can't be.

Surely not. Stop for just a second and hear what Luke tells us. Jesus looked directly at them. Can you imagine being in the audience that day listening to that parable and when Jesus finishes the story, He didn't just say, and so it goes, and walk away. He looked them in the eye to the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, to the Sanhedrin, the ones who had asked Him the question, by what authority did He do the things that He did?

And again He quotes Scripture and said, what then is this that is written? The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief corners now. Have you ever been to Rome and see the ancient city or go to Florence and see the craftsmanship and the work of the artists of the Renaissance? Look at the monumental achievements of the Renaissance sculptors that marked the landscape in those days. If you look at the geniuses of that art, their names are as long as my arm.

Think of them, just a few. Donatello, Bernini, and the master of all, Michelangelo. Have you seen their magnificent work? Have you read the life story of Michelangelo? How, as a young man, he would go to the quarries at Carrara where the most beautiful white marble in the world could be found.

Have you ever seen his unfinished statues called the Prisoners? Where Michelangelo said that I see the figures within the stone and my task as a sculptor is simply to take my hammer and my chisel and to free them from their captivity in the stone. But when he selected that marble at Carrara, he would inspect the marble meticulously to see if he could detect the tiniest blemish or flaw, or perhaps what seemed to be almost a totally hidden crack in the surface. And unless that marble met his expectations, he would pass it over and leave it to lesser mortals to practice their craft. Some people say that Jesus wasn't a carpenter, but that he was a stonemason because most of his illusions come from stonemasonry rather than from carpentry.

But in any case, he was certainly familiar with the work of the mason. And before the mason would build the house, he would go look for the supplies that he would use to erect the building. He would examine each one of the stones, each one of the rocks that he would mold together and shape them into this beautiful edifice. And like Michelangelo, if they didn't meet his expectations, the builder would throw them on the pile of rubble and reject them.

But the Bible said that the stones which the builders rejected would become the chief cornerstone. Do you remember Isaiah's prophecy in the 53rd chapter of the suffering servant when he described him in terms like this? He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

He had no form or comeliness. He was despised and rejected of men, and we turned our faces away from him like so much rubble. But the stone that the builders rejected, God shaped as the chief cornerstone for the church that he would build.

So many images of the church in the New Testament, the church as a body, but also the church as that which is made up of individual stones, the foundation of which would be the prophets and the apostles, but the chief cornerstone would be Christ. But that stone became a stumbling block to the Pharisees and a stumbling block to many people today, maybe people here in this room. They trip over it. They stumble. They fall on their faces because they reject it. Surely there are people in this room who have rejected Christ.

What are the consequences of that? Jesus said the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and everyone who falls on that stone, who trips over that stone, who stumbles from that stone will be broken in pieces. And if it falls on anyone, it will crush him. You trip over Jesus, and He will crush you. He's speaking to the Pharisees.

You despise Me. Oh, you remember when I was 12 years old, I was here as a little boy. Some of you remember that day when this prodigious young man astounded all of you in your brilliance in the temple?

What would you expect from someone who was sinless, who knew more theology in his little finger than the best of scholars among the Pharisees and Sadducees did in all of their brains? I'm that little boy that you've rejected. You're tripping on Me, and My Father will crush you. God forbid that anybody in this room, wherever so stumble upon Jesus, that it will end up being crushed by the Father, because though you might despise Him and be hostile to Him, this is the Father's Beloved in whom He's well pleased, and of whom He said a second time on the mount, this is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him. As Hebrews 3 reminds us, today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

That was R.C. Sproul preaching from the Gospel of Luke on this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Today's sermon from Luke 20 demonstrates Dr. Sproul's ability to really find the drama in the text, to help us see the truth and the eternal implications of God's Word. And this sermon series through Luke's Gospel formed the foundation of his expositional commentary on Luke, and for your donation of any amount, we're making the e-book edition available to you as our way of saying thanks for supporting the outreach of Renewing Your Mind. When you give your gift at renewingyourmind.org, the digital edition of this commentary will be added to your learning library, so that you can access it in the free Ligonier app or at ligonier.org. So give your gift today by visiting renewingyourmind.org. If you could ask Jesus just one question, what would it be? Would you ask Him about taxes? Well, the scribes and the chief priests did ask Jesus that question, and that's what we'll consider next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind. .