In a way this chapter is a direct attack against Jesus’ authority as the King and Messiah He has just claimed to be.
They were not engaging in a verbal dialogue to discern the truth, they were engaged in verbal warfare in a public relations game to discredit Jesus and eventually kill him.
Verses 1 - 8 Who is John Really?
The chief priests, scribes and elders made up the Sanhedrin, Israel’s ruling council. Apparently after the clearing of the Temple they met and tried to get a handle on Jesus. They were not interested in finding out His authority; they simply wanted to trip Him up into blaspheming so they could condemn Him. It wasn’t a fact finding mission, it was a lynching.
So was Jesus just dodging their question? Not really. John the Baptist was the Scriptural for-runner for Jesus. He was the hand-off from the prophets to the Messiah. Jesus was simply identifying the missing link in their chain. They didn’t believe that John was sent from God, but wouldn’t admit to their real feelings because they were more afraid of the crowds than of Jesus and of God.
It raises the question: how interested are you in letting the Scriptures teach you what to believe, instead of demanding that the Scriptures teach what you believe?
1 Timothy 1:3-5 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. ESV
Mark 7:9-10 "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! ESV
Do you believe the Scriptures and all the prophets said about the Messiah? Are you more concerned about public opinion and the latest PC version of spiritual truth, or the truth itself?
Who was John, really? He was the bridge between the Old and New Covenant.
John 1:29-32 "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ’After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." ESV
So the Pharisees wouldn’t be honest with the truth about God, but God is about to be brutally honest with the truth about the Pharisees.
Verses 9 - 19 Who are the Pharisees Really?
This parable is so direct that Jesus had to no explaining to the Pharisees. The "servants" were the prophets that God sent to Israel to warn them and to prepare them. The son, of course, is Jesus Himself. I’m pretty sure the Pharisees said "surely not" to the characterization of them as the wicked tenants, not "surely the son won’t be killed." He knew their game and they knew that he knew their game.
And you know God knows our game too. He has sent his prophets and his Son to tell us pretty plainly that we must repent and give our allegiance to Jesus. You are responsible for the information God gives you about Himself.
Jesus quotes from Psalm 118. It’s an awesome Psalm. It’s the same one the people quoted from as Jesus approached Jerusalem: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Jesus’ words of verse 18 are pretty strong but important for us to consider. To fall on the stone means you are broken. It means you realize you are not right in and of yourself and lay your life down so that Jesus can lift it up again with His rightness. But if you don’t do that then the stone falls on you and you are crushed by the judgment of your own evil.
The Pharisees were incensed and lost control and all religious pretense and wanted to murder Jesus on the spot, but again they feared the people might stone them so they had to back to scheming ways to trip him up in the eyes of the people. One really great way to do that was to pit Rome and Israel.
Verses 20 - 26 Paying Taxes
The people hated Rome. If Jesus said you had to pay taxes then the people might have thought he was on Rome’s side and not on theirs. If he said you shouldn’t pay taxes then the Roman authorities could accuse him of insurrection. It was a no win situation for Jesus - what is He going to do?
It’s a beautiful example of how we as humans far underestimate God. Taxes by Rome basically took about a third of people’s income. There was a poll tax for everyone 14-65, which was one days wage; there was a produce tax, and a tax on all goods transported.
Jesus didn’t really sidestep the issue. But he pointed out that our perception of what is important is not God’s. God cares about our souls, not our money. Giving the world’s money to the world is like trading Tidily Winks (remember those?) or hanging on to Monopoly money as if it really holds value when it comes to the really important things.
But don’t get the idea that Jesus would tell us not to pay any attention to world governments or our obligations to support them. In Matthew 17 Jesus asks Peter basically the same question as the Pharisees asked Him. In that passage he points out that if you are a son in the kingdom of God you are exempt from taxation but in order not to offend we should pay what we owe. Paul reiterates this in Romans 13 and again in Titus 3.
Bottom line: The Devil owns this world and we should be more concerned about the ruler of the universe than the ruler of earth.
So even as the Pharisees with their very secular and practical ways could not trip Jesus up, so now the Sadducees with their hyper-spiritual ways try the same thing.
Verses 27 - 40 Who Are the Sadducees Really?
Deuteronomy 25:5-6 state that a man should marry his brother’s widow if there is no son to carry on the family name, and that son will bear the dead brother’s name. The Sadducees didn’t believe in heaven or the supernatural or the resurrection of the dead, so they had latched on to this law, strung it out to its illogical conclusion then figured it was a way to prove their case.
In Matthew Jesus said to them: (22:29) "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God." They had interpreted the Scriptures to fit their own philosophy when they should have seen places like Exodus 3 where the Patriarchs are alive when God spoke to Moses. And they didn’t understand the power of God to create a new life that doesn’t die and so has no need of marriage and children to carry on the family line. We are like angels in that we won’t marry or are given in marriage. Relationships will be different, and better than on earth.
For us: don’t interpret God’s Word according to your own preconceived ideas. Let His Word speak for itself.
As usual, the opponents had had enough, but Jesus presses the point about how they must confront who they believe Jesus is:
Verses 41 - 44 Who is Jesus Really?
Jesus quotes from Psalm 110, a Davidic Psalm. What Jesus is pointing out here is that the Messiah would be both human and divine. The Pharisees thought the Messiah was to be a human ruler only.
So David says; "The LORD (Yahweh) said to my Lord (Adonai-ruler, his lord). The Messiah was to be David’s offspring (Isaiah 11:1). So David speaks to the coming Messiah as his Lord. And this offspring would also sit at God’s right hand, the place of someone who can act in the King’s stead. It also speaks of the Messiah being victorious over all evil. Ancient kings were to put their heads under the king’s foot as a sign they were defeated.
For us: who the Son of Man is to you is the central question of your destiny. There is no other philosophical or intellectual matter more important. Don’t let anyone or anything draw you off from answering that question for yourself: who is Jesus to you?
Verse 45 - 47 Who are the Scribes Really?
The Scribes wore while robes in public as a sign of purity. They were only supposed to wear them for ministering to God. I wonder if sometimes we use symbols of worship to flaunt our position with God-kind of like wearing a giant cross, not as an opportunity to talk about the gospel but as a way of showing off just how pious we are.
The Scribes received no pay for their position but it was considered an act of worship to help them with donations. They also would be trusted with people’s finances, a woman’s dowry, or an entire widow’s estate. They basically embezzled money given to them in trust.
That, and the fact that their prayers were not conversations with God but ploys to make people think they were holy, shows their real character.
The Scribes loved position, fame, and honor. They fake a relationship with God but are actually love the opposite of what God loves.
Conclusions
So two things at play in this chapter: unmasking false religion and unmasking the reality of Jesus the Messiah. The Pharisees should have known from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah, and that John and the other prophets pointed to Him. The Sadducees should have understood the power of God from His Word, and the Scribes should have realized that a God-show earns no capital in God’s kingdom.
Is it time for the Lord to unmask some of our own religious shows? Do we ever do things that are meant as worship but in reality we do them to impress others? We can do that by our verbal prayers, by our way of worshipping, by dropping hints at how we give or what we’ve done for the Lord. Jesus told us that our prayers, our giving, our fasting-all should be done to and for the Lord alone. It doesn’t mean we don’t pray in public, but what is the focus of what we do-for God’s consumption, or for man’s?
And secondly, is it time to unmask our own misunderstanding of God’s Word? There may be things that we lay on top of the Word-like an answer key, so that only those answers we want to see come through and everything else is blocked. Read the study the bible with a completely open mind. Seek to understand the culture, the context, the meaning, and the flow of how it fits into God’s revelation, and then let Jesus change your mind and your theology to match His Word.
Verse 18 Which will it be? Will you fall on the stone or shall it fall on you?
