THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
LUKE
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
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CHAPTER 20
@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!"
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