EPISODE 42 Luke Chapter 20 ”Cornerstone” for Share The Word

Welcome, friends, to Share the Word. Whether you're just beginning to explore the Bible or have been a Christian for years, we believe that you'll get some great insight from our podcast as our teachers unpack the big ideas of the New Testament in a down-to-earth language. Now let's get right into today's lesson. Luke chapter 20. Cornerstone. In my backyard shed, for some reason, I have an old box of tools, specifically tools for brick and block masons or stonemasons.

They belonged to my dad, who used them, man, must be 80 years ago now when he was in his twenties, because that's when he worked in that trade. I guess I keep them only because they were his, because Lord knows I couldn't use them to build anything, that's for sure. In today's chapter, though, we run into an analogy about building things from stone, and I had to do some research to be sure I understood exactly what it meant. We'll get to that in a few moments. But if anybody needs some stonemason tools, really cheap, look me up. When we come to Luke chapter 20, Jesus and his disciples have reached Jerusalem and are only a few days away from the fulfillment of what our Savior knew to be his mission.

There were also, and not by chance, these were the days immediately leading up to the festival of Passover. The city was filling up with pilgrims, religious Jews returning to Jerusalem for this annual national convocation of worship and remembrance. Just as he had near the outset of his public ministry, now again near the close of it, we learned from the end of the previous chapter, Jesus once again entered into the temple courtyard boldly, angrily, seeing what he saw there, he drove out those who were using it for a marketplace. Jesus found it outrageous that in the outer courtyard, which, by the way, was supposed to be the place Gentiles could come and learn about God, this had been turned into a bazaar by the greedy high priests who controlled the temple, because they got a piece of all the action from the vendors who were selling things there.

Adding insult to injury, the temple bosses required arriving worshipers who needed to buy animals or something else, they had to come to these vendors, and at the vendors' tables they had to use what we might call temple bucks. That's what the money changers were there for. They turned people's real money, let's say the equivalent of a hundred dollars of real money, and in exchange gave them some temple money, which could only be used at the temple. In the exchange, an exorbitant percentage, a transaction fee, we might say, was added. Quite a scam, eh? The temple bosses, that is the high priests, gouging those who came from far away to worship God, and this enraged Jesus.

That's why he went on the rampage, flipping over the tables of the money changers, freeing the animals, and he was doing it yelling, My house shall be a house of prayer, and you've turned it into a den of robbers. I go back to this because it explains the confrontation that Luke describes at the outset of chapter 20, where we read this. As Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests appeared, the scribes and the elders, and they came up to him and said, Tell us by what authority you are doing these things, and who is it that gave you the authority? It's a reference back to Jesus disrupting their operation, their shady business in the temple courtyard. The temple bosses wanted to know why Jesus thought he had the authority to do such a thing.

When they came out to confront him, Jesus was in the middle of teaching God's word, which actually is what the temple courtyard was supposed to be used for. That large open area had porticos all around the exterior of it where rabbis and others could instruct those who came to the temple to learn about God. It's while Jesus was busy doing that, and this is probably a day or so after this outburst had occurred, where he kicked the people out of the temple who were misusing it, the temple bigwigs confronted him. Jesus answered their question about authority with one of his own. First let me ask you a question, Jesus replied. Was the baptism of John from God or just something he was doing on his own authority?

He was referring back to the ministry of John the Baptist, the prophet of God who had been calling the people of Israel to repent and get their hearts ready for the Messiah and for the kingdom of God. Those who responded to John's preaching were baptized as a way of showing their intention to be cleansed of their past sin and start a new life of obedience to God. This man, who one of the Herods had not long before beheaded, was revered by many people in the nation. So when Jesus asked the temple leaders, was John the Baptist sent from God, the things he was saying authorized by God, or was he acting on his own? They had to consult over that one, and they put their heads together. They realized if they admitted John the Baptist was a true prophet of God acting under God's authority, Jesus could say, So why didn't you accept his message and repent?

But if they answered that John the Baptist was just operating on his own authority, was just a pretender who didn't speak for God, then the people who revered him would turn on them. After their consultation, they decided to punt. They answered, We really can't say. We really don't know. Then Jesus responded to them, Then neither will I tell you by what authority I act. They were both sent by God, but Jesus didn't feel any need whatsoever to answer to these men.

None at all. He turned back to the people he was teaching and continued seamlessly into telling a very pointed story. And realize those priests and elders of the temple were still right there, so they heard this story. It goes like this. A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to tenants. He then went into another country and stayed for a long time.

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 that servant and sent him away empty-handed. He sent another servant, but they also beat and treated him shamefully, sent him away empty-handed. And then he sent a third, who was also cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, What should I do? I'll send my beloved son, and perhaps they will respect him.

But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, That's the heir. We should kill him and the inheritance may become ours. And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to these men? Jesus asked. Crickets.

Giving them a few moments to think that over, he then said, He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. When the people heard that, they said, Surely not. But he looked directly at them and said, What then is the meaning of what has been written? The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is a very thinly veiled parable, isn't it? Pretty impossible to misunderstand.

The vineyard imagery, often in the Old Testament, was for the nation of Israel. So Jesus' audience knew what he was talking about here. The vineyard represented their nation. Clearly, the owner of the vineyard in the story represents God. By tenants, Jesus is describing what we would think of as sharecroppers. Parcels of the vineyard were leased out to owners who were tenants to plant and harvest grapes.

The tenant farmers in Jesus' story represented Israel's leaders whom God entrusted with the vineyard, with the nation of Israel. It was their job to care for the vineyard properly. The vineyard, remember, represented God's chosen people. The way the sharecropping system works is that tenants work for a share of the harvest, but a sizable portion of the proceeds from the harvest go back to the owner of the vineyard in exchange for the privilege of working his land. Understand that imagery? So when harvest time comes, the owner in Jesus' story sent a servant to collect what was due him.

But the sharecroppers rudely beat the man and sent him away with nothing. Then the owner sent another man, and then he sent another man who were also abused and thrown out of the vineyard. These servants who were mistreated undoubtedly represent the prophets God had sent time and again to Israel, most recently John the Baptist. Sometimes they were ignored, but in some cases they were even killed, as John the Baptist had been. In Jesus' story, after the vineyard owner's servants were treated badly time and again, he decided to send his own son. Surely they will respect him.

But when the tenants of the vineyard saw the son and realized he was the heir, they decided to kill him, hoping they could take the vineyard for themselves. Jesus then asked those listening, So what do you think the owner of the vineyard would do to such people? I hear a dramatic pause right there. And then he answers his own question: He will come and kill those worthless men who did that to his son, and he will give the vineyard to others. His listeners understood the implications of this parable. They knew what Jesus was saying because their response was, God forbid, may that never happen.

Jesus was saying the Jewish system as it existed then under these corrupt religious leaders was going to be destroyed and that God was going to entrust what he was doing on this earth to others. This was prophetic, and this was exactly, of course, what happened. God's beloved Son was sent to the rejected leaders of Israel, and he was killed. Within a generation, Jerusalem and their temple were utterly destroyed by the Romans. And God's vineyard, what God was doing on this earth to produce fruit for himself, was taken away from those corrupt leaders of Judaism and given over to new spiritual leaders, the apostles and prophets of the New Testament church. Those who understood what Jesus was suggesting were shocked by that.

May it never be, was their response. But it would be. Jesus' final word to them was this rhetorical question: If this seems impossible to you, then what do you think the prophecy means which says, 'The stone which the builders rejected became the cornerstone'? That line actually comes from the 118th Psalm, one of the songs that was sung at the Passover celebration going right then in Jerusalem. The next line of that psalm says, This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. What is that psalm you've been singing forever at your Passover celebrations talking about?

Jesus wanted to know. Do you have any idea what it means? The stone which the builders rejected became the cornerstone? Here's what it means that my crack research team has turned up. Then as now, when a new stone foundation is laid for a building, the most important stone is the first stone, called the cornerstone. The cornerstone is the first foundation stone set because the whole building will be erected in reference to the orientation of that stone.

Jesus is identifying himself as the cornerstone of something new God was about to build to replace the failed system of Judaism. Realize the religious leaders of Israel at that time, some of the very men who heard him tell that story that day, are the ones who rejected him as a stone that did not fit, or was not worthy, who in their view would not work as a Messiah. They rejected Jesus because he didn't fit their construct of what God's Messiah would be like and what he would do, like a construction foreman saying, No, no, that stone will never do. Get me another. But it was not their call. God the Father himself had sent Jesus and positioned him to be the cornerstone for what in heaven's plans would come next.

Jesus was about to build something new. The apostle Paul later wrote about this in Ephesians chapter 2 in the New Testament, no doubt with this passage from his friend Luke in mind. These lines were written to an early Christian church made up mostly of Gentile believers 25 years or so after Jesus' death and resurrection. Listen. You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and is rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord.

So at the temple in Jerusalem, where Jesus was teaching only a few days before his own death, he clearly prophesied, some of the very religious leaders there who would arrange his death, Since you reject God's beloved Son, since you have decided he does not fit as your Messiah, God is going to build something new on a new and different foundation of which I will be the cornerstone. When the apostle Paul wrote this a couple decades later, that reality, which shocked Jesus' listeners that day in our setting, already was well underway. Gentiles from around the Roman world were hearing and believing the gospel, and Paul tells them, You are believers in Jesus Christ, and you are the new building God is constructing. You are a living holy temple built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets of Jesus, the one who was rejected, the cornerstone.

To be called out that way, right in their temple's courtyard this day on what they considered their own turf, obviously infuriated the religious leaders of Israel. Luke says, The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately because they knew he had spoken this parable against them, but they were afraid of the people. So now at this point in Luke's account, the stage is set for the passion of the Christ. Jesus is in Jerusalem. His enemies are boiling mad at him. The chief priests and most of the others on the Sanhedrin are champing at the bit to get at him.

They feared that his movement might turn into, and they were jealous of his influence over the multitudes who were fascinated with him. Most of all, they probably hated him for exposing them as hypocrites using religion to enrich themselves. They had the civil authority in Judea to arrest Jesus and wanted badly to get rid of him, but he had quite a popular following, throngs of people who admired him. So how? How do we do it without major blowback coming back on us? Their chance would present itself only a couple of nights later.

Before we leave chapter 20, I'd like to comment on something important here that is apparent from Jesus' response to those who are questioning him. It's not only apparent here; it's apparent many places in the Gospels, and I don't want you to miss it. Twice in this exchange, Jesus answered difficult questions with what we would call today a mic drop moment. He did so by quoting Old Testament scripture. When you see the formula, It is written, in the Gospels, what comes out of Jesus' mouth next is a reference to and quotation of something written in the Old Testament. Take note of this at verse 17 in our chapter, then again at verse 41 in our chapter, when Jesus makes a direct appeal to the Old Testament scripture.

In both these cases, he is quoting from the book of Psalms. In doing so, he left his critics speechless because they claimed to accept the Old Testament scripture as authoritative. They both believed, Jesus and his opponents, that it was the very word of God and so the final word. When people question why I take the Bible so seriously, why I believe it is the very word of God and so a trustworthy revelation of truth, one point I always try to make is that I do so because I am a Christian. That means I am a follower of Christ. As a follower of Christ, my view of Scripture is obligated to be the same as His was.

I often see in the Gospels, like here in Luke 20, Jesus settle an argument simply by appealing to the authority of Scripture. He believed it was God's very Word. He said things like, The Scripture cannot be broken. He prayed for His disciples, Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is the truth. He said things like, Heaven and earth pass away, but My words will never pass away. And I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter or even the stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law of God until it is all accomplished.

Jesus clearly believed what the Bible teaches. He believed it was the truth, whether it was about creation or about the reality of our original parents, Adam and Eve, what it says about Moses or David or Isaiah or Daniel. He knew that what the Scriptures wrote was true, is trustworthy, because He believed it was the inspired Word of God. So as a Christian, what Jesus believed on this critical subject is also what I believe. I must, or how could I really call myself a follower of His? I see no logic whatsoever in those who claim they are Christians but do not believe the people in the Bible were real or the events described in the Bible actually happened.

How in the world do they square that with the fact Jesus clearly did? Do they imagine they are smarter and more insightful than He was? I certainly hope they're not that presumptuous. Share the Word's whole premise is that the Bible is the very Word of God, and so a trustworthy revelation of truth from our Creator to us. It's not the only reason we come at the Bible from such a high view, but the fact that this certainly was Jesus' view is one huge reason we do. If you want to think this critical question through more thoroughly, check out our blog at www.sharetheword.org, and specifically the articles posted under Why We Trust the Bible.

You'll find a fascinating and thorough treatment of this very important question. Going forward, when covering places in the New Testament where this high view of Scripture is taught, I'll make this case in more detail. But I could not pass by Jesus' example here in Luke 20 without commenting on it. I want you to understand in no uncertain terms that you are listening to someone now, as well as our other teachers who contribute on Share the Word, who hold this same high view of Scripture that Jesus held. And that only makes sense because we are Christians. We're followers of Christ.

We are committed to following Him in all regards, not just in this one, but in all regards. Hey, join us next time for Luke chapter 21. Invite others to listen to this podcast who you think might be interested in hearing an honest and systematic presentation of what the New Testament Scripture is all about. At this point, we're getting very close to the climax of Luke's account. If you'd like to go back to the beginning of Luke's Gospel, or even to where we started the podcast, it's all available in our archive on the website. This is Paul.

Thank you for listening to Share the Word. Thanks, Paul. You know, as many times as I've listened to each episode, there are still things that I pick up every time I listen again. And by the way, check out our archive at sharetheword.org. Share the Word podcast began in September of 2023, and our goal is to see it shared around the world. If you have friends and family outside of the U.S., please help us connect with them.

From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.