The Savior for All: The Stone the Builders Rejected

Luke 20 is the Savior in the temple courts, answering question after question — and at every turn, turning the questions back on those who asked.

The chief priests demand to know by what authority He acts. He tells a parable in which the tenants kill the owner's son. The Pharisees and Herodians ask about taxes. The Sadducees try to trap Him on the resurrection. He silences them with a question about David's Lord.

Through every confrontation, the Savior for All stands as the rejected stone that has become the cornerstone of God's whole house.

"By what authority?"

One day, as Jesus is teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders come up:

"Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority."

He answers them:

"I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?"

They discuss with one another: If we say, "From heaven," he will say, "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.

They answer that they do not know.

Jesus says:

"Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

The Savior for All does not give answers to those who refuse to acknowledge the truth they already have. They had already met God's witness in John. If they would not respond to him, they would not respond to Jesus. The question was not really about authority. It was about willingness to obey.

The parable of the tenants

He begins to tell the people this parable:

A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. 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.

He sent another servant. They also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed.

He sent yet a third. 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. They threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

Jesus asks:

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others."

When they hear this, they say:

"Surely not!"

But He looks directly at them and says:

"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 him."

The scribes and the chief priests seek to lay hands on Him at that very hour, for they perceive that He has told this parable against them. But they fear the people.

The Savior for All tells them, to their faces, that they are about to murder the Son of God — and that He, the Stone they reject, is the Cornerstone of the Father's house. What looks like defeat at the cross will be the foundation of an entirely new building.

Taxes to Caesar

So they watch Him and send spies, who pretend to be sincere, that they might catch Him in something He says, so as to deliver Him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

"Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly… Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?"

He perceives their craftiness:

"Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?"

They answer: "Caesar's."

He says:

"Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

They are not able to catch Him in what He has said in the presence of the people. They marvel at His answer and become silent.

The coin bears Caesar's image — give it back to him. You bear God's image — give yourself back to Him.

The Sadducees on resurrection

There come to Him some Sadducees, who deny that there is a resurrection. They pose a hypothetical about seven brothers who in succession marry the same woman. Whose wife will she be in the resurrection?

Jesus answers:

"The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection."

Then He grounds the resurrection in Moses himself:

"But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him."

The patriarchs are alive to God. The resurrection is not a footnote; it is the consequence of God's eternal covenant.

Some of the scribes answer: "Teacher, you have spoken well." For they no longer dare to ask Him any question.

David's Son and David's Lord

He says to them:

"How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."' David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?"

The riddle has only one answer. The Christ is both David's descendant and David's Lord. He is born of David's line and yet is the eternal Son.

The Savior for All is fully Son of David and fully Son of God. He is both at once — the only one who could be both.

Beware of the scribes

In the hearing of all the people, He says to His disciples:

"Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation."

The Savior for All ends His public debates with a warning about the kind of religion that loves robes and devours widows. That religion has no place in His Kingdom — and will receive the greater condemnation.

Closing prayer

Father, thank You that the stone Your builders rejected has become the cornerstone — and that on Christ alone Your whole house is built. Save us from religion that asks the right question with the wrong heart, that quotes Scripture without intending to obey. Render us unto You as those who bear Your image. Raise us, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, to be alive to You forever. In Jesus' name, amen.