Reflective Bible Study

As Jesus finishes sharing with the disciples the details about what will happen when He returns, Jesus shares a simple, but also challenging, parable that was meant to divide people. In this parable, we discover that our actions are important, and our actions appear to be connected and relevant to our salvation.

However, one of the most interesting things in my mind about the parable we are about to read is how both groups in this parable share some key similarities. Let’s read Jesus’ big conclusion to this teaching, and discover what we should keep in mind regarding His return.

Our passage is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 25, and we will read it from the Holman Christian Standard Bible. Starting in verse 31, Jesus continued sharing with the disciples who were present:

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵ For I was hungry
and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me something to drink;
I was a stranger and you took Me in;
³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you took care of Me;
I was in prison and you visited Me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’

⁴⁰ “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ ⁴¹ Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!

⁴² For I was hungry
and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me nothing to drink;
⁴³ I was a stranger
and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked
and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison
and you didn’t take care of Me.’

⁴⁴ “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?’

⁴⁵ “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’

⁴⁶ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

When reading this parable, I cannot get around the challenging idea that both groups of people share one big characteristic. In this parable, both groups are unaware that their actions and attitudes are directly helping or not helping God.

This detail stands out in my mind because knowing about this parable would theoretically bring out a third or a fourth group. These other two groups would be those who know that their actions would be helping God and they either choose to help, or they choose not to help, depending on whether they want to be allied to God or not. Looking out at the world today, it is not hard to picture people who would actively reject God, even knowing what rejecting God means.

However, with this parable, what is Jesus teaching as truth, and what is simply given for illustrative purposes? Should all the details in this parable be taken to mean something, or should we only look for the big themes?

When we read this teaching, there is clearly a figurative angle to Jesus’ message because people are not sheep or goats, and we can understand that this illustration is about Jesus not separating types of animals like a shepherd but different types of people.

Is this where the figurative descriptions end and the literal ones begin?

While I will be the first to say that most everything else in this parable sounds more literal than figurative, with Jesus’ parables, it is best to not overextend Jesus’ analogy. Jesus used many tactile, concrete examples to explain spiritual truth, and it is very possible that we could incorrectly apply something Jesus says if we work in the incorrect direction.

Instead, the way I have begun to look at parables is to first discern the theme of the parable and the key point Jesus wants to share, before then working backward from there.

In this parable, what is the big key that Jesus wants us to learn?

While we might have different ways of saying this, I believe Jesus describes this truth twice in this parable, once for each group. In verses 40 and 45, Jesus describes the King’s words as: “I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.”

With this parable, there is no getting around the big theme and big truth that what we do for those who need help is significant in God’s eyes. When we look at the type of help that Jesus describes each group doing or not doing, the help that is given is help that cannot be repaid in equal measure. This type of help is what God desires to see in His people, and I believe this is because this type of help best reflects the help God showed each of us! God helps us in ways we could never repay Him for, and the best way we can say “Thank You” to God is by helping others who cannot repay us!

A secondary theme is present in this parable, and if left unchecked, some might believe this secondary theme is more significant than the one we just focused on.

The secondary theme is related to the fate of each group of people. Jesus finishes this parable by stating that the wicked people, or those who did not show help to the “least of these”, will go away into eternal punishment, which is described earlier in Jesus parable as the “eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels” (v. 41)

This is contrasted with the righteous receiving eternal life, which is described earlier in the parable as inheriting the kingdom prepared for God’s people from the foundation of the world. (v. 34)

While we don’t have time to cover this theme adequately in the time we have left for our episode, the big thing I believe we should focus on in this parable is not the rewards or punishments shared in this parable. These are side details that while valid, are things that are unchangeable in the big picture.

Instead, we should focus on what group we will choose to be a part of, and the way we choose a group is by choosing to help those who cannot help us in return. We can choose whether we will be a figurative sheep or a figurative goat, and our choice in this parable is described as having eternal results.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to thank God for what He has done in your life by helping those who cannot repay you. When we help those who cannot repay us, we are helping like God has helped and blessed us!

Also, as I regularly challenge you to do, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God. While a pastor, speaker, author, or even a podcaster can give you things to think about, take what you hear and learn and filter it through the truth of the Bible. While traditions change with every generation of people, the Bible remains constant, and the Bible is a reliable spiritual guide for navigating the storms of life!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Every so often, while moving through the gospels, we come across a passage that has the power to radically change someone’s perspective. The passage we are looking at for this podcast episode is one such passage for me.

A number of years ago, while studying this passage using Reflective Bible Study, I noticed a phrase in Luke’s version of this event that is not in Matthew or in Mark, and this phrase radically shifted my view about God, about death, about the future resurrection, and about the idea of perspective within the Bible. In other words, this passage pushed me to pay closer attention to the perspective of who is sharing the message within each Bible passage, and in Jesus’ case, we must pay attention to whether He is sharing from humanity’s perspective or from God’s perspective. While Jesus can share from either, it seems that Jesus usually draws us to pay attention to God’s perspective.

The extra phrase that is found within Luke’s gospel also may have stood out to me when I read it simply because I have never heard anyone else mention it, or draw attention onto it prior to my studying it. It is almost as if this is a forgotten or intentionally ignored phrase in a passage that doesn’t get much attention, simply because it challenges most people’s views about death and the resurrection. In short, this passage challenges all three major views regarding the state of those who have died without really touching directly on this topic.

Let’s read what happened and then unpack what we can learn from what Jesus taught. Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 27, Luke tells us that:

²⁷ Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. ²⁸ “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. ³⁰ The second ³¹ and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. ³² Finally, the woman died too. ³³ Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?”

Pausing briefly, I am always a little humored at both the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, and at the ultimate question they ask. Luke has opened by saying that the Sadducees do not believe in a resurrection, but then they ask Jesus about what happens in the scenario they share at the resurrection.

I suspect that the Sadducees, who only regarded the Old Testament books Moses wrote as spiritually authoritative, had used this marriage dilemma as their reasoning for rejecting the resurrection. Because of this marriage instruction, it created a problem for when multiple brothers returned to life.

Because Moses clearly gave this instruction while not clearly drawing attention to the concept of a resurrection, in the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma logically concluded that resurrection was not valid because marriage is. In the Sadducees eyes, this dilemma made marriage, and all the legalities surrounding it, incompatible with the resurrection.

However, let’s read Jesus’ reply and uncover what we can learn about both these significant topics. Continuing in verse 34:

³⁴ Jesus replied, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. ³⁵ But those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, ³⁶ and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection. ³⁷ But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed that the dead rise, for he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ ³⁸ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

³⁹ Some of the teachers of the law responded, “Well said, teacher!” ⁴⁰ And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I am continually amazed at Jesus’ response, because His response challenges everyone present, while also subtly affirming a difficult to accept belief.

As Jesus opens His reply, He both challenges the belief that the resurrection is a fantasy while also subtly validating the detail that marriage and resurrection are, in the framing of the Sadducees dilemma, incompatible. However, Jesus stresses the detail that the resurrection that He promises marks the end of marriage, and this also draws us to understand exactly where we are in history. Since marriage is still something that occurs today, regardless of what you believe about marriage, its existence places us clearly before the resurrection and before the age to come.

In Jesus’ eyes, resurrection is a clear promise and something we can look forward to experiencing!

Next, Jesus challenges the belief that death is simply a transition into heaven. This is because the Sadducees question and dilemma is framed at the resurrection, and Jesus’ reply is also framed as being at the resurrection. Before the resurrection, the Sadducees dilemma makes perfect sense because before the resurrection contains marriage. If those who have died are conscious and living in heaven awaiting resurrection, the scenario that the Sadducees give is a valid concern, because all seven brothers were married to this woman.

Jesus’ reply frames this dilemma as not a dilemma because everything in His reply happens on or after the resurrection transition. The state of those who are dead prior to the resurrection is equal to nothing, or at the very least, it lacks consciousness and interaction with others. (Remember that if those who have died are able to see each other, then the Sadducees dilemma is a valid logical argument.)

In Jesus’ eyes, the Sadducees dilemma is not valid because there is no consciousness between death and the resurrection.

The third major belief that Jesus challenges in this passage is that death is a sleep waiting for resurrection. While in many other places death is referred to as a sleep, Jesus’ final statement in this passage appears to take aim at this belief as well. Jesus’ final words in this response are “He [referring to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

This third challenge is valid because if God sees all people as alive, even after their bodies have long decomposed, then they must exist somewhere. It is less relevant the state of their existence as the fact that they exist separately from the breath and the dust that is not given any specific or special designation.

In Jesus’ eyes, everyone, regardless of whether they are alive or dead, is alive in God’s eyes.

All three major views of death are challenged in this short passage. I suspect this is why almost no one talks about this event. To bring up the Sadducees dilemma means putting a target on yourself and on your belief about death and the resurrection.

However, how can we reconcile this?

Is there a view of death that is compatible with all three challenges?

I believe the answer is a clear yes, even if this view will likely never be popular. The answer to this viewpoint is seeing history as a timeline. The answer is seeing history as His story – specifically as God’s story.

To reconcile this in my own mind, I needed to start somewhere. Since the most common metaphor for death in the Bible is sleep, I started there. Death is described as sleep more than any other way in the Bible that I am aware of. However, the typical understanding of death as a sleep leaves out one major idea. Death as a sleep leaves out history’s timeline.

God has a clear record of history because history is His story. Because God exists outside of time, all He must do to see people as alive is to go to the part of His story that they are in. This does not mean that people now dead or who are not yet born are currently alive from our perspective. Instead, this means that God merely moves to a different part in history to see them as alive.

Does this mean that we no longer have any freedom of choice? Some people believe this, however I do not. Only if I knew God’s perspective and could see my future would I surrender all choice. God knowing what I will choose does not mean I don’t freely choose it. Since I don’t know my future, I have the freedom of pressing forward with the freedom of choice.

What does this mean then for the resurrection? With the timeline perspective of history, the resurrection is simple. God has planned a sequel to the story that sin corrupted, and this sequel is the New Heaven and New Earth. The resurrection then becomes the transition moment when God closes this book of history, and pulls all His people from our current story into His sequel. Because God is outside of time writing history, He has the power to pull characters from any point in His story into His sequel and He chooses to do that for His people!

Jesus teaches all of us that the resurrection is defined at the transition between the current age and the age to come. The age to come is marked by the absence of marriage. This means that the age we are currently living in as the same age as Jesus spoke, since marriage is an issue and a topic of discussion today.

However,this age filled with sin isn’t all we have to look forward to. God is planning a sequel, and He wants you and me to be a part of it!

As we come to the end of a longer podcast than what I was planning, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life. Choose to ally yourself with Jesus and accept Jesus’ gift that He offers, which is a place within His sequel.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself. On any subject or idea you hear, see, or read, take the idea and filter it through God’s Word. Don’t take my word, or any pastor, speaker, author, or podcaster at face value. Study out your beliefs and let God push you into discovering His truth. If you haven’t studied the different angles of beliefs about death, perhaps this episode is an invitation or challenge to do so. Like me, you may be surprised about what you can discover.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or stray away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

One evening during the week leading up to His crucifixion, Matthew’s gospel describes Jesus sitting and answering the disciples’ questions about the time of the end. In Jesus’ response, which we will break into several episodes, we discover not only some warnings and challenges for God’s people to pay attention to, but also some parables that are worth us learning from so we can stay connected with God when we face challenges in our own lives.

Leading up to this conversation, Matthew includes a couple of verses to set the stage. Our passage for this episode is found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 24, and we will read it from the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 1, Matthew tells us that:

¹ Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. ² And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

³ As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

Let’s pause briefly here because the disciples’ question is interesting. In what seems like a single question, the disciples actually ask three different questions. These three questions are: When will the temple be destroyed; What will be the sign of Jesus’ return; and What marks the end of the age.

It is quite likely that the disciples believed all three of these events to be one and the same, but when looking back on history, we can see that at the very least, the temple being destroyed was an event that happened earlier than the other two events. Looking forward, while we can picture the other two events covering the same point in time, it is possible that these remaining two events are both unique as well.

After receiving this set of questions, let’s look at Jesus’ response. While Jesus responds, let’s also pay attention to which question He is responding to.

Continuing in verse 4:

⁴ [And] Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. ⁵ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many. ⁶ You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. ⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. ⁸ But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

⁹ “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. ¹⁰ At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. ¹¹ Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. ¹² Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. ¹³ But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. ¹⁴ This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Pausing briefly, this first portion of Jesus’ response is almost like a summary of what Jesus will then share in greater detail. This summary isn’t as exclusively focused on the destruction of Jerusalem, but on history leading up to Jesus’ return.

Then Jesus shifts focus and gets more specific. Continuing in verse 15, Jesus continues saying:

¹⁵ “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), ¹⁶ then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. ¹⁸ Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. ¹⁹ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰ But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. ²² Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. ²³ Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. ²⁴ For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. ²⁵ Behold, I have told you in advance.

While Jesus continues sharing, we’ll stop reading here because we are about out of time, and I want to point out some things that stand out in my mind in what Jesus has just shared.

When Jesus shifts focus and then zeros in on specifics, He first focuses on warning His followers about the coming destruction of Jerusalem. In this warning, Jesus gives them a sign they should look for, and it is a sign that mirrors what Daniel spoke about.

While there is speculation that what Daniel spoke about had already been fulfilled, if this is the case, Jesus simply recycles Daniel’s prophecy and tells His followers to pay attention for it to happen again. Other people believe that since Jesus draws our attention onto this prophecy of Daniel, it had not been fulfilled earlier but was waiting until Jesus repeated it and focused us onto the first-century temple destruction.

However, the warnings for God’s people about the temple being destroyed are the least relevant parts of this passage for us to focus on in my mind. This is simply because this has already happened. Instead, I think that the other part of this passage is much more significant.

After talking about the destruction of the temple beginning a great persecution of God’s people, Jesus tells us that for the sake of God’s people, this great persecution would be cut short. After this happens, we must be on our guard. Jesus warns us in verse 23 and 24: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”

In this warning, which is valid for all of Jesus’ followers at every point in history, we should not believe anyone who comes claiming to be the Jesus of the gospels who has returned to earth. Let’s simply say that if any doubt is present in our minds, that is God telling us this was not Jesus’ return. Jesus’ return will mark the end of the world as we know it, and any “return” that is less than this is the return of a false messiah.

This passage doesn’t tell us that God won’t send messengers or prophets to bring us back to God or to remind us to focus on Jesus’ return. Instead, this is a warning to beware of people coming who claim to be Jesus Christ and a warning to avoid and reject people who claim to be a middleman for God. Jesus came the first time to open the way for us to come directly to God, and through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross while He was here on this earth the first time, we are able to stand before God with Jesus’ righteousness covering our sins.

When Jesus returns, there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jesus has returned, and His return will mark the end of this world as we know it. In this warning, Jesus tells us that any secret return or return that is any less grand is a false second coming from a false messiah.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and take Jesus’ warning seriously. If someone comes to you claiming to have found Jesus, don’t believe them. When Jesus returns, His return will be visible to everyone, and His return marks the end of this world as it has been. Any return that is less than this is not Jesus returning.

However, don’t take my word for this. Instead, pray and study this truth out for yourself in Jesus’ teaching in the Bible. While I wish we had more time to cover this in our podcasts together, I would rather you take and learn this truth for yourself than have you simply hear it from me. When you study the Bible for yourself, you grow personally and you have a much stronger relationship and foundation with God than you could ever have if you simply heard it from me or someone else.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or be tricked into leaving where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we continue our journey through Luke’s gospel, we come to Jesus’ final week leading up to the cross. For our time together, we will fast-forward past Jesus’ triumphal entry and jump into an event Luke tells us happened during this week, probably early on in this week. While Luke doesn’t give us any hint regarding what day this happened, I suspect it may have been the Monday or Tuesday of that week.

Also worth mentioning before reading the passage we will focus in on is that earlier, most likely the day before, Jesus had thrown out the money changers and upset the commerce that was happening in the temple courtyard.

While it is not any stretch to imagine the first part of our passage to be a direct response to Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple, when we read what happened together, let’s look past what might have happened earlier and focus on what we can discover from the passage itself.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 20, and we will read from the Good News Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us:

¹ One day when Jesus was in the Temple teaching the people and preaching the Good News, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law, together with the elders, came ² and said to him, “Tell us, what right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such right?”

³ Jesus answered them, “Now let me ask you a question. Tell me, ⁴ did John’s right to baptize come from God or from human beings?”

⁵ They started to argue among themselves, “What shall we say? If we say, ‘From God,’ he will say, ‘Why, then, did you not believe John?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From human beings,’ this whole crowd here will stone us, because they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered, “We don’t know where it came from.”

⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you, then, by what right I do these things.”

Let’s pause reading for a moment, because I want to draw our attention onto a powerful idea present in this brief exchange. When the religious leaders ask Jesus what right He has to do what He is doing, while it is tempting to think they are referencing what Jesus had done in the temple when He kicked out the money changers a day earlier, part of me wonders if they are challenging Him on what He was doing at that present moment.

At that moment, Luke has set the stage by telling us Jesus was teaching and preaching the crowds and sharing the good news with them. With this context, I can see the challenge directed at Jesus as who gave Him the right or authority to preach God’s Word or to share God’s message with the world.

I suspect they were fishing for a way to discredit Jesus’ ministry. If Jesus said a specific human, or a specific Rabbi, they could discredit Him because of something in that rabbi or teacher’s life. If Jesus told them that God had given Him the authority, then they could accuse Him of presuming too much, and Jesus would have subtly directed focus onto Himself. Jesus wanted to keep the focus on God the Father and Jesus wanted to direct all the glory to Him.

In Jesus’ simple counter question, we discover that Jesus preferred this question remaining unanswered.

Answering this question would not help Jesus’ mission and ministry in any way, and it wouldn’t have brought God glory, so Jesus counters it with a question that the religious leaders were unwilling to conclusively decide.

However, Jesus isn’t finished pushing these religious leaders. Continuing in verse 9, Luke tells us:

⁹ Then Jesus told the people this parable: “There was once a man who planted a vineyard, rented it out to tenants, and then left home for a long time. ¹⁰ When the time came to gather the grapes, he sent a slave to the tenants to receive from them his share of the harvest. But the tenants beat the slave and sent him back without a thing. ¹¹ So he sent another slave; but the tenants beat him also, treated him shamefully, and sent him back without a thing. ¹² Then he sent a third slave; the tenants wounded him, too, and threw him out. ¹³ Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my own dear son; surely they will respect him!’ ¹⁴ But when the tenants saw him, they said to one another, ‘This is the owner’s son. Let’s kill him, and his property will be ours!’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to the tenants?” Jesus asked. ¹⁶ “He will come and kill those men, and turn the vineyard over to other tenants.”

When the people heard this, they said, “Surely not!”

¹⁷ Jesus looked at them and asked, “What, then, does this scripture mean?

‘The stone which the builders rejected as worthless
    turned out to be the most important of all.’

¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be cut to pieces; and if that stone falls on someone, that person will be crushed to dust.”

¹⁹ The teachers of the Law and the chief priests tried to arrest Jesus on the spot, because they knew that he had told this parable against them; but they were afraid of the people.

In this parable, I find it fascinating that everyone present understood what this parable meant. Luke tells us that the religious leaders knew who they represented, and they even understood Jesus to be subtly placing Himself in this parable as well.

However, because Jesus used a third-person parable, they could not directly challenge Him on the claim of blasphemy, because Jesus never directly says that He is represented by the vineyard owner’s son. Jesus subtly and strongly challenges these leaders while avoiding directly saying something that would incriminate Himself.

Also, I find it fascinating that Jesus’ parable’s conclusion is met with shock from the people present. When Jesus asks the people the rhetorical question about what the vineyard owner will do to the rebellious, evil tenants, He tells them that the owner will throw them out, kill them, and find other tenants who will hopefully be better.

While everyone knows Jesus was speaking against the religious leaders who had mistreated and abused the prophets God sent Israel and Judah in the many centuries of the nation’s history, Jesus again subtly predicts His death. If the religious leaders wanted to avoid playing into prophecy’s hand, they could have simply ignored Jesus. Jesus tells these leaders that they would ultimately kill the vineyard owner’s son, and by pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders push Jesus into a role they likely never wanted Him to be in.

By pressing for Jesus’ death, these leaders incriminate themselves because they understand themselves to be the tenants, and they reject Jesus and kill Him. In the parable, the last messenger they receive is the vineyard owner’s son, and because the vineyard owner represents God, by pressing for Jesus’ death, without realizing what it fully means, these leaders acknowledge that Jesus is God’s Son!

The people are shocked not that the vineyard owner would reject these evil tenants, but that their rejection of God’s messengers would ultimately lead to their destruction. While it isn’t a popular message, there will be a point when God stops sending warnings and messengers to the world. There will be a point when the door to salvation closes.

I wholeheartedly believe that this point in time has not come yet, and that we all still have a choice to believe in Jesus. Because of this, let’s choose today to repent and turn away from our past sins, and to intentionally invite Jesus into our lives to change our hearts and minds. With Jesus in our hearts, we will succeed where the evil tenants failed, and we will accept those God sends into our lives with His truth!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, intentionally seek God first in your life and chose to accept Jesus into your heart, life, and mind. Choose to live your life in a way that gives God the glory and in a way that doesn’t take any glory for ourselves.

Also, as I always challenge you to do, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Open your heart and mind in prayer and study to discover a God willing to give anything and everything to redeem the people He loves, and what God ultimately chooses to do when He is continually rejected.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!