Luke 20

Anyone who presents the truth of Christ clearly to others should not be surprised to face a challenge from those who are offended by our Lord and His message of good news. The King of the kingdom was Himself directly challenged on the question of His authority. It is to be expected that His ambassadors throughout the centuries would face similar concerns. The good news of peace with God through His Son has always been offensive to those who are convinced that they do not need a substitute in order to be alright with the Almighty.

It would be good for us to learn how to answer whatever challenges may come our way with dignity and grace, but also with confidence in God that befits one who is a true representative of the Man who stated that all power and authority had been given to Him by His Father, and who calls us specifically to be about the enterprise of making disciples. When our Lord was challenged on the question of His authority to preach the good news, to teach the truth about God and His Word, to proclaim the judgment and mercy of God, and to call people to repent and believe, He did not give in to their threats and power plays for a minute, and neither should we. We need presence of mind, and even the presence of God with us, and His gift of words, so that we might bring forth the key question or comment for the situation God has given us. Jesus did this when He was challenged: “The baptism of John, from heaven or from man?” Their weakness was plainly exposed, and the Servant of the Lord continued on the way to the cross.

The key resolve of the Lord’s servant even to this day is whether the cross is enough for him. If a man has readied his heart for the cross, what can lesser authorities do to him? He is a free man. The Father gave His Son up to a dangerous mission. He sent Him into a vineyard that was known to kill messengers. He would have only done such a thing if He had a purpose that could only have been accomplished in the death of His Son. Through the cross of Christ, two great things were surely accomplished. The enemies of God won for themselves even more condemnation, and the friends of the Lord’s own choosing won, by the blood of Jesus, adoption into the household of the Almighty. Most amazingly, we who were once enemies of God have now been counted as His friends through faith in our Redeemer.

When the door of mercy has been opened so wide to us in Christ, it is a wonder that so many still refuse to enter in. They cling jealously to their warfare against sovereign grace. They reject the Cornerstone of the living temple. Their destiny is not a happy one, but they simply will not lay down their weapons. They plot against the Lord and His Anointed.

This sad condition of hard-heartedness is nothing new. Throughout the pages of the Old Testament we read of the servants of the Lord who were sent by God to speak the truth, and we hear of how they were brutally rejected by His people. As that story continues throughout the centuries of the Mosaic Covenant, it does not getting progressively better, but progressively worse. The threatenings of Almighty God, the God who made the heavens and the earth, the God who feeds the animals in the wilderness, the God who knows the number of days that you will live, become more and more pointed.

Even Israel’s leaders did not seem to have time to listen to God, because they were too busy plotting against His servants. This is precisely what happened to the Son of God when He came as the Servant of the Lord. Maybe He could be trapped into some obvious offense against the state. They tried to get Him to say something against the tax-collecting apparatus of the Roman Empire. They knew that He was not afraid to stand up to power, since He had shown over and over again that He was not afraid of them. Perhaps He would say something that could be twisted against Him, and would cause Him to be an enemy of Rome. Others just wanted to make Him look small-minded for some reason. They simply did not believe in the promise of God that there would come a future age of resurrection, this despite the fact that they were committed to some version of Judaism. All of them were sparring with a partner who was far beyond them. He had the right word for the exact situation that was before Him.

Here was the One who was the perfect image of God speaking to all who were made in God’s image, and demanding their complete allegiance. He did this with the same words that proved Him to be One who respected the tax-collecting authority of lawful governments. Here was One who would come forth from the tomb as the Resurrection Man, speaking to them with certainty about a world in the presence of God that He knew from experience, a world not only of men, but of angels. Here was the One who knew Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob personally, not merely in their life on earth, but in heaven. He could surely verify that these men were alive, and that the promises of heaven were real. He most certainly could not be tricked or exposed as ignorant.

When they had given up in their fruitless efforts to win a war of words, there remained the fact that He had a question for them. In all their pride, insight, and brilliance, did they understand the secret of Psalm 110? What was the meaning of a divine Lord, somehow speaking to another divine Lord? How could one of these two, a Son of David, also be David’s Lord? They had no answer, and yet they still plotted against Him, just as their spiritual descendants of all kinds today only want to cause trouble and disgrace for those who would bring the good news of the Lord’s mercy in Christ to the lost. They want to hurt Christ and His church, and they know of no better way to accomplish this than to distract us from the message of the cross of Christ that the church has been called to preach. Such enemies of the cross need a Savior so badly, for their own lives testify to their obvious lawlessness, and yet they hate the message of the only Redeemer of God’s elect, and they will not come to Him. One day He will come to them, but not in mercy. It is imperative for everyone to respond to the good news now, news that is preached throughout the world, despite the objection of those who claim to be gatekeepers of propriety. The fact is that this Jesus is David’s Son and David’s Lord. We must agree to His kind terms of peace, and lay down our weapons, and our burdens, at His glorious resurrected feet.