His Final Steps Led To His Enemies

It’s hard to confront a person with an issue. It can bee like walking on eggshells. Maybe you’re the parent who has to have a talk with a rebellious teenager. Maybe you’re the spouse who decides it’s time to call a cease-fire before the marriage falls apart. Maybe you’re the manager who has to settle a dispute at work.  We realize the situation will be tense. Every word we use will need to be chosen carefully as we pray for the Lord’s blessings.   We know how difficult it will be because most people don’t take our “words and actions in the kindest possible way.” Too often we practice “defensive listening.”  That means we’re waiting for the words we can grab in order to twist the argument in our favor.  Perhaps that’s why you hear people say, “Pick your battles wisely.”

This season of Lent we have followed some of the Final Steps our Savior before he took his final steps to his cross! Our Lord didn’t hide away from the crowds.  Instead, the gospels are filled with words and works of Jesus before the crowds in Jerusalem. And much of what our Savior said was targeted squarely at his enemies—the “chief priests and experts in the law . . . [and] the elders” (Luke 20:1). How amazing and how comforting that . . .

His Final Steps Led to His Enemies

Those enemies included the Jewish leaders

It would be weird for me to enter the church and find some person teaching you all.  It wasn’t weird for Jesus to be teaching in the temple for he had done this many times before.  Yet, his enemies were looking for a way to stop Jesus and we hear this in verse 1 and 2: “One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. ² “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?”  They were walking on eggshells because they already knew his authority came from God the Father because Jesus had shown himself to be God the Son!  I found at least 4 times in John’s Gospel that Jesus revealed this to the people. (John 5:17,18; 7:28,29; 8:19,58; 10:30,36-39)!  Therefore, this question was nothing but a trap, and Jesus knew it! That’s why Jesus’ Final Steps Led to These Jewish Leaders. After Jesus told the parable his enemies knew Jesus had answered their question perfectly.

I think you all know that I’m the president of our HOA.  A big concern for our homeowners are the rental properties in our HOA.  I find it interesting that this has been going on for a long time.  I learned that the upper Jordan River valley, around much of the Sea of Galilee itself, there were estates owned by foreigners who lived far away in another country. Their farms and vineyards were run by tenant farmers.  These tenant farmers weren’t necessarily poor, living on a percentage they made from the land.  So as long as a revenue stream went back to the landowners they were all good.  But the landowner wouldn’t necessarily know if the tenant farmer was being honest—you know, skimming some off the top.  Everyone who heard Jesus’ parable knew how this system worked and how and all the cheating that took place.  But, Jesus takes this to a whole new level.

“⁹ He went on to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. ¹⁰ At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants so they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard.  But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹ He sent another servant, but that one also they beat and treated shamefully and sent away empty-handed. ¹² He sent still a third, and they wounded him and threw him out.” 

Luke 20:9-12

These tenant farmers sound like a drug-dealing cartel protecting their cocaine fields from a raid!

So what happens next?  Certainly we’re surprised at the patience of the owner:

¹³ “Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴ “But when the tenants saw him, they talked the matter over. ‘This is the heir,’ they said. ‘Let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ¹⁵ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

Luke 20:13-15

According to the laws of that day if the owner died leaving no heir, the current occupants were allowed to have it.  So in Jesus’ parable, these wicked tenants must have figured, “The owner must have died. That’s why he sent the son. If we kill the son, this vineyard is ours!”  What a tragic mistake!  Jesus quickly wraps up his brief parable with a question.  “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?  ¹⁶ He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” (Luke 20:15, 16).

Those who heard this parable knew exactly the point! “When the people heard this, they said, “God forbid!” The crowds got it because they knew this famous quote from Isaiah 5:7, 25: “The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in.  And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress…. Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand is raised and he strikes them down.”  They knew Jesus was talking about their nation of Israel! They also knew the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist that were sent by God to call his people to repentance.  God’s prophets were rejected, and the consequences were horrific. The Assyrian captivity—722 b.c., the ten northern tribes taken away and never heard from again. The Babylonian captivity—586 b.c., the two southern tribes ripped from their homeland for 70 years.  Then the Lord God sent his Son to this earth. The Son who refused to walk on eggshells and made sure his final steps led to his enemies, even though he knew full well they would reject and kill him as Luke records: “¹⁹ 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” (Luke 20:19).  Jesus’ final steps led to his enemies and those enemies included the Jewish leaders.  Yet, Jesus walked this path because he knew we came to die on the cross, just three days later.

If this message ended right now, what would you have gained? Yet another history lesson and little more. But you deserve more than that. You and I need far more than that! We all need to know that his final steps led to his enemies, and

Those Enemies Included You and Me

When the people reacted to Jesus’ parable by saying, “God forbid!” Jesus seized the moment and shared words you and I need to hear today.  “¹⁷ Jesus looked directly at them and asked, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’?  ¹⁸ Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.’”  This quote comes from Psalm 118:22.  It is the famous cornerstone prophecy.  Remember how important the cornerstone was in Jesus’ day for building. The cornerstone was the first stone laid.  It determined which way the building would face and it bore the weight of two of the walls of the structure. So if the cornerstone failed the building fell.  Jesus is that cornerstone.  The Jewish leaders who heard Jesus’ parable, his warning, and his use of this psalm verse understood that.  But, they wanted to be the cornerstone—and for the crowds to follow them.  But, the crowds were following Jesus and his Good News instead of them!  The crowds were having their faith built on Jesus’ gracious forgiveness of sins, and not the “work your way into heaven by being good and buying the sacrifices for sale in the temple courts.” So, within the next 24 hours, they made sure he was hung on a tree. Their rejection of the cornerstone became complete—but that didn’t end up hurting the cornerstone. Instead, it crushed them!  It reminds me of Genesis 3:15. Satan and his followers would “strike his heel” but Jesus would “crush their head!”

God forbid that anyone rejects Jesus Christ, the cornerstone, for then God’s righteous judgment will crush them!  Heed this warning from Jesus!  For this is who we were by nature—an enemy of the Lord deserving to be crushed.  St Paul was inspired to write this commentary: “⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7,8).  We were also the enemies of Jesus who caused his suffering, nailing to the cross and death!  Repent!  Trust in Jesus’ forgiveness.  Then look to produce fruits on keeping with repentance.  Follow Jesus Final Steps to Your Enemies with the Law and Gospel in order to show them Christ!

Also, while you’re following Jesus’ Final Steps that led to the cross, remember the sin you are struggling with right now and cause you to walk on eggshells. Every word we speak is heard by God.  Every action we take is seen my God.  Every sin of weakness, every pet sin, and every sinful action is watched like a hawk and swiftly judged.  Then raise you eyes of faith to the cross and treasure what his cross has done for you.  The entire human race lost in sin, Jesus took to the cross. For all of his enemies, including you and me, Jesus died. For all of his enemies, including you and me, he washed away every last one of our sins in his blood.

For times like these and sinners like you and me, we offer our thanks and praise that Jesus’ final steps led to his enemies. Those steps led to me, a sinner, and to you, a sinner, so that through his sacrifice and by his grace, our Savior could lead us all through this life so filled issues, pain and danger until, at last, he will lead us all on our final steps home to heaven.  Amen.