A Journey Through Luke & ActsSample

In this section of Luke, Jesus has reached the end of his long trip to Jerusalem. He arrives riding on a donkey down the Mount of Olives towards the city. On his way, large crowds welcome him with a royal entrance as they sing, “Praise the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” The crowds remembered that Israel’s ancient prophets promised that one day God himself would arrive to rescue his people and rule the world. The prophet Zechariah spoke of a coming King who would ride on a donkey into Jerusalem to bring justice and peace. The crowds sing because they recognize that Jesus is activating all these hopes.

But not everyone agrees. The religious leaders see Jesus’ rule as a threat to their power and seek ways to turn him over to the governing authorities. Jesus can see what is coming. He knows that Israel will not accept him as King and that their refusal will lead them on a destructive path that will end in ruin. It breaks his heart. And...it riles him up. As soon as he enters Jerusalem, he marches into the temple courts and drives out the money changers, disrupting the entire sacrificial system. He stands in the center of the courtyard and protests against them saying, “this is supposed to be a place of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers.” Here he’s quoting the prophet Jeremiah, who stood in this same spot, the center of Israel’s religious and political power, and offered the same critique of Israel’s ancient leaders.

The religious leaders get the point of Jesus’ protest, but they do not learn from it. And just like Israel’s ancient leaders plotted against Jeremiah, they too seek to end Jesus. To narrate the behavior of Israel’s leaders, Jesus tells a parable about a property owner who rents out his vineyard while he travels. The owner sends messengers to his vineyard to get a report on the fruit, but the renters beat the messengers and send them away with nothing. So the owner sends his own son to the vineyard in hopes that he’ll get more respect, but the renters see it as an opportunity to rob the vineyard by getting rid of the heir. They throw the owner’s beloved son out and kill him. In this story, Jesus compares the corrupt renters of the vineyard to Israel’s religious leaders who routinely reject all of the prophets that God sends and who are now preparing to kill God’s beloved son. Jesus makes it clear that the religious leaders are repeating the errors of their fathers and that their ambitions to rob more power will only lead to their own destruction.