Matthew 21:23
In Matthew 21:23-27 the
Bible says, "And
when He was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the
people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By
what authority do you do these things? and who gave you this authority? And
Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you
tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what
authority I do these things. The baptism of John, where was it from? from
heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did
you not then believe him? But if we shall say, Of men;
we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus and
said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things."
The chief priests and
elders questioned the authority of Jesus. They were the human leaders of the
Jewish religion, and they had not authorized Jesus to teach. But Jesus did not
need to be authorized by men because His authorization came directly from God the Father. Remember that Moses feared that his message would
not be received by the nation of Israel, but he came to find that being sent by
God was more than enough.
The same is still true.
You do not have to be ordained by men in order to be God’s messenger. The main
requirement to be a messenger of God’s Word is to be called and sent by God. It
is permissible to be ordained by men in order to fulfill certain legal
technicalities in the society in which you live, but being ordained by men
alone will not give you the authority to be God’s messenger. Romans
If you are ordained by
God, you have all the authority that you need. The priests and elders spoken about in Matthew 21 were not called by God, and
therefore they were alienated from Jesus, who was sent from God. Those priests
and elders only understood religion in the context of human organizations and
the politics that is so often a part of human organizations. Manipulation, competition for power, deceit, and
compromise were the methods of the priests and the elders; because they did not
operate on the principle of seeking God’s will. They
were not interested in God’s will. They were only interested in their own will,
which was to grab and maintain power for themselves. These priests and elders
would have felt right at home in many of our corporations and churches today.
Of course, we know that their lust for power blinded them and made them willing to compromise on any point.
Their lust eventually led them to plot the death of Jesus. Even today those who
are motivated by the lust for power are no better than these priests and
elders. All such people are headed for the same judgment.
Of course, it was not
the will of God for the leaders of the Jewish religion to reject the Messiah.
Christ came for their salvation as well as ours, and it’s obvious that their rejection caused Jesus to be very troubled for
them. He loved them. He would have forgiven them, and now He knew the
horrible fate that awaited them. During this same visit to Jerusalem Luke
recorded an incident that illustrated how much Jesus loved the people of
After being
confronted by the priests and elders and being rejected by them, Jesus taught
three parables that explained what this situation meant. In
Matthew 19:28-32 Jesus told the parable of the two sons. Jesus said, "A certain man
had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my
vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and
went. And he came to the second son and said likewise. And the second son
answered and said, I go, sir; but he went not. Which of the two did the will of
his father? They say unto him, the first. Jesus said unto them, Truly I say
unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the
The parable of the two
sons pointed out the failure of the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees.
Jesus emphasized their failure by comparing them to the greedy tax collectors
and the immoral harlots. The priests and scribes thought that they were
righteous because of their position and involvement in religion, but in reality
they were worse off than publicans and harlots.
They were worse off because they did not repent as
did the publicans and harlots who repented of their sins and turned to true
belief. Anyone, no matter how great one sins, anyone who repents of their sins and believes in the Lord Jesus
Christ has become a true child of
God. Anyone, no matter how few are their
sins, who does not repent nor believe in the Lord Jesus, is not a true child of
God.
The above
parable teaches the importance of repentance. The publicans and harlots started
wrong, but they repented and changed their minds about their need for a true
relationship with the Savior, and therefore they ended up in the
Jesus told another
parable about the failure of the Jewish people and the Jewish leaders to
receive Him as Messiah. He said starting in Matthew 21:33, "Hear another
parable: There was a certain householder, who planted a vineyard, and hedged it
round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built
a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when
the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that
they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and
beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants
more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent
unto them his son, saying, they will reverence my son, But when the husbandmen
saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill
him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him and cast him out
of the vineyard, and killed him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard comes,
what will he do to those husbandmen? They say unto him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen,
which shall render him the fruits in their seasons."
In this parable God is
the householder, the owner of the vineyard. The vineyard is the world, and the
husbandmen were the Jewish people. Before the Jewish
people rejected the Messiah, it was the will of God that they be the messengers
of the truth to the rest of the world.
From time to time over the centuries God had sent prophets to the Jewish
people to awaken them and to revive them, but the prophets were often
mistreated and even killed. Finally, God sent His Son. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son...". In
a general sense Jesus came for the entire world, but in a specific sense He
came as the last chance for the Jewish people. What happened to the Messiah and
why it happened is found in verse 38 that says,
"But when the
husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let
us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance."
As we have already seen,
the priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees were filled with ambition and
determination to remain in control of the Jewish religion. They saw the
marvelous works that Jesus did and heard his wonderful words, but instead of rejoicing and believing in Him, they
hardened their hearts and selfishly determined to be jealous of Him, to hate
Him, and eventually they decided to kill Him.
In spite of all of this,
Jesus did not at this time directly condemn the priests and the scribes. He let
them condemn themselves. After teaching this parable,
Jesus asked these religious hypocrites what the lord of the vineyard should do
to the wicked husbandmen. The priests and scribes answered in verse 41 and said
to Jesus, "He
will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard to other
husbandmen." Be careful of the
judgments that you pronounce upon others. Your own
words may be used one day as the basis for your own judgment. That’s what
happened to the priests and scribes. The priests and scribes understood
that the ethics of the situation demanded judgment of
the wicked husbandmen. However, they did not understand that they were the
husbandmen represented in the parable. They had pronounced their own judgment.
Indeed, the work of God was given to others, believers in Christ, just as the
Jewish priests and scribes said it ought to be.
The other husbandmen to
whom the work was given are you and I, and all the believers in God through
Christ Jesus since the time of Christ. The Jewish people as a group and as a
nation no longer have the privilege of being God’s messengers, but as
individuals they can re-enter the faith in the one true God by repenting of
their sins and believing on Jesus just like those of us who are not Jews.
Romans 10:11-12 says, "For the scripture says, Whosoever believes on Him shall
not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for
the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him."
In Matthew 21:42-44 the
Bible says, "Jesus
said unto them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the
Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, the
Jesus is the cornerstone. In this parable the builders were the Jewish
leaders. They rejected Jesus, but they could not undo the work of God, because
of the great immovable stone, the Rock, which is Jesus. If you do not know Jesus, then you do not
know God. If you do not serve Jesus, then you do not serve God. Jesus said, "I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
When Jesus said that He
is the chief cornerstone, we are reminded once again of the importance of Jesus
to our own spirituality. Jesus is the chief cornerstone because all true
spirituality starts with Him. Without Jesus we
remain under the guilt of our sins. Without Jesus we remain alienated from God.
Without Jesus we face an eternal destiny of hell, instead of heaven. And
without Jesus we must face life with only our own resources and without the
strength and faith that He can give.
For those who have found
spiritual life through faith in Jesus, we understand now
in this life the fact that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. One thing is for sure: everyone will find out eventually
who Jesus is one way or another. Philippians 2:10-11 says, "That at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and
things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
We who believe know now who Jesus is, but for those
who reject Jesus, they will find out later, when they are judged by Him,
that Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Better to find out who Jesus is through
faith and forgiveness, than to find out at the judgment.
When the priests and the
Pharisees came to a partial understanding of this
parable that Jesus taught, instead of seeking to understand more that they
might find the way of faith, they became more hardened. Their inherent
nature of being selfish and competitive in the negative sense blinded them to
their need of repentance. Matthew 21:45-46 says,
"And when the chief priests and
Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake
of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude,
because they took him for a prophet."
We learn so many things
from the life of Jesus. From Him we also learn that death is not to be feared. Although Jesus was in the presence of murderous
enemies who wished Him dead, they could not harm Him until the appointed time.
Jesus would not die until His time came to die for the sins of the world. Each
of us also has an appointed time of death, and we have nothing to fear because
we were given life by God for a purpose, and we will live until that purpose is
fulfilled. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away that which He hath given.
At the start of Matthew
Chapter 22 Jesus gives a third parable concerning His rejection by the Jewish
people and what it means to them and to the rest of the world. Matthew 22:1-14
says, "And
Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables,
and said, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, who made a marriage for
his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the
wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying,
Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my
fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they
made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his
merchandise: And the remnant took the servants, and entreated them spitefully,
and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was angry: and he sent forth
his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then said
he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not
worthy. Go you therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find, bid
to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered
together as many as they could find, both bad and good: and the wedding was
furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw
there a man who did not have on a wedding garment: And he said unto him,
Friend, how did you come in here not having a wedding garment? And he was
speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and
take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. But many are called, but few are chosen."
This parable has the
same basic elements as the other two concerning the
rejection of Christ. The invitees, who rejected the invitation to the wedding,
were the Jewish people who rejected Jesus as Messiah. Those who killed
the servants were the Jewish leaders who so often killed the prophets that were
sent to them, and who also killed Jesus. God’s invitation to accept Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior was rejected by the Jewish people, so now He invites the
whole earth made up of Jews and Gentiles to come and to be a part of the great
future that He has planned. There is also a serious warning of coming judgment.
A terrible destiny awaits those who reject the invitation to come to Jesus and
to have part in the
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Copyright; 2008 by Charles F. (Rick) Creech
All Rights Reserved