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Luke 20:1. On one of those days, when He was teaching the people in the church and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and scribes with the elders came, Luke 20:2. and they said to Him: Tell us, by what authority are You doing this, or who gave You this authority? The Lord, having entered Jerusalem with glory, as a proof of His power, does this: He cleanses His Father’s house from merchants (Luke 19:45-46). He did this at the beginning of the sermon, as the Evangelist John says (John 2:13-18). And now he’s doing the same thing again, for the second time. This serves to further accuse the Jews that they did not become wise from His first open admonition, but continued to trade in the church and called Him the adversary of God, while He reveres the Father and God to such an extent that His house is cleansed of traders. To denounce them, He also cites the words of Isaiah: “My house will be called a house of prayer” (Is. 56:7). And they madly ask Him: “By what authority are You doing this?” However, they could understand that since He cited the words of the prophet as evidence that the house of God is a house of prayer, and not a marketplace and a den of thieves (for covetousness and huckstering are characteristic of thieves), then what is the need, finally, to ask Him by what authority He does this, when one can directly conclude that God so commands through the prophet? And they ask: “By what authority are You doing this?” The law, they say, left those descended from Levi to manage the church; how can you, who are not descended from the tribe of Levi, do this and steal sacred rights? But, O Jews, remember the words of David: “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Ps. 109:4). Melchizedek is called a priest. But Melchizedek was not a priest either according to the Law or by descent from the tribe of Levi. For what should he do when he was so many years before Levi? Then, why do you demand legal order from Christ? God is not subject to laws. When it was necessary, He commanded that the priests should be from the tribe of Levi, and now He abolishes that law and chooses the priesthood of Melchizedek. Therefore, He drives out those who sell sacrificial animals, such as sheep and doves, on the one hand, in order to preserve the splendor and decorum of the church, and on the other, in order to show that one should no longer believe in the propitiation of God with animal sacrifices. So, it was easy for the Lord to answer them that “so it is said,” and to say that the prophet, or better, God, commands so. Luke 20:3. He answered and said to them: I will also ask you one thing, and tell Me: Luke 20:4. Was John's baptism from heaven, or from men? Luke 20:5. They, reasoning among themselves, said: if we say: from heaven, then he will say: why didn’t you believe him? Luke 20:6. and if we say: from men, then all the people will stone us, for they are sure that John is a prophet. Luke 20:7. And they answered: we don’t know where. Luke 20:8. Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” However, in order to expose them in constant resistance to the Holy Spirit and in the fact that they did not want to believe not only the ancient prophet Isaiah, perhaps forgotten by them, but also the recently appeared, almost immaterial and incorporeal John, for this reason, in response to their question, he gives them a real question worthy of surprise. With this question He stops their mouths too, and shows us that if they did not believe such a prophet as John, in their opinion greater than Him, when he testified about Him, then how could they believe His answer to what authority He does this? For no matter what He said, they, in any case, could reinterpret it and ridicule it, just as they despised the words of John, who was in great glory among them. Luke 20:9. And He began to speak this parable to the people: A certain man planted a vineyard and gave it to husbandmen, and went away for a long time; This parable is short, but it teaches us many and great things, namely: that God had and proved a special providence for the Jews, that they have long been inclined to murder, that there is one God of the Old and New Testaments, that the pagans will be brought in, and the Jews will be rejected. The vineyard is the Jewish church itself, the vinedressers, scribes and Pharisees, these advanced people and leaders of the people. Or: each one in himself is a vineyard and a winegrower, for each of us cultivates himself. The lover of mankind, having given this vineyard to the workers, “abandoned”, that is, left them to act according to their own will. Luke 20:10. and in due time he sent a slave to the vinedressers so that they would give him fruit from the vineyard; but the winegrowers, having beaten him, sent him away empty-handed. Luke 20:11. He also sent another slave; but they beat and cursed him and sent him away empty-handed. Luke 20:12. And he sent a third one; but they also wounded him and kicked him out. He sends various “slaves,” that is, prophets, in order to have at least some small profit; for he wanted, it is said, to receive “fruits”, and not all the fruits. What fruit can we bring to God if not His knowledge? And it is our profit; however, He supplies our salvation and our benefit as His own. Evil workers inflicted insults on those sent, beat them and sent them away with nothing, that is, they reached such ingratitude that they not only deviated from good and did not give any good fruit, but also committed evil, which deserves greater punishment. Luke 20:13. Then said the lord of the vineyard: What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; Maybe when they see him they will be ashamed. Luke 20:14. But the vinedressers, seeing him, reasoned among themselves, saying: This is the heir; Come, let us kill him, and his inheritance will be ours. After the prophets suffered such terrible evil, the Son is sent. “Perhaps,” he says, “they will be ashamed” of My Son. He says “they will be ashamed” not because he does not know the future, namely: that they will do much worse to Him than to the prophets, but because it should have been so, namely: they should have been ashamed of Him. If they were so shameless before that they killed Him, then this serves to further accuse them, because even after God said that it was good to be ashamed of the Son, they passed a contrary sentence. This turn of phrase is found in many places in Scripture, for example: “Perhaps... they will listen” (Jer. 26:3); “will they listen” (Ezek. 2:5, 3:11)? In these places, God speaks this way not out of ignorance of the future, but uses such a way of expression so that no one would say that God’s foreknowledge was a necessary reason for disobedience. Luke 20:15. And they brought him out of the vineyard and killed him. They “killed” the Son by “bringing him out of the vineyard.” It is convenient to say: get out of Jerusalem; for Christ suffered “without the gates” (Heb. 13:12). But since above by the vineyard we meant the people, and not Jerusalem, it is almost closer to the point to say that although the people killed Him, they did so outside the vineyard, that is, they did not inflict death on Him with their own hands, but betrayed Him to Pilate and the pagans. So, the Lord suffered outside the vineyard, that is, not at the hands of the people, for he was not allowed to kill anyone, so He died at the hands of the soldiers. Some by vineyard meant the Scriptures. So, the Lord suffered outside the Scriptures, that is, He was killed by those who did not believe Moses. For if they had believed Moses and turned to the Scriptures, searching them, they would not have killed the Lord of the Scriptures. What will the lord of the vineyard do with them? Luke 20:16. He will come and destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. Having said this, he also adds the sentence that has to be pronounced over them, namely: that “he will give the vineyard to others,” that is, he will give others that grace to be called My people. Look: those who say that the vineyard means Scripture seem to guess the meaning closer, as it turns out from here. For the Scripture, taken from the Jews, was handed down to us. And another brave person will perhaps say that the vineyard is everything spiritual, whether it consists in Scripture and laws, or in deeds and stories, all of which the Jews lost, and we enjoy it. Luke 20:16. Those who heard this said: Let it not be! As you hear, the Evangelist Luke says that the Lord said these words: the lord of the vineyard will destroy the ungrateful tenants and give the vineyard to others, and that the Pharisees, having heard this, said: “Let it not be!” . But the Evangelist Matthew says differently, namely: the Lord asked what the owner of the vineyard would do to the winegrowers? And the Jews responded by saying: “He will... put the evildoers... to death and give the vineyard to others” (Matthew 21:40-41). Isn't this a contradiction? Not at all. For probably both happened: first they themselves pronounced the sentence, as the Evangelist Matthew reports; and then, having guessed who the parable was referring to, namely: that it was said to them, they said again what the Evangelist Luke now conveys, namely: “Let it not be!” . Luke 20:17. But He, looking at them, said: What does this written mean: the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? What about Christ? He also cites other evidence from the psalms of David (Ps. 117:22), calling himself a stone, and the teachers themselves builders, just as the prophet Ezekiel says: “and when he builds a wall, they smear it with mud” (Ezek. 13:10), that is, speaking to please and covering up the shortcomings of the people, and therefore, as if smearing mud on the damage of the people, as if on some kind of wall. How was this stone “rejected”? When they said: “This Man is not from God” (John 9:16). Luke 20:18. Anyone who falls on that stone will be broken, and whoever it falls on will be crushed. The Lord speaks here of double destruction. One is the destruction of their souls, which they suffered because they were tempted. For anyone who falls on this stone will be broken. The other is destruction from captivity, which this stone brought upon them for its humiliation from them. For “on whomever,” it is said, “it will fall, he will be crushed.” The Jews are crushed and scattered like chaff, from one threshing floor - Palestine - to the whole world. Please note that first they fell on this stone, that is, they were tempted, and then the stone fell on them and punished them. For first I commit sin, and then I suffer righteous punishment from God. But the Jews rejected this stone. And he was so good and chosen that he was placed at the head of the corner and joined together and connected the two walls, that is, the old and the new. Although they should have listened to Isaiah, who said: “Honor ye holy, and He is your fear, and He is your trembling! And He will be a sanctification, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense” (Is. 8:13-14). Luke 20:19. And at that time the chief priests and scribes sought to lay hands on Him, but they were afraid of the people, for they understood that He had spoken this parable about them. But even then, when they realized that the Lord was speaking this parable to them, they plotted against Him and would have laid hands on Him if they had not been afraid of the people. And the Law says: “Do not kill the innocent and the righteous” (Ex. 23:7); but they do not listen to Him, but are afraid of human wrath and, avoiding the visible laying on of hands, they arrange other feats against Him. Luke 20:20. And, watching Him, they sent crafty people who, pretending to be pious, would catch Him in some word in order to betray Him to the authorities and the power of the ruler. Luke 20:21. And they asked Him: Teacher! we know that You speak and teach truthfully and do not show your face, but truly teach the way of God; Luke 20:22. Is it permissible for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? The Pharisees prepared a net, which, in their opinion, would be difficult for the Lord to avoid, but in this net “their foot was entangled” (Ps. 9:16). Look, what wickedness! If the Lord says that taxes should be given to Caesar, then they will accuse Him before the people of bringing into slavery a people who are “the seed of Abraham” and have not worked for anyone (John 8:33). If He forbids giving taxes, in this case, as a troublemaker, they will take Him to the ruler. Luke 20:23. He, realizing their wickedness, said to them: Why are you tempting Me? Luke 20:24. Show Me the denarius: whose image and inscription is on it? They answered: Caesar's. Luke 20:25. He said to them, “Render therefore the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.” But the Lord avoids their snares like “chamois,” for that is what the bride called Him in the Song of Songs (Song 2:9), and teaches that bodily submission to the owner of our bodies, whether he is a king or a tyrant, does not in the least prevent us from spiritually pleasing the God of spirits. “So, give,” he says, “the things that are Caesar’s to Caesar, and the things that are God’s to God.” And look, he did not say, “give,” but “give back.” This, he says, is a debt, therefore, pay your due. Your sovereign protects you from your enemies, makes your life peaceful, for this you owe him a tax. And otherwise, the very thing that you contribute, that is, the coin, you have from him. So, return the royal coin to him (the king) and meanwhile you have benefited from it, exchanging it and obtaining what you need for life. In the same way, God’s things must be rendered to God. He gave you intelligence: return it to Him through rational activity. He gave you reason: return it to Him, not by becoming like unreasonable animals, but by acting in everything as one gifted with reason. And in general, He gave you soul and body: return everything to Him and restore His image for Him, living by faith, with hope, in love. And in another sense, we must render what is Caesar's to Caesar. Each of us bears either the image of God or the image of the prince of peace. When we become like Caesar, becoming sons of the devil, we bear his image. This image must be given to him and rejected, so that he has what is his with him, and in us he does not find anything that belongs to him. Through this, the image of God can be preserved in purity among us. Therefore, the Apostle Paul urges that just as we bear the image of the earthly, we also bear the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49); and in another place: “putting off your former way of life, the old man” (Eph. 4:22). What is expressed here by the word “give,” Paul uses the word “put aside,” and what is here called the image of “Caesar,” is there the image of the “earthly,” without a doubt, Adam who sinned, and the “old man.” For the image of earthly things is nothing other than corruption and sin, which image we have because we have become like an apostate and not a King. Luke 20:26. And they could not catch Him in His word before the people, and, surprised at His answer, they fell silent. The Pharisees could not catch Jesus speaking before the people. For they made special efforts to slander Him before the people, as enslaving the people to the Romans. But they could not achieve this because of His wise answer. Luke 20:27. Then some of the Sadducees who rejected the resurrection came and asked Him: Luke 20:28. Teacher! Moses wrote to us that if anyone's brother, who had a wife, dies and dies childless, then his brother must take his wife and raise up seed for his brother. Luke 20:29. There were seven brothers, the first, having taken a wife, died childless; Luke 20:30. The second one took that wife, and he died childless; Luke 20:31. the third took it; all seven also died, leaving no children; Luke 20:32. after all, the wife died; Luke 20:33. So, at the resurrection of which of them will she be a wife, for seven had her as a wife? The Sadducees, based on a weak foundation in their fabrications, did not believe the doctrine of the resurrection. Assuming that after the resurrection there would be bodily life, they were naturally mistaken. Therefore, while ridiculing the doctrine of the resurrection as absurd, they invent a real foolish story. Luke 20:34. Jesus answered and said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage; Luke 20:35. but those who are deemed worthy to reach that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, But the Lord refutes their foundation and declares that there is no bodily life there. And along with this weak foundation and assumption, he destroys their teaching, saying: you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures and misinterpreting their meaning. “The children of this age,” that is, those who give birth and are born in this world, “marry and encroach,” that is, “get married.” But the sons of that age do nothing of the kind, for they cannot die; therefore there is no marriage there, but life is angelic, divine. Here there is marriage because there is death, and because there is death there is marriage. And then, when death is abolished, what need is there for marriage? For marriage was established to help mortality and to make up for lack. And where there is no lack, what need is there for replenishment? Luke 20:36. and they can no longer die, for they are equal to the Angels and are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection. “For they are equal to the angels and are the sons of God.” Why? Because they are the sons of the resurrection. These words have this meaning: “I,” he says, “called them sons of God because in their birth nothing corporeal is seen, but everything divine.” For in the resurrection there is no intercourse, no seed, no womb, no conception, but God gives birth to our bodies in a way known to Him. Since God acts in resurrection, those who are reborn from the resurrection are rightly called sons of God. Luke 20:37. And Moses showed that the dead will rise again at the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Luke 20:38. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive. The Lord also adds evidence from Scripture to the conclusion. Moses says that God told him from the bush: “I am the God of Abraham” and so on (Ex. 3:6). If the patriarchs had been destroyed forever and were not alive before God through the hope of the resurrection, He would not have said: “I am,” but “I was.” For about things damaged and lost we usually say: I “was” the owner of such and such a thing. And now, when God said: “I am,” He showed that He is the Lord and God of the living, and not of those who are completely destroyed. For although they died, they are alive in the hope of resurrection, just as Adam, although he was alive, was nevertheless mortal, and it is said about him that he died at the very time he ate the forbidden fruit. Luke 20:39. To this some of the scribes said: Teacher! You said it well. Luke 20:40. And they no longer dared to ask Him about anything. When the Sadducees were thus put to shame, the scribes, pleased with their victory over them, approved of Jesus as their rival. Luke 20:41. as they say that Christ is the Son of David, Luke 20:42. and David himself says in the book of Psalms: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Luke 20:43. How long will I make Your enemies Your footstool? Luke 20:44. So David calls Him Lord; how is He his Son? Soon having to go to suffering, the Lord preaches about His Divinity, and then not openly and with pride, but very modestly. For he asks them and, puzzling them, leaves them to draw the conclusion themselves. David, he says, calls Him Lord (Ps. 109:1): how can He be his simple Son? He was both the son of David according to the flesh, but at the same time also his God, and they considered Him only the son of David. Therefore, He refutes their opinion that Christ is a simple son of David, and declares that He is not contrary to the Father, but has great like-mindedness with Him, for the Father will overcome His enemies. This He said to the scribes. Luke 20:45. And when all the people listened, He said to His disciples: Luke 20:46. Beware of the scribes, who love to wear long robes and love greetings in public assemblies, presiding in synagogues and presiding at feasts, Since He sent His disciples as teachers into the universe, He rightly urges them not to imitate the Pharisees in their love of glory, in their love of primacy, and in general in secularism and people-pleasing. For carefully observing greetings in the squares is characteristic of those who flatter everyone they meet and ingratiate themselves with a good opinion, or use this as a means to collect money. Luke 20:47. who devour widows' houses and hypocritically pray for a long time; they will receive all the more condemnation. “They devour,” he says, “the houses of widows,” filling their bellies and squandering them beyond their due limits. And the pretext for this is, as it were, reverent. For, under the pretext of prayer and spiritual benefit, they teach not fasting, but drunkenness and gluttony, and for this, he says, “they will receive all the more condemnation,” because they not only do evil, but also cover it up with prayer. And they look reverent; they make virtue a pretext for wickedness. Therefore, they deserve greater condemnation, since goodness is condemned. Widows should be pitied, but they enter their houses supposedly to bless them with long prayers. Meanwhile, widows are forced to make expenses on the occasion of their visit, and thus go bankrupt.