20:1 I find these next few (1-8) verses exhilarating. Too often in life we are forced to deal with adversaries who pompously question us and argue against us and we learn here how to handle those occurrences by learning how Jesus handled them.
20:2 Complete arrogance and lack of common sense drives the Pharisees to ask Jesus who gave Him permission to teach and heal (as if such acts even need permission)! Even if He did need permission, we know who granted it: the creator of the world... and universe...and eternity, I'm quite sure that's enough qualification to call the shots!
20:3 Rather than engage in argument with the Pharisees,who were so clearly only looking out for their own interests (securing their own power), Jesus begins to inject common sense into the situation.
20:4 John the Baptist was famously known throughout many citizens as a prophet preparing the people for the first coming of Jesus... Jesus asks the Pharisees where they believe John the Baptist was from. By answering "Heaven," they reveal that Jesus is here on the authority of God. By answering "Earth" they claim than John the Baptist was not a prophet...
20:5 The Pharisees knew where John the Baptist was from, they had witnessed the miracles and teachings of him, but because John the Baptist lead the people away from following the Pharisees, they did not want to admit this.
20:6 However, if the Pharisees deny that John the Baptist was from Heaven, the multitude of people would be enraged and their lives would be in danger. This is how the evil live: they plot and plan to deceive or craft their way into and out of things. They never just tell the simple, straight truth. Pay attention to the character and actions of people so that you can discern these types.
20:7 The Pharisees take the cowardly way out of this question, they put no effort into answering with logic or respect, or truth.
20:8 I love this moment! Jesus does not waste His time on this ridiculous situation. The Pharisees are behaving rudely, skirting around the truth and evading common sense. If they don't want to use their logic and respect, Jesus moves right along past them. If they were open to having a serious, respectful conversation, it would have been a different story.
Use the same method in your life: when somebody wants to have a respectful, logical conversation with you then they have earned a bit of your time. Do not waste your time on somebody who is looking out only for their own interests and ignores all truth and logic to defend themselves.
Keep in mind that the Pharisees knew the truth but were denying it. They wanted to strip Jesus of His authority on earth because they were losing theirs.
20:9 The Parable of the Wicked Vine-dressers: We will explore this parable through metaphor. This is God; He created the world, placed humanity on it and then gave them the freedom of growing and experiencing life without His visible presence.
20:10-12 Some time passed and God sent a prophet to the earth. This prophet was the encounter the world that humanity had created... but there was no good "fruit," humanity had made a mess of the earth by being greedy and unkind toward each other. They killed the prophet (so many prophets throughout the Bible were treated horribly).
20:13 After a history of prophet after prophet being denied and killed, God, wanting to save the earth, sent a complete manifestation of Himself, Jesus to try to realign the world with His love. He hoped that humanity would accept such a miracle manifestation of truth, wisdom and love.
20:14 Instead, people treated Jesus even worse than they did the previous prophets. Greedy people desired the power that He had and they wanted it for themselves (we see this exemplified with the Pharisees jealously over Jesus' authority and awe from the people).
20:15 Even Jesus was killed by the corrupt members of humanity and for that they will face repercussions.
20:16 God will give heaven to people who deserve it, there's space for everyone but because everyone will not earn their place (by being kind) He gives those places to people who will.
20:17 Jesus is the stone, that crucial piece of the structure that enables it to stand firmly. By denying Jesus, they are rejecting the piece that holds everything together, all of the love and wisdom of God.
20:18 There's no way around it, if a person rejects all that Jesus stands for, they ruin themselves. The Pharisees understood that they were of this bunch, the people who would endure the consequences of their corrupt actions and they were made angry by the realization.
20:19 Right then and there they wanted to kill Jesus but because He was surrounded by so many who loved Him, they did not have the chance. They were seething with anger -- this is how evil they were, they sought to kill whoever disagreed with them. They sought to kill without hesitation a man, an Entity, Jesus who had done nothing but kindness and healing wherever He went.
20:20 The Pharisees continued to behave deceptively. This is what the evil do, the strategically plot and plan to incriminate people who stand in their way.
20:21 The Pharisees are very obviously being fake here, they are trying to set Jesus up for failure but it will not work.
20:22 The Pharisees know that Jesus loves God and encourages people to put Him first in their lives, in order to try to test Him, they ask Jesus if people should abandon social government in favor of following God.
20:23 Jesus perceives their test immediately and is vexed but undeterred by it.
20:24 Again, Jesus approaches the issue with common sense: He asks to see a coin, on which is the face of the leader of the social government at the time.
20:25 Jesus explains that people are to give to the leader what is the leader's job to procure (taxes and such) and to give to God what belongs to God (their life, their love, their kindness). Jesus did not come to bring anarchy to the world, He came to lead people through the social constructions of the world in order to eventually reach Heaven.
20:26 Even the Pharisees were impressed by Jesus' answer (of course they were, Jesus is the embodiment of logic and wisdom). They Pharisees would not admit that they understood and that they were impressed with the answer because above all else, they wanted their power, wealth and fame back. They wanted to continue to oppress the people and grow wealthy from mistreating them. They kept silent because they could not argue against this wisdom.
Learn from Jesus, people cannot logically argue against you when you use your common sense and wisdom. Be truthful and fair and you will always cross the barriers people try to put in your way.
20:27 Jesus is tested by another group, the Sadducees, who do not believe in life after earth.
20:28 This was a custom of the time when women had no right to property or any place in society at all. When a man died, it was his brother's responsibility to take care of the widow. This was not a romantic situation, it was a method to ensure that a widow would not starve and go homeless if her husband died.
20:29-33 The Sadducees create a hypothetical situation in which 1 woman lived as 3 different men's wife during her lifetime. Before we go forward, realize that the Sadducees are entirely missing the point: they want to know whose wife she will be in heaven but in heaven, there is no marriage. Every soul is united in a family with God and there's no need for these social relationships.
20:34-35 Here is Jesus explaining that last point: marriage is a custom on earth but it's not in heaven.
A funny side note: when I was younger, this was a difficult concept for me to grasp. Now with a deeper, more understand faith, I've felt the power of God's love. God completely envelopes our life and leaves us lacking of nothing and wanting of nothing. It fills us, it's the only relationship we need to be complete.
20:36 There's no death with God... those men would not have died, they would have transfigured into God's world. Jesus explains that the humans who are kind and filled with faith and love are as eternal and as beloved as the angels in heaven (who are pure in innocent and compassion).
20:37 Since the Sadducees referenced Moses, Jesus explains to them that even Moses understood and believed in the life that follows earth.
20:38 We have a God of life, of love and creation and we never have to fear death because it isn't possible for a compassionate soul to die. Love is reunited in Heaven.
20:39-40 Some of the people listened and learned from Jesus' teaching. They absorbed what they had and felt the truth within it. None of the people had anymore questions because Jesus had clearly spoken and explained all of their inquiries. God is wise, to those who ask and then truly listen, He imparts His wisdom inside of them.
20:41-44 Jesus came through Mary, who served as a humble vessel which brought forth Jesus. Mary was a descendant of David but Jesus' DNA was directly from God. So while David can technically be considered an adoptive great (great, great, great, etc) grandfather of Jesus, even David, a faithful student of God, knew that Jesus was from God and was therefore a Son of God.
20:45-47 A final instruction in this chapter, but a very important one as it applies to today's world. Jesus wants us to beware of religious institutions which are extravagant. He wants us to beware of religious figures who dress elaborately in long robes and fancy clothing, sit in the highest places in the church and around the world as they travel. He wants us to beware of the religious figures and institutions which use their money on expensive celebrations and gatherings. Beware of religions which have long, repetitive prayers and fail to teach people to communicate simply and directly with God. God does not want to hear a rehearsed prayer that has no love or faith behind it. God wants to speak with you as an individual about every and any moment of your life... do not let anyone tell you what to pray or how or who to pray to. You pray to God about whatever you want to... you express to God whatever you want to. It doesn't matter how long or fancy a person's prayer is, and Jesus explains to us that there are religions in the world which dress up their prayers but have no faith or love behind them. No understand of God at all! They completely contradict His word.
Let your relationship with God be personal! Between you and Him. The men on earth who celebrate themselves and run fancy religious institutions anger God because they miss His message entirely and trick good people into doing the wrong things.
So many people in the world claim to love good but do not exemplify that in their lives. They go to church but they do not even know what's written in the Bible. They preach to others but are arrogant, do not even follow the advice they expect others to live. They are pompous hypocrites and Jesus does not want you to become ensnared in their trap. How to you keep away from them? Develop a personal relationship with God and the Bible, you will always have your own perspective on His message and you will be able to discern truth from lies.
