I peeked ahead to see what tomorrow is:
We will read it in Matthew and Mark tomorrow. An idea is to read 1 account tonight. Take it all in. And then another Gospel view tomorrow.
Yesterday I posted the Week. This Olivet Discourse is one of the LAST times the people hear from Jesus. So if it is one of the last things He says, and one of the longest…we better pay attention. Today’s reading:
We spent a few days talking about when Jesus would return. The Jewish people were listening and asking “When will this happen?” Jesus told them over and over they would not know the time and that it wouldn’t be anytime soon so they needed to be ready! (Look around at the world, how many are ready if it is today?). So Jesus changes His dialogue to a parable so that they would understand.
Weddings during this time period were long celebrations. A young man and woman would be betrothed. The young man would establish a place to live and a way to support a family. The virgin woman would be escorted by her bridesmaids through the town, the longest route possible. The people in town would light touch lamps for her to go from house to house often times receiving a coin. The virgins would carry extra oil with them to keep the torch burning until they reach their “groom to be”. They were told to be prepared.
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At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise.3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
The bridegroom (Jesus) came at midnight. I time they were not prepared for!
And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
The parable of the Talents (or the weight of God)
Since we read “In the Beginning…” each person has been entrusted with resources of time and material goods. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him. We are responsible for using those resources so that they increase in value. As Christians, we have time, money, and our Bibles. (Not every Christian in this world can say they have those 3). We are accountable to the Lord for the use of His resources. And here is the best (but hardest part)…
26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
So you KNOW that there are lost people? You KNOW they will go to Hell? And you do NOTHING about it? Are you investing in the last people of this world?
The Sheeps and the Goats:
(I am telling you, I am loving today’s read! These are “familiar” stories, but I am reading them “new”. And I love it)
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
If we take His words (maybe we need to finish the New Testament, and just do a slower deeper read of just the New Testament)…If we take His words and apply them to our lives, we won’t even know we are serving Jesus continually, it will just be “what we do”. Imagine a world of “this is what we do” that we don’t even realize we are doing it.
But there is a reality here that no one likes to talk about. If we are not bearing fruit because of the Spirit, then we are not spiritually saved. We started with the 10 virgins. The message is “BE READY”. you will not get to plead your case or show off your “trophies” of good works. The Lord will know if you are a sheep or a goat. He will allow us to reside in eternity in a place that was not prepared for men, it was prepared for the devil. He doesn’t choose Hell for us, we choose “not Heaven”.
‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Today is Monday, here is an extra read on Faith and Deeds. Click here ❤️
This is called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus takes the disciples to Mount Olives where they can see the magnificent Temple and tell that the Temple will be destroyed.
At this time, the temple was not even complete.. Construction had begun 30 years prior in 20 BC and it will be complete in 66 AD. Jesus takes them to the very spot Zechariah declared the judgment on Jerusalem. However, its destruction was just a foreshadow of the ultimate destruction that would occur in the End Times. The Olivet Discourse is the longest block of teaching in the Gospel. This chapter is divided:
Most importantly, the disciples were told to “watch out” and “be on guard”.
As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
So here is what happens:
Does anyone know what stands beyond this wall? What was built where the Temple of the Lord once stood?? Where the Ark of the Covenant rested that Indiana Jones went looking for??Go back and watch Raiders of the Lost Ark…
I am so off topic!
We read about the abomination that causes desolation before. During the silent years, Antiochus IV oppressed the Jews and erected a statue of Zeus in the Temple. They would sacrifice the most unclean animal they could find on the altar-a pig. This desecration was a foreshadow of the End Times when the Tribulation will occur.
14 “When you see ‘the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
During the Tribulation (in Revelation).17 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 18 Pray that this will not take place in winter, 19 because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again.
“In those days”-refers to the End Times”-
24 “But in those days, following that distress,
“‘the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
25 the stars will fall from the sky,
and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
When will this happen?? Only ONE knows!32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
Matthew:
When Jesus started His ministry He pronounced seven blessings on the righteous in Matthew 5:3-10:
Then… At the close of His ministry, He pronounced seven woes to the self-righteous (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes)
Luke: (✅ if we discussed already)
Destruction of the Temple and End Times
8 He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
We have a NEAR and FAR prophecy being stated.
Click here. It is a very short video of what the temple looked like.
As they are looking at this magnificent building Jesus says:
6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.”
This will happen in their time. In 70 AD the temple will be completely destroyed. Unimaginable!! No way! Yup, it happens.
8 He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them. 9 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.”
But this passage has the prophecy of the Temple destruction and the End times. See, the Jewish people assumed that when the Messiah came, it would usher in the end times immediately. So read this passage closely because I think too often we watch the news and say “That’s a sign…end times are coming”. We will always have wars. We will always have natural disasters. But the signs of these will be so extreme after the rapture they recognizable! The signs will be when Jesus opens the first seals on the scroll. Tomorrow’s reading will be JUST on this.
The wedding banquet:
The Servants announced the coming of the banquet and urged those whom God invited (The Jews) to prepare for it. However, most of those who heard about it did not respond to the invitation.
Here is the best part…now think about this: A king invites guests to a banquet and they refused to come! Only THE KING of Kings would ask again!
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
(The Lord came first for the Jew, then to Gentiles)
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. ❤️
Now the hard part: “a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.”
The “man” who did not wear the proper garments was unprepared for the banquet. (Jesus wants us to BE PREPARED) In that culture, the proper garment was just clean clothes. However, the host often gave special garments to the invited guests, which they wore for the celebration.
Isaiah 61:10 says:
I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
Some think they can plead their case, or get into Heaven on their own merit or good deeds will be thrown out into the darkness. We cannot dress ourselves.
Imperial Tax to Ceasar:
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.
The Herodians were a non-religious Jewish party that supported the dynasty of Herod and the general policy of the Roman government. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were members of an ancient Jewish sect who believed in the strict observance of oral traditions and the written Law of Moses. They didn’t believe that Christ was the Messiah, despite His many miracles during His earthly ministry. Although Herodians and Pharisees were at opposite ends of the political spectrum, their common hatred of Christ was enough for them to join forces to try to destroy Him.
It was a trick question. If Jesus answered, “No,” the Herodians would charge Him with treason against Rome. If He said, “Yes,” the Pharisees would accuse Him of disloyalty to the Jewish nation.
A Denarius was a Roman coin that had Caesar’s face on one side and on the back, it had Caesar wearing priestly garments with the words “Son of the Divine” (what???). Obviously, the Jews were majorly offended by this (as I am too).
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” Jesus turned a lose/lose question into a win/win answer! He was drawing a sharp distinction between two kingdoms.
Marriage/Resurrection
23 That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
What in the world? I picture them in a “tag-team” game…”Tag, your turn”. So the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, angels, the supernatural, and ONLY adhered to the first 5 books of the Bible (The Torah). So we know the Sadducees are going to ask what they think is a ridiculous question as a trap BUT you can be certain Jesus will quote from the Torah every time to the Sadducees to shut them up!
They ask a question about the resurrection wrapped in a Law (Deuteronomy 25). They think they can trick Jesus because they don’t believe in the resurrection so how can it be wrapped up in law? So this concept of marrying brothers is actually true. It is called Levirate Marriage. Levirate marriage is literally a “marriage with a brother-in-law.” In ancient times, if a man died without a child, it was common for the man’s unmarried brother to marry the widow in order to provide an heir for the deceased. In ancient Israel, the passing on of the family name and the inheritance within a tribe was very important.
After he answers the question he adds on a major reference from when Moses was standing at the Burning Bush (of course he quotes the only author the Sadducees read…MOSES) (Exodus 3:6)
31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you,32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
It doesn’t say “I WAS”, it says “I AM”!
I know this is a long post so I will skip to Mark 12
The Greatest Commandment
“Tag-your turn”. They tagged in a Lawyer. He is an expert on the Law! So he asked him-
“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Well, that’s a hard question! At this point, the Pharisees and Scribes had written laws to protect the law. There were 613 Laws!! (all offshoots from the 10 Commandments). How can he pick the right one out of 613? How you ask? Easy, He is God.
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Two verses in the Torah were merged together. Deuteronomy 6:4 “Shema” is the Hebrew word that begins the most important prayer in Judaism “To hear”.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
and Leviticus 19:18-19
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
19 “‘Keep my decrees.
These two verses sum up the 10 commandments. Commandments 1-4 are “vertical”. Honoring God. Commandments 6-10 are “horizontal”. Honoring others.
✅ Mark 11- even though it was been covered, I did some extra research so I can learn something new every time. Why were palm branches used? Well, here is what I found out… If you read the post about the ‘400 Years of Silence’, the Maccabees overtook Antiochus, releasing them from his captivity. When they celebrated their independence from him, they used Palm Tree branches. As Jesus made his first pubic profession as king (riding in on a donkey) the crowd yells Hosanna! The Hebrew words yasha (“deliver, save”) and anna (“beg”) combine to form the word that, in English, is “hosanna.” Literally, hosanna means “I beg you to save!” or “please deliver us!”. The people want to be saved from the Romans and be independent. They were ready for Jesus to once again make them a nation!
If you go back to the Luke account-it now makes sense WHY Jesus wept when they were quoting Psalm 118-Hosana. He knew that they thought He was coming as a King to bring them independence. So it says back in Luke 19:
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.
John 12-Jesus anointed in Bethany
So this is actually taking place at Simon’s house. Simon was a leper that Jesus healed. Can you imagine the dinner small talk “Dude, my skin was so rotten my fingers were falling off-and Jesus healed me” “Oh, yeah…well I was dead for days- so beat that!!”
You have to just take a moment to feel all the characters in this scene.
Sounds like my house on a Friday night to be honest. I could write a lot about this passage but for today, I am going to let you sit with it. I really want to save time for the last verses.
✅ Jesus predicts his death
Verse 37-50
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Do you know where in the Bible this is quoting?? Flip to Isaiah 53:1 (I attached it here starting at 52:13)😢. Then, a very difficult scripture is quoted. Jesus then quotes Isaiah 6
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
This is hard to chew on. Think of it this way: Do you remember back in Exodus the Pharaoh’s heart was hardened by the Lord? The Lord did this AFTER Pharoah had already made his choices. The Lord had a plan to free HIs people and to do what He needed to “debunk” all the false gods. Not 4 of them, not 6 of them…ALL 10 so that He could prove there was only ONE God. WELL, we have the same concept here. After 3 years of the most amazing teaching, healing, and fulfilling detailed prophecies, many still did not believe. We are DAYS away from the Cross. So now what??
For those that were invited, the door is now closed. He hardened their hearts. It is time. Jesus needs to be rejected by both Jew and Gentile. If the Jewish leaders suddenly believed, then Jesus would be dying just for them. If the Gentiles suddenly believed, then Jesus would be dying just for them. He came to die for all. So just like the Pharoah’s heart was hardened right at the end, so now are those that were invited to believe are “blinded” from seeing who He is. It is time now to be crucified for those that do believe, both Jews and Gentile.
If you glazed over this you missed something HUGE:
44 Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.45 The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
The Law of Moses makes it punishable by death to blaspheme the Lord’s name. Jesus is saying I AM not just Jesus, I AM God. Since they do not know this is true, they can convict Jesus for the death penalty, find him guilty in their “blinded eyes” BUT be innocent (sinless) of any accusation since HE IS GOD.
They don’t have to trick him anymore…they don’t have to try to find a way to arrest him. Jesus did it for them with this statement. He gave them the “arrest” statement and yet remained sinless doing it.
Jesus ends this teaching with a reminder that the 1st coming is not a time of judgment. However, when He returns, the 2nd coming, there will be a Judgement. You and I live in between the two time periods.
47 “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
If I put a ✅ that means we covered in another Gospel BUT read it because each Gospel takes a different view.
Zacchaeus the Tax Collector
So evidently this is one of those stories that they teach kids at church with a song. I didn’t grow up in the church so I have no idea what the pastor refers to. Oh, and can I just say for the record, don’t start a sentence with “You know the story of…” I hear Pastors say that all the time and it made me feel like I was literally the only one in the room that never heard it. “You know the story of Nicodemus coming at night….The Prodigal Son….The Road to Damascus….” NOPE! They were all new to me.
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
Jesus INVITES himself over to this sinner’s house. WOW!
“Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
In the Law of Moses, it was required to pay back any “wrong” with 20% (1/5). If you killed someone’s animal (or someone) by accident and it would ruin the livelihood of the family THEN they were required to pay back “four times” the amount. His tax collecting scandals were so bad that in his heart he felt the need to pay back 4X the amount admitting the seriousness of his sin. Zacchaeus did not do this for Salvation, it was because of his Salvation (I guess he was fruit on the vine ❤️).
The Parable of the Ten Minas-
“While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.”
Well, He knew that the people thought it was going to end differently this week. They assumed Jesus would go to Jerusalem to reign as king. Jesus’ most basic point is that the kingdom was not going to appear immediately. There would be a period of time, during which the king would be absent before the kingdom would come. (we will get there, but it is between verse 14 and 15).
The parable:
So where are we on this timeline? If it were a Billboard with a “You Are Here” spot:
14 “But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’
“You Are Here”
15 “He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money, in order to find out what they had gained with it.
I ❤️ the last line of today’s read…
because all the people hung on his words.
If you have not read yet-flip back to Chapter 19. This is a continued conversation. This parable follows the rich man’s story. The crowd listening is the rich, poor, Pharisees, tax collectors, beggars…all were there. This parable will speak to each “category” equally. The Pharisees think they deserve more, the disciples who left everything now want to know what their reward is going to be, they think they deserve more. God will give grace to those He chooses through faith-whether it be in the first hour or the last. You cannot earn it.
Chapter 20-The first group of workers in the vineyard resented receiving the same wage as the last group. Their attitude was similar to that of the Pharisees, who were furious at Jesus’ teaching that others could inherit a heavenly kingdom they thought was reserved for them alone. They despised Jesus for offering the kingdom to poor, oppressed, weak sinners who He made equal to them.
Here is an interesting thought. The first set of workers were offered one denarius (a Roman soldier’s daily wage). Generous!! So when he paid the 4th group the same wage would we think “this is unfair” or “Wow, this landowner is VERY generous”? If someone becomes a believer early in life…God is generous to save them. If a person believes much much later in life, is He unfair to save them equally? No. How generous is the Lord to save all those who believe?
17 Now Jesus was going up to Jerusalem (for the Passover). On the way, he took the Twelve aside and said to them, 18 “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man (the Messiah) will be delivered over (implies betrayal) to the chief priests and the teachers of the law (The Jews). They will condemn him to death (means legal proceedings) 19 and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified (only Romans had the authority to crucify). On the third day he will be raised to life!” (Resurrection)
Jesus was taking His disciples up to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration there. While there, the Son of Man would somehow be “delivered” over “to the chief priests and scribes,” His antagonistic opponents. This implied a betrayal (cf. 17:22). They would “condemn Him to death.” This implied legal proceedings. He would fall under the control of the “Gentiles,” who would ridicule (“mock”), torture (“scourge”), and “crucify” Him. The Romans were the only Gentiles with the authority to crucify; the Jews did not have this power under Roman rule. Three days later Jesus would “be raised up” to life.
Think about all the times Jesus came to Jerusalem during His ministry. He would slip in, unnoticed, through the Sheep’s gate (so symbolic). This time, He makes His presence known! He fulfills the detailed prophecy in Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Kings entered their city in 1 of two ways:
An example would be Solomon being anointed king (Peace) following David’s reign (war). Click here: 1 Kings 1:38.
As Jesus entered proclaiming He is the king, people from all over were there for the Passover Festival began quoting Psalm 118:
25 Lord, save us! (Hosanna)
Lord, grant us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
From the house of the Lord we bless you.
27 The Lord is God,
and he has made his light shine on us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up to the horns of the altar.
(I spent a lot of time researching which Gate Jesus may have entered. I can’t be certain but we know that it would be from the East moving west (same as the way we entered the Tabernacle, through the tribe of Judah 😁 in the OT). Probably the Golden Gate (Lion’s gate). In Hebrew, it is Sha’ar Harahamim, the “Gate of Mercy.”
Jesus enters the courtyard speaking in scripture (the Pharisees would pick up on this) He quotes Isaiah and Jeremiah as He purifies the temple. They have made the Passover a time to make money by selling animals (telling the foreigners their sacrifices were not good enough) and selling other superstition items. Read this in Isaiah 56: (it’s worth the time, I promise)
4 For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
to minister to him,
to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Sovereign Lord declares—
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.”
Now Jeremiah: 7:
9 “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
From a distance, the Temple would look like a house of worship and prayer. From a distance, the Jews and Jerusalem produced fruit. When fruit grows on a fig tree they are green. From a distance, the tree would appear to have been full of fruit (just like the nation of Israel).
.
18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry.
19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves.
The questioning of authority: They inquired about Jesus’ authority to drive out the moneychangers and merchants, heal the sick, and teach the people. They were the people with the authority to control what happened in the temple area. They wanted to know “what authority” Jesus had, and “who” had given Him “this authority” to do what He did, since they had not.
Jesus answers a question with a question (this was customary in rabbinical debates). He purposely references John the Baptist, his forerunner. It is a lose-lose statement for the Pharisees.
Their plan failed.
The two sons- (notice both were referred to as sons-equal! ouch)
This is the first time Jesus specifically points out that the parable is condemning the Jewish leaders. (Their jaws must have dropped!)
The parable of the tenants
There are 6 main characters in this parable:
In my BIble, I literally crossed out the original in pencil and wrote the other
33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landownerGod who planted a vineyard Israel. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he God rented the vineyard Israel to some farmers Jews and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest time approached, he God sent his servants Prophets to the tenants Jews to collect his fruit.
35 “The tenants Jews seized his servants Prophets; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Then he God sent other servants Prophets to them, more than the first time, and the tenants Jews treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son JESUS to them. ‘They will respect my son, JESUS’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants Jews saw the son JESUS, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him JESUS and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard Israel and killed him.
40 “Therefore, when the owner God of the vineyard Israel comes, what will he do to those tenants Jews?”
41 “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard Israel to other tenants, the Gentiles who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: (Jesus says this when the scriptures specifically point to Him)
“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.
Reading the Bible - 2021 