Final Debates

Luke 20:1-21:4

Feb. 8

I can remember when a humanist on campus, when I was going for my Master's Degree, tried to brand the Christians a bunch of losers. He claimed he did not need religion for a crutch as they did. I was reduced to wordlessness by his hostile tone. Then I thought of three perfect answers (late that night in bed).
Most of us are not quick to think on our feet, and certainly not as quick and sharp as Jesus. We have seen him as a fearless controversialist in Galilee. Now we will see him in the capital, taking on four distinct authority groups as each mounts attacks on him.

1. How do you know when to defend your faith, and when not to?

2. Read Luke 20:1-26 for the first two of Jesus’ four controversies with his nation’s top leaders. By the end of the debate on Jesus’ authority, what has each side achieved (vv. 1-8)?

3. By parable and commentary Jesus pronounces final judgment on them (vv. 9-18). How do you respond to his stern characterization of God?

4. In verses 20-26 the same group sets a second trap. They instead fall into it when Jesus challenges their wrong assumptions about political duties. What is a political/religious tension for you as a Christian?

5. Read Luke 20:27-47. The Sadducees accepted only the first five Old Testament books, which they presumed said nothing about life after death. What, therefore, do they expect their hypothetical story to do to belief in the resurrection?

6. Again Jesus points to wrong assumptions behind their question. What error does he identify in their view of life after death (vv. 34-36)?

7. Moreover, he shows from a book they professed to accept (Ex 3:6) that their leader Moses believed in immortality (vv. 37-38)! “Clever” people today still try to mock and explain away facts inconvenient to their system of beliefs. What examples do you know?

8. Jesus takes initiative in the last controversy (vv. 41-44). All good Jews believed that the Messiah would be King David’s physical descendant. So he chooses a familiar Messianic text, Psalm 110:1, to argue also for the Messiah’s deity. Again they do not or will not answer his logical question (v. 44). But Jesus does not remain on the level of theological discussion. He attacks some of their evil practices (vv. 45-47). What can make people with religious authority become so hardhearted?

9. All four groups totally reject Jesus as God’s Messiah-King. After this, there are no more debates on the truth—only arrest and death. Besides valid debates, how can we maintain biblical truth against the enemies of Christianity?

10. Read Luke 21:1-4, which Luke links with 20:47. How refreshing this widow must have been to Jesus after the controversies! What does this tell you about the kind of faith Jesus values?

Pray now for this faith.