Lord of the Living

Luke 20:27 - 21:4

As you can tell, our format is a little different today. In our remaining time, I want to briefly share some thoughts from our passage today in Luke, and then we will open up into a sharing time. I would like the first part of our sharing time to be a discussion of this passage, so as I share, don’t just take notes, but also write down any questions that occur to you or any thoughts you have that relate to this passage.

I want to start by giving a brief recap of where we have been in the past several weeks in Luke. The second half of Luke 19 commences with Jesus’ final entrance into Jerusalem, an entrance marked with contrasts – proclaimed with shouts of Hosannas to be a conquering King, and yet riding on a humble colt of a donkey. From here on, He is not going to leave the Jerusalem area – He has come here to fulfill His purpose; He has come here to die. Recall that He wept over Jerusalem because its people were blind to the truth of the things of God, and He wept because He foresaw the total destruction of Jerusalem.

Whose Authority?

Luke 20:1-26

Authority is an interesting thing. A few weeks ago I read about a police chief who decided not to prosecute evictions due to foreclosures on houses. My first thought was, “He can’t do that!” He doesn’t have the authority! Does he have the authority? It is an interesting question, one I am not going to try to answer today.

But I will point out that the chief is himself under authority. He was hired, and he can be fired. If he breaks laws, he can be arrested, tried, found guilty, and jailed just like any other person. To some degree, everyone is under authority. This is true for municipalities, for states, and for our federal government, at least it is supposed to be true for our federal government. Our founding fathers went to great lengths setting checks and balances on every facet of government, between the three branches of government, precisely so that everyone is under authority and no one can become a tyrant. In terms of the structure of our government, the founding fathers had no greater purpose than this. They did this because they believed with deepest conviction that people have rights that come straight from God, and no one should have the authority to infringe on those rights or take them away.

Coming in the Name

Luke 19:28-48

The opening part of our passage this week takes place at the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives is a mountain to the east of Jerusalem. It rises to about 2500 feet above sea level. Bethany and Bethphage lie near the foot of the mountain, and the garden of Gethsemane is on its western slope. In the Old Testament, The Mount of Olives is mentioned directly or clearly alluded to in II Samuel 15, in Ezekiel 11, Zechariah 14, I Kings 11, II Kings 23, and Nehemiah 8. In the New Testament, it is mentioned here (and in the parallel passages in the other gospels) and in Acts 1 – the latter because the Mount of Olives is the location in which Jesus, after His resurrection, ascended to heaven. In 70 AD, Roman soldiers from the 10th legion camped on the Mount during the Siege of Jerusalem, which ultimately led to the destruction of the city.

Because it is near Jerusalem, and because of prophecies concerning it, Jews have always sought to be buried on the mountain. From Biblical times to today, the mountain has been used by Jews as a cemetery. There are estimated to be 150,000 graves on the Mount, and tradition holds that Zechariah himself is buried there.