Lucas 20

Lucas 20

Constable explains "By looking at His hearers Jesus captivated their attention for a very important statement. Jesus' response corrected the crowd's resistance to the idea that God would judge Israel's present leaders and allow Israel to fall under other presumably Gentile leadership." In Mt 21:42 Jesus asked the religious leaders a question " “Did you never read in the Scriptures." Imagine their reaction! This must have angered them. After all these are the leading theologians of Israel and He asks them if they have ever read their Scriptures! You probably don't want to ask this question of your pastor! What then is this that is written - Written is perfect tense which means that this passage was written down in the past and stands forever written! In Matthew Jesus introduces His OT quote with "Did you never read in the Scriptures (NOTE: THE WORD SCRIPTURE IN THE NT VIRTUALLY ALWAYS REFERS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES)" (Mt 21:42) In Matthew Jesus raises this question in order to make all these people think and try to understand what, of course, they had read. The answer to Jesus' question is of course they had read these texts, for they used them yearly in the Hallel (referring to Ps 113-118 still used as a chant of praise at Passover, Shabuoth, Sukkoth, Hanukkah, and Rosh Hodesh), but sadly the hearing of these Holy Words was not understood (and still is not by modern Jews) and so is like the old saying in one ear and out the other!