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Luke 20

Jesus confronts leaders who resist his authority, exposes their traps, and teaches about resurrection and the Christ’s lordship.

Jesus is teaching in the temple when the priests, scribes, and elders challenge his authority. He answers with a question about John’s baptism, then tells the people a parable about tenants who kill a vineyard owner’s son. His opponents seek grounds to hand him over to the governor. Questions about taxes and resurrection follow. Jesus then asks how the Christ can be David’s son and Lord, and warns his disciples about scribes who exploit widows.

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1On one of those days, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the Good News, the priests and scribes came to him with the elders.
2They asked him, “Tell us: by what authority do you do these things? Or who is giving you this authority?”
3He answered them, “I also will ask you one question. Tell me:
4the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?”
5They reasoned with themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’
6But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet.”
7They answered that they didn’t know where it was from.
8Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
9He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time.
10At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away empty.
11He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty.
13The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’
14“But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.’
15Then they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them?
16He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others.” When they heard that, they said, “May that never be!”
17But he looked at them and said, “Then what is this that is written, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the chief cornerstone’?
18Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but it will crush whomever it falls on to dust.”
19The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on him that very hour, but they feared the people—for they knew he had spoken this parable against them.
20They watched him and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor.
21They asked him, “Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren’t partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God.
22Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
23But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you test me?
24Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
25He said to them, “Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
26They weren’t able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer and were silent.
27Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection.
28They asked him, “Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man’s brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother.
32Afterward the woman also died.
34Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and are given in marriage.
35But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.
36For they can’t die any more, for they are like the angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.
37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’
38Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.”
39Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you speak well.”
40They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.
41He said to them, “Why do they say that the Christ is David’s son?
42David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,
43until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.”’
44“David therefore calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
45In the hearing of all the people, he said to his disciples,
46“Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts;
47who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Luke 20:17The rejected stone becoming the cornerstone explains why the leaders’ rejection of Jesus cannot overturn God’s purpose.
Luke 20:20The spies’ false appearance of righteousness reveals the intent behind their questions: delivering Jesus to the governor.
Luke 20:42David’s words about his Lord place the Christ above David and frame Jesus’ question about the Messiah’s identity.
Where this chapter reaches

Matthew and Mark recount these disputes over Jesus’ authority, taxes, and resurrection, along with the vineyard parable. The rejected stone and David’s Lord connect Luke’s account to Psalm through direct quotations; Acts also uses these passages to proclaim Jesus’ rejection and exaltation.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does the vineyard parable reveal about the leaders’ response to Jesus and God’s claim on them?

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How does Jesus’ warning about the scribes shape your understanding of trustworthy religious leadership?

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Questions people ask about Luke 20

What does the parable of the tenants mean in Luke 20?

The vineyard owner sends servants and then his beloved son to collect fruit, but the tenants abuse the servants and kill the son. The chief priests and scribes recognize that Jesus is speaking against them. The parable portrays rejection of God’s messengers and Son, followed by judgment and the vineyard’s transfer to others.

Does Luke 20 say there is no marriage in heaven?

Jesus speaks about those who attain the resurrection from the dead: they neither marry nor are given in marriage, and they cannot die anymore. His answer corrects the Sadducees’ assumption that resurrection repeats present arrangements. He does not explain every feature of relationships in the life to come.

Why does Jesus ask how the Christ can be David’s son?

Jesus quotes David calling someone his Lord and describing that Lord seated at God’s right hand. His question exposes the limits of describing the Christ through ancestry alone. The passage does not deny Davidic descent; it places David’s own acknowledgment of a greater Lord before his hearers.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).