The Questions Jesus Asked

Jesus, The Master Teacher

Dr. Butch Entrekin

• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781648955303
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Jesus used questions to develop some of His most profound and meaningful teachings. He also used questions to avoid controversy and confound those who opposed Him. This book examines the various styles of questions the Master Teacher asked to find divine truth found in His answers.

 

Part I:

Rhetorical Style Questions

The rhetorical question is widely utilized as a means of teaching and debate. Christ’s teaching is no exception. The word rhetorical comes from the Latin for rhetoric and refers to the art of speaking and writing effectively. It suggests the idea of effective communication. Christ, arguably the most effective communicator in history, skillfully employs this technique. He asks questions to which the answer is so painfully obvious that the message cannot be misunderstood.

Rhetorical questions generate a point of agreement between the speaker and listener that the speaker can build upon. It could be said that these questions are a form of manipulation. However, a cleaver orator can word his rhetorical questions in such a way that it communicates his point without alerting the listener that they are being manipulated.

This form of question is a productive teaching tool because it appeals to the inquisitive nature of the listener without allowing for the possibility of a wrong conclusion. Part 1 will examine examples of rhetorical questions in Christ’s teaching and explore the truth that can be found through them.

Chapter One

The Rejection of God’s Son

In Matthew 21, Jesus tells the parable of the landowner to illustrate that the world would reject Him as the Messiah. Parables are figurative stories designed to teach a specific truth, but they should never be used as a basis for biblical doctrine because they are simply illustrations. Jesus often used parables in His teaching, and the parable of the landowner is one of the most dramatic stories in the Bible. It has a tragic plot in the Shakespearean style that arouses the emotions of the listener. Then at the end of the narrative, when the listener is totally absorbed in the tragedy, Jesus presents two rhetorical questions to highlight the truth of His teaching. The questions ensure that his message will be understood.

This chapter will first examine the parable to obtain knowledge of the setting, characters, and message. Then the two rhetorical questions will be analyzed to glean the truth that Jesus is teaching.

33“There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey.34 When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35The tenants seized his servant; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. They will respect my son, he said.

38But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, this is the heir. Come let’s kill him and take his inheritance. 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” (Matthew 21:33–39)

This parable contains four different characters or character groups that must be identified. The first is the landowner who spends a great deal of money and effort to plant and develop the vineyard. The farmers or tenants that are leasing the vineyard are the second group. They work the vineyard and pay a portion of the yield back to the landowner as rent. The landowner’s servants are the third group. They are commissioned by the landowner to collect his portion of the fruit. The last character to be introduced in the parable is the landowner’s son. He represents the landowner’s final attempt to convince the tenants to satisfy the terms of their agreement. Each of these characters or groups has an important role in the teaching of the parable.

The landowner is the central character in the parable. He represents great power and influence. He is the lord of the vineyard and has ultimate authority over who will be allowed to cultivate the land. He is presented as a man that demonstrates great patience in His dealings with the tenants. Jesus describes the landowner with this powerful position and long-suffering character for a reason. He wants the listener to associate the landowner with God. This association is critical to the teaching. (It should be noted that there is no disagreement among fundamental Bible scholars that the landowner is representative of God.)

The tenants are clearly the villains of the parable. They are wicked and treacherous in their dealings with the landowner and with all of his representatives. They should have been thankful to the landowner for the opportunity to manage His vineyard. After all, they were mere sharecroppers on his land, completely dependent on his benevolence for their livelihood. They had no rightful claim to the vineyard or to any of its fruit beyond what the landowner offered them. Jesus presents the tenants as selfish and ungrateful, having no respect for the landowner or for his position as the lord of the vineyard.

Since these tenants are the ones entrusted with cultivating the vineyard, we can assume that they are representative of man. This is a reasonable and even obvious conclusion. The tenants live and work in the landowner’s vineyard and have been given the responsibility of making the vineyard fruitful for both their benefit and the landlords. God has entrusted us with authority over His creation (Genesis 1:28), and since the landowner is a picture of God, it only follows that the tenants represent man.

The third group consists of the landowner’s servants. Their duty is to collect the fruit that is owed to the landowner. It is difficult to connect this group to any certain body of people because there is little information given about them and because they represent the landowner himself. It is likely that this group denotes past agents of God. This would include a host of Old Testament saints and prophets that had the responsibility of relating God’s will to the people. Just like the landowner’s servants, these saints and prophets of God were often unaccepted and even persecuted for voicing God’s message.

The landowner’s son is easiest to identify. Since the landowner has already been recognized as God, the landowner’s son must represent God’s Son. The only other information given in the parable concerning the son is that the landowner assumes that the tenants will honor him. This is a natural conclusion since in Jewish culture, the son is assigned the same authority as the father.

Jesus hopes that his listeners will recognize the similarities between Himself and the landowner’s son. This is an extremely important parable because Jesus indirectly reveals Himself as the Messiah. This parable is also significant because it forecasts Christ’s rejection and the death that He will suffer at the hands of the people.

There is much that can be learned about the character of God by the actions of the landowner and by his involvement with the tenants. The landowner is presented as creator of the vineyard, as benefactor to the tenants, and as one that entrusts his possessions to his stewards. The landowner provided a fertile environment for the tenants, but he expected them to bear fruit. Likewise, God created a rich and beautiful world in which we could live and prosper. But He too expects man to bear fruit for His kingdom.

The landowner also displayed tremendous patience and restraint with the tenants. He gave them many opportunities to repent from their treachery and to fulfill the requirements of their agreement. In the same way, God did not give up on man. The Old Testament recounts the stories of prophet after prophet that God sent to urge man to turn back to Him. Then in the New Testament, God finally sent His Son in a last-ditch effort to reach His wayward children.

Just as the tenants would not honor their agreement with the landowner, man has rebelled against every agreement that he has had with God. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they had only one restriction, and yet they would not honor their agreement. Then the Children of Israel were given Ten Commandments, but they rebelled against them. Then God sent prophets to speak on His behalf. But God’s chosen people disregarded the prophets and chose to satisfy their ow...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Part I:
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Part II:
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter 10
• Chapter Eleven
• Chapter Twelve
• Chapter Thirteen
• Chapter Fourteen
• Chapter Fifteen
• Part III:
• Chapter Sixteen
• Chapter Seventeen
• Chapter Eighteen
• Chapter Nineteen
• Chapter Twenty
• Part IV:
• Chapter Twenty-One
• Chapter Twenty-Two
• Chapter Twenty-Three
• Index