“Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”

From their perspective, it had been one thing when Jesus had been stirring up trouble out in the villages and countryside – but now that He is doing so in the temple itself, as if He Himself was Lord over the temple, is another thing altogether.

“Everything God’s love had resolved to do in response to our rebellion was expressed in Jesus Christ.”

In other words, one last time, before they enter the Holy City, Jesus tries to set His disciples straight about what is to happen and what it will mean for them.
And then Jesus begins the parable proper: “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.” Now, right there is something everyone listening would have immediately understood, something “ripped from the headlines,” so to speak. You see, this idea of a nobleman going to a far country to receive a kingdom was not a fiction, but an event which had actually happened in the living memory of those around Jesus.

“Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” The first thing Jesus wants us to understand about the impossible becoming possible regarding who can be saved is that it begins to become possible the moment we give up on our false saviors, and confess to Him our helplessness, confess to Him our true infant-like need for Him.