“Amid all the apocalyptic rhetoric, what Jesus is basically telling His disciples is that when they see these things begin to come to pass, they are to be unafraid, they are to be lifted up by hope, and that they are to be prepared by living a life of obedient faith in Christ beforehand.”

The scribes were highly respected, considered to be part of the religious elite – role models for common Israelite. And Jesus tells the crowd that what they really are – are religious frauds.

“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.