When have you been blessed by someone else’s exercise of authority? When have you seen authority misused or abused? Contrast these experiences aloud with your group. What makes for good or bad uses of authority?

Read Luke 20:1-8. Why is Jesus’ question difficult for his opponents? What does it reveal about the way they understand authority?

Read Luke 20:9-18. When the villains in the story are brought to justice, how do the religious leaders respond (v16)? Why would anyone protest justice being served to murderous villains in a make-believe story!? What was Jesus revealing about the religious leaders’ own authority?

In Luke 20:42-43. Jesus quotes Psalm 110:1. This Old Testament passage is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other scripture, revealing its great importance. How would you answer the question Jesus asks in v44? And how is it that this passage finds fulfillment in Jesus? (For help, see Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2:32-35)

Jesus warned his disciples against the scribes’ example of leveraging authority for self-serving gain (Luke 20:45-47), and instead set an example of leveraging authority in self-sacrificial servanthood (Luke 22:25-27). In the heightened tensions of this COVID-19 era, how might we be tempted to make grabs for authority or serve ourselves rather than others? What specific choices can we make to follow Jesus’ way of sacrificial love instead?