The answer revealed?

Sometimes I have puzzled over statements, especially in the Gospels, that seem to be purposefully obscure.  Jesus seems downright difficult at times, frustrating his critics and sometimes his followers, too.  For example, in today's Gospel reading from Saint Luke, Jesus turns away the scribes with an abrupt dismissal after a tangled discourse about authority.

"...neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." (St. Luke 20:14)

 For years I treated that as the end of the story.  Maybe it is.  Maybe it isn't.  Immediately following this Saint Luke says "Then he began to speak to the people this parable..."  He turns away the scribes and speaks to the "people."  (Will either party understand him?  Do we?)  What follows of course is the parable of the vineyard.  Here is the answer!  Jesus is the Christ sent by the Lord God to the sinful husbandmen.  Jesus is explaining to everyone what is happening to them in the context of history (God's plan) at that very moment; He is summarizing history; He is expressing the outcome of history.

"Bull of Saint Luke" from the Eglise Saints-Pierre-et-Paul, Rosheim, from Wikimedia Commons used with Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.