Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian
Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in His words. They
sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians.
“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that
you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by
others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is
your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you
trying to trap Me? Show Me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought Him
a denarius, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then He said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to
God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.
Matthew 22:15-22
Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him
in his words. They came to Him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man
of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who
they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it
right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” He
asked. “Bring Me a denarius and let Me look at it.” They brought the coin, and
He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God
what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at Him.
Mark 12:13-17
Keeping a close watch on Him, they sent spies, who pretended to be
sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something He said, so that they might
hand Him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies
questioned Him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and
that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the
truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius.
Whose image and inscription are on it?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God
what is God’s.”
They were unable to trap Him in what He had said there in public. And
astonished by His answer, they became silent.
Luke 20:20-26
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever had someone try to set you up
before?
It’s not a very good experience, especially
if you aren’t able to see what someone is doing before it happens. People have
ended up with lost finances, broken hearts, duped into criminal behavior, or
any number of other unpleasant consequences. Sometimes the deceit comes from
people you aren’t necessarily familiar with but more time than not, it
originates with someone you thought you could trust.
Well, as we look at today’s scripture
passages, an encounter found in three of the four Gospels, we find how a group
of Jewish religious leaders try to set up Jesus and how He turns the tables on
them. Look again at the story from the Gospel of Luke here:
Then
the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in His words. They sent their
disciples to Him along with the Herodians.
“Teacher,”
they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way
of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you
pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it
right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
But
Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to
trap Me? Show Me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought Him a
denarius, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,”
they replied.
Then
He said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is
God’s.”
When
they heard this, they were amazed. So they left Him and went away.
Here we find a scheme hatched by one of
Jesus’ biggest adversaries during His ministry, the Pharisees. They send some
of their disciples, along with the Herodians, to carry out the plans to entrap
Jesus.
Of interest, the Herodians were a group of
Jews who were supporters of Herod and thus Roman sympathizers. This tells us that
not all the Jews were against their oppressors and also lends some background
as to the nature of the scheme that was hatched.
Another point I want to make before I dig
into the actual exchange was that the Jews didn’t want to do the dirty work of
arresting and prosecuting Jesus themselves. Jesus was a Jew and had gained
quite a following among both Jew and Gentile communities. The Pharisees found
it far more appealing to try and pass Jesus off to the Romans to get rid of
Him. In Luke’s account, this is confirmed through these words:
“They hoped to catch
Jesus in something He said, so that they might hand Him over to the power and
authority of the governor.”
How did they plan to hand Jesus over?
They asked Him a loaded question, posing as
if they were trying to gain instruction when they were really trying to set Him
up.
“Teacher,
we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in
accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no
attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to
pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
It was very patronizing at the beginning as
they were trying to butter Jesus up before the question. Often, this happens
when a person is being set up. They are praised or showered with compliments
that really aren’t sincere. It’s just manufactured manipulation before the real
evil intentions are unveiled.
The Pharisee disciples and the Herodians commended
Jesus for His integrity and ability to provide God-centered guidance and
instruction that was grounded in truth. They also praised Him for being
uncompromising in these areas, not prone to being swayed by others.
On the surface, it seemed like they were
being sincere. But it was only the sinister prelude for the wicked question to
come, one they hoped Jesus would answer in a way that would implicate Himself.
As we see in the scripture passage, the
question was around a matter that a majority of the Israelite people despised:
the Roman imperial tax. It was hated by so many that the Pharisee followers and
Herodians wanted to know Jesus’ opinion on the matter. Specifically, they
wanted to know whether or not He thought it was right to pay the tax.
Herein was where they hoped they could trap
Him. If Jesus said He felt the tax should not be paid, then His words would be
used against Him, reported to the Roman authorities who would in turn take
Jesus into custody as an opponent of Caesar and the powerful Empire He ruled
over. This would get Jesus out of the way and the Jewish religious authorities
could work to not only discredit His reputation but reclaim the believers who
shifted from Judaism to Christianity.
It was a brilliant plan at face value but
there was only one problem. Jesus could see right through their dishonesty and
treachery. And so He turned the tables on them, first calling them out before
asking for a coin to use as a demonstration to make His point.
“You hypocrites, why
are you trying to trap Me? Show Me the coin used for paying the tax.”
We read where they handed Jesus a denarius, a silver coin which was worth
about one day’s wages in that day. With the coin in hand, Jesus asked the
Pharisee disciples and Herodians:
“Whose image is this?
And whose inscription?”
To which the men replied:
“Caesar’s.”
And so Jesus provided His answer, one they surely didn’t expect because
it left them in amazement before they departed.
“…give back to Caesar
what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
The Roman coin was not a possession of God.
It had nothing to do with a holy, divine culture. Rather, it came from a culture
that was polytheistic, possibly as anti-God as you were going to be. God had
commanded His people over and over again to not integrate with pagan cultures
but rather to place their trust in Him. He was the hope of His people and would
provide for them, even if every piece of Roman currency was taken away. The
point was that the Israelites should give Caesar what He wanted from what He
had given and not allow themselves to place their focus on him. Rather, they
should center themselves on God and what He wanted from them, obediently doing
as He wished while He provided for their needs.
Jesus had turned the tables on those who
had evil intentions against Him. We can do the same thing is we do what He did,
keep our focus on God, our Father, and trust that He will not only provide what
we need but also protect us from the wicked schemes of others. Through Him, we
too can turn the tables on others who work in the darkness because we are fully
connected to the Light, anchored in this promise from God’s word:
For
nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not
be known and come to light. Luke 8:17 (NKJV)
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
No comments:
Post a Comment