Next up is Mark 12:13-17. After being questioned by the delegation over his authority, jesus tells the parable of the talents (12:1-12). Following this the authorities send another delegation to him.
13Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, 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 taxes to Caesar or not? 15Should 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." 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?"
"Caesar's," they replied. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.
So then... what do you think, what questions do you have, what may this passage be about, tax evasion or something else? What jumps out, come to mind as you read the passage. I'll be back with my thoughts later!
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7 comments:
The thing that strikes me is that the coins were marked with Caesars image and so belong to him, but we are made in God's image, and so belong to God.
What I don't quite understand is why they (that is, the chief priests, teachers and elders) sent Herodians to Jesus. I thought that Herod was not really the type of person the priests wanted to be involved with.
Herodians - likely to be those in society who enjoyed life under the Romans, so prob no issue with the tak thing at all!
Pharisees - good devout Jews, a coin with the image of the semi-dvine on it, when everyone knows Yahweh is the only God and there are no images of him, is likely to cause offence, as does the whole rule of Rome.
The fact they come together shows the strength of the opposition against Jesus.
But also maybe it is a clever move, if Jesus says pay taxes, the Pharisees say hold on what about your Kingdom of God. If Jesus says don't pay taxes, off to Pilate for stirring trouble!
The aim is to trap Jesus.
So does he avoid falling into the trap? And if so how and why?
This time Jesus seems to have answered the question. He says it is a trap but doesn't he effectively say pay your taxes?
Interesting that they refer only to Roman taxes and not temple taxes - is this important?
The real question for me is to be clear what belongs to God. Preumably Ceasar is in power and has wealth because God allows it. What God wants from us is not our wealth but our hearts and to willingly allow ourselves to be transformed. Is he saying something about duty in the sense of paying taxes because you have to and that is the way of the world versus loving God willingly and not by reason of duty?
This is the second time that elements of the Jewish leadership have come to Jesus with questions. This time, it's the pharisees (conservative theology, nationalist politics) and the herodians (liberal theology, if any, and appeasers of the Roman authorities) who get together: their common interest is to make trouble for Jesus. There is a warning for us here: it is not just the nasty liberals who oppose Jesus but the respectable religious folk with the "right" theological views! Later on, of course, the Sadducees have a pop at Jesus too - Mark 12: 18-27 - so I guess the point is that those from all the factions in the Jewish leadership fail to recognise the Messiah because they are too busy pursuing their own agendas.
There are some common factors in the questions too. None of them seem to be genuine: certainly the temple tax one is not for Mark 12:13 specifically says so. They are just debating points - a way perhaps of escaping Jesus' claims by raising secondary issues or red herrings. And again we can so easily do the same - how many of the arguments within churches are about things that really matter?
Except that these points are not actually red herrings. The deep and bitter here irony is that these are all questions that the questioners themselves should be addressing - in this case, what should the relationship be between the leaders of a Jewish nation under occupation and the occupiers, or for us how should a Christian view the secular state?
Jesus' response is pretty sharp, and off the cuff too. But, as ever, He doesn't give an easy answer but raises more questions. These include - is there a sphere of human activity that belongs to the state, but not to God and over which issues can it be right for Christians to disobey the authorities or, turned another way, if it is legal is it OK to do it?
Read with other scriptures - e.g. Romans 13 and Acts 5:29, I think the general message is that Christians should obey the law, unless that means disobeying God. So, yes, we should pay our taxes, keep within the speed limit and park legally - even if it makes us late for church or personally inconveniences us. These are relatively trivial examples - what about a Government that forbids or controls freedom of worship or outlaws evangelism, as many communist countries did/do? What about a Government that infiltrates or corrupts the church (nazi Germany or apartheid South Africa)? When, if ever, is a Government so evil and so at variance with God's purposes that it is right to seek to overthrow it by force?
This is a familiar passage where we focus on the answer Jesus gave - justifiably so. The answer is so beautifully worded that we would love to be able to give an answer like this in any conversation where we recognise a challenge. But it wasn't this that struck today but the phrase 'And they were amazed at him.'
Why were they amazed? Amazed by his words; the choice of his words; the cleverness of his response; his wisdom: his insightfulness of them; his recognition of the difference between earthly and divine duty; his ability to side-step their trap; that they recognised that words were from God etc. Is there an element of doubt creeping into their own views of who Jesus was?
Interesting that Mark said 'And' they were amazed.
-Interesting point about the offence that a semi divine being might have on the Jews. I hadnt thought of that...
-I guess that feeds into my primary response to this passage: This passage is set against the context of a land which is under subjugation by the Romans and religiously subjugated by the pharisees. And it seems that the two groups are happy to try and get Jesus into troble by seeing if they can get him to offend both groups in some way.
-If Jesus says dont pay your taxes then he is challenging the Roman empire - not a good idea....
-So Jesus simple acknowledges the sovereignty of God and the sovereignty of Ceasar. Obviously any powers and responsibilities Ceasar have been given are delegated by God. But the brilliance of the reply is that ensures that everyone is put in their place: God, Ceasar and the troublemaking pharisees and herodians. (Dont you just love it when Jesus gets one over on the bad guys!!)
-I must confess that I see this to a degree through the lens of sphere sovereignty a concept developed by the neo - calvinist movement (see: http://www.ccojubilee.org/resources/theology/neocal/nc8.html for more info on that)
Jesus said 'Give to God what belongs to God.' I don't think Jesus was in this phrase referring to money. In a different context Jesus makes it clear that we don't owe God taxes ('Of whom do the kings of the earth collect taxes - of their own sons or others? Then their own sons are exempt') Hebrews says (of the faith that pleases God) that 'Anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.' Not that he rewards those who give to him. Paul says 'If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames and have not love, it profits me nothing.' If our giving is not matched by our loving we might as well just spend our cash on ourselves so that at least we will benefit from it. (Surely this is also true of our serving.) God doesn't NEED our meagre financial resources - he has a billion ways of getting done what he needs to do. In the Old Testament God speaks of the rituals and sacrifices that are wearisome and a burden to Him. God is also not interested in our 'good deeds' which are like 'filthy rags' in his sight (if we're trying to impress God with them). What God wants is what belongs to him - our whole lives, our hearts, our worship, our love, our everything. We are his creatures and he is our Creator. Without him - nothing! Incidentally, Jesus did say it is more blessed to give than to receive, and as someone put it recently 'Do your giving while you're living then you're knowing where it's going.'
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