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On Saturday I am
going to catch up with some friends that I have not seen in a long time. They are guys who think that it is odd that I
work with a church. ‘Paul’s into Christianity,
he’s a bit square but don’t worry he’s not too weird!’ What worries me is that I don’t think these
guys understand what Christianity is all about and I don’t think they see it as
having any relevance to them.
So, why do your
friends think you go to church? Do they
think that Christianity is just your hobby like golf or cycling might be for
them? Is it something that you are
interested in that they think has no relevance for them?
This morning we
are going to see that following Jesus is far more demanding and universally
relevant than that!
Background
When I began to
prepare a sermon on this text one of the first questions that went through my
mind was ‘why would Mark have chosen to record this incident in his
Gospel?’ As we know Mark carefully
selects his material, so what was so special about this conversation that merits
its inclusion at this point in the story?
To answer such questions we need to see how these verses fit into the
flow of what Mark has been writing.
All through this
gospel we have seen the themes of authority and opposition. We have seen these themes in the passages
leading up this one. At the end of
chapter 11 there are a group of religious leaders who question Jesus about his
authority and Jesus responds to them with the parable of the tenants—which
showed them not giving God what was due to him as they killed his Son.
I think that Mark includes this conversation in his gospel, not primarily because he wants to teach his readers about paying taxes but because he wants to highlight the mounting opposition that will bring Jesus to the cross, because it demonstrates Jesus’ authority, and because it speaks of giving to God what is his due.
Friends
reunited?
Having confronted him themselves the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders now send some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in his words. Can you imagine this assortment of people devising their plan? They think up a clever question that will trap Jesus, getting him in trouble with either the crowds or the authorities! These men will get their way, Jesus will soon be killed, but it won’t be because anyone caught him out!
The Pharisees and the Herodians were an unlikely pairing. The Pharisees were religious purists who would have resented the Roman occupation of the Promised Land. The Herodians were linked to the governor, Herod. Normally these two groups would have despised each other but their common opposition to Jesus unites them. Don’t be surprised, when Christianity comes up in conversation in your workplace, to find people with very different outlooks on life arguing together against you. The authority of Jesus challenges everyone’s self-importance and so it unites people against it.
We first heard
of Pharisees and Herodians as a pairing way back in chapter 3, in
The trap is set
They 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. They are buttering him up. They are trying to give him a false sense of
security. Yet although they are not
sincere their words are true. Jesus was
a man of integrity. Unlike so many of us
– myself included – he would never let himself be intimidated by who it was
that he was addressing. He stuck
faithfully to God’s truth no matter what the situation. What a difference we could make if we were
more like him!
Then comes the
trap: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar
or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we? They want a direct answer on this—a direct
answer that will get him in trouble whatever he says.
If Jesus says
‘no, you should not pay taxes to Caesar, this gentile ruler who is occupying
our land’, then it would be easy for them to portray him to the governing
authorities as a rebel leader. He would
be accused of treason, a crime that received the death penalty.
If Jesus says
‘yes, you should pay your taxes to Caesar’ then he will be isolated from the
crowds. The people gathered in
This question puts Jesus in a dangerous position no matter what his answer is!
At the end of chapter 11 we saw Jesus asking a bunch of his interrogators a difficult question relating to where John the Baptist’s authority came from. Because they feared the crowd they would not say what they thought and gave a rather lame ‘we don’t know!’ Contrast this with how Jesus now deals with the difficult question that is posed to him—his answer literally amazes them (17).
Render unto . .
. what he is due
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 portrait is this?
And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s”,
they replied.
Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is
Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.
This answer is a
very clever reply to a very difficult question—it demonstrates Jesus’ amazing
authority. It also gives us an important
lesson on submitting to authority.
Those of us who
claim to submit to God’s authority in our lives are to pay our taxes. Why?
Because God is Sovereign, he is the one who has established all
governments (even the bad ones) and so we are to be subject to them. We are to practice civil obedience. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13, “Everyone must submit himself to the
governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has
established.” They are to render to
Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Supposing you
need a job done in the house and you call the electrician or plumber. He says to you ‘I can do it cheaper if you
pay in cash and don’t ask for a receipt.’
The idea is that he will not put it through the books, he then doesn’t
pay the VAT that is due, and you will benefit from the tax avoidance. If you take this verse seriously do you think
that you can facilitate this tax evasion?
We might extend
this principle beyond formal taxes. I
heard one preacher talk of a journey that he took with Rico Tice (the writer of
Christianity Explored). When they arrived
at their destination they bought a ticket from a parking-meter. However, their appointment went on longer
than expected and so when they returned to the car Rico went and bought another
ticket. ‘It’s only right’, he explained to his friend, ‘we parked here an extra
thirty minutes. We ought to pay.’[1] He’s right!
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s! We ought to pay our taxes honestly.
I said that these verses were not primarily about paying taxes. While we give to Caesar what is Caesar’s there is something more important that we need to give to someone else—we need to give to God what is God’s. You might be squeaky clean with the Island Revenue and yet be guilty of the most serious of all tax evasions—you have not given God what his due.
What does it
mean to give to God what is God’s?
Well in the
context of the message that Jesus preaches, it means that we are to repent and believe the God news (
It means to be
different to the tenants in the parable.
They resisted God’s rightful authority.
They showed that resistance by opposing his Son. If you haven’t submitted your life to the
authority of Jesus then you aren’t giving God what is God’s.
If we have
submitted to his authority in our lives then we ought to be asking ‘am I giving
him all of my life for all of my life belongs to him?’ Is he at the centre of our ambitions, is he
the one who determines how we form relationships, and do we seek to honour him
in all the mundane things of life—like how we pay our taxes?
Copyright note:
All
Scripture quotations taken from the HOLY BIBLE,
NEW
INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright
© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission.
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