This post is available on You Tube if you’d rather listen than read 🙂 https://youtu.be/Obo5HyKYmWA?si=Nm_Teeb8sFSlJvW2

Luke 20:20-26  This is a short passage and a great read.  Take a look here: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2020%3A20-26&version=NLT

As subjects of the Roman empire, the Jewish authorities were allowed to enforce some of their own laws and hold their own courts.  But they were limited in their power and definitely didn’t have authority to execute anyone.  Their interactions with Jesus were getting less and less civil, and they were eager to get rid of him, but they had to be careful to avoid Rome’s displeasure. They also wanted to avoid looking like bad guys to Jesus’ growing crowd of admirers.  A near perfect scenario would be for Jesus to get into trouble with Rome.  Then the Roman authorities would get him out of their hair while they kept their hands and noses clean.

So they planted spies in the crowd to try to trick Jesus into suggesting his followers should disobey Rome.  As we have already seen with Zacchaeus, paying taxes was not something people liked to do. If I’m being real, I don’t love it myself. It was especially frustrating because the taxes supported an oppressive regime that honoured different customs and worshipped other gods.  Remember, many people still expected Jesus to rise up and overthrow Rome.  If that was his plan, this question from the crowd was a gentle toss over home plate that Jesus could barely avoid hitting out of the park. 

But that was never the plan.  I need to stop and present a somewhat controversial but extremely defensible opinion here.  Jesus was not political.  He lived under an incredibly corrupt and tyrannical government and he never tried to undermine them.  The only authorities with whom he took exception were the religious ones.  Jesus just was not concerned with worldly authority.  Forgive me, but he wasn’t marching against Rome’s moral bankruptcy. He wasn’t even fighting for justice for those persecuted by Herod, or mistreated by Pilate.  I can find no evidence that Jesus even suggested that the way to godly living was in any way related to government policies and processes.  Jesus’ concern was for the heart of each individual.  Moral reform was something that happened in hearts that understood their own depravity and asked him for healing and restoration.  Morality is not something that can be legislated into a society.  The only way a society can be reformed is if individuals within it allow the grace of Jesus to give them access to the love of the Father and respond with lives of gratitude and adoration. When people who know they are deeply and personally loved by a God who owes them nothing but gives them everything simply because he wants to, interact with their fellow humans in response to that love, that’s when lives and whole societies are changed.  And when that happens, no government, no empire, no chaotic despotic ruler on earth can stop it.  There, I said it.  Moving on. 

Not only does the question entirely fail to bait Jesus into speaking out against Rome, it gives him one more opportunity to appeal to his audience, reminding them that they are God’s and should surrender their lives to him willingly.  You don’t have to research this passage long to bump into multiple commentators who will remind you that human beings were created in the image of God.  When Jesus asked for a coin it was to point out that Caesar’s image and inscription were clearly marked on it. Money was made and controlled by the state.  As a result they had the right to require that citizens gave it back to them.  To Jesus this was unimportant.  It was Caesar’s money. Give it to him.  What does God want us to do with our money? Use it to pay what we owe.  But Jesus goes a step further.  What is God really concerned with?  He is concerned with his people.  He doesn’t need our money, but he wants our hearts.  In the same way that they were to pay to Caesar what already bore his image, they were to give to God what bears his image.  It’s interesting too, because in Jewish law every first born creature was to be given to God.  The firstborn animals were brought to the Temple as sacrifices to provide for the priests.  Firstborn people were redeemed by paying a set amount into the Temple offerings.  But Jesus, as he so often did, suggested that the law didn’t go far enough.  Every person, not just the firstborn, bears God’s image and therefore, belongs to God.  When he said, give to God what is God’s, he meant you. Offer yourself to God.  Live for him in ways that bring him glory.  Do it, not out of obligation, but because you understand who he is and that he loves you.  Give yourself to God. Do things that honour him simply because you just really want to make him smile.