Sermon Tone Analysis

{{{"

*13 *And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.

*14 *And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion.

For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God.

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

Should we pay them, or should we not?” *15 *But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test?

Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”

*16 *And they brought one.

And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

They said to him, “Caesar’s.”

*17 *Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

And they marveled at him.

*18 *And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection.

And they asked him a question, saying, *19 *“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

*20 *There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring.

*21 *And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring.

And the third likewise.

*22 *And the seven left no offspring.

Last of all the woman also died.

*23 *In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be?

For the seven had her as wife.”

*24 *Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? *25 *For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

*26 *And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?

*27 *He is not God of the dead, but of the living.

You are quite wrong.”

*28 *And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” *29 *Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

*30 *And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

*31 *The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no other commandment greater than these.”

*32 *And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher.

You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.

*33 *And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

*34 *And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

}}}

Jesus has entered into Jerusalem with a display of authority.

Unable to deny his authority, the Sanhedrin now try to turn his claim of authority against him.

They come to him, trying to trap him in three areas.

They will try to destroy him by getting him into political trouble.

They will try to discredit him by demonstrating how illogical his teachings are.

And finally they will judge him based on his summary understanding of Old Testament Law.

These are the three attempts made in these verses to undermine Jesus’ claim to authority.

Similar attempts to undermine the authority of Jesus are still made today.

!

JESUS AND POLITICAL AUTHORITY

At the end of our last passage, the representatives of the Sanhedrin left Jesus after failing in their challenge to Jesus and his authority.

Their strategy this time will be to engage him in smaller groups, posing as sincere seekers.

In all three of these episodes, Jesus is referred to as “Teacher.”

Will Jesus be able to back up his authoritative claims?

!! Pharisees and Herodians

The first group we read about are some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians.

The Pharisees, of course, were a group of progressive religious Jews who frequently found themselves in conflict with Jesus.

They were the dominant religious influencers of the day.

The Herodians are a more difficult group to identify, though we’ve seen them work in collaboration with the Pharisees before (Mark 3:6) in opposition to Jesus.

Our best guess is that they are loyal supporters of the Herod family which continued to rule in Galilee but no longer held authority over Judea.

That district was now under direct Roman rule, creating a political situation that these Pharisees and Herodians think they might be able to use as leverage against Jesus and his claim to divine authority.

!! “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”

They have come to Jesus with a question, but we know it is not a sincere question.

Mark tells us they had come “to trap him in his talk” (v.

13).

They are hoping to catch Jesus in an unguarded moment, saying something they will be able to use against him.

They begin not with the question but with flattery.

“Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion.

For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God” (v.

14).

This is a tactic commonly used to this day.

The voice recorders are rolling as these Pharisees and Herodians try to get Jesus to feel safe and comfortable around them.

They want him to think they are on his side.

But Jesus “knew their hypocrisy” (v.

15) and turns the tables back against them.

Their question is simple: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

Should we pay them, or should we not?”

The tax to which they are referring is the dreaded census tax.

It was basically a property tax, first imposed in A.D. 6, and served as the cause of a Jewish revolt in that same year.

The revolt was quickly stomped out, but the controversy about the tax remained and would inspire a final revolt that would end with the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

For faithful Jews, the census tax was an offense to their religious principles.

Paying it was viewed as breaking allegiance to God because the Roman emperor was making absolute claim over the people and their possessions, something only God had a right to do.

The payment for the tax was made with the denarius, a Roman silver coin with the image of Tiberius Caesar on one side and the words /Pontifex Maximus /(“High Priest”) on the other.

So when Jesus is asked if it is /lawful/ to pay taxes to Caesar, it is being suggested to him that by paying this tax one might be sinning against God.

This was a political hot-button issue of the day, and the Pharisees and Herodians want Jesus to take a stand on one side or the other.

They are confident that he cannot help but incriminate himself here.

They expect that he will deny Rome’s right to the tax, and this will lead to his arrest by the local authorities.

Luke tells us that “they watched him and sent spies . . .

that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor” (Luke 20:20).

And if somehow he tries to wiggle out of this one, it will prove that he cannot be the Messiah.

If his authority cannot stand up to the powerful Romans, then he must not come with the authority of God.

!! Give Caesar (and God) his due

Jesus begins his response by asking his questioners to show him the denarius required for the tax.

And after they admit to him that it is Caesar’s image and inscription on the coin, Jesus concludes, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

It is a brilliant answer, for rather than incriminating himself Mark tells us that the people “marveled at him.”

Jesus’ short answer to the question is simply, yes, one ought to pay the census tax.

The question he had been asked was whether or not one ought to pay, or literally “give,” the tax money to Caesar.

Jesus’ answer is that there was an /obligation /to pay the tax.

The word /render/ means to fulfill a contractual obligation.

These Roman coins literally have Caesar’s name on them, so they belong to him.

If he wants them back, Jesus says, one must give them back to him.

But Jesus’ answer does not weaken his claim to divine authority because there is much more that he says in response.

Imagine the scene this way.

Jesus looks up at his inquisitors and tells them, “Pay back to Caesar that which belongs to him.”

But as they prepare to walk away he says, “And also, pay back to /God /what belongs to /him/.”

In other words there is no conflict between submitting to the Roman authority and submitting to God.

Caesar may lay claim on one’s coins, but God lays claim on one’s life.

God demands much more from you than a denarius.

!! Two conclusions

We can draw at least two conclusions from this encounter between Jesus, the Pharisees, and the Herodians.