Mark 12:13 Then they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Him in order to trap Him in a statement. 14 They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? 15 “Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at.” 16 They brought one. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” And they said to Him, “Caesar’s.” 17 And Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they were amazed at Him.
If you have been following this series, you will see that my last post covered through 11:19. I’ve skipped over 11:20-26, since I have written about faith recently, and have confessed that I don’t understand a lot. “Faith to move mountains” is difficult, and I have more ideas about what it doesn’t mean than what it does. I also skipped over 11:27-33, because we addressed the subject of Jesus authority recently. I also skipped over 12:1-11, a parable which dramatically illustrates the rejection of Jesus, a theme that reoccurs often in all the Gospels. By skipping these in my comments, I do not want to imply that they are not worth reading and meditating on.
Our current text, Mark 12:13-17, is very clear about the motivation of the leaders who come to Jesus: “in order to trap Him.” Jesus responded perfectly. We don’t respond perfectly. And the Enemy may gain victories by us when we speak carelessly. We should watch what we say. Proverbs seems to have a few things to say about this.
They begin with flattery - 4 lines in an ABBA pattern. The 1st and 4th lines and mention “truthful/true”; lines 2 and 3 are two negatives: “defer to no one” and “not partial to any.” What they say is true, but they say it for the purpose of flattery and manipulation. Again, we should be careful when this happens to us, and we should make sure that we don’t do it ourselves (sincere compliments only).
“Is it lawful?” seems to cover both what is legal and what is ethical. But if it does, they are not both the same. Is it legal for a Jewish man in covenant with God to pay a poll-tax to a Gentile authority? Is it ethical? We know that the law prohibits things that are, at least at times, ethical. And also, the law allows things that are clearly not ethical. It makes this question difficult to answer.
Jesus addresses neither the legal aspect or the ethical. He addresses the theological. He always has a view of God and what God is doing. These leaders have far more earthly concerns. Jesus asks about the image on a coin, issued by the Roman government. Yes, it has Caesar’s image. The question does not sound theological, except that it uses a highly theological word: image.
Jesus responds, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” He could have stopped the sentence halfway through. But He doesn’t. He goes on to say, “and (render) to God the things that are God’s.” He quickly dispatches the first question to answer the question they should have asked - what do we owe God? To push the metaphor ever further, it is not what we are to pay to God, as though we were even capable of paying some kind of divine tax. In the illustration, we are not tax-payers, but actually coins minted under the authority of God and thus we bear the image of our Creator/King.
We are to spend and be spent for Him. We are a currency that may be useful in facilitating the fame and worth of God “on earth, as (He) is in heaven.”
Take a coin from your pocket or purse and rub it between your fingers. Think about that coin, what it represents and how it serves. What can we learn about how to conduct ourselves in this world?
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