I’m thinking of at least two things that can compromise our quality of life:
Money is a touchy subject in any age. It was especially so in Jesus’ time; the Roman Empire taxed its subjected people groups heavily. Being an enemy power, the fact that they were extracting resources from people who were already poor in order to fund their occupying regime was infuriating. And here’s the problem: It’s easy to take on a posture of resentment – and that’s no way to live. Think of a time when your demeanor was dominated by resentment. That’s not a good spiritual disposition to have. It was in this context that Jesus was facing hostility from people who wanted to kill Him (Mark 11:18). They instigated some religious opponents to entrap Him with His words (12:13), who asked Him if the Jewish law allowed people to pay the imperial tax. “Should we pay it or should we not?” was their question (in 12:15). And they were thinking, if He answers yes, then He’ll alienate His following. People will desert Him, since they resent the Roman Empire. But if He answers no, then He’s instigating a rebellion – and since He’s leading a religious movement, the Romans will probably want to kill Him. How did Jesus handle it? In a Bible study a couple weeks ago, Chris Lombardi challenged us to focus on the questions Jesus asked. Jesus doesn’t want us to be robots, being spoon-fed answers line by line. He wants people to think. In this case, it’s interesting that He didn’t give some kind of dissertation for an answer. Instead, He pointed to the Roman coin in question and asked about the pictures that were on it (12:16). This led to His famous dictum: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s” (12:17). What’s lost in the popular understanding is how much of a challenge this was to everyone – and especially the two groups that were trying to entrap Jesus (identified in 12:13). The Pharisees were famous for their hypocrisy (cf. Matthew 23:1-39) – which would’ve been all the more apparent if they were the ones that produced the coin. There were several different kinds of currency floating around at the time, and no one was forcing them to use the Roman type. The fact that they had it would indicate they were willing to reap the economic benefits of that system even if they opposed the tax. The other group was the Herodians. Their ranks included the Sadducean priests, who held their positions in the temple by collusion with the Roman empire. It gave them some measure of prestige – so their ultimate motivation was greed. Jesus’ message, then, to both groups was essentially this: If you are carrying this kind of coin, you can see who it belongs to. Hand it over; don’t let your greed hold you back. But the bigger emphasis was the last part of His statement: Render unto God what is God’s. It reminds me of David’s prayer in I Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.” What is there that does not belong to God? He’s the proper owner of everything. And the less inclined we are to hold anything back, the more we stand to be used by Him – including being freed from things that would compromise us while we walk this earth. God bless you, Pastor Andrew McHenry - First Congregational Church of Oroville
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Andrew McHenryI am a husband, a Congregational pastor, and a native Kansan currently living in Thermalito, California. In the past I have also been a prison chaplain and a youth pastor. Interests include reading, railroads, prog rock, KU, and the KC Royals. Archives
March 2024
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