Luke 20:19-26
hear the word of the Lord from
Luke chapter 20, beginning at verse 19. The scribes and the
chief priest sought to lay hands on Jesus at that very hour, for
they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but
they feared the people. So they watched him and sent
spies who pretended to be sincere that they might catch him in
something he said so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction
of the governor. So they asked him, Teacher, we
know that you speak and teach rightly and you show no partiality,
but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute
to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness
and he said to them, show me a denarius whose likeness and
inscription does it have? They said, Caesars. He said to
them, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesars. and
to God the things that are God’s. And they were not able in the
presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling
at his answer, they became silent. Pray with me. Lord, we come into your house
this day weary, we come hungry, and we know that you can provide
rest for our souls and food for the great pilgrim journey that
we all travel towards the heavenly city. And so strengthen us and
feed us that we might be mighty in God to do the work and to
live the calling which you have placed upon each of us in Jesus
our Savior. And it’s in his name we pray,
amen. You may be seated. You’ve probably heard the saying,
the enemy of my enemy is my friend. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
And this is certainly true in our passage today. We have strange
allies. We have the Herodians and the
Pharisees. Now in Luke’s gospel, you don’t
get the distinction of the Herodians, those who loved Rome and their
occupation of Palestine. The Herodians, because they loved
Herod. You have also the other side of this alliance, the Pharisees. Those who loved Israel, loved
her religion, her nationality, and in fact hated Rome. So you
see these strange allies. Now you find the distinction
in Matthew and Mark, but not in Luke. Luke must have assumed
his audience did not care of the distinction, but I think
it’s a rather important one to bring out. You have two enemies. who in ordinary circumstances
could not have been any different. In fact, the Herodians would
have been considered what we would call liberal and the Pharisees
would be what we would consider conservative. And you could probably
assign those names politically and religiously. Though they
never agreed on anything, they do agree on one thing. And that
one thing on which they agree is that Jesus must go. They hate Jesus and they want
him dead. But they’ve got to be careful.
They’ve got to be careful for the people love Jesus. They love
his teaching. They love his ministry. He has
healed diseases. He has made the lame to walk,
the blind to see. He has opened up withered hands. He’s given people hope and honor.
They respect him and they love him. But notice what verses 19
and 20 tell us in chapter 20 of Luke, the scribes, The chief
priest, they sought to lay hands on Jesus at that very hour for
they perceived that he had told this parable. That’s the parable
of the tenants, the unfaithful tenants of the grape vineyard we looked
at a couple of weeks ago. They perceived he had told this
parable against them. They feared the people. They
watched him. They sent spies who pretended
to be sincere that they might catch him in something he said,
so as to deliver him up to the authority and the jurisdiction
of the governor. These people are full of hatred. They are murderous and they are
seeking to lay hands on Jesus. And they’re mixing politics and
religion in order to trap Jesus. The politics would be Rome is
occupying Palestine. They have for some many decades. The Jewish nationalists hate
it. We’re the people of God. We’re
the nation of God. God is our king. We had a great
nation under David. Great one under Solomon. We lost
that under the exile to Babylon. The remnant have returned and
rebuilt, and for some 400 years or so, they have lived in the
promised land, and they despise Roman occupation, but there are
the Herodians who love Roman occupation. The streets get paved
every two years. The streetlights don’t burn out.
There’s a pay telephone on every corner, and you get the idea.
The benefits of big Rome government surely do bless with infrastructure
and political things, but there are those loyalists who hate
it. And so there’s politics. But
there’s also religion. The Pharisees have a man-made
religion, an outward righteousness. They have all their rules. They
have their respect. They have their honor. They get
called rabbi in the street. They pray their prayers out loud.
They give alms to the poor publicly. And Jesus has turned upside down. He has turned upside down their
religious system as he has entered the city, as he has cleansed
the temple, and as he has made it known very publicly that he
is the king, he is the Messiah, he is the high priest, and he
is the prophet, and he is the one of whom the scriptures have
spoken. And so they seek to trap Jesus. as they mix politics and religion. And you can imagine their all
night scheming. All of what we have considered
the past several weeks has taken place during what we call Holy
Week. Maybe it’s about Wednesday. And
you can imagine on Tuesday night, there was lots of coffee. There
was lots of hand rubbing. There were lots of maniacal laughs. We’re going to get him. We’ve
got him this time. We will catch Jesus and the Romans
will put him to death for an insurrection. Well, we’ll ask
him a question and we’ll ask him a question that he has to
answer and whatever way he answers it, he’s going to be caught.
It’s sort of like that typical lawyer question. When did you
stop beating your wife? You know, It assumes that you
are beating your wife and it assumes if you yes, no, whatever,
you’re stuck. Well, they try to get Jesus in
one of these tough questions, but first they butter him up. They butter him up with flattery.
They say to him, if you look at verse 21, teacher, to give him the title that he
deserves. We know that you speak and teach
rightly and that you show no partiality, but truly you teach
the way of God. They butter him up. They’re going
to see if he’s disloyal to the Romans or if he’s going to sell
out the Jewish religion. They butter him up with this
flattery and they ask him the question we find in verse 22. Is it lawful for us to give tribute
to Caesar or not? Now, this was a loaded question.
Some of you, I’m in the middle of it. We’ll pay our taxes and
what about a month? What does it say? We spend about
the first five months of the year working to pay our taxes
than the rest of the seven months or hours now with the spending
bill that was just passed. I think I read where they spent
$41,000 per taxpayer. So we’re just up to here and
generations to come. We’ll pay for what has just been
approved and will soon be spent. I’m sure. But a third of an Israelite’s
income went to the Roman tax authorities. A third of their
income went to pay their poll tax. It was a bitter subject.
And on top of that, if they were a faithful Israelite, they gave
their tithes and their offerings to the temple. But this was a
bitter subject, not only because of taxes and the heavy burden
financially, but they had a pagan emperor. You either pay up or you’re disloyal.
You pay up or the tax man will come. Now, the other side of
this coin, the religious side of the coin, the Jews were a
chosen nation. The God was their Lord and their King, and they
did not want to be ruled by an outside pagan, even Gentile authority. But notice the question. Notice
that very loaded word. Is it lawful? Is it lawful for
a Jew to pay taxes to a pagan emperor? And what’s implied here,
you may not catch it, but it’s implied in Jesus’ answer. There
is an image on the coin of a Caesar. And that image on a coin goes
against the Jewish belief, even the Christian belief in the second
commandment. You shall not have a graven image. You shall not bow down to it,
nor shall you worship it. And so as they seek to stamp
out Jesus popularity or even more his life, they are hoping
and praying and even scheming for a revolt. A revolt would
do nicely. You can imagine their thinking
in their minds. They would love for Jesus to answer this question
by saying, look here, I am king. Look here, I am the Messiah.
Look here, I am the eternal son of David. And this throne in
Jerusalem must be established. by one of the children and offspring
of David. And so, Romans, you clear out.
Romans, you move on. Emperors have no rule here, but
I, the King of the Jews, have rule and authority. They would
have loved for such a revolt. They would have loved for such
an insurrection. But as we know, Jesus is wise. And our passage tells us Jesus
perceives what is in their hearts. He knows what they’re up to.
And he answers their question with a question. Now, remember
the tension here. Jesus has entered their city.
Jesus has entered their temple. Jesus is now proclaiming himself
to be king. He is proclaiming himself to
be priest. swept the temple clean, he’s emptied the money changers,
he has showed his authority and he’s just spoken to them the
parable of the wicked tenants and the leaders, the scribes,
the Sanhedrin, they all know Jesus has their number. Now, this is not a small event. Remember several weeks ago, we
said, this is like a Friday fight night in this corner, Satan,
and in this corner, Jesus Christ, the eternal battle of the seeds
that was promised in Genesis chapter three. Remember when
Adam and Eve fell into sin and God called Adam and Eve and Satan
into his presence. And he said, you have done this,
you have done this, and you have done this. So this and that,
and this and that will happen. And he promised that the offspring
of Eve, Jesus, would have this perpetual battle against one
another that would only end at the last day. And so this is
one of the battles, one of the skirmishes in the cosmic battle
of the seed of Eve versus the seed of the serpent. We might
remember some of the other skirmishes when Jesus was born. For example,
Herod sought the Christ child that he might kill him, that
he might put him to death, that there would be no salvation through
Jesus. And so Herod’s hatred and murderous
thoughts are again on display. Or how about Satan in the wilderness? When Jesus was there 40 days,
40 nights, no food, Satan didn’t go to minister to him. He went
to tempt him. The kingdoms can be yours. Tell
these stones to become bread. Jump from this mountain and command
the angels of God save you. And Jesus continues in these
battles against Satan. It’s the cosmic battle of seed
versus seed here in another skirmish. But Holy Week has ramped things
up. Things are tense. And Jesus now
battles against the Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers. They
come with hypocrisy, pretending to be righteous, pretending to
love the teaching of the Lord Jesus. And we know the answer
to the ultimate question, who wins? Jesus always wins. That’s how the book of Revelation
ends, isn’t it? Jesus wins. He wins the great
cosmic battle. He crushes the serpent’s head,
but here Jesus wins. And the people marvel at his
answer and they become silent. But what was his answer? His
answer to their question was a question, show me a Daenerys.
Show me a penny, pull out a pocket coin. Whose likeness, whose inscription
does it have? The simple answer, Caesar’s.
Then render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God, the things
that belong to God. What a easy answer Jesus gives,
but certainly loaded with implications. Loaded with implications for
our view of politics, but loaded also with implications for our
view of religion. There are lots of famous political
statements that we know, we hear them and we know exactly what
they were, who said them and when they were said. For example,
we know that Abraham Lincoln and his famous Gettysburg Address
spoke of the government of the people, the government by the
people, the government for the people. Or I think, was it Kennedy
who said, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you
can do for your country. And probably even more famous
than those two statements and any others we could conjure up
in our memories would be Jesus’ political statement, give to
Caesar that which is Caesar’s, April 15th. We know tax day is
coming. And everybody knows this universal
scriptural proverb, we render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Well, the answer Jesus pulls
from his. dubious attackers as a simple
one. Give me a coin. It’s got Caesar’s
face on one side. On the other side, it has a picture
of Caesar in his robes with his crown sitting on a throne. And
the inscription Jesus asked about says this, Tiberius Caesar, son
of divine Augustus. Oh, you see here, don’t you?
The mix of politics and religion. Is Jesus the King of Kings? Is
Jesus the Lord of Lords? Is Jesus the Messiah? Is Jesus
the God of the universe? Or is it Caesar and those who
rule under him in Palestine? You see, they think, they believe
that Jesus is caught in a trap. He’s caught in a corner. And
what does Jesus say? It’s his. It’s got his face on
it. It has his likeness on it. It
has his motto on it. It’s a coin from his realm. It’s a coin of his reign. It’s
a coin under his sovereignty. And so do what? Give it back
to him. It’s his. It’s not mine. It’s
his. Render to Caesar that which is
Caesar’s. And so we submit to Jesus’ teaching
here. We understand from the book of
Romans chapter 13, verses one through seven, we understand
that it is our duty as Christians to submit to rulers, to submit
to governors, to submit to authorities, mayors and councils and towns
and laws and statutes. A few months ago, we were asked
by our city to take down our banners. We’ve got all this road
frontage out here and these banners afforded us the opportunity to
advertise who we are and the most recent set of banners which
we had out front on this road frontage and that said we’ve
been standing on the Bible since 1782 and had the website linked
to our denomination. We thought that would be a catchy
thing for people to look into. We put it on a green background.
We got a, I call them a nasty gram. We got a letter in the
mail that says you can’t do that anymore. So we complied. We took
them down. Um, And we can’t have those signs. We stuck them back up thinking,
well, maybe we could get away with it. And we got another little
visit. And so we apologized. We submitted
to Caesar. We took our banners down. Maybe
Lord willing, with a permit, they could go back up because
they’re useful and effective. But as a church, where would
we be in our gospel witness? as Christians, individuals, but
also as a collective church, if we were not obedient citizens.
Christians throughout the centuries have made the best citizens.
They’re obedient. They’re peaceful. They pray for
their king. They honor the king. We remember
from Romans chapter 13, our job, our duty, from Christ is to submit
to those in authority over us. It may be the elders of the church.
It may be parents in the home. But in Romans 13, he speaks of
governors and he says they are from God and they are a terror
to evildoers and they give approval to those who do what is right.
Do not resist them, Paul says, for they are God’s servant for
your good. We don’t, live across the pond,
but some of you are familiar with the way language is used
for government officials in Britain, for example, there are ministers
of this, ministers of that, there is the prime minister. And that’s
a word we often associate with the church. For example, I am
a minister of word and sacrament, but they see that word in the
ancient way, the ancient language, even the biblical way that those
who are in governing seats of authority are ministers. They
are ministers. They are God’s servant for your
good. And so Paul goes on in Romans
chapter 13 to say, pay your taxes, respect and honor those in authority
over you. And how unexpected that message
must have been in Paul’s letter to the Romans, who lived under
an emperor who was a tyrant, who lived under an emperor who
was unkind to Christians, lived under an emperor who ultimately
would destroy Jerusalem again in AD 70. Who lived under an
emperor who would very soon take off the head of the apostle Paul. It’s an unexpected command. It’s
an unexpected way for us as Christians to serve and to live. Yet it
is the Christian way. Now let’s have a little perspective
here. This is Romans we’re speaking of. This is Luke’s gospel we’re
thinking of. This is the first century we’re thinking of, but
think about other places in today’s world where it is difficult to
be a Christian because of the government. Ted provides for
me a copy of Voice of the Martyr. Some of you probably read literature
that lets you know how other Christians are faring under various
governments around the world. Some of you have lived and experienced
this firsthand. We live in a country that until
recently was very tolerant of Christianity. It is increasingly
becoming untrue. We still can live and worship
and practice our religion and raise our families the way God
calls us. But that freedom seems to be
threatened and in grave danger. But other places around the world
today are hostile to Christianity. We have to be thankful for the
blessings we have that we can live, worship and serve God as
he requires of us. And Jesus’ words and teaching
here are very timely, are they not? For we’re living in a culture
where in the last year, in the last year, in fact, a year ago,
I think it was, we were told you cannot have church. You cannot
have worship. You cannot have public gatherings.
I believe we missed eight weeks of church last year. It was a
strange time. I hope it’s a time we will never
experience again. But thank the Lord, there were
a handful of churches in Winston-Salem. They took a lawsuit against our
governor, and that lawsuit was won. We’ve been able since Mother’s
Day or so, I think, to gather. We’ve been worshiping about a
year. There are still churches in our community that have not
worshiped God together in quite some time. So you see, this is
a very relevant teaching for us. When do we fear God? above the civil government. You remember the apostles in
the book of Acts, they said, we must obey God rather than
men. And so we must take care not
to live immorally at the command of a King. We must take care
not to have other gods, including a Caesar instead of Jesus as
our King. We must take care that we do
not let others rule our conscience. But yes, as Christians, we must
fear the king, honor him, pray for him, and live as Christians
citizens. But notice the second part of
Jesus’ statement. Usually the first part is all
that we hear about. Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. And we make our jokes about death
and taxes and all the rest. But Jesus brings a more binding
statement. to Christians. When he says,
yes, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but render the things which are
God’s to God. You see, there is a difference
between God who is supreme and Caesar who is temporal. One is the maker of heaven and
earth. One is the one who gives scepters of authority and seats
of position. And the other rules under Christ,
for Christ, a servant of Christ. And too often we get these mixed
up. We make the government supreme and we put God over here. And that’s exactly what this
world would like. But we must remember, as many
Christians have over the last year. It doesn’t matter what
the government says. We must worship God. We must
remember the Sabbath day. We must keep it holy. We must
gather together as God’s people. Yes, being safe and careful and
not spreading disease and being wise, of course, but we must
worship God. You tell Christians not to gather
on Sunday. You tell Christians not to feast
upon the means of grace. You tell Christians the market
day of the soul is closed. And you’ve shut down Christianity.
Oh, we can hole up in our houses and we can read our Bibles and
listen to podcasts, but it’s not the same as gathering together
as the Lord’s people in the Lord’s house on the Lord’s day. And so we must remember in our
minds who is supreme. and who is temporal. I forget
how the story is told or who it’s about, but there’s a story
told of an emperor in ancient days. The first act this man
did as king after being coronated is he went to the marble yard
and he selected a headstone and on that stone was etched his
name and it was to be a reminder to him that you will return to
the earth. But friends, God never dies.
God is owed glory and worship. We are to worship our God, to
sing praises to his name. We are to bless him for his goodness,
his graces, and his actions. We are to praise him for his
character. We are to obey him and serve him. We are to resist
the devil. We are to know the scriptures.
We are to walk in his ways. This is very well summed up,
I believe, in the book of Deuteronomy. Fear the Lord. Love the Lord,
walk in his ways and keep his statutes. Render to God the things
that are God’s. Now hidden in this passage is
a little surprise for you. When these tricksters ask Jesus
this question, should we pay our Roman taxes? And Jesus says,
show me a denarius, show me its inscription and its image. And
on The coin is the image of their emperor. Give it to him. His image is on that coin and
you give him what is owed. But whose image do we bear? We
bear the image of the one who created us. We bear the image
of the one who sustains our very lives. And we bear the image
of the son who came into this world, who lived, obeyed, suffered,
and died in our place. And when he calls us out of this
world, when he calls us into his marvelous kingdom of light,
one of the great blessings and benefits of being a Christian
is he is conforming us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so one of our duties as a
Christian is, yes, to pay our taxes. Yes, to serve and honor
the king and pray for him. But even greater a duty we have
as a Christian is to render unto God the things that are God’s.
And if we bear his image, our whole life is his and we owe
it back to him. Pray with me. Our Lord, we give you thanks
for our great high and wonderful calling to be your children,
to bear your image, to be messengers of the work of reconciliation
that is ongoing in Jesus Christ throughout this world. And we
pray that we would be model citizens of this earth. While we are passing
through, let us be like the Israelites in Babylon and build houses,
raise families, work and serve and be good neighbors. But remind
us also of our greater citizenship the one which is from above,
the heavenly city, and we bear the image not of the emperor,
but of the king of kings. And so, Lord, let us serve you
well in our daily living. Let today be a great day of training
and strength for the work which you call us to do. Hear us, help
us, and bless us as we desire to live up to this high calling.
We ask it in Christ’s name, amen.