WWUTT 2476 Render to God What Belongs to God (Luke 20:19-26)

The scribes and the Pharisees tried to get Jesus in a catch -22. They tried to ask him a question that would get him in trouble with the Roman governor. But Jesus turned the question right back around on them when we understand the text.

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Luke 20 and the Trap Set for Jesus

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Luke, we continue on in chapter 20. We get to this account where Jesus talks about paying taxes to Caesar. Do you know of the exchange I'm referring to?

Let's read it here in Luke 20 verses 19 to 26. Hear the word of the Lord. The scribes and the chief priests 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 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 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 gods.

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. Now, in addition to this question that Jesus asked, there's another question he doesn't explicitly ask, but is implied.

And I'll reveal what that question is in a moment, though, if you've heard my lessons on this same exchange out of Mark's gospel and Matthew's, then you already know where I'm going with this. But we come once again to Luke's account of this exchange between Jesus and the scribes and the chief priests concerning rendering tribute to Caesar.

So in verse 19, once again, the scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on Jesus, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them. What parable is that? So the parable that we read on Wednesday last week was the parable of the wicked tenants.

There was a man who owned a vineyard, and he lent it out to tenants while he went into another country for a long while. And then he wanted servants to come and bring the fruit from those tenants, the fruit of the vineyard, that he may enjoy the fruit that was grown there.

Exactly what the tenants were supposed to do, but now they needed to share its produce with the one who owned the field. But they refused to do so, and they beat the servants and sent them away. The man who planted the vineyard eventually sends his own son.

But they say, this is the heir. We can kill him, and we will receive everything for ourselves. The inheritance will be ours. So when the owner of the vineyard comes back, what will he do to them? And we read in verse 16 that he will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.

And those who were listening to this parable said, surely not. But Jesus quoted the scriptures and said, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces.

And when it falls on anyone, it will crush him. So it's that very parable that the scribes and the chief priests now hate Jesus for because they perceive that he had told this parable against them. That's not really deep or insightful.

Of course Jesus had said this parable against them. But they were unable to seize Jesus and do anything with him because they feared the.

People.

Now, the Romans would have given them leeway to do what they wanted to do with Jesus, or at least turning them over to the Romans so that the Romans would take care of whatever punishment needed to be doled out on him.

But it was because the scribes and the chief priests feared the people that they did nothing. Meaning what? Well, the people really liked Jesus. They are there in the temple listening to him teach. And so if they would have seized Jesus and said, hey, this guy is trouble and we're going to go take care of this, well, it just would have incited the people against them.

This man does miracles. He's healed our diseases. He's even fed us food. Why would we want you to do something with this guy? So they need to find another opportunity. They need to find another way to get Jesus, since if they were to apprehend him in the presence of the people, they would lose the favor with the people.

And the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees and the chief priests, they wanted the love and admiration of the people. They were jealous of Jesus because of how much the people loved him. They were the big man on campus, the big men on campus until Jesus showed up.

Everybody was going to them for an understanding of what the scriptures say, for an understanding of the law and how we must live in order to gain the favor of God and have eternal life. It used to be they would go to the Sadducees and the Pharisees to get all of that knowledge, all of that information.

But now the people are sitting there at Jesus' feet. He's in the temple itself, the temple area, teaching these things, and the people are listening to him. The scribes and chief priests are incensed.

Jesus is even saying things against them with regards to that parable that he had just told. But if they were to seize him now, they would lose the people, which is exactly what they wanted to have for themselves.

They wanted the people's love and admiration, so they couldn't do anything to jeopardize.

That.

Instead, is there something else we could do to possibly catch him? So they watched him and sent spies, it says in verse 20, who pretended to be sincere. That's such a great definition of hypocrisy right there, people who pretend to be sincere.

I was driving home from church on Sunday night, and on Sunday evening, my son asked me, Dad, what is hypocrisy? And I said, well, like I've taught in my Bible class. He's in a Bible class that I teach at a Christian school.

I have two of my kids in that class. And in that class, I said, hypocrisy is like wearing a mask. So you present to people one thing, but then behind the mask, you're acting like someone.

Else.

That's literally what the word means. You would call an actor on a stage who wore a mask a hypocrite. And so Jesus uses that same word to refer to these people who present one thing to the people, but then behind the mask, they act like something else.

They pretend to be sincere, but in their hearts, they are calculating and malicious and scheming as they are doing right here. So pretending to be sincere, but not really. Now, as I gave that definition to my son, he said, I thought hypocrisy was when you tell somebody not to do something, you see somebody doing something wrong, and so you call them out on it.

You say, don't do that. It's wrong. But in the meantime, you go and do the thing that you just said to somebody else is wrong. And I said, yeah, that is also hypocrisy. That would be hypocrisy in action.

So it's a person who pretends to be sincere. They pretend that they know the moral good that you should do. And I know better. So I'm telling you the right way that you should go. But in the meantime, they aren't sincere because they themselves don't do the very thing that they say.

So that's exactly a hypocrite. And here you have these scribes and chief priests trying to catch Jesus in something he said. They're going to pretend to be admirers of his. They're going to pretend that they are in awe of him, just like this crowd is.

So they're going to come up and ask Jesus a question. They're going to appear as good faith actors. People are going to think we're asking this question in good faith, but we're actually asking this question to get him to say something that will get him into trouble.

They asked him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? Now, previously, when the scribes and the chief priests were asking Jesus, by what authority do you do these things?

Jesus refused to answer their question. Instead, he asked them a question in return. You answer me this question, and then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. This was at the beginning of Luke 20.

And he said to them, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Now, Jesus has flipped the question. They've asked him a question. Where do you get your authority from? Jesus asked them this question.

And that's a question that he asks in such a way that it's going to get the people to want to know the answer to this. When they hear Jesus ask this, they're going, oh, that's a good question. I'd like to know that too.

Do these chief priests and scribes think that John's baptism came from heaven or from man? That was very, very important to the people. And if they could not answer this question, it was going to look pretty suspicious to the people.

Because again, the chief priests and the scribes want the favor of the people. And they all believe that the baptism of John was from heaven. They even acknowledge that as they're kind of talking amongst themselves, trying to decide what it is that they should answer to Jesus.

And they settle on, we don't know. So previously, Jesus would not answer their question. Instead, turns it around and ask them a question that the people would be even more interested.

In.

And it puts the chief priests and the scribes in the spot of having to respond. When they don't respond, Jesus doesn't answer their question in return. But here, he can't continue to play that and be able to keep the attention of the people.

The people at some point are going to get suspicious of like, well, why won't he answer those questions? So in this particular case, he doesn't avoid answering the question, but he still answers the question with a question, just like before.

He asked them a question to make them answer and come up with a response that from their own mouths will undo the scheming thing that they're trying to do. What sort of answer are they hoping that Jesus will give?

So again, looking at verse 20, let me read all of that and then the question that they ask up through verse 22. So they pretend to be sincere that they might catch him in something that he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

Who's that?

The governor is, of course, of Rome. And that would be in this particular case, Pontius Pilate, whom Jesus would stand before in just a few days, but not now. Now was not his time. So they asked him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Now, they don't really believe that because, again, they are pretending to be sincere, but they don't really think this about Jesus. Now, some of them did. I think of Nicodemus in particular, when Nicodemus came in the cover of night and had a conversation with Jesus at the start of John three, he said to Jesus, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him.

And Nicodemus was probably sincere in that particular statement. I still think he was sent by the Pharisees, so he's spying, though he may not have shared the same motivation that the other Pharisees shared, but he's still there to glean certain things from Jesus and then be able to report on what this man believes and teaches here in this particular instance.

They are saying what they say in the presence of the people so that they will have the favor of the people. Jesus conversation with Nicodemus is not in the presence of a lot of people. It was being done in the cover of night.

This was even Nicodemus not wanting to be seen by others in having this exchange with Jesus. But here are the scribes and the chief priests asking this of Jesus in broad daylight and appearing to be sincere with their question.

So they say of him, is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? And he perceived their craftiness and said to them, show me a denarius. So again, they want Jesus to be delivered up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

So they're asking this question. They say, we know you speak and teach rightly. You show no partiality. You truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? Now, this question is really going to backfire on them.

They don't think that's going to happen, but it really backfires because they think they're going to be asking Jesus a question that will have one of two outcomes. Either Jesus will say, no, you don't have to give tribute to Caesar, which would be in the favor of the people, but it would not be in the favor of Rome.

So Rome would arrest Jesus as someone who is trying to mount an insurrection. He's trying to encourage people to rebel against Rome. So they're going to seize Jesus and put him to death and show the people, see, this is what happens when you want to question or go against Rome.

So if that's Jesus response in the favor of the people, then the Romans will arrest him and destroy him. And boom, the scribes and the chief priests will have won. If Jesus answers, yeah, you got to pay your taxes to Caesar.

Yes, you have to give tribute to Caesar. If that's the way that he answers, well, then the people are not going to like him very much.

Why?

Because they think this is their Messiah. Remember, they were just following him through town just a day before with the triumphal entry. They think he is going to ascend to the throne and release Israel from the tyranny of Rome.

But here he is telling the people they have to give tribute to Caesar. That's not what we expect of our Messiah. You can't possibly be the one. Then Jesus falls out of favor with the people and the chief priests and the scribes will have won.

So that's what they're hoping. They think they have the perfect question here. Jesus can't win no matter how he answers. But again, in verse 23, he perceives their craftiness and he says to them, show me a denarius, which is a coin.

And for a lot of people, it was basically a day's wage. So someone trusts Jesus with a day's wage and gives him a denarius. And he says, whose likeness and inscription does it have? And they said Caesar's.

Now, it not only had Caesar's likeness on it, but also his inscription. And one of those inscriptions that were on Caesar's coins was Pontiff Maximus. Pontiff, where have you heard that word before? That's the word that describes the pope, isn't it?

Yeah, the Pontiff, the pope in Rome. There was a time when Caesar was regarded as the Pontiff. The Romans had crowned him with that particular title and not just Pontiff, but he was the highest chief priest Maximus above all.

He was the Pontiff Maximus. So this is a man who is not only the ruler of Rome, but he is therefore their chiefest priest who guides them into all spiritual truth. The Romans regarded Caesar as having a godlike status, even if the Caesar himself did not proclaim himself that way.

The people still perceive Caesar that way. So everything good and right in this life or even the life to come, if there is one, I can only have those things if I honor and glorify Caesar. So even that was on those coins, the very coin that Jesus asks for and says to the people whose likeness and inscription does it have?

Well, it says Caesar's. It even has Caesar's inscription on it, which the Jews would have considered to be blasphemous. Perfect cause for Jesus to now sit there and say, then you must rebel against this.

There's no way that we can give Caesar that kind of honor through this kind of coinage. But that wasn't Jesus' response. He says to them, because this image and inscription is Caesar's, he says, then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

And again, as we read in verse 26, 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. Because I think that they understood the implication of this question, even though Jesus didn't explicitly ask it.

This was what I was alluding to at the very beginning. The question Jesus asked was, whose likeness and inscription does this coin have? Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

What's the implied question? What belongs to God? What's the implied question from there? Whose likeness and inscription is on you? You are to render yourself unto God. The things that belong to Caesar, we'll let him have it.

Because God is ultimately going to judge and burn up Caesar for proclaiming himself to be the Pontiff Maximus. And frankly, the Pope in Rome, same sort of thing. If he does not repent and step down from that seat in which he proclaims to be the vicar of Christ, the judgment of God will surely fall on him just like it fell upon Caesar in Rome.

So the judgment of God will be on that man for proclaiming himself to be the chiefest priest. In the meantime, those things that belong to Caesar, give it to Caesar. Give him tribute, pay taxes as you are supposed to pay taxes.

But you render unto God the things that are God's. Don't you belong to God? Then you must render yourself unto God. Whose likeness and inscription is on you? We have been made in the image of God. So render yourself unto God.

And when you think about that, when you think about what's implied there, even though Jesus doesn't explicitly say it, it is a marvelous answer. This is so brilliant for Jesus to respond in this way. They couldn't catch him in what he said.

Their catch -22 didn't work. Instead, they marveled at his answer and became silent. For many of them, they thought it incredibly profound, probably changed their lives, and they went from that place, rendering themselves unto God.

But there were others present. That answer hardened their hearts, and they hated Jesus all the more. Though they became silent, it was not a silence that led to repentance, but rather a silence in which they would scheme and try to find another way to get him.

Render Yourself to God

My friends, we are made in God's image, and we are made to glorify God. As we read in Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But we are forgiven our sins and made worthy to give him glory by the grace that we have in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and live, and render yourself unto God that you may live for him, turning from sin, walking in righteousness today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read, and I pray that we pick up on this clearly, and that we would walk in your ways, forgive us our sins, and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

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