A Study of the Book of Luke
Sermon # 56
“It’s A Question of Ownership!”
Luke 20:20-26
Someone once said, “While there are just two certainties in life: death and taxes, at least death doesn’t get worse every time Congress is in session!”
“A man on vacation was strolling along outside his hotel in Acapulco, enjoying the sunny Mexican weather. Suddenly, he was attracted by the screams of a woman kneeling in front of a child. The man knew enough Spanish to determine that the boy had swallowed a coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and an American quarter dropped to the sidewalk. “Oh, thank you sir!” cried the woman. “You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctor?” “No, ma’am,” replied the man. “I’m with the United States Internal Revenue Service.” [Bits & Pieces, March 31, 1994, p. 5. www.bible.org/illus/t/t ]
Having to pay taxes has never been popular. Taxes are not a voluntary contribution. To fail to pay one’s taxes, or to pay less than one should is a sure way to get the attention of the government, and to discover just how strong they feel about our payment of taxes. The payment of taxes is a very pragmatic matter, for governments do not run without money, tax money. But paying one’s taxes is also a symbolic act, evidencing his or her submission to the one that is paid. Paying taxes is thus a practical acknowledgment of that government’s right to rule over us, and of our submission to its authority.
Remember the old saying, “politics makes strange bedfellows,” well that is certainly the case in Luke 20. Jesus had answered the challenge of the Jewish leadership about his authority to cleanse the temple and teach in the temple (v. 2), first with an embarrassing question concerning where John the Baptist got his authority (v. 3) and then with a parable (vv. 9-16). According to verse nineteen they were so infuriated that they would have arrested Jesus on the spot had; they not been hindered by the crowd in the temple. They decided then and there to trap Jesus somehow into condemning himself with his own words. Verse twenty reveals, “So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, that they might seize on His words, in order to deliver Him to the power and the authority of the governor.”
The religious leadership of Israel formed a conspiracy against Jesus, according to Mark 12:13 it was the Herodians and the Pharisees who formed a coalition. There could hardly be a more unlikely partnership. “The Pharisees represented cautious resistance to Rome, the Herodians wholesale accommodation. But they were cemented together by their mutual hatred for Jesus. The Pharisees hated him because he was disrupting their religious agenda, the Herodians because he threatened their political arrange-ments” [R. Kent Hughes. Luke: That You Might Know. Vol II. (Wheaton:Illinois, Crossway Books, 1998) pp. 263.]
Today it would be like the ACLU and the
Moral Majority or Rush Limbaugh and Gloria Steinheim getting together to fight a common cause. About the only thing the Pharisees and Herodians did agree on was the Jesus had to go.
In verse twenty-one we read, “Then they asked Him, saying, "Teacher, we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth:”
When they came to Him, they came with a deceitful flattery. What a bunch of hypocrites! They no more believed that Jesus “taught the way of God in truth” than they believed the moon was made of green cheese. Flattery is the reverse mirror-image of gossip. “Gossip involves saying behind a person’s back what you would never say to his face. Flattery is saying to a person’s face what you would say behind his back.” [R. Kent Hughes. p. 256]
After these spies thought they had laid the ground work with sufficient flattery, they posed their question in verse twenty-two, “Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"
There were three basic types of taxes in Israel at this time; (1) a land tax (1/10th of all grains or 1/5th of all fruit or wine);(2) a custom tax (collected at ports and city gates – rates were 2 to 5% of the value of the goods) and; (3) a poll or tribute tax - (paid by everyone between the ages of 14-65, when a census was taken – just for the privilege being alive). [Life Application Bible Commentary. Luke. (Wheaton, Illinois, Tyndale House, 1997) pp. 456-457] (Don’t tell the U.S. government about that last one – they could get ideas.) Some have speculated that Roman taxes totaled over 1/3 of a person’s income.
In this passage Jesus teaches two profoundly important truths.
First, Jesus Taught The Believer’s Obligations To the State (vv. 23-25)
Jesus was not fooled by them or taken in by their flattery. He looked beyond their hypocrisy and saw their evil intent. Verse twenty-three, “But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test Me? (24) Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription does it have?" They answered and said, "Caesar’s."
Jesus asked these religious leaders for a coin, but he specifically asked them for a Denarius. The Denarius was a small silver coin that had the value of one day’s wages. The reason that Jesus asks for the Denarius is more evident in Matthew’s account (22:19), “Show me the coin used for paying the tax?” You can almost see one of the men without thinking reach into his robe and pull out one of these little silver coins. I think there is a touch of humor in this. He first of all embarrassed his challengers in that it is they not he who are carrying the offensive coin. In using the coinage they had tacitly accepted Caesar’s rule.
He then asked them. Who owns this coin? Who gives value to it? Who did you get it from? Who’s image in on this coin? The answer of course was Caesar. And then Jesus said in verse twenty-five, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."
Jesus tells them, “This is really not that complicated, give back to the one you got it from. It’s not yours. It was provided for your use, but it really belongs to Caesar. So give it back. It’s that simple”
I think that Jesus is also recognizing something important here. These Jews benefited from Roman rule, they used the system of Roman roads, and the peace that came with along with the Roman army. Jesus is saying that those who enjoy Caesar’s benefits should pay Caesar’s taxes.
What do we owe human government? Is there an obligation there? Jesus says there is!
A Christian’s civic duties can be wrapped up into just three things.
1. Pay - God calls on us as Christians to be good citizens. We need to pay our taxes, we enjoy the benefits, we should pay our share.
2. Pray (1 Tim 2:1-2) “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”
3. Obey. In Romans 13:1-7, Paul expands on the words of Jesus, this teaching is so important that it has helped to shape the world as we know it today. Paul sets out the general principle in verse one of Romans 13 when he says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” In these verses Paul tells us that we are to submit to human government, even pagan governments, so long as they do not try to cause us to violate the Word of God. God has placed governments on the earth to restrain sin until He comes. We are to obey government, not as an enemy of God, but as the agent of God.
Secondly, Jesus Taught The Believer’s Obligations To the God (v. 25)
But just as the denarius was Caesar’s coinage, Man is God’s coinage. The coin belonged to Caesar because it bore his image, and we are God’s because we bear his image. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.” Because we bear His image we then owe God what belongs to him; our lives and our allegiance. The Greek word for image here is (eikon) it is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) when it translates the verse from Genesis that I just read to you telling the story of how God created man in His own image. We are literally the eikon of God.
Look once again at what Jesus said in verse
twenty-five, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." I want to close by asking you. What do you have today that belongs to God? Are you holding on to your time? Do you really think it’s yours? Perhaps God is saying to you today, "I want time with you. I want to know you personally, intimately." Perhaps God is calling you to make a commitment this day to faithfully block out time for Him daily.
Are you holding on to God’s tithe, mistakenly thinking that it’s not really His, but yours? Are you robbing God? That’s what Micah the prophet calls it (Micah 3:8). God cannot bless those who are stealing from Him. Perhaps He is speaking to your heart today, calling you to give up what doesn’t belong to you, but belongs to Him. He only does so in order to bless you. God has promised to pour out an abundant blessing upon those who obey Him in the matter of the tithe. Obey Him today. Begin to tithe today.
Perhaps you’re holding on to the talents and abilities God has given you. Perhaps you’re sitting back, unwilling to really get involved, unwilling to really commit to participate fully in the life of the church. Perhaps the Lord is speaking to you today to get involved, to get committed, to report for duty. If God is speaking to you about what you owe Him, be obedient today. Bring your account up to date. It is our duty to do so.
Verse twenty-six gives us how this confrontation ended, “But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marveled at His answer and kept silent.”
When they could not refute what he had said they went away in silence.
