Passing the Test

Prayer

Careful with Our Words

Have you ever heard of the phrase, “Coach-speak”? It’s a phrase used to capture how head coaches often speak to the media.

Refers to fact that everyone knows that coaches generally don’t speak as openly and honestly as the reporters would like them to.

Instead, they employ “coachspeak” where they speak in platitudes, maybe they hint at a few things, but they don’t really tell you some of the things you might want to know. There’s certain things coaches want to keep in the locker room, amongst the team. So you end up having to read between the lines see if you can figure out exactly what the inside scoop is.

We see the same thing with politicians - want to keep everybody happy, so they speak out of both sides of their mouth. Or they “spin” a topic, they twist the situation so that it reflects better on them and their political party while denigrating the other side.

We know this, so we tend not to take what most politicians say at face value - because we generally don’t believe that they are speaking openly, honestly. In fact, we use it to describe someone who we think is not telling us what they really think…we’d say they’re being political.

Of course, it’s easy to be cynical about all those politicians, but they simply reflect way we tend to be careful with way we speak. I certainly am very conscious of that - I weigh my words carefully when a conversation moves into controversial or sensitive topics.

We’re wary about how we might offend others, or cause conflict - how those words might be used against us somehow.

Especially today in our world of social media, where comments posted online don’t go away - once they are out there, it’s really hard to get rid of them.

You see stories where things that people posted years ago on Facebook or Twitter come back to haunt them - because somebody decided to scour through all their old tweets to find dirt on them.

Which is why wisdom is often shared with young people - be careful what you post because colleges and businesses are going to look at your social media and that might cause you trouble later.

Though it seems exacerbated by social media, this is nothing new. It was a challenge that Jesus faced constantly - his words, what he said, was constantly being scrutinized, tested.

We’re in the thick of our sermon series, “We Would See Jesus”, taking a look at various stories in the Gospels to get a better look at who Jesus is. Our goal is see Jesus more clearly - and as we do so, that we would be more enthralled with who he is, and it would spur in us a deeper desire to know and become like him. Because Jesus is absolutely worth paying attention to.

Just to recap what we’ve done so far: We’ve looked at Jesus’ presence with us in all situations (story of Jesus walking on water), his abundant goodness (story of Jesus at wedding turning water into wine). In the story of the feeding of the 5,000 we saw his compassion and care for us, how beautifully he provides for us, and last week, his power and authority revealed in his teaching and command over evil spirits.

Today we’re going to look at how Jesus speaks - why we can fully trust him because not only does Jesus speak openly and honestly and plainly (no coachspeak with Jesus - and he certainly doesn’t play politics), but we can trust because he knows exactly what he’s talking about - he is, without a doubt, the smartest person ever.

Jesus Tested

We’re going to be in the Gospel of Luke, looking at a story that takes place in Jerusalem in the final week of Jesus’ life, shortly before he is crucified. Tension is building, as the religious leaders are determined to “get” Jesus. They want to use his own words against him, to trap him.

Jesus doesn’t have a Twitter account, so they can’t scour through old tweets. They have to do this in front of crowd, get him to say something controversial in front of witnesses so they can bring charges against him. Which is exactly what they are doing here. Luke 20:20-26:

Keeping a close watch on him, they (that is, the teachers of the law and the chief priests) sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. 25 He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.

So, here’s the situation: Jesus is in temple courts area, there are people all around, and Jesus is teaching. Religious leaders have been plotting and planning on how to get Jesus. So they send spies to ask seemingly sincere questions.

And this is one of those situations where the “enemy of my enemy is my friend.” So you have religious leaders from different factions working together to get Jesus, that’s how badly they wanted him gone. Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians are willing to work together.

Think about this for a moment, these are smart people - these are the very best Judaism has to offer, the leaders, those who teach Jews how to be good Jews. They have been putting a lot of time and effort in this, figuring out exactly the best way to trap Jesus. I bet they had hours and hours debating and deliberating the question.

This past week, I was substituting at Poca Middle, and one of the kids posed a question to me. It was a trick question, I knew it - he had a tissue that had a hole ripped in it and he asked me if I thought he could poke his head through the hole.

But I wasn’t quick enough on my feet, I knew there was a trick, but still I said “no”. So instead of actually sticking his entire head through the hole in the tissue, he sticks his finger through the hole in the tissue and pokes his head with his finger. He got me.

Jesus is facing a much, much harder challenge than that. Here’s the trap the Jewish leaders came up with - frankly, it’s brilliant:

First, you’ll notice how they butter Jesus up. They lay flattery on thick - “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”

This a great move, all part of the trap. They’re hemming Jesus in. “Jesus you speak what’s right. You don’t hem or haw. You don’t play politics. You tell it like it is, the truth. That’s what makes you such a great teacher.”

It’s absolutely true that Jesus does this. But they aren’t saying this because they’re so impressed with Jesus’ teaching (otherwise, they’d be living in obedience to it, listening to him!). They’re saying this so he doesn’t try to avoid an answer. Do some coachspeak. They’re giving him a yes or no question and they want him to answer one way or another - it’s essential to the trap.

Then they hit him with the question: “Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

Now this was a hugely controversial issue. So much so that it was the basis of a Jewish riot twenty years earlier that the Romans had to send in troops to quell. Faithful Jews resented the fact that they had to pay taxes to their Roman occupiers.

What made it even worse was that some coins - as we’ll see - were minted with the image of Caesar on them. It wasn’t just that Caesar’s image was printed on it, but the inscription as well: “Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus, chief priest.” The Jews didn’t have images of people on their coins, this was against the 2nd commandment of “no graven images.”

So, to have to pay Roman taxes, and then to deal with currency that had image of Caesar on it that referred to his divinity - very unpopular among the Jewish population.

So if Jesus said, Yes it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, he would lose the favor of the crowd. He would be seen as a traitor to Jews, unfaithful to the one true God.

On the other hand, if Jesus said no, it wasn’t right to pay taxes, then he’s encouraging seditious behavior. They could grab him and bring him before the Roman governor in Jerusalem, make charges against him.

See how good a trap it is? I mean, they got ‘em. They can’t imagine that Jesus is going to be able to get out of this one.

You can bet that the tension in the crowd is growing - they know Jesus is in a tight spot here. What is Jesus going to do? Let’s look at his response.

I love this little note here in verse 23…Jesus saw through their duplicity. He knows. Jesus knows their hearts, their intent. Jesus is not naive or gullible. Not only does he know what they’re up to, he knows how to deal with this seemingly impossible trick question.

First thing is that he asks them to show him a denarius. What does that force them to do? To pull out a denarius, to demonstrate that they themselves use this coins. They have them on their person. That’s a little awkward, if they’re questioning him on whether it’s right or not.

Then Jesus turns the tables. They wanted to be able to use his words against them, now he will use their words against them. So he asks them whose image and inscription is on it. Like we just described, it’s Caesar’s.

There’s no other way to answer this question. There’s only one image and one inscription. By responding “Caesar’s” they are acknowledging that the coins belong to Caesar. He made them. He had them minted, under his authority, with his name and image on them. If they belong to Caesar, then give them to Caesar. And that’s exactly what he tells them to do, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.

Then Jesus really lowers boom, because the other issue is still hanging in the air - what about God? Isn’t he the one true God? Aren’t we supposed to be faithful to him? Isn’t he above all other gods - and we’re to be devoted to him first and foremost?

Of course. Give to God what belongs to God. What belongs to God? What bears his image? Where is his name imprinted? On us. We belong to God. Every good Jew would have known this - it’s right there in Genesis 1, So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We bear the image of God, every single one of us. His name is imprinted on us. God, the Holy One, Creator of Heaven and Earth - we belong to him. So give Caesar his coins. But give yourself to God. You belong to him.

Boom! Jesus is so good. He’s so smart. The best minds of that time all conspiring against him - they’ve had the luxury of time, to plot and plan this all out. Jesus, right there, on the spot, in front of this whole crowd of people - I mean, he doesn’t have the time to say wait - let me get back to you on that one, I’d need to think about it. No, the pressure’s on - and right then and there, he outsmarts them all.

The concluding statement says it all - “And they were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public.” They couldn’t do it. Best and brightest of the Jewish religious leaders, they’d been plotting and planning, they thought they’d come up with an airtight plan, unbeatable. But they underestimated Jesus. He is smartest person ever. No one comes close.

Here’s the thing - Jesus spoke openly. He didn’t hide what he was teaching. And he taught a lot. Always plenty of people listening to what he was saying. In all that time, with everything he taught, no matter how many traps they set, no matter how many trick questions they brought to him - just to be clear, this wasn’t the only time they tried to trap Jesus - they were constantly trying trick questions. But in all that time, through all that teaching and all those trick questions, they could not “get” Jesus.

In the end, when Jesus was on trial before the Sanhedrin, they had to resort to lying, they had to bribe false witnesses to lie about him and what he said in their testimony (and then even that didn’t work because they contradicted each other).

Think about what that says about Jesus, and how brilliant he is. Is there anybody whose public statements could stand up to such scrutiny? Is there anybody who could teach openly, plainly, say exactly what they believe to be true - and you couldn’t find something wrong with it, something to get them on?

Listen again to the every last verse of the story: “And astonished by his answer, they became silent.” Which seems to me to be the appropriate response. Remember that old ad campaign…”When EF Hutton talks, people listen”? It seems to be that the height of wisdom is, when Jesus talks, listen. Be quiet and listen. Pay attention.

In contrast to the Pharisees and other religious leaders - who were closed. Filled up with their own “wisdom.” They knew better. They were only listening to Jesus to try to catch him, to trap him - not with a readiness to listen, obey.

But they did have one right about Jesus - we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

And that’s exactly what Jesus does - he speaks the truth. He teaches what is right. No tricks. Never manipulates. He simply lays it out to us, with an invitation to come, follow him. To attend the master class on life under the master himself.

So, how do we put this into practice? If Jesus is indeed the smartest person ever - and teaches the way of God in accordance with the truth, how do we become people who listen to his teaching and put it into practice? This is where the Spiritual Disciplines come in. We become students of Jesus, his apprentices, looking to him to teach us how to live. Two options - one very specific, the other more general:

Make a point of getting involved in our Spiritual Formation Group as we make our way through 1 Corinthians on Wednesday nights. Even if you can’t make it every Wednesday, come as you can. Our goal is not just to focus on the content, to learn the information, but to hear Jesus speaking to us, teaching us - to open our minds and hearts to be shaped and formed by him. We want to know the Bible, the information - but even more than that, we want to be transformed by God’s Word (one of our core values, Heart Transformation). So, that’s one soul training exercise you can engage in.

Second is a little more general - to make the Discipline of Study a regular part of your weekly walk with Jesus. To study in order to learn to think like Jesus. Study the Bible. I use a Bible reading plan that takes me through the New Testament in a year. For every book it includes a Bible Project video, an overview of that book. This year I’m using the Message translation, next year I’ll go back to the NIV. Read good books by thoughtful authors (C.S. Lewis, Dallas Willard, John Ortberg, John Eldredge, Philip Yancey…). Breakpoint (email subscription, podcasts - help you develop a Christian worldview, our next sermon series). What are you doing to think more like Jesus? How are you engaging in the Discipline of study?

Inspiration - I heard a great way to describe the difference between knowledge and wisdom: knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in your fruit salad.

We have a world filled with knowledge, we know and understand more about how the things work than ever before - technological advances, medicine, way mind works, it’s amazing.

And it’s so easy to access, so much of it is right at our fingertips. And yet it seems to me that we are devoid of wisdom. We don’t know how to live rightly. In God’s way.

This is exactly what Jesus wants to teach you - wisdom. How to live. There is no better life than to live in the way of Jesus. I’m absolutely convinced of that (though I resist it at times). Jesus knows exactly how we are to live.

To love God with all of who we are - including loving him with our minds - is to seek to learn from Jesus, the smartest being ever. My hope and prayer is that you’ll make that a commitment of your life.