Jesus on Politics
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Mark 12:13-17
Mark 12:13-17
Jesus is in Jerusalem - It is the Tuesday of passion week and the Sanhedrin, the high council of the Jews, have been debating with Jesus.
The Sanhedrin are enraged at the parable of the wicked tenants which they understood to be about them and they have now exited the scene, they were too afraid to lay hands on Jesus because they saw how popular he was.
Though the Sanhedrin have departed - but they’re not done yet as we will see.
In chapter 12 we see three seperate groups come to Jesus to question Him - first the Pharisees and the Herodians (13-17) then the Sadducees (18-27) and then a scribe (28-34).
VERSE 13
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
The ‘they’ in verse 13 clearly refers to the Sanhedrin. They ‘aposteileined’ the Pharisees and Herodians to try and trap Jesus in His talk.
Agreuo - hapax legomena. A bear trap kind of thing.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 27.30 ἀγρεύω; παγιδεύω; θηρεύω
ἀγρεύω; παγιδεύω; θηρεύω: (figurative extensions of meaning of terms meaning literally ‘to hunt, to trap,’ not occurring in the NT) to acquire information about an error or fault, with the purpose of causing harm or trouble—‘to trap, to catch off guard, to catch in a mistake.’
The unlikely union between the Pharisees and the Herodians - The Pharisees were religious clerics, the Herodians were statesmen. The Pharisees hated Roman rule, the Herodians saw it as a way of gaining power. These two groups had one thing in common - their hatred of Jesus! Often we will see unlikely alliances between opposing groups who unite against Christianity because of their shared hatred of Christ.
VERSE 14
14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?”
Their aim was to get Jesus to say something controversial - to get Him to align with one side of the political spectrum or the other by throwing him a hot potato of a political question; should we pay taxes or not? It was one of those questions that neatly divided the population at the time - a fault line kind of question.
If he answered ‘yes, pay’ then the Pharisees and the Zealots and many of the Jews would denounce him as a turncoat for denying the sovreignty of the nation of Israel and siding with Rome. If he answered ‘no, don’t pay’ then the Herodians would have ratted him out to the Romans as a political activist.
What they were trying to do was to attack Jesus’s popularity with the crowd. That was what the Sanhedrin wanted to do - to divide opinion about Jesus, to find any way to get people to hate Him. If they couldn’t attack Him head on then they would do it indirectly.
This is the enemy’s tactic today with the Church - to attack indirectly through stirring up a political tempest which neatly divides Christian from non Christian and then by applying incredible pressure on Christians to either assimilate or face ridicule.
And notice how they use flattery in order to try and manipulate Jesus!
Flattery - excessive and insincere praise, given especially to further one's own interests. - Oxford Dictionary
Of course He sees right through it - but what they say is true nontheless. It’s not that Jesus didn’t care about anyones opinion, but rather that he wasn’t swayed by their opinions.
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
It’s also true that Jesus truly taught the way of God. If you want to know about God then look to Christ!
3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
They were using flattery in order to try and get Jesus to let his guard down and make a mistake. Always be careful of excessive praise!
i. Charles Spurgeon said to pastors, “It is always best not to know, nor wish to know, what is being said about you, either by friends or foes. Those who praise us are probably as much mistaken as those who abuse us.”
VERSE 15
15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”
Jesus knows when false teachers praise Him hypocritically.
He asks for a Denarius to be brought to Him. Why a Denarius? Because it’s most likely that the controverisal tax in question was the poll tax, which was made law by the Romans in 6AD and was a Denarius (roughly a days wages).
A denarius was a Roman silver coin bearing the semi-divine bust of Tiberius Caesar (a.d. 14–37) with an abbreviated Latin inscription, Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus (“Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus”). The reverse side bore an image of Tiberius’s mother Livia and the inscription, Pontifex Maximus (“High Priest”).
Pontifex Maximus is now the title which the Pope takes to himself.
Jesus was the true son of God, Jesus was the true hight priest!
The coin itself was blasphemous - let alone the goverment represented by it. The Roman empire did not tolerate dissent or protest - the emperor Varus once crucified 2000 Jews all at once in 4BC.
VERSE 16
16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
And yet - Jesus looking at the image eikon of Caesar on the coin says render unto caesar the things that are caesars. He affirms that the Jews ought to pay their taxes. He affirmed the validity of human government - even corrupt human government, and that it ought to be respected and obeyed as far as possible.
11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Political authority is given by God.
20 Daniel answered and said:
“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
to whom belong wisdom and might.
21 He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
Human government has it’s place and it’s function - because the Jews were earning and spending Roman money within the Roman empire, they were in a sense reliant on that system and therefore the tax was legitimate.
Paul wrote this to Christians who were under the rule of the Emperor Nero!
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
And yet - Jesus’s words also place a restriction on the power and reach of earthly goverment. Render to God the things that are God’s.
“This answer is full of consummate wisdom. It establishes the limits, regulates the rights, and distinguishes the jurisdiction of the two empires of heaven and earth.” (Clarke)
When asked what he thought the greatest threat to the west was, theologian Francis Shaeffer immediately responded ‘My greatest concern is stateism’. Not the state itself, but statism.
statism noun a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs.
Jesus says ‘give Caesar his money - but don’t give him your soul. That belongs to God.’
What Jesus said was very clever - that Greek word Eikon which we translate image is used else in the Bible. It’s the same word used in the Septuagint in Genesis 1:27
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
So what things belong to God? All those things which bear His inscription - which bear His image, all humanity!
Augustine: We are God’s money. But we are like coins that have wandered away from the treasury. What was once stamped upon us has been worn down by our wandering. The One who restamps his image upon us is the One who first formed us. He himself seeks his own coin, as Caesar sought his coin. It is in this sense that he says, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” to Caesar his coins, to God your very selves. Tractate on John 40.9.
We are to obey and submit to earthly government in all that we can, but not up to the point where earthly governemt restricts our giving of ourselves to God as He has commanded. At that point we are commanded to obey God and not man.
And they marvelled at Him!
Render yourself to God - to Christ.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”