Questions Luke 20.19-26

Why are the scribes and chief priests so suspicious and angry at Jesus (v. 19)?

What is their plan to trap him (v. 20)?

Why do they say what they say to Jesus in v. 21?

What is their strategy in v. 22? Why ask this particular question?

What is the meaning of Jesus’s answer (v. 23-25)?

L: In one sentence, he shakes his head and goes, “That’s a dumb question. It’s so much bigger than that.”

Illustration: Jack asks for something that’s really important to him, but which in the great scheme of things doesn’t matter one bit. So we say, “Of course. Sure. Go ahead.”

What are the “things that are Caesar’s”? What are “the things that are God’s”?

cf. la parabole des vignerons (?)

“Ce qui est à Dieu” : référence à la parabole ? Vous n’êtes que les vignerons de la bi

How do the two things go together?

Why did Jesus’s answer shut them up (v. 26)?

He doesn’t speak more clearly because he wants to train them to think well—to be able to live holy lives NO MATTER WHAT the situation (rather than simply giving us a quick and easy application for this situation in particular).

Zane: In the previous text, and this, and the next, we see the religious leaders breaking themselves against the Cornerstone.

What does Luke want us to understand in this passage?

L: Jesus didn’t come to effect a political change; he didn’t come to change anyone’s present situation. His kingdom is infinitely greater than Rome, and not threatened by any human kingdom.

Zane: In the previous text, and this, and the next, we see the religious leaders breaking themselves against the Cornerstone.

Engagement in the good of our city/country: It is not through social justice that the kingdom of God comes. We fight for justice in the world because God has fought for us; but if we fail in our efforts, God’s kingdom is not impacted in the least.

It is not through social justice that the kingdom of God comes. We fight for justice in the world because God has fought for us; but if we fail in our efforts, God’s kingdom is not impacted in the least.

How does God want us to respond to this passage?

L: Ne mens pas sur ta feuille d’impôts. ;)

How can we help one another respond in this way?

And because God has my heart, when he tells me to love my neighbor, I will love my neighbor. When God tells me to invest in the life and good of the city I live in, I will do that. Everything we do as good citizens of this country, we do for him.

The main point here is that we are residents of earth, citizens of heaven. Aliens and strangers. We submit to our authorities, paying taxes where we ought and obeying laws that are established. And we will do it for HIM. For his glory.

cf. , , ,

Ex. Kids in school. One of the main goals of the French school system is to make children into good French citizens. To instill the values of France into them. (La charte de laïcité à la maternelle de Jack.) One of those values is a laïcité (in principle a good thing...)* so extreme that speaking about your faith is either outmoded, awkward or not allowed. I don’t want my children to see that as a good thing.

But at the same time, God has placed me here. In this country. In this culture. And for all its imperfections, I love this place. God has placed me here, to glorify him here, to make much of him here, and to love men and women created in his image here.

And so I won’t pull my children from the public school system, where they’ll never hear about values I disagree with. I’ll put them right into the thick of it, where they can know where God has placed them, and glorify him in those places, and I will trust that God is sovereign over them and won’t allow philosophy to derail their faith. I’ll do my job as a godly parent discipling my kids, I won’t let any state or school do that for me. (Change I to we here.)

We will give to Caesar what is Caesar’s—the care of our children’s worldly education—and to God what is God’s—our dependency on the Spirit to make them disciples of Christ in the midst of a society that doesn’t want to know him.

*In principle, la laïcité is important. Notice that Jesus here does not plead for an integration of the church into the state, or for an insurrection of the church against the state; he does not say that Caesar should get nothing. So la laïcité, in principle, is important, and a good thing. But can we be honest? La laïcité, here in France, goes far beyond the simple separation of church and state. It’s become it’s own system of values, it’s own way of life, which says that religion will be tolerated but never celebrated; that God won’t go away, because too many people believe in him, but we’ll certainly not give him room to breathe. That God is a fairy tale and faith is a foolish delusion, and everyone who has half a brain will wake up and think about real things (like philosophy, haha) and not bother with God.

Why does God deserve our submission and worship?

How do we joyfully submit to earthly authorities for God’s sake?

No matter where we are aliens and sojourners, we are citizens of heaven, and ultimately submitted to that higher authority.