Luke 20:21-26 | Penny for your thoughts

King James Version Chapter 20

And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.

21 And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly:

22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?

23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?

24 Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s.

25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

26 And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.

Luke 20:21-26

King James Version Chapter 20

And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.

21 And they asked him, saying, Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly:

22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?

23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?

24 Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s.

25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

26 And they could not take hold of his words before the people: and they marvelled at his answer, and held their peace.

This mornings message is entitled “Penny for your thoughts”

Pray

Two sides of the coin

Engage

It is interesting that this passage should come up, in God’s providence right now, at this time in our country. We are facing something that is once in a lifetime. The owner of my company who is 80 related in an email that “he has been through many things in his 50 years in business, but Like Warren Buffet this is his first Pandemic”

We also are living in a time when things are as politically charged as ever. Nobody can see the office of the president as anything more than a political position so it makes messaging and instruction to the American people. Many unfortunately will reject what the President says simply because he is the representative of the political opposition.

Christians run a risk of adopting an attitude that was a lot like the attitude of the Jewish people during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

The Jewish people recognized God as King. They were focused on the Kingdom of God and any government other than the one established by God they rejected. And for a people that had at one point in history lived in a government where the rules were provided by God, what we would call a theocracy, that made it much more difficult to submit to he authority of the ruling government.

Romans had a tax referred to as a poll tax. If you read the parallel accounts of this interaction in the other gospels, it specifically refers to tribute referenced in Luke as a poll tax.

The poll tax was a personal tax for all males between 14 and 65 and women between 12 and 65. The tax was 1 denarius and it went strait to the emperor's treasury. I have no idea why girls were taxed 2 years earlier…you can debate that amongst yourselves later.

This tax was resented, and not just by 12 year old girls. Tertullian called it a “badge of slavery”. 20 years prior to this interaction with Jesus there was a Jewish revolt. The Zealots claimed that paying poll taxes was disloyal to God. Then again in 66, around 30 years looking forward there was another revolt. One that ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem.

Like the Jews we can begin to see the government as having mandates as oppressive or contrary to God’s law. And in both cases, today and then we would be right. Today we have abortion which would have historically been considered infanticide but there is also something called exposure where parents would drop unwanted children off in some usually known place. The child would either die or be claimed by someone looking for a child, usually to put that child into slavery. Tacitus specifically wrote in his Histories that Jews were known throughout the empire as being unique in that they didn’t practice infanticide and exposure like the rest of the world.

The Jewish people tended to fall into two camps: Those who simply joined the Roman way of life, they were referred to as Hellenized Jews. When you read

King James Version Chapter 6

6:1 And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

What we have translated to Grecians, doesn’t mean gentile. It is the word Ἑλληνιστῶν (Helleniston) which means someone who has adopted Greek culture. The Gospel wasn’t given to the gentiles until much later in the book of Acts and understanding this idea of Hellenization is a major clarification.

So, one camp were the Hellenized Jews. But on the other camp you had the Jews who maintained their Jewish identity. And further into that camp were those who despised the Roman government and were deeply suspicious of everything they did.

Submit

Truth

Spies were sent to Jesus trying to catch him into saying something that would get him in trouble. And what did they ask?

King James Version Chapter 20

22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?

If Jesus said that it was lawful, meaning God’s law, to give unto Caeser he would alienate himself with the religious right of the time. If he said it was unlawful the Hellenistic Jews would report him to Rome and Rome would convict him of sedition. This is a lot like the question they asked of Jesus earlier about whose authority he did what he did. It was out of a desire to understand, it was a trap.

And so Jesus responded to them in a way that confounded them. v26 says and they marvelled at his answer. What was it? He took a coin, showed them Roman mark on the coin and ruled in v25 Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

We have a lot of Bible for this truth. The commentator Derrett says that this harkens all the way back to

King James Version Chapter 8

2 I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God.

Derrett interprets this to mean.

Obey the commands of the king and obey (thereby) the commandments of God

When Ecclesiastes was written that might have been a little easier to do. Solomon who was the wisest King ever was ruling a Kingdom under the direct guidance of God. At least most of the time. Things were different for the first century Jews living under Roman rule.

But look what is written in 3-15

King James Version Chapter 2

13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

King James Version Chapter 2

11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

The church is being given pretty clear instruction here that we are supposed to submit to <how many> every ordinance of man. And we aren’t to do it for man’s sake we do it for the Lord’s sake.

Because if Christians obey the ordinances (the law) foolish men that want to point out Christians wrongdoings, to the civil government will have nothing to point out. The same way that Jesus’ accusers were left with nothing to say.

is almost entirely given over to this point. We could spend the entire time working through it but we can summarize in v1-3

King James Version Chapter 13

13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

King James Version Chapter 13

13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.

5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.

6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

So as early Christians found themselves oppressed and treated unfairly by their government, still they were reminded to be subject to that government. Even educated in the fact that the government was ordained of God. and that resisting that government was resisting God.

We aren’t talking about King David’s Israel here. We are talking about a government that allowed the killing of babies, and slavery and endorsed pagan religions. And this was even a country that taxed them.

Application

What light then does scripture shine on our relationship with our government today? I see a lot of similarities between the Roman government and the US government. The US government allows the killing of babies, it seems to prop up religions that are against God, it used to endorse slavery and yes, it taxes us.

Today the civil government that we live under has put in some restrictions that we might not like. They have made some recommendations that we might think are overboard.

These are actions that have been made with input from the Center for Disease Control, the Surgeon General, and a whole host of people that are medically more qualified than I am, or for that matter the President is to make these decisions. When he talks about washing hands, social distancing and the like. When the governor says no crowds over 100 and shuts the schools down, they are doing so using the best data that they have available.

Facebook right now is awash with self proclaimed medical experts that have decided that the laws and recommendations being made are silly and ridiculous. But let me remind you what is written in Romans 13:2

King James Version Chapter 13

2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

It doesn’t say that we have to agree with that power, it doesn’t say that we have to like that power but it does tell us that we are not to resist that power. That word resist is ἀντιτασσόμενος antitassomenos in the Greek and let me read for you how that word is defined by my Greek-English Lexicon:

Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains 39.1 ἀντιτάσσομαι; ἀνθίστημι; ἀντίκειμαι; ἀντιδιατίθεμαι; ἐναντιόομαι

to oppose someone, involving not only a psychological attitude but also a corresponding behavior

Inspiration

We should probably take a second to be realistic about this though. The expectation that God has placed upon us regarding our attitudes towards government, does not come with any guarantee or even an expectation that the government will reciprocate.

When Jesus was asked if people should pay tax to the government how did he respond in ? Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.

Flip forward to

King James Version Chapter 23

2 And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.

The very accusation that the Jewish leaders bring to the government is that Jesus forbade giving tribute to Caesar, when he clearly taught the exact opposite.

Once in a while I think we need a reality check; we are the Christians, we are the ones that have a standard expected of us by God. How the government treats us back isn’t what informs our decisions.

Action

So, I guess the question we have to ask ourselves as we scroll threw our Facebook posts over the last few days is…what has been our attitude towards our government? How are we going to comply with the measures they are going to take when it comes to quarantines and shutdowns? And doing a lot things that frankly we won’t like. What will our attitudes be if there are shortages, not on things like TP and hand sanitizer but what if there are breakdowns in the supply chain for things we use on a daily basis, because people are sick and not at work.

And this knife cuts both ways. Early on the President seemed fairly dismissive of the whole thing but then we started to get information back from Italy, which is a little more transparent than China. The tune changed. I am glad he can listen to experts and change his opinion when new data comes in.

And of course his political opponents are ready to pounce on every move he makes. I heard in the press conference he gave if he would accept responsibility for the Corona virus and know of Facebook posts that are all over him for having not been tested yet. It’s ugly.

Warren Weirsby in his commentary writes:

It is unfortunate that some Christians have the mistaken idea that the more obnoxious they are as citizens, the more they please God and witness for Christ. We must never violate our conscience, but we should seek to be peacemakers and not troublemakers. Daniel is an example to follow ().

There are no shortage of passages we could go to instructing our attitude towards civil government, we only scratched the surface. But, we are the ones who are commanded to not be ugly over political differences, lets instead be what Weirsby says: peacemakers and not troublemakers.