Render Unto Caesar
Preached by Pastor Benjamin Vrbicek
April 13, 2014
If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Mark 12:13-17.There are many ways to start a sermon. This morning, I’m going to start with a little show-and-tell. I have two items. One of them I am going to pass around and let you look at. First, I have a denarius; a real one, even—like the one mentioned in the passage we are about to read. A man in our church bought it in Israel. The footnotes in most Bibles will tell you that a denarius is about one day’s wages for a laborer. The other thing I have is not for one day’s labor, but ten days, it’s a copy of Pastor Jason’s ‘pay stub’ from last week. Wednesday was payday and I snuck a copy of his check. Joking. It’s mine.I said I was going to pass one of these around. Any guesses? No, it’s not going be my paystub. I’ll pass around the coin, but please be careful with it. I’ll ask for it back at the end of the service.I mention my pay stub not to show you how much money I make, but to draw your attention to a few numbers on it. The first is $133.00, the second is $72.28, which combine for a total of $205.28. That combined number of $200 or so, is the total of two line items that are generically labeled “Federal Withholdings” and “Pennsylvania Withholdings.” In other words, income taxes. My guess is you have something like that on your paystubs as well. Every single week, money is taken from me before I even get the chance to touch it. Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes. These are just a few of the many taxes we encounter.Ordinarily, taxes are a burden. The question is simply just how much of a burden are they going to be. In Jesus’ time, all of the research I did pointed in one direction: taxes were a heavy burden. Therefore, a question about taxes was no small thing.Follow along with me as I read from Mark 12:13-17,13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 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?” 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.” 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.This is God’s Word.Let’s pray… Take my life and let it be, always only Lord for thee. All for you, Jesus. All for you. Help us to that end as we study your Word…I am aware that in just two days is will be April 15 which is the day taxes must be completed and filled to the IRS, and I realize that this passage has things to say about taxes, but this morning I want to be upfront about something: while Mark 12:13-17 talks about taxes, it is not mainly about taxes. And so this sermon will not be either, at least mainly, about taxes. What this passage is about is the temptation of the religious leaders—and our temptation—to major on a minor issue in order to sidestep the real demands of God. It’s about emphasizing something very small, so that we can hold back everything from God (FCF). It’s about ‘sprinkling just enough religion on the top,’ so that we are good to go. It’s about wanting just “3 dollars worth of God.” I take that phrase—3 dollars worth of God—from a poem I came across a few years ago, a poem that haunts me even today, a poem that incriminates my half-hearted desires to give God everything, a poem we will come to near the end of the sermon.The religious leaders ask about taxes and Jesus says, Sure, but oh by the way, God owns everything; and God wants, God demands everything from everyone who has his image and likeness (BI). “Caesar ought to get his, and I ought to get mine,” says Jesus. They did not ask for that lesson, but as is the case with Jesus, they got more than they expected.To organize our thoughts, I want to ask just two questions: Why were they amazed? Why am I amazed?The last verse of the passage ends with the statement “and they marveled at him.” Some versions have “amazed” (e.g., NIV). First, we are going to be asking why they, the religious leaders, were amazed. Then I want to offer a few reflections as to why I am amazed at this passage and why you should be as well.
1. Why were they amazed?
Let’s take up this first question. Why were they amazed? To understand this, we need a sense of the flow of thought in the passage. Let’s go through each verse again slowly.V. 13 starts,
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
Mark gives us, the readers, the clue that they might not actually be asking a sincere question. They might look like they are asking a sincere question, but their motive is malicious. They want to trap Jesus.Let me give a little background. Here the Pharisees and Herodians team up to destroy Jesus, and it’s not the first time. It happened in Mark 3:6 as well. But who were they?Their partnership is an unlikely one. The Pharisees were a strictly religious group, a sect within Judaism in the first-century. But the Herodians were a loosely organized political group. They were named after the family that they were loyal to, namely, the dynasty of the Herod family. That dynasty which lasted about 130 years and had it’s midpoint near the time of Jesus’ ministry. The Herodians were sympathetic to Roman rule, probably because they had to be. Rome allowed the Herod family to continue to rule as long as they didn’t get out of line.The Pharisees, however, we not at all supportive of Rome. They were nationalistic. They were pro-Israel, which at the time, the lines between a religious Israel and a national Israel were blurred. The Pharisees wanted Rome out.Perhaps this is analogous to leaders in a mainline denomination teaming up with the Tea Party—a religious group and a loosely organized political groups. Not very likely.Anyway, that is some background. When they come to Jesus, what is it that they say? Look at v. 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?”
First, they butter-up Jesus, don’t they? They lay the flattery on thick.Ironically, they call attention to Jesus’ ability to be unmoved by flattery while at the same time piling on that very thing in the hopes it will move him. O, Jesus, what we love about you is that you are never moved by flattery. You, Jesus, are so good at shooting straight and not being moved by what other people think about you. We love that about you Jesus. Thanks for being great, Jesus.And they ask their question: “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?Their question was incredibly explosive—like a kitchen with an oven burner left ‘on’ without it’s flame. Jerusalem, in so many ways, could explode from a single spark. And the question of taxes could be that spark. One commentator noted, “Almost every resident of Palestine knew someone, even a father or a brother, whom the Romans had victimized” (David E. Garland, Mark: The NIV Application Commentary, 462). Thus, people has strong opinions about taxes.In other words, the Pharisees and Herodians were picking a fight, and not only that, but they wanted Jesus to choose a side in the fight. If he favors taxes, well then, he loses the crowd. If he rejects taxes, then opposition, perhaps lethal opposition, from Rome. Ah, ha: “Trapped!” they say.They want Jesus to be halfhearted, like them. They want Jesus to show himself as one not really rendering everything to God. They want a Jesus swayed by the crowds, a Jesus who holds back from God because it’s convenient to do so. They thought that Jesus was like the person they saw in the mirror, and now he is trapped because they thought that, to Jesus, the opinions of people were LARGE and the desire for self-preservation was LARGE, and the opinion of God, well that was small. They thought if they majored on a minor issue, like taxes, they could sidestep the real demands of God upon their life.I want you to feel the explosiveness of this question. It would be like getting a famous pastor, say Bill Hybels or Rick Warren, on 60 Minutes and asking this: “Does your church love gay people or hate them?” That’s a kitchen filled with gas.Jesus smells something in their question. Look at v. 15-16,
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.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.”
Let me ask you a question. Why do you think Jesus asked to see a coin? I wondered this. Why does he use the rhetorical device of asking for a coin rather than just referring to it? Why not just say, “Whose likeness and inscription is on a Roman coin?” “Whose face is on a dollar bill?” Like we know this is Washington, they knew the answer was Caesar without ever looking at a coin. There were money changes in the Temple because they knew that Caesar’s picture was on the coin and the inscription said, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” They did not like that, so they changed the money.At first, I thought the request to see a coin was perhaps simply a way to slow the conversation down. Or maybe Jesus thought he could make the point more powerful if everyone was actually looking at a coin rather than just mentioning it. I think these are true. But there is more.Jesus asked for the coin to make a point that they were already using the Roman coins, and therefore this whole business about trapping him to see which side he is on is bogus. Jesus is saying, “O, what’s that in your pocket, guys? You have a coin on you. Hummm. Interesting. You say you hate Rome, but you have their money. And you would love more of it. You are straddling the fence, guys. You are not giving everything to God; that’s your problem. And I’m about to call you on it.” The Pharisees wanted to present themselves as free from all of this, but they were not.And now comes the famous words of v. 17. Look at them with me.
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.
I said at the start, we were going to be asking the question of why they marveled, why they were amazed.The answer I think is this: the religious leaders where amazed because they really, really thought they had Jesus trapped. And again, he slipped away. Man, how does that guy always make us look so stupid!? And why didn’t one of us think that he might trap us when we pulled the coin out? Ahhuughgh. They were amazed because they gave it their best shot, and failed. And they thought they were smarter than Jesus.
2. Why am I amazed?
Let me transition to the last point. The last question is why I am amazed at this passage, and by extension, why should you be amazed as well.I want to point out four things that amaze me. I wanted to phrase them in clever language and be a good preacher and make them all sing harmony, but they don’t. It’s more like a shotgun approach rather than a laser. Oh, well.
a. Jesus can’t be manipulated
The first thing that amazes me is this: Jesus can’t be manipulated. You may have heard me hinting at this earlier, but it’s true: Jesus will not be handled. He will not be backed into a corner. He will not be trapped. He will not be tricked. He will not be swayed. He will not be influenced if he does not want to be. The Lord of the universe is “not swayed by appearances.” V. 14 is true even if said to flatter.And that amazes me. In some very important, wonderful ways, Jesus is not at all like me. I am swayed by appearances. I love praise and I can be tricked and I can be manipulated and I can be trapped. And I’ve felt this so acutely this last week. This is wrong, but I felt myself at times trying to justify my existence one good sermon at a time. I’m not a rock. I’m Jell-o. And Oh, do I need a savoir that is a rock. Jesus is a rock. And I’m amazed by that, and I want you to be amazed by it as well.
b Jesus pushes back the line for civil disobedience far
Second, I’m amazed at how far Jesus waits to participate in, what is called, civil disobedience. I’m not going to say much here but let me start by saying what I mean by civil disobedience. A definition might go something like this: public, nonviolent, and conscientious act contrary to law (and often willing to receive the punishment that is entailed for doing so). In other words, the laws says you shall do X, and you, publically, nonviolently, thoughtfully, say, NO. That’s civil disobedience.We could name quickly many examples in the Bible of this. Think of the Hebrew midwives in the book of Exodus that refuse to murder the male children even though Pharaoh said that they must. And consider Daniel refusing to stop praying to God even though it become a capital crime. And consider in the book of Acts where believers are told to stop sharing their faith and they say, “NO, there is only one name in heaven whereby people are saved and that’s the name of Jesus. So it doesn’t matter if you tell us to stop; we have to respectfully disobey” (paraphrase of Acts. 4:1-22). All of these are examples of civil disobedience, not exclusively, but in significant ways, yes.But I’ve said that what amazes me is how far Jesus pushes back the line for civil disobedience to begin. What do I mean by that? What I mean is this: Jesus said, you pay your taxes and I’ll pay mine (Matthew 17:24-27), even though Rome uses the money for evil.Have you ever considered this: when Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” he was bankrolling the very government that was to kill him? Rome bought lumber to make crosses with tax money. Rome bought iron to forge nails for executions with that money. Rome trained soldiers to crucify people with that money (among others things). I don’t think it would be a too much of a stretch to say that Jesus bought the very cross that he would die on! Now perhaps he only bought a tiny sliver of it, just like my $72.28 of “Pennsylvania Withholdings” only gives me ownership of a tiny sliver of the Derry Street, but you get my point.These are strange things to me. And they amaze me. For all the changes that our government needs, I believe God has appointment many good, legitimate avenues for concerned citizens to work for the change. And until all of them are exhausted, and until the government directly forces our hand to do evil or directly forbids me from doing something God requires of me, I think I’m going to pay my taxes with thanksgiving that I have roads and schools and police officers and a judicial system and minted money and federally insured banks and men and women in the armed services that protect us from all enemies foreign and domestic and 1,000 other things. I’m thankful for these. And I’m going pay my taxes. More could be said, but we’ll keep moving.
c. The Pharisees amazement does not translate to worship
Third, I am amazed that the Pharisees’ amazement does not translate to worship.V. 17 says it so clearly: 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 [were amazed] at him.”But clearly their amazement does not translate into worship. And their worship does not translate into glad, sincere, wholehearted obedience to God.I’m amazed that they leave saying, That was amazing. Did you see what Jesus did to us? But their amazement does not translate to worship. I do not want that to happen to me or to you.Jesus asks about the coin and whose likeness is on it and the answer is Caesar’s of course, but I know—I know!—that these experts on the Old Testament did not miss Jesus’ allusion to Genesis 1:27, which says
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
When Jesus says, “Render to Caesar the things that are his image and likeness, and give to God the things in his likeness,” he is talking about people. He is talking about the fact that God is the rightful owner of everything, we cannot, must not hold anything back from him.Yeah, give Caesar his denarius. Sure, fine. But I want YOU! ALL OF YOU. DON’T HOLD BACK; BE ALL IN! And they walked away unchanged.You see, what amazes me about these religious leaders is that they believe the myth the ‘good life’ is the life with religion sprinkled on top. They don’t want to give God everything. They want to rule and reign and be in charge and hold back from God.There is a myth out there that if I follow my heart, regardless of where it takes me, regardless if my dreams and passions are utterly devoid of God, then that is okay, because at the end of the day, God cannot truly satisfy, he is not rich in grace. The myth is that what I must do is seek my own pleasure, and simply add “three dollars worth of God” so that I have some fire insurance just in case things go bad. It doesn’t work like that.I came across a poem a few years ago called “$3 Worth of God.” It’s by a man named Wilbur Rees. I wasn’t able to find out much about the man who wrote it, but his poem goes like this
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
That poem, in all of its satire, stings a little bit. Again,
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep,
but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine.
I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant.
I want ecstasy, not transformation.
I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.
Actually, it does not sting a little bit. It stings a lot.So often we pray, “O come Lord Jesus, move among us powerfully. Have your way with us. Make us like your Son and, O, please do it during these next 20, or 25 minutes…but don’t go much longer, if you could, please. Amen.”I’m amazed at how the religious leaders come in contact with Jesus and they hold back. They walk away. I don’t want to be like them. And I don’t want you to be either.
d. The gospel
And finally, the last thing that amazes me is this: the gospel. I am amazed by the gospel.Everyone around Jesus—the religious establishment, the crowds, the secular bystanders, even the closest followers—were all halfhearted. And still, Jesus was ‘all in.’ He holds back nothing from God the Father. And he’s going to the cross for sinners. People like me. That’s amazing. I marvel at that. I’ve never been all in the way I ought to be. And neither have you. You want three dollars, thank you very much.The Bible says this in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I am amazed by the gospel, and I want you to be amazed by it as well. And I want our amazement to translate to glad, sincere, wholehearted devotion go God. Give to God what is God’s, Jesus says. Let us do that together.Having received his grace, having received the gospel, I do think about the times in my life, far to rare, far too infrequent of course, but I think about the time when I have been ‘all-in,’ the times when I have given God everything, and he has never let me down. Jesus is asking you if you will follow him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. If you do that, he won’t disappoint.
