#164 Lu. 20:20-26 THE TAX QUESTION Introduction: Jesus and His disciples have come to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. Actually, that is not the main reason that Jesus is there. He is there to give Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of men to die on the cross of Calvary. The chief priests and scribes also purposed that He should die. Long before the time for the annual Passover, they had met together and decided that Jesus must be put to death. They knew that He would come to Jerusalem for the Passover and they made their plans that upon His arrival they would quietly arrest Him and put Him to death. However, on the afternoon of His arrival, Jesus rode into town with several thousand people shouting to the top of their voices proclaiming Him to be the Messiah-King. The chief priests and scribes did not dare touch Him. The next morning when Jesus came back to the temple, He drove out the money changers and those who sold animals. He was the center of attention of all the people. Luke did not mention it, but hundreds of people came to Him there in the temple with their physical afflictions to be healed. Greats crowds of young people gathered about Him proclaiming Him to be the Messiah. Luke said that Jesus preached the gospel to the people. It was the same way every day. In the daytime, He was surrounded by great crowds of admiring people and in the evenings when He would leave the temple He would disappear into a multitude of several million people. The temple officials had no way of knowing where He went to spend His nights. So they decided to go to Him in the temple and challenge His authority to do the things He had been doing in the temple. They thought they would be able to arrest Him on the grounds of unauthorized conduct in the temple. That did not work out either. They were extremely embarrassed by the occasion and Jesus was more popular than ever with the multitude of people. I. Spies sent to trap Jesus So in our text today they try a new tactic. V. 20, "And they watched him, and sent forth spies..." Instead of going to Jesus, as they had done before, they started watching Him and listening to Him to see if He would do or say something that they could use against Him to get Him arrested. From the moment that Jesus showed up in the temple, there was somebody around watching and listening. They did not just trust to chances that He might say something that could be used against Him. They set a trap. Luke says that they sent out spies and those spies had a trick question which they would ask Jesus to prompt Him to say something that could be used against Him. Matthew and Mark tell us that the spies were made up chiefly of bright young trainees who were being trained by the older Pharisees. These would present the trick question. Matthew and Mark also tell us that among the spies there were a few Herodians. The Herodians were members of a group of radical Jews. Most Jews despised the Roman authority ruling over them and sought in every way to be uncooperative. But the Herodians felt that it was to the advantage of the Jewish nation to cooperate with the Roman authorities who ruled over them and sought to persuade all Jews to be cooperative with the Romans. Generally the Pharisees were bitter enemies of the Herodians. But on this occasion, they sought the aid of the Herodians in their effort to trap Jesus. (V. 20), "...which should feign themselves just men..." The idea is that they would all pretend that they were asking their question out of a desire to do the will of God. But that was not their desire at all. Instead of being just men, they were very unjust men. They were pretenders. They were hypocrites. (V. 20), "...that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor." Their real purpose was in order that they may lead Jesus into saying something that they could carry to the Roman authorities and get them to arrest Him and put Him to death. They really thought they had it in the bag. They thought that the question which they had for Him could not fail. They were very confident that they had Jesus in a trap this time. II. The question which they asked Him V. 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. You will note that they were not only deceptive in the question which they would ask, but they were deceptive in their manner of approach. They flattered Jesus highly. They pretended to believe that whatever Jesus teaches is right. If they had really believed that, they would not be trying to get Him arrested and executed. They pretended to believe that Jesus is the only one brave enough to stand up against the Roman authority. What they really believed was that He would be foolish enough to say something that would get Him arrested by the Roman authorities. They pretended to believe that Jesus teaches only the way of God truly. They really believed that He is from the Devil and speaks lies from the Devil. They think that their own lies will deceive Him and throw Him off guard. Then comes the question: V. 22, "Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no?" What made this question sound so genuine was that it was a question which had been debated among the Jews for a long time. Some of the Jews, particularly the Herodians, argued that since they were under Roman authority, it was not only acceptable to pay taxes to the Romans, but that it was God's will for them to do so. However, most of the Jews argued that it could never be God's will for the Jews to pay taxes to the ungodly Romans. They particularly called attention to the ungodly lifestyle of the Roman Caesar. Tiberius Caesar was a cruel drunken, basely immoral man. He was a very wicked man. They argued that it could hardly be in the will of God for the Jews to pay taxes and help finance his ungodly lifestyle. They really thought they had Jesus trapped. They thought that there was no way that Jesus would publicly say that it was right to pay taxes to the Romans. So they were expecting Him to say in no uncertain terms that it is wrong to pay taxes to Caesar. They were overjoyed at their shrewdness and were just waiting for His answer. The Herodians among them would run right straight to the Roman governor and accuse Jesus of being a traitor against Caesar. They just knew that the Roman governor would then put Jesus to death. III. The wise answer which Jesus gave V. 23, "But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me?" They never fooled Jesus for a moment. He knew what they were up to from the start. The word, tempt, as used here carries the sense of "test, try, or trap." So Jesus was asking, "Why are you trying to trap me?" V. 24, "Show me a penny..." The penny that Jesus was talking about was not an American copper penny. Jesus was talking about a Roman silver coin that was valued at the price of a day's labor. If a man worked one day, he was paid one penny. This is the kind of penny spoken of here. (V. 24), "...Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's." The image which was stamped on this Roman coin was Caesar's image. The superscription or name written on the penny was Caesar's. It had Caesar's name on it. It, therefore, had Caesar's image and Caesar's name on this coin. V. 25, "And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's..." Even God would not object to giving back to Caesar what which had come from him in the first place. This answer which Jesus gave would please the Herodians. They most certainly favored paying taxes to Caesar and this pleased them. It would not at all please the Pharisees, but they had no rebuttal. It was such a logical answer that there simply was no rebuttal which they could give. (V.25), "...and unto God the things which be God's." Again this was an answer that nobody could argue with. It was certainly true that every man should render unto God that which was God's. This is something that the Pharisees ought to be doing which they had not been doing. Neither had their forefathers. If their forefathers had been faithful to render unto God that which is God's the nation of Israel would not have been in subjection to the Romans at this time. It was because their forefathers had turned from the true worship of God and had worshipped idol gods that the nation had gone into captivity in the first place and they were still in subjection to Gentile powers. But lest I get too far away from the thought let me remind you that it was Caesar's image which was stamped upon every Roman penny and it was God's image that was stamped upon the soul of every man. Therefore the Jews were to render unto Caesar the Roman penny in taxes and every man is to render unto God a life of worship and service. Every man is to render unto God a life of submission and obedience. V. 27, "And they could not take hold of his words before the people..." There stood those bright young men before all these people. There stood the brightest young scholars in the land, but they could not think of one single word which they could say to accuse Jesus of anything. They were defeated. They were dumbfounded. They just could not believe that Jesus had slipped through their trap. (V. 27), "...and they marvelled at his answer..." This fascinates me. Even the enemies of the Lord marvelled at His answer. They hated Him bitterly, but they greatly admired His ability to avoid their trap. They recognized that Jesus is plenty sharp mentally. Oh, they did not change their minds about Him, otherwise. They were still not persuaded that He is the Christ. They still hated Him, but they did learn to respect His mental alertness. (V. 27), "...and held their peace." They just stood there silently before Jesus and before that great crowd of people. They did not have another word to say. IV. The failure of men today Jesus said, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's." In our day that would mean, "Render unto the government the things that are due to the government and render unto God the things that are due to God." There are four ways that men fail to do this. (1) Some give neither the government nor to God the things that are due them. They fail altogether to do what Jesus has said in this text. (2) Some render to the government what is due the government, but they fail to render to God the things that are due to Him. Some fail to give the reverence to God that God is due. They fail to give the tithes and offerings to God that is due Him. There are even Christians who fail in this respect. Some fail to give unto God the time that is due. We have all failed in this respect at times. Some fail to give the worship and service to God that God is due. Again I say, "We have all failed in this respect at times." (3) Some render to God, but they fail to render to the government that which the government is due. It seems strange to me that this text should come right at the time of year when we are obligated to pay our income taxes. No citizen of the United States should cheat the government the taxes that the government is due. Especially no Christian is to cheat the government out of the taxes that are due. I can understand why any Christian would not like to pay taxes. I don't like to pay them any more than anybody else does. This is especially true considering some of the foolish ways the government wastes our tax money. But God holds the government officials responsible for the way they use our tax money and God holds us responsible for paying the taxes. Let me say it again. It is not just the government who holds man responsible for paying taxes. God also holds us responsible. (4) Some render both to the government and to God, but do not render as much as they should. The government determines how much we should give to them, and God determines how much we should give to Him. In the Bible God teaches that we ought to give at least the tithe to Him. It is true that we, as Christians, are not under the law of tithing. But under grace we ought to give at least as much as the Jews were required to give under the law. We ought to love God enough to give the tithe and more. If you are not giving that much, then I say to you, "Try it; you'll like it." Give it a good try. Try it for six months and I believe you'll never give less than the tithe again. You will like giving to the Lord. It is important to give both to the government and to God as Jesus has commanded in this text. It is important to render both to government and to God all that is due them. The consequences for failure to render to the government can be very severe. The consequences for failure to render to God all that is due Him can be even more severe. The most important way in which people fail to give to the Lord is their failure to give Him their hearts. Those who fail to repent of their sins and fail to trust in Him for the salvation for their soul have the greatest failure of all and they will suffer the greatest consequence of all. If one fails to repent of sin and trust in Jesus for salvation, he will spend eternity suffering in the fires of hell. Conclusion: So what I am asking you to do this morning is to give your heart to the Lord. I am asking that you call upon Him right now and trust your soul into His care. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to take your soul and cleanse you from all sin and keep you out of the firs of hell. Ask the Lord to make certain that you get to heaven. I am also asking every Christian here to give your life to the Lord to worship Him and serve Him faithfully. Come while we sing this invitation hymn.