In this video, Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke discuss Luke 20:20-26. They delve into the story of Jesus being questioned about paying taxes to the emperor and how he masterfully sidesteps the trap set for him. The conversation explores the significance of Jesus’ response and its implications for allegiance to earthly powers and God’s divine kingdom. Join Clint and Michael as they provide insights and reflections on this thought-provoking passage. Don’t miss out on this engaging discussion!
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Transcript
00:00:01:12 – 00:00:19:52
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for being with us. As we close out a week, we are still working our way through the Gospel Loop Chapter 20 today. Kind of a classic story, an interesting story, the way that Luke tells it. I think this is one of those things that Jesus has said that kind of gets traction not only in the church, but maybe even in the culture.
00:00:19:57 – 00:00:41:37
Clint Loveall
I think there is a phrase that Jesus uses today that kind of lives even outside the church in some aspects, and we’ll talk about that. Not a long passage. So let me read it for you and then we’ll come back and we’ll work our way through it. So they watched Jesus and they sent some spies. I should mention here they are the religious leaders, the scribes.
00:00:41:42 – 00:01:11:48
Clint Loveall
They watched him and sent some spies to pretend to be honest in order to trap him. That’s a that’s a fun phrase, Luke gives us. They pretended to be honest. Genuine is probably the sense they’re trap him by what he said so as to hand him over to the Juristic Shin and the authority of the governor. So they asked him, Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach and you show deference to no one but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
00:01:11:52 – 00:01:41:01
Clint Loveall
Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the Emperor or not? But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, Show me a denarius whose head and whose title does it bear? They said, The Emperor. He said to them, Then give the emperor the things that are the emperors and give God the things that are gods. And they were not able, in the presence of the people, to trap him by what he said.
00:01:41:06 – 00:02:06:15
Clint Loveall
And being amazed by his answer, they became silent. So before we get to the content of this, Michael, I just I like the tone. This is subtle. But Luke, again, as an author, they send spies and all of a sudden these men are, you know, listen to this. They’re on Team Jesus, you know, Teacher, we know you’re right.
00:02:06:19 – 00:02:32:34
Clint Loveall
We know what you say. And teach. You show deference to no one, teach the way of God in accordance with truth. They’re just laying this on as as to try and lure Jesus in and pat him on the back and, you know, kind of compliment him into a compromising spot. And so it just again, the Bible doesn’t do humor as we often understand it.
00:02:32:47 – 00:02:37:25
Clint Loveall
But I read something like that, and I have to say that it makes me smile. I find that funny.
00:02:37:30 – 00:03:06:43
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. Well, because really, of course, we’ve spoken about this before. Ancient culture, Jewish culture of getting the jump on someone, being out crafty in a situation has its own kind of cultural value to it. And I think there is something like that in play here. The people who show up to Jesus and who are sort of brown nosing their way into then double crossing him is sort of the way that this plays out.
00:03:06:48 – 00:03:33:39
Michael Gewecke
That said, I think, Clint, to your point, there is some levity in the texts like this because the the fairest or the religiously, there’s the scribes, the Sadducees, the high priests, all of these people have the lion’s share of power. They have everything that they need. But what they don’t have is the people. And at the end of the day, their effort, their attempt to get Jesus is going to be subversion.
00:03:33:39 – 00:04:03:07
Michael Gewecke
It’s going to be literally the word that we have here is sent spies. And so that kind of move in the scripture may not be, by our definitions, funny, it’s certainly not late night television funny, but you could say it’s a kind of humorous irony that the people who were just trying to subvert Jesus’s godly authority are now sending people who are going to bother Jesus up.
00:04:03:07 – 00:04:29:23
Michael Gewecke
And then ultimately, when they make fools of themselves to the farthest extent that they can go in trying to ingratiate themselves to Jesus, he’s going to, in one fell swoop, bring all of it crashing. I mean, every bit of their sophistication and every bit of their trickiness or craftiness is going to be exposed and they’re going to just stand looking like fools.
00:04:29:23 – 00:04:47:29
Michael Gewecke
I think maybe not to our sensibilities Is this what we would call funny, But it certainly does have are very kind of. Yeah. The text goes out of its way to expose the gap between these things. I do think it has in that sense, a humorous element.
00:04:47:29 – 00:05:23:40
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s just the most insincere form of flattery that Luke paints here. Well, let’s talk. Let’s talk about the trap. Let’s switch gears and talk about why this is a tricky question for Jesus or why it is that this particular arena, which they try to get him. So remember, we’re the week of Passover. Jerusalem would be full to the gills with devout Jews who are coming to sacrifice at the temple, who are coming to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem.
00:05:23:45 – 00:05:55:52
Clint Loveall
Jews of Jesus Day in his region are expected to make at least an annual pilgrimage to the temple. Many of them do that in the in in connection to the Passover. So religious fervor is high, lots of importance, lots of emphasis here on Jewish people being Jewish, doing Jewish things. ROMANS Sensitive, which is also high because this is bringing in a lot of people who aren’t very pro Rome.
00:05:55:57 – 00:06:33:07
Clint Loveall
So the police presence, military presence is on high alert. It’s a it’s a little bit of a a powder keg time for them. And sometimes those things had gone wrong. So the question they ask, is it lawful for us as being Jewish to pay taxes to the emperor? And here is what they understand the trap to be. If Jesus says yes, he’s acknowledging an allegiance to Rome, and that can be used, as Michael just suggests it, to turn the crowd against him.
00:06:33:07 – 00:06:49:54
Clint Loveall
They can then go to the crowd and say, he supports Rome. He says, we ought to give them our money. He says we ought to pay them taxes. Now, they don’t really have a choice whether to do this or not, but by making Jesus say it, they think they can get some people on their side.
00:06:49:58 – 00:07:15:28
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I will. 21st century Americans understand what happens when a sound bite gets created, right? And how that can be used for or against a person here. That’s exactly the trap that this idea that if we can get you to side with the enemy, then we’ve got you on the flip side. If you don’t answer that, if you don’t answer that, we pay to the emperor.
00:07:15:28 – 00:07:42:45
Michael Gewecke
Then on the other hand, you’re subverting Rome and then you set yourself up, which, by the way, this is another irony. And Luke, you set yourself up as a rebel against the Roman rule, which is ultimately what Jesus is going to be charged with by the way. And it’s going to be ammunition then that they can use against the local authorities that this religious teacher is trying to turn people against the right governing of the Roman Empire in Jerusalem.
00:07:42:45 – 00:08:17:13
Michael Gewecke
That that, by the way, gives us a little bit of context here as to what makes Jesus comments about the religious leaders ill use of authority so powerful in the passages we’ve studied this week is they have a line themself with the enemy at the expense of their people. In other words, they’re both benefiting from the Romans who live there and their authority, and they’re benefiting from the people’s worship and from the people’s practicing of their culture and heritage, that they’re getting the best deal on both sides.
00:08:17:13 – 00:08:43:28
Michael Gewecke
And it’s all for their own sake. And so Jesus has critiques about them and towards them are even more pointed because he’s doing it to the people who stand to lose the most from this conversation. And I just think it’s interesting, the trap that they try to put Jesus in is ironically the trap that they’ve navigated their own answer to, that they just sort of live on both sides of that and they get the benefit of it.
00:08:43:33 – 00:08:48:45
Michael Gewecke
But Jesus is going to astound them with an answer that undoes all of that.
00:08:48:50 – 00:09:15:27
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s actually again, it’s actually a pretty good trap If Jesus says, you know, no, don’t pay taxes again, this is a time where tensions are high, where the idea of revolt is kind of in the air on both the minds of the Romans and the Jews. And they now get to go to the Roman authorities and say, hey, just so you know, there’s a guy down telling the crowds he didn’t think we ought to pay Roman taxes.
00:09:15:27 – 00:09:41:40
Clint Loveall
You might want to do something about that. So they envision this as a win win. But in the gospels, Jesus is not only spiritual, He’s shrewd, He’s wise, He is a sharp teacher. He knows what this is. He knows what’s happening. He knows he perceived their craftiness. It says in Luke. So Jesus says, Show me a coin. Whose head is it?
00:09:41:45 – 00:10:03:11
Clint Loveall
And they say, The Emperor. By the way, they have the coin. I mean, this whole tension about Jesus. Are we loyal? What do we you know, they’re holding a Roman coin, which is irony in Luke, and they say, Well, it’s the emperor’s picture. And Jesus says, Give to the emperor what is his and give to God, what is God’s?
00:10:03:16 – 00:10:37:58
Clint Loveall
And it it’s a it’s beautiful and there isn’t a better answer. Jesus has answered the question without answering the question. He’s acknowledged, Yup. If you owe something to Rome, then you should pay be a citizen. But ultimately you should be accountable to God and give to God the things that are God’s and that it is masterfully sidestepped. The trap for him is masterfully sidestepped and you know, Luke sums it up for us.
00:10:37:58 – 00:10:56:54
Clint Loveall
They were not able to trap him and they were amazed by his answer. He out foxes them again, kind of typical in the gospel, but just the perfect answer that allows them know no basis on which to to given the accusation.
00:10:57:09 – 00:11:16:46
Michael Gewecke
This is the mic drop moment in this story. It’s the moment where Jesus says the thing and it is so good that suddenly there’s no more words to say. The opponents are silence. There’s there’s really no further trap that could be pulled on him at this point. I want to circle back around, Clint, to the point that you made earlier.
00:11:16:46 – 00:11:42:46
Michael Gewecke
I agree with you. This is one of those teachings of Jesus that has sort of escaped even the Christian orbit. This is a thing that we hear another thing. This isn’t a Jesus story, but I occasionally hear the Solomon story about, you know, we’re going to divide the baby and then, you know, whichever one is the parent will be the one who who is willing to give up the child of this or that, that here’s two options.
00:11:42:46 – 00:12:02:51
Michael Gewecke
And it’s the third option that’s actually the wise one. I think that this story exemplifies that. There’s a kind of awareness that as humans, we we categorize things, right? This is the thing that we need to do, but we don’t want to do it. Does does it belong to Caesar? Does it belong to the emperor, doesn’t belong to someone else?
00:12:02:51 – 00:12:51:34
Michael Gewecke
And what Jesus does, I think so beautifully is he he’s not at all convicted by ego for him. He’s not wrapped up into this as someone reaching for power. So he doesn’t feel threatened by the empire. He doesn’t feel threatened by the emperor and simultaneously he finds this an opportunity to teach faith. And that’s what’s so incredible. The people who come to trick him not only fail, but they give Jesus an opportunity to both say something about what it means to be subject to earthly power, but ultimately to be beholden to God’s divine kingdom, which, if you had been with us this whole time, it’s been God’s kingdom that Jesus has been proclaiming this entire
00:12:51:34 – 00:13:22:08
Michael Gewecke
time. And so so ultimately, of course, God’s kingdom trumps all of the Roman emperor and every empire that follows it. But for the sake of this argument, Jesus has no issue saying, Now we give to the earthly powers what belongs to them, the earthly stuff, and we devote our eternal, significant lives to the God who is eternal and to the meaning that is by definition, beyond the the temporary things of this life.
00:13:22:10 – 00:13:42:49
Michael Gewecke
So. So Jesus takes this trap, turns it into a masterstroke teaching moment, all the while silencing these shrewd people who came as spies to bother him. I mean, their fall and disgrace is only magnified by Jesus’s magnanimity and the wisdom of his teach. It’s a perfect story in that way.
00:13:42:54 – 00:14:07:46
Clint Loveall
Yeah, it’s it’s really good. The thing that is interesting, if we leave the text and kind of talk about its application Christian history for a moment, that this idea render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s that has kind of had a life of its own in the church. It’s been used to cover everything from not paying taxes to paying taxes, not doing military service, doing military service.
00:14:08:00 – 00:14:40:55
Clint Loveall
It is a it is a simple, profound phrase that the church has leaned into at times. I would only say that I think it is worth some caution because Jesus is not here preaching or teaching it. It is worth remembering that Jesus gives this answer Sidestep keeping land mines. This is the response to dishonest questions that are not actually asking anything.
00:14:41:00 – 00:15:10:40
Clint Loveall
This is Jesus getting out of a trap. And so while I think there is great wisdom in the answer, give to Caesar what is Caesar and God’s? What is God’s it? It is not a passage. I’ll say this. It is a passage. We should be very careful building a theology of how Christians interact with the world around them, because there are probably other considerations in other scriptures that need to be in the mix.
00:15:10:40 – 00:15:25:32
Clint Loveall
But for some reason, Michael, this this phrase has it has had a kind of life of its own far outside of the context of the story. And I think that makes it interesting.
00:15:25:37 – 00:15:47:57
Michael Gewecke
I now think I should have thought to say this right at the start. I’m sorry that I didn’t, but maybe we missed some of the amplitude of this question, Clint, because we in certainly 21st century America, when we think of Emperor, we might naturally be inclined to think that that’s sort of like our president, you know, sort of like our elected leader.
00:15:48:01 – 00:16:10:21
Michael Gewecke
But Jesus here isn’t making a distinction or the question isn’t ultimately Jesus, do you think we should pay the secular state what belongs to it and God what belongs to God? I mean, the earliest Christians understood that the Roman Emperor Caesar was claiming lordship divinity, that there came a time when that whole line claimed for themselves to be gods.
00:16:10:21 – 00:16:43:13
Michael Gewecke
And so the question here is not just like, you know, do you like it when you pay your taxes? No. The question is, who is the ultimate authority that we pay deference to? And when Jesus gives this answer, he is he’s making in many ways this wise response, as we’ve already talked about. But he’s also making a bold, bold claim that we can have deference to the humans claiming a thing that doesn’t belong to them while simultaneously giving to God what does belong to God?
00:16:43:18 – 00:17:07:10
Michael Gewecke
You know, I think there’s a kind of powerful subversion here. And the reason I come to that just really quickly is because you’re right, when we take a text like this and we apply it to military service or to what taxes you pay and what you don’t, when we apply it to our direct life experience, I think the mistake that we make is we fail to see the cosmic God significance of this question.
00:17:07:10 – 00:17:29:13
Michael Gewecke
Ultimately, it’s a question of allegiance. Who are you ultimately giving your life and priority to? Is it the creator of the universe or the creator of the social order? Is it the one who is God or the one who claims to have godlike powers? Jesus makes that distinction clear. You give to God with his gods, which automatically rewrites the meaning of the other one.
00:17:29:22 – 00:17:45:01
Michael Gewecke
I just think you’re very right to caution us. Don’t make whole positive theologies out of an argument that is a defensive argument. Instead, see in it the point be pointed to God and everything will be ordered rightly after that.
00:17:45:01 – 00:18:03:11
Clint Loveall
Well, what they’re trying to do, that’s a good point in my coming. What these people are trying to do is get Jesus to pick a team. They’re saying there’s two teams, there’s there’s Jewish team, God’s team, and there’s Caesar’s team, Roman team. Which team are you on? Do we give them money or do we not? Which one are you going to support?
00:18:03:16 – 00:18:36:51
Clint Loveall
And Jesus again sidesteps the trap and saying, Look, if you will, Caesar, fine, if you will God, but don’t equate those as equal. Keep in mind, this is Holy week. Jesus is about to end up on a Roman cross. He is not saying that God an emperor, that we both come. We serve both comfortably. Clearly, Jesus is always going to say that our priority and our highest allegiance is to God.
00:18:36:55 – 00:19:08:02
Clint Loveall
Even God, if need be, in spite of and in the face of the emperor. And so I, I think, again, it’s a wonderful, beautiful phrase. It’s a masterful answer. I just think at times we’ve tried to ask it to answer questions that I don’t think it was designed to answer. And I’m not sure why, other than it is so well-stated that it leaves lots of leeway for us to to point it in directions that maybe it wasn’t intended there.
00:19:08:11 – 00:19:16:35
Clint Loveall
There certainly is tremendous wisdom in it. Just just be careful in remembering where it came from. If you seek to.
00:19:16:35 – 00:19:31:10
Michael Gewecke
Apply it first. Going to summarize that, I would just say remember that there are 19 chapters before this one. Just remember that Jesus has been proclaiming the Kingdom of God this entire time. He’s not out. Is is there a time when he’s not teaching?
00:19:31:10 – 00:19:33:45
Clint Loveall
He’s not preaching. This is this is something else.
00:19:33:45 – 00:19:54:30
Michael Gewecke
Exactly. And if you can remember that and you can hold that in context, then you understand God is always first. But but the lesson here that’s still being taught is one that silences the critics, and that is and that’s what happens when the worldly power set themself against the incarnate Son of God. They’ll find themself outmatched and silenced.
00:19:54:30 – 00:20:18:41
Michael Gewecke
And the story, it’s incredible. It does that verses 20 to 26, that’s six verses. It’s able to both introduce a story, show us the set up, give us the crux of the teaching and show us how it absolutely silenced all of the critics. And Luke hardly even needed six verses to do it. So the incredible passage hope has been challenging and inspiring and encouraging and all of those things.
00:20:18:55 – 00:20:24:46
Michael Gewecke
I hope you’ll subscribe to stick with us as this story unfolds. There’s a lot more to come forward, but blessed to be with you this week.
00:20:24:57 – 00:20:25:31
Clint Loveall
See you Monday.