On Line Bible Study - For the week September 21-27, 2009

Lesson 406
Mark 12: ¹³Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. ¹⁴They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? ¹⁵Should we pay or shouldn't we?"

But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." ¹⁶They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. ¹⁷Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

And they were amazed at him.

They say that enemies can create strange bedfellows. People who hate each other can be united by a mutual enemy. In verse 13, the they must be the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders. Unable to trap Jesus themselves, they solicit help from Herodians - we understand this group to be those who supported the Herodian dynasty in general. The dynasty owed its existence to Rome. The Pharisees appear to function as those who would have opposed paying taxes to Caesar. So, Herodians and Pharisees are strange bedfellows indeed!

However, they were united in their desire to see Jesus removed from the scene. The way they greet Jesus is obviously empty flattery, for their intent is to trap him.

To pay the Roman tax was to acknowledge Rome's sovereignty. If one refused to pay the tax it could be interpreted as rebellion. But here is the deal ...

Herodians, Pharisees, chief priests, elders, teachers of the law - all of them were using the coins on a daily basis, presumably to purchase goods needed for living. To use the coins for that purpose, and then refuse to pay the tax was disingenuous at best, hypocritical at worst. Jesus calls it for what it is - blatant hypocracy! His response to them brings that hypocracy to the surface in an embarrassing way. They were using the coins - complete with the inscriptions acknowledging Caesar's divinity - for their own purposes. Having done so, what excuse did they have not to pay the tax? Jesus makes them see the duplicitousness they wanted to acuse him of was the sin they were more than guilty of themselves.

Be careful before you acuse others of inconsistency; you know the saying about people who live in glass houses . . .