Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - When to Resist the Government (And When to Not) | New Testament | Luke 20

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

What should Christians make of the Bible verse that says "give to Caesar what is Caesar's"? How much do you need to care about the government? Should you obey non-Christian leaders? Keith discusses all this and more on today's episode about Luke 20. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Luke 20

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Politics makes strange bedfellows. You just never know who you're going to end up working with. Or here's another saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. In other words, you might end up working with people, not because you agree with them on that much, but because you have a common enemy. We see this kind of thinking play out in Luke chapter 20.

The Pharisees and the Herodians are two Jewish groups who had significant differences. You might say they were enemies. The Pharisees were nationalistic. They longed for the Messianic kingdom and the overthrow of the Romans. The Herodians, well, they had sold themselves out to the Romans. They were firmly on Rome's side. The Pharisees represented conservative Judaism. The Herodians represented liberal Judaism.

The Pharisees represented cautious resistance to Rome. The Herodians represented wholesale accommodation with Rome. But these two groups worked together because they had a common enemy. They had a mutual hatred for Jesus. The Pharisees hated Jesus because he was disrupting their religious agenda. The Herodians hated Jesus because he threatened their political arrangements. The Pharisees and Herodians both wanted Jesus dead. Mark tells us that these natural enemies sent spies to trap,

Jesus. Here's what happened next in Luke chapter 20, verse 20. Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him. Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You see, their strategy was to flatter Jesus. Flattery is almost the opposite of gossip. Gossip involves saying behind a person's back what you would never say to their face. Flattery is saying to a person's face what you would never say behind their back.

Like politicians, preachers are especially susceptible to flattery. Of course, Jesus is the true preacher, and he smelled out what was happening here. These spies were being duplicitous. In other words, they pretended to be sincere, but they weren't. Jesus was able to spot it, partly because he knew the Proverbs warned against flattering lips. Here's Proverbs 29. Those who flatter their neighbors are spreading nets for their feet. See, that's exactly what the Pharisees and Herodians are doing through their spies. They're trying to set a trap for Jesus.

So finally, after all the flattery is done, they get to their question, and they ask him this in verse 22. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now, they thought they'd tricked Jesus. They thought they'd put him in a position that no matter what way he answered, he would lose. Taxes were a very explosive issue back then just like they are now. So if Jesus says, no, you shouldn't pay your taxes to Caesar. Then the Herodians are going to run to Caesar and say, look, you should arrest Jesus for insurrection against the state. But if Jesus says, yes, you should pay your taxes to Caesar, then both groups hoped that

the people who suffered under oppressive taxes would turn on Jesus. So they were confident that they had him. They could see no way that Jesus could escape from this perfect dilemma. Verse 23. Jesus saw through their duplicity and said to them, Show me a denarius. The denarius was a small silver coin. On one side, there was a picture of Caesar and an abbreviated inscription.

It said, Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine. Augustus. The denarius was the amount that had to be paid to Rome as taxes. Your taxes could only be paid with that coin bearing Caesar's image and inscription. Verse 24. Jesus asked them a question. Whose image and inscription are on it? Caesar's, they replied. He said to them, then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is gods. They were unable to trap him in what they had said there in public, and astonished by his answer, they became silent. Today, there is universal agreement among historians that Jesus's words have been the most single, most influential political statement ever made. It has been decisive and determinative

in shaping Western civilization. The spies thought they had tricked Jesus, put him in a lose-lose situation, but Jesus quickly turned to the tables. See, the spies couldn't disagree with his first answer to give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, because ancient coins were actually understood to be the property of the person whose picture and inscription were on them. So who could possibly object to giving to Caesar what was already his? Jesus' words give shape to the Christian's transient earthly allegiance. When he says give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, what he's saying is that the state is a valid institution. Government is a gift from God. In fact, in Romans 13,

government is called the servant of God. God establishes governments. Now, government is made up of sinful people, just like every other institution is. But this doesn't mean that the institution should be rejected. Instead, we should work to make all our institutions, whether it's the government or church or any other institution stronger and better. So Jesus assumes the validity of the secular state and its demands, even when it is controlled by a Caesar who thinks he's God.

So a Christian shouldn't just honor a government led by a Christian. A Christian can honor a government even when that government leader is very anti-Christian. A Christian should seek to follow the laws of the state, whether they agree with them or not. There are, of course, limits upon the authority of the state. There are also at least three other situations in which a Christian must resist state authority. For example, Christians must resist when asked to violate a command of God. The perfect example of this is found in Acts 4 and 5. The authorities arrest the disciples for preaching,

and then they call them in before the Sanhedron, the Jewish governing body, and order them not to teach in the name of Jesus. Well, of course, the disciples go right back to it, and they're arrested again. And so the Sanhedron says to them, we strictly charged you not to teach in this man's name, yet here you filled Jerusalem with your teaching. and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us? But Peter and the apostles answered,

we must obey God rather than men. Christians also must never violate a command of God, regardless of what the state says. And Christians must never think it is okay to do something unethical, no matter how good the cause might seem to them. But the main point here is that noting all the exceptions that we've just talked about,

Christians are called to obey their government, to follow the government's laws, even the laws of a non-Christian government. Christians are supposed to be law-abiding citizens. That includes traffic laws. That includes paying taxes. So you can ask yourself, are you giving to Caesar the things that are Caesars?

But then Jesus says, you are also to give to God the things that are gods. And that statement is utterly brilliant to give God the things that are gods because Jesus is saying there's only one God and it's not Caesar. So by saying give to Caesar what is Caesar is and give to God's what is God's. What he's saying is that Caesar isn't God. He's putting Caesar in his place. And there's nothing that Jesus's enemies could do to argue with that. On top of this, Jesus's demand to

give to God the things that are gods declared that God has a claim of total ownership over our whole life. Remember that the coin belonged to Caesar because it bore his image. We belong to God. We belong to God because we bear his image. Every human being is cast in the image of God and therefore every human being is accountable to God. Every human being is owned by God. Jesus's word suggests two questions for us. Whose image do we bear? Well, the answer is obvious. We bear the image of God. So then there's the second question. Have we given to God the things that are gods? If we think God just wants our money, we missed it. If we think God just wants our time and talents, well, he does want that, but he doesn't want only that. He wants us.

He wants all of us. We must give to God what is God's. We must give him our lives. He will settle for nothing less. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more.

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