Tricky Situation

15 February, 2011

Read Luke Luke 20:20-26

Luke 20:24-25
"Show me a denarius. 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 God’s.”

The religious teachers were trying to look for a way to frame Jesus. So they sent pious looking Jews with hard questions, hoping to trick him and arrest him. Jesus had become too big a threat to their power.

The Roman coin bore the image of Tiberius Caesar with the inscription of him as the "Son of God" which was blasphemous to the Jews.

If Jesus oppose the payment to Caesar, he would be exposed as a revolutionary. If Jesus said to pay, he would disqualify himself as a Messiah. In the eyes of the Jews, God's kingdom was not merely spiritual in nature. The kingdom of God touches everyday reality.

Jesus' answer was brilliant. First he asked for a coin from his questioners. The act of taking the coin out of their pockets was a visual slap on their hypocrisy. What are they doing possessing such blasphemous objects? Getting them to read the inscription further confounded them to admit Caesar's blasphemous title.

So when Jesus said, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's" - he was challenging them in their position of supporting the Romans to oppress their own people. The religious leaders (not the Pharisees) had to admit the revolutionaries were right in their belief not to allow the pagan rulers to crush their own people though wrong in their methods.

But Jesus' challenge came stronger in the second part of his answer. The temple and the religious authorities had failed to give to God what belongs to God.

Jesus ultimate answer was give to God what rightfully belongs to Him, and the Caesar's part would right itself.

In encountering a tricky situation, practice what is first clear to us - the clear commands of God and the gray area will take care of itself.

Jesus' answer bears much wisdom even today. This is the essence of wisdom living.