Re: 开云体育 God While Living With Caesar
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Excellent
Thank you Greg
Mary
Live long and prosper
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From: Lacatman7@... [FunnyPicsClub] <FunnyPicsClub@...> To: lacatman7@... Sent: Sun, Oct 18, 2020 6:23 pm Subject: [FunnyPicsClub] 开云体育 God While Living With Caesar Today's Scripture:
Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how they might entrap Jesus in His talk. They sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are honest, and teach the way of God in truth, no matter whom You teach, for You aren't partial to anyone. Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test me, you hypocrites? Show Me the tax money."
They brought to Him a denarius.
He asked them, "Whose is this image and inscription?"
They said to Him, "Caesar's."?
Then He said to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
When they heard it, they marveled, and left Him, and went away.
--Matthew 22:15-22
Jesus has been confronting the?"religious leaders" pretty severely at this point in Matthew's Gospel. What we have come?to call "Holy Week" has arrived. Jesus rides into town and goes to the temple where He drives out the merchants and overthrows the money changers’ tables. Then He calls them a bunch of thieves. He challenges them even more when He heals the lame and blind. That really makes the chief priests and scribes angry. “Who do you think you are?” “By what authority are you doing these things,” they ask Him. He doesn’t answer them. Instead He says that they are like a disobedient kid, worse than the very people they judge and condemn as disobedient. But He doesn’t stop there.
He tells them a story about tenants of a vineyard who steal from the landlord and murder his son. They realize He is not talking about tenants of a vineyard. He is talking about them. They decide to get Him but they are scared of the crowds. Jesus is on a roll so He tells them another story. This one is about a wedding banquet, the kind they would be invited to. But the story doesn’t end the way they expect. One of the guests gets tied up and thrown into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Enough is enough. The religious leaders about whom Jesus is speaking plot how they can trap Jesus. Things are so bad that they bring in the Herodians as co-conspirators. They join forces with the party that supports Rome’s domination of their own people. Politics, anger, and fear are a dangerous combination that makes for unlikely alliances.??
They believe they have finally crafted a particularly clever way to entrap Jesus this time. No more debating Jesus--they have always come out of those encounters with egg on their faces. They want to set Jesus up in a way that requires a "yes" or "no" answer--either of which will get Jesus in trouble with the people (a "yes" answer) or have Him arrested by the authorities (a "no" answer). Note that in spite of what?they believe to be an airtight trap, they only dispatch their "disciples" rather than go themselves and risk further loss of status.
They first begin by speaking words with the veneer of honor and sincerity, to placate the crowds as well as put Jesus on the spot: "Teacher, we know that?you are honest" (You are beholden to your "truth" Jesus!). "You teach the way of God in truth" ( You openly express your "truth" in your teachings, Jesus!). "[ You do so] no matter whom you teach, for you aren't partial to anyone [by their status] ( Don't try to duck out of this one, Jesus--speak your "truth" openly and without fear of consequences! ). Then comes the zinger: "Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
The irony of course is that what they are saying is actually correct: the "truth" that?they imply is flawed actually IS God's truth, which they would recognize had they actually reflected on it and had they had any other motive than to entrap He whom they saw only as a threat to their status and privilege.?
Doubly ironic--and tragic--is that many among the religious elite DID recognize what Jesus preached as God's truth:
"Nevertheless, many of the leaders believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved praise from men more than praise from God" (John 12:42-43). A sobering lesson for us all!
Jesus exposes their disingenuousness for what it?is--a "test" or "trap"--but He does agree to answer the question. But first, He reframes the issue subtly by asking to see the coin used to pay the tax. This is a clever move because it allows all onlookers, including the reader, to see for themselves what Jesus already knows: Jesus is the one being put on the spot, but it is His questioners who are more deeply entangled with, and complicit in, the exploitative economics of empire. Jesus’s pockets are empty, but His opponents have no trouble supplying a denarius on demand.??
The Denarius is a Roman coin roughly equivalent to a day's wages. It is also the coin required to pay the tax being referred to. The coin bears not only the image of Tiberius Caesar--the Roman Emperor--but the inscription?
"Tiberius Caesar, August son of the divine Augustus, high priest."
Jews consider graven images idolatrous and the inscription blasphemous, so the issue had a substantial religious basis.?
As a concession to the Jews, the Romans actually allowed them to mint their own small coins worth a fraction of a denarius which bore neither the offending image nor inscription. Zealots would not deal in the blasphemous coinage for any reason and were willing to put up with the inconvenience of carrying and dealing with a great number of those small coins, yet here the religious leaders had no trouble coming up with an offensive denarius to give to Jesus--even as they were within the Temple precinct, no less!? An embarrassment for the insinuation they hoped to make that Jesus was a Roman supporter if He supported the tax.?
Jesus makes a public demonstration of whose?image and whose inscription the coin handed to Him bears, exposing--once again--the hypocrisy of those who hold such coinage. It is of Caesar! Why be scrupulous about?giving it back to him? But give to God that which is God's!
Whether or not Caesar has a right to rule in Palestine is not covered by the answer. Nor does Jesus try here to identify precisely what is Caesar's and what is God's. Jesus sees through the Pharisees' hypocrisy, refuses to play their game, averts their plan to entrap Him (outsmarts them), and there is no sound basis for reading more than that into this episode. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, but give to God what is God's" should not be interpreted as a piece of political wisdom imparted by Jesus,?although?it?does imply acting responsibly to?pay one's debts in normal circumstances regardless of how unfair the?system itself?is.??
Jesus had a lot more to say about money and He noted its utility that could be used for God's purposes, regardless of its issuance, inscription, or history. The coins are offensive to Jewish sensibilities and are thus tainted--but the truth is that ALL money is tainted--even money that may bear the inscription "In God We Trust" on it!?
Money is neither?distributed nor earned "fairly" as much as we may like to think so; no earthly transactions are based on the absolute worth of the goods or services it is used to pay for. Inequality and exploitation are rife within all societies--and entire societies' economies are based on unequal?rewards for goods and services relative to other entire societies around the globe. One could even note that certain transactions anywhere throughout the globe may cause harm to everyone. This is why 1 Timothy 6:10 warns us that "the love of money is the root of all evil!"
So the point is that the "form"--the picture, the inscription, or whatever that?appears on money is largely irrelevant in terms of its practical purposes, no matter what portrait or what inscription appears on its surface. it's ALL tainted with an unjust basis and an unjust transactional history. It's what we choose to use it for--and why--that determines whether it is being used for God's purposes or not.
What does Jesus have to say about that? Quite a lot! But let's just review a few:
"A Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the (wounded) man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" --Luke 10:33-35
"When people ask you for something, give it to them. When they want to borrow money, lend it to them."" --Matthew 5:42
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” --Matthew 19:21
"As Jesus sat near the Temple treasury, he watched the people as they dropped in their money. Many rich men dropped in a lot of money; then a poor widow came along and dropped in two little copper coins, worth about a penny. He called his disciples together and said to them, 'I tell you that this poor widow put more in the offering box than all the others. For the others put in what they had to spare of their riches; but she, poor as she is, put in all she had—she gave all she had to live on.'" --Mark 12:41-44
"I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." --Luke 16:9
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" --Matthew 6:19–21.??
I could go on and on: Jesus spoke more about money in the Gospels than about faith and prayer combined! He spoke about it in many ways to many different types of people.?
His requirements concerning money were different depending on whom He was addressing: One was told to surrender all of his money, while another might be required to use it to work with it and bear good fruit in its season. One would see God's offering as "the pearl of great price" which he happily spent all he had for, while others were given "talents"--huge sums of money--to invest in order to provide a profitable return over time.?
That is because ultimately "rendering unto God's that which is God's" means He is entitled to all of our time talent, and treasure, regardless of how many Caesars we might need to pay in the normal course of conducting our daily business--again, unless God specifically directs us to act otherwise. Also as I have mentioned many times, God has a special, specific plan for each of us to uniquely serve Him and others in His name according to His will.?
We do well when we say "Yes!" to God and follow up with "Yes!" actions! Through our own sinfulness and failures we may fail God's specific plan for us and for others, but if we repent and return to Him He will forgive us--even though He may then change His plan for us to reflect current realities, including the mess we may have made of things. Conversely, when we prove ourselves faithful in small matters, God will trust us to serve Him in even bigger ways, relative to our circumstances.
What does faithfulness look like in the issues with which we struggle? It’s a hard question, one that is answered neither easily nor quickly. For most of us it is the work of a lifetime. Jesus does not offer simple, pat answers--because simple pat answers only deal with shallow surface realities rather than one's heart and intent in a huge variety of circumstances.?
Faithfulness is always about intent, within the context of God's word in the guidance of His Holy Spirit. It means we are continually learning to pay back, surrender, and render to God, ourselves and one another. How will you do that for yourselves, those you love, your neighbor, your enemy??
Again there are no pat answers since God addresses each of us differently according to His plan. We know that His plan does require us to avoid that which is specifically sinful according to His word, but that still leaves much room for surprises--whether perceived as "good" or "bad"--in our lives.?
The key is knowing to whom we belong. It must be experienced and learned in fidelity to that context. Faithfulness is more about struggle and practice as we seek to hear, acknowledge, and act on God's plans for us. It is done at the depths of our being. Get the image of belonging to God right, add the intent of loving Him and His purposes, and most everything else will follow--to our ultimate benefit through following His best plan for each of us to love and serve Him and others in His name!
Thanks be to God for that!
AMEN!!
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