Will They Never Learn?

“…Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.”  Matthew 22:21b

The Pharisees were never at a loss in planning ways to try and trap Jesus into violating the law so that they could have probable cause to arrest and try Him.  They sent out some of their disciples who were accompanied by some Herodians, a Jewish political party, loyal to the Roman government, which made them hated among the Jews.  However, they both viewed Jesus as their enemy which caused them to band together against Him.  As the saying goes, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”.  They came to Jesus to find out His perspective on the legality of Jews paying taxes to Caesar, the head of the Roman government.  The Jews naturally were opposed to being under the rule of Rome and extremely opposed to having to pay tribute or taxes to them.  That was like adding insult to injury.

When they posed their question to Jesus, He asked for a Roman coin.  Someone brought Him a penny.  He asked whose image and superscription were on the coin.  They answered, “Caesar’s”.  I suppose they wondered where He was going with this.  If He answered that if it was not lawful for Rome to collect taxes from the people of Israel, the Romans would be infuriated.  Of course, if the Jews stopped paying the tax, they would suffer at the hands of the Romans, and Jesus would be considered the leader of an insurrection.  If He answered that the tax was indeed lawful, Jesus would be considered siding with the Romans against them, creating hostility and suspicion on the part of the Jewish people.  The religious leaders already were filled with hostility and suspicion.  Jesus’ answer in the affirmative would only give them more of a reason to arrest Him since they likely would have the backing of the majority of citizens.  That’s what most politicians do–they try to turn the people against their opponent rather than giving folks a decent reason to vote for them.  The religious leaders were sure that Jesus would incriminate Himself no matter what He answered.

Jesus, as always, was way too smart for the self-righteous, bigoted leaders.  Since they had identified the coin as having Caesar’s image engraved on it, Jesus said (paraphrasing), “Give Caesar the things which are his, and give God what belongs to Him.”  At that these men could do nothing but marvel and walk away.  Jesus had outsmarted them once again with the obvious truth.  When He had asked them the question as to the image on the coin, He called them “hypocrites” because He perceived their underlying motive.  They weren’t really concerned that Caesar was receiving funds that belonged to God.  They were just trying to trap Him.

The Pharisees and other religious leaders never seemed to learn that no matter what tricks they had up their collective sleeve, they could not outsmart Jesus.  God’s plan was in motion, the time for His sacrifice was coming up in a few days, and there was nothing that they could do to change God’s timetable.  Had they actually been familiar with all the scriptures that prophesied the coming of God’s Son and the foretelling of His sacrifice to bring forgiveness of sin to multitudes, they probably would have sat back and let it occur just as foretold rather than trying to force Jesus into making a major slip up in the law so that they could eliminate Him as quickly as possible.  But like most of us do sometimes as we fail to listen to God, they ignored truth and tried to take matters into their own hands.  God used their hatred and hostility toward Jesus to fulfill His plan of salvation.  God can use the worse that man has to offer to make the best and right path for man to follow.