God and Caesar

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I have started receiving in the mail these lovely little envelopes that say important tax documents inside. Some of you have already started getting these as well. Most of you probably have started getting these as well.

And I saw that, and see, I kind of dread the new year. Everybody’s all excited about New Year’s. I know this is coming, and I feel like I just did taxes last year, right?

But they’re never going to stop until I die. And apparently, if I go first, Charlie still has to deal with my taxes the next year, so that’ll be fun for you. I’ll have fun with that.

It never stops. And I look at this, and it’s just a, it’s so irritating. With the amount of documents I get, you’d think I was running a multi-million dollar enterprise, just our family.

But you know, I made 32 cents interest on my savings account last year, and Uncle Sam wants his cut. I made two dollars in book royalties, and they’re making sure they send me a 1099, because the IRS wants to know. So I have all these documents, and don’t you dare forget any of them.

And I think the closest a lot of us come to being anarchists in our life is the closer we get to April 15th. Tax season is coming. So let this be your reminder.

And by the way, if you haven’t picked up your contribution statement, we probably still have some in the office. So that might help. That might help take some of your tax burden off.

But tax season is coming. It’ll be on us in what, six, seven weeks, something like that. And it serves for us as an unpleasant reminder of an important principle that Jesus taught about how we interact with those in authority over us.

And Jesus taught some important principles about dealing with earthly authorities in the week leading up to his crucifixion. It’s interesting too that he taught on this in the week leading up to his crucifixion because he was going to, when he could have easily stood up and told the authorities how it was going to be, he submitted to earthly authorities who didn’t realize that even in his submission to earthly authorities, they were in submission to the will of God. They thought they were doing the opposite of what Jesus wanted, but they really played into the plans of God later on this week.

And so we’re going to see how this unfolded in Mark chapter 12, if you would turn with me there this morning, as Jesus deals with this issue of taxes and the broader implications of how it applies to the way we interact with earthly authorities. And once you find it, if you would stand with me as we read together from God’s Word, if you don’t have your Bible or can’t find Mark chapter 12, it’ll be on the screen behind me here. And we’re going to look at verses 13 through 17 this morning.

It’s probably a familiar passage to some of you, but we’re going to read it together anyway. Starting in verse 13, it says, then they sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words. When they had come, they said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and care about no one for you do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth.

And I want to clarify what that means, because that sounds hostile when they said you care about no one. They are hostile. They are opposed to Jesus.

But they’re trying to lay on the syrup here and appear like they’re not. So they’re not saying, we know you don’t care about anybody. They’re saying, we know that you teach the truth and don’t care about if somebody doesn’t like the truth.

We know you don’t sugarcoat it. We know you don’t change it based on who’s listening. That’s what they’re saying there.

But you teach the way of God in truth. So here’s their question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, Why do you test me? Bring me a denarius that I may see it.

So they brought it. And he said to them, Whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar’s.

And Jesus answered and said to them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marveled at him. And you may be seated.

Some of the other Gospels tell us that they were silent. There was nothing they could answer. And they eventually got frustrated and left, at least for a short period of time.

So we have these two groups of people that have approached Jesus, and they had opposite goals, but they had come together over their hostility toward Jesus. They had found common cause. Because the Herodians were largely supportive of the government system that was there at the time.

The Pharisees were largely opposed to it. The Romans were in charge, and they had put a family that was vaguely Jewish on the throne to oversee the country and keep the people under control, and it gave them a feeling that they had some say in their affairs, but ultimately they answered to Rome. The Herodians were on board with this.

They liked the Herod dynasty, and the Pharisees did not because of the way it impacted their religious traditions. And so they had found common cause, even though they were on opposite sides. They had found common cause in their hostility toward Jesus.

They wanted to entrap Him. They wanted to find something that they could use against Him. And so they came and asked Him this question about paying taxes.

And this question was designed to put Him in hot water with some segment of the population. Somebody was going to be offended by His answer. If he said yes or no on paying taxes to Caesar, it was going to offend somebody.

Here were his choices when they said, at least in their minds, here were his choices when they asked, is it right, is it lawful for us as Jews to pay taxes to Caesar? He could either urge them to cooperate with Rome, which would have been unpopular with most of the Jewish people, who didn’t really like being controlled by Rome, or he could encourage resist Rome, don’t pay taxes, which the Romans wouldn’t have liked, and the Romans wouldn’t have put up with. He would have run afoul of the Roman government, would have had the authorities after him, and then their problem would have gone away because no more Jesus.

So either way, this is designed by the Pharisees and Herodians to put Jesus in hot water with somebody. But Jesus offered a different view of Roman authority that they hadn’t considered. And it’s one that we can learn from today.

And that’s that Caesar has authority, but it’s not unlimited. Caesar has authority, but it’s not unlimited. And in the modern world, we like to go to one extreme or the other.

Earthly authorities, it can be a boss, it can be the government, it can be whatever. So many times we run to the extreme of either we bow down and do whatever Caesar wants us to do, or we go to the other extreme and act like Caesar has no authority at all. There’s a balance here though.

The Pharisees objected to the payment of the tax partly because they didn’t like the whole setup of being subservient to Rome, but it was partly because of the way the tax was paid. I’ve put a slide in here that I’d like you to see. I thought you might be able to read that, but even blown up huge, it’s hard to read.

This is a coin, this is a denarius coin that they would have used in tribute at paying the tax to Caesar. On the front of the coin, we see a picture of Caesar at the time. His name was Tiberius.

And there’s an inscription underneath it, or around his portrait that says Tiberius Caesar Divi Augusti Filius Augustus. And I’m not a Roman, so I probably mispronounced that. I’m from Oklahoma.

But it means Caesar Augustus Tiberius, divine son of Augustus. Now the Augustus that they’re talking about was a man named Octavian, but he took on the name Augustus, Caesar Augustus, you know, the one at the birth of Jesus, which pointed to him being a little more than man, maybe a little less than God. They had grown to look at Caesar Augustus like a god.

Now Tiberius has on his inscription, Caesar Augustus Tiberius, the divine son of Augustus. On his coin, he’s claiming to be a divine son of a divine being. He’s holding himself out as being something worthy of worship, which is something that later Roman emperors took even to greater extremes that they wanted to full on be worshipped as gods.

On the backside of the coin is a portrait of Pax, the goddess of peace, and the inscription and Pontifus Maximus, which means high priest. So we can see on the denarius coin that they would have used in tribute in paying the tax that there are all these pagan themes. And as you can imagine, the Pharisees and most of the Jewish people were offended by this, by the idea that they’re having to pay taxes to the government using these coins with these pagan themes that they feel like, are we participating in worship of the emperor? Are we doing something wrong here?

I think there were people in their community who really did have concerns over this, who really were bothered in their conscience and wanted an answer to this. At the same time, I think the Pharisees were using it just as a club to try to beat Jesus with. I don’t think they were interested really in his answer.

They were interested in boxing him into an answer that was going to get him into trouble. So a lot of people believed at this point that the only two options here were to approach the emperor as either worshipers or rebels. That you’re either going to be a worshiper to the emperor or you’re going to be a rebel against the emperor.

It’s got to be one of the two. And so Jesus looked at the coin. Verse 15 says, he, knowing their hypocrisy, he knew they were two-faced.

He said to them, why do you test me? Bring me a denarius so I can look at it. One of those very coins Jesus holds up and looks at, and he asks them who the coin belongs to.

Verse 16, so they brought it and he said to them, whose image and inscription is this? Whose picture is on the coin? Whose writing is on the coin?

And they said, Caesar’s. Of course, everybody knows what this thing says. This coin Jesus is pointing out with the image and with the inscription, this coin is a constant reminder to them that Caesar is in authority.

Every time they went out and paid the tribute, it was a reminder Caesar had some earthly authority. Every time they went out and bought things with a denarius, it was a reminder that Caesar was in authority. And that authority was not by accident.

Now the Apostle Paul later on wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 13, there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Now if you’re like me, you probably have some problem with this verse. Not that I don’t believe it, but I look around sometimes at the people in authority and think, really God?

That guy? That’s who you wanted? Or maybe that’s who we deserved.

I don’t know what the answer is there. What I know, though, is that God allows people to be in authority, and God even uses ungodly people in authority to accomplish His purposes. And that’s probably why we’re so puzzled sometimes, is because we don’t know how God is working out His purposes.

God places people in positions of authority, again, even ungodly people, to serve His purposes, whether we understand those purposes or not. And we don’t have to look any further than the crucifixion that’s going to take place later in the week to understand this. Because Peter says sometime later at the day of Pentecost, he’s explaining to the authorities, the people, the religious establishment in Jerusalem.

And in Acts chapter 2, he says, Jesus being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible. that he should be held by it. And what he means looking at the authorities there in Jerusalem who had condemned Jesus to death and then sent him out to the Romans to carry it out, he said, you did that with your own wicked hands, and yet it was part of God’s plan for that to happen.

And so God allowed even these wicked people to be in authority to carry out his plan. Even though I’m sure to the disciples it looked like everything was spinning out of control. So he told them in verse 17, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

It was not an accident here that Caesar was in authority. God allowed him to be there. And so he says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

What that means is give Caesar what belongs to him. Give Caesar what is due to him. This taxation was something that God had placed under Caesar’s authority.

But even in his answer here, he makes it clear, not everything belongs to Caesar. Not everything belongs to Caesar. Because he not only says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, he also says, and to God the things that are God’s.

Caesar has authority, but it’s not absolute. It’s not unlimited. Because ultimately, what we understand from the Scriptures is that God is in authority over Caesar and over us.

Verse 17 there where it says, Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s. That can be misinterpreted sometimes. As though Caesar’s in control of some things, and God’s in control of some things, and they each have their thing, and there’s some competition between the two, And we have to figure out which circle a particular area of life is under.

Is it under God’s sphere or is it under Caesar’s? That is not the case. Because Jesus told the Roman government later on this very week, told the Roman government that God was in authority even over it.

At his trial, at one of his many trials, Jesus looked at Pilate, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who had just asked him, you’re not answering my questions? You’re going to stand there and not speak to me? Don’t you know I have the power to put you to death power to release you?

And Jesus, God the Son and human flesh, looked at Pilate, the representative of Caesar in that city, and said, you could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above. Bubba, the only reason you have any authority here is because God said so, and don’t forget it. What this means about rendering to Caesar and rendering to God is not that some things are in God’s power and some things are in Caesar’s power, because everything is in God’s power.

It says, by him all things are made and all things consist. Everything belongs to him. What it means is that God has lent Caesar jurisdiction in some areas, but he has not lent him jurisdiction in some other areas. Meaning Caesar has some authority over some aspects of life, ideally for our good, but only because God has allowed it and only to fulfill the purposes of God.

Everyone is supposed to respond appropriately to authority. We as believers have a responsibility to submit to God-given authority as long as it does not conflict with the Word of God. But those earthly authorities are also responsible to an even greater authority.

They are under the authority of God. You say, well, what does this look like? Well, things that don’t conflict with the law of God, we’re supposed to listen to our authorities, whether we like it or not.

I’m not always fond of the speed limit. Now, I go the speed limit. My wife says I drive like my own grandparent.

But there are some times I get out on I-44 and I’d just like to let it loose and go to 100 if my old truck could make that. But I can’t, and I shouldn’t. And I know some people try to get by with it.

I would be the one that would get caught and get a ticket, so I don’t. But I’m not supposed to, because our earthly authorities say so, and it doesn’t conflict with God’s Word. I was driving home late Wednesday night and getting close to my house and came around a corner and spotlighted a herd of about 25 does out there about a quarter mile from my house, and I thought, I’ll just be honest with you.

I’m prone to temptation. I thought I could get one of these, throw it in the back of the vehicle, and get it home before anybody was the wiser. Some of you say, well, what’s the big deal with that?

Well, holiday antlerless season was over a few weeks ago. They are not in season. It is not legal. So I just kept driving.

I’ll admit I sat there and looked at them for a little bit, and they looked at me. Our earthly authorities put these restrictions up, and it doesn’t conflict with God’s word to say, hunt in these ways, hunt at these times, and so I have to obey. There are times, though, when our earthly authorities conflict with God’s Word, and we have to make a choice.

You know, I think back a couple years ago when COVID started, and we were told they weren’t as strict here in Oklahoma as other places. I don’t think they ever told us we had to shut down the churches. I think they recommended it.

And with the information we had at the time, you know, let’s err on the side of caution. We’ll meet virtually, and I’m not here to rehash all of that. I made the best decision I could with what information I had at the time.

But I started noticing a ways into the pandemic, there were states in our country that were demanding the churches be shut down, but they were allowing the casinos to open. At that point, that is no longer a legitimate public safety issue. That is anti-religious bigotry.

And God blessed men like John MacArthur, who said, no, we’re going to obey God and not man. And shame on the evangelical leaders who caved and criticized MacArthur for it. If God’s word tells us to gather, now we know we’re supposed to use wisdom in that.

If there’s a tornado coming, yes, stay home. If there’s an ice storm, you know, we sometimes cancel because we don’t want anybody to get hurt. We’re not getting out of the habit of meeting.

But if the government tells us you can’t gather for an indefinite period of time, and that’s when we do like the early church and we go to the catacombs. We meet in secret, but we obey God’s word because there are some things that God has not placed under Caesar’s authority. And this idea of the image and inscription in verse 16, these are marks of authority.

That’s why he asks about the image and the inscription. The word there for image is icon. It’s his picture.

And it’s where we get the word icon in our language. The Greek word for inscription is epigrapha. We get the word epigraph from that.

It is an inscription. In this case, it’s a written statement of authority. You saw that picture.

Who he is, he is Tiberius Augustus Caesar, and he claims to be the divine son of the God Emperor Augustus. He’s claiming authority. That image and that inscription are a claim of authority.

So this image and the inscription on the coin in verse 16 are symbols of Caesar’s authority, particularly because God had given him jurisdiction in that area, whether they liked it or not. But he talks here about some things rendering to Caesar, some things rendering to God. And I think it’s important for us to understand that Caesar is not the only one with an image and an inscription.

Caesar is not the only one who stamps his icon and his epigraph on things as a mark of his authority. Because Genesis 1. 27 says we are created in the image of God.

And when we look at the Greek translation of the Old Testament that the apostles would have used, it uses that same word, icon, iconotheo, the image of God, stamped with the image of God. We are under His authority. We were created in this likeness, stamped with His image and under His authority.

And the book of Hebrews tells us that God will write, He will epigraph His law on our hearts and minds. The Bible talks about this elsewhere, about the conscience and about us being without excuse because the law of God is written on our hearts. Even those who don’t know him know that there’s a right and wrong because God has put his law on our hearts.

And so he has stamped his image and his inscription on every human being who’s ever lived, even Caesar. Caesar can stamp his image and his inscription on the money. God has stamped his image and inscription on the man.

And so when he says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s, he’s not saying there’s a split in authority here. He’s saying God has placed this in Caesar’s authority to tax you, so submit to that. But don’t forget you ultimately belong to God.

Don’t forget that Caesar ultimately belongs to God. And so the message here is that we are supposed to submit to earthly authorities where God gives them jurisdiction, but you and I cannot ever forget that our first loyalty and our greatest loyalty is owed to God alone, to the God who made us. And we should be model citizens.

We should, to the glory of God, do the best we can to live quiet, peaceable lives, follow the law, do what’s required of us. But the moment earthly authority calls us to do something that is contrary to the word of God, we have a choice to make. And just as they are responsible for having put us in that position, we are responsible for what we choose to do.

This is ultimately a call for us to submit to the authority of God. It says, and they marveled at him in verse 17. Now, part of the reason why they marveled at what he said was because it was clever.

he had avoided the trap that they had set, but they also marveled because it was true. They couldn’t argue with that answer. You ever been in a heated argument with somebody and they came back at you with something you could not respond to?

Isn’t it frustrating? I guess I’m the only one that’s ever been in that. Some of y’all are looking at me like, I never argue with anyone.

Halo. We’ve probably all been there. It’s frustrating.

And that’s where they were. They answer. And what I mean by that is Jesus wasn’t just working the audience he had.

He wasn’t tailoring his message to what was going to work for the people who were listening. That’s what I mean when I say political. When you tell every audience what they want to hear. Because verse 14 says they were right about this.

They were wrong in their hearts. They were wrong in what they were trying to do, but they were right about what they said in verse 14. Teacher, we know that you are true.

You care about no one, meaning you’re not here to try to make everybody happy and tailor your message to people. For you do not regard the person of men. You’re not looking at the audience to see who’s there and how do I say this in a way that’s going to tickle their ears.

But teach, you teach the way of God in truth. That means he doesn’t play favorites. He doesn’t sugarcoat it.

He doesn’t make different rules for different people or different groups. He tells God’s truth the way it is. I don’t know if they believed it or not, but they said it and they’ve never been more right about anything they’ve said.

Jesus does not play favorites. He does not make different rules for different ones of us. We are all responsible to him and he calls all of us to submit to the authority of our heavenly father who made us.

And that submission toward God begins with repentance. It’s not just about following rules and doing what, doing all the religious things we think we’re supposed to do and checking off all the boxes. It begins with repentance.

It begins with recognizing that God is right and we are wrong. It begins with agreeing with God. Not going to God and saying, well, I know I did this, but it was okay and trying to justify ourselves.

It’s coming to God and saying, you’re right and what you say goes. Even if I don’t like it, even if I don’t want to, you’re right. And that results in a change within us.

That leads to sorrow over our sins, but it ultimately starts with a change of mind, recognizing God is in authority. And because He is in authority, He sets the moral standard of right and wrong, and none of us can do perfectly what God requires. God’s standard is that if we’re going to come to Him based on our behavior, if we’re going to try to get into heaven based on our behavior, if we’re going to try to be in a relationship with Him based on our behavior, we have to be perfect.

Not just perfect in what we do, but perfect in the condition of our hearts as we do it, perfect in our motivations. None of us pass the test. The Bible said all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Instead, that law shows us that we have sinned, that we have disobeyed Him, that none of us are perfect, and that all of us need a Savior.

That’s why He sent Jesus Christ later in a few chapters after this, later this same week, to go to the cross, to be nailed to that cross, to shed His blood and to die, to pay for everything that I’ve ever done wrong and everything you’ve ever done wrong, so that our slate could be wiped clean and we could have peace with God. He did that. And then He rose again three days later to prove it.

There’s not an alternate plan for any one of us. That is the plan that Jesus paid for our sins in full. And now the answer for us is to recognize that we’ve fallen short, to recognize that God is right and we’re wrong.

And believing that Jesus died for us and rose again, believing that that’s the only way we’re going to get in, we ask God for the forgiveness that He offers. And we take ourselves that He has stamped His image and authority on, His image and inscription on and we submit to his authority and we come in repentance and faith and trust Jesus Christ as the only one who’s going to get us right with the God.