Good evening friends,

Below you will find our second Holy Week Devotional.  As I mentioned yesterday, I hope these devotionals will help you deepen your spiritual journey this Holy Week.  If you find something valuable in them, please pass them along to your friends and family along with an invitation to attend our Maundy Thursday or Easter Sunday Service.

Today’s devotional is from Mark 11:27-12:17. I invite you to read the passage and then read the devotional below.

Throughout this passage as well as tomorrow we read of Jesus encountering opposition from the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  In 11:27-11:33 they ask Jesus by what authority he is doing these things.  In 12:1-12, Jesus tells the parable of the tenants.  Finally, in 12:13-17, the Pharisees and Herodians seek to entrap Jesus in his words.  It’s this last encounter we will focus on today.  In this encounter the Pharisees and Herodians ask Jesus, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?  Should we pay, or shouldn’t we?”

There’s much more to this question than a question about the separation of church and state.  There’s much more to this question than whether one is giving a percentage of their income to the ministry of their local church, whether we are giving a tithe before or after taxes.

To understand what’s at stake, we need to understand who the Pharisees and who the Herodians are.  Because Jesus has threatened the power of the Jerusalem leadership, an unexpected political alliance forms between the Pharisees and the Herodians.  The Herodians were a loose group associated with Herod’s court.  They were collaborators with Rome.  Meanwhile, the Pharisees wanted to throw off Roman rule.  Therefore, this is an alliance between the oppressed and the oppressors.  In response to their question, “is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  If Jesus said that it was right for Caesar to collect taxes, the Herodians would have been satisfied, but the Pharisees would have been infuriated.  If Jesus said it was not lawful, the Pharisees would have been satisfied and the Herodians would have been enraged.  But their question is not really about money.  It’s not about paying taxes.  By asking this question they each seek to undermine Jesus and their opponent’s power and increase their own.  The whole scene is about power, authority and sovereignty.  Jesus and their own power—and also who in the future will have the authority to make the rules.

The Pharisees and Herodians flattery of Jesus recalls the prophecies of Isaiah 2:2-4 and Micah 4:2-3, which speaks of the nations coming to Jerusalem to learn to walk in God’s ways.  The real issue here is the issue we heard in yesterday’s devotional.  Jesus’ vision of the place of Gentiles in the temple.  Who is going to make the rules when the nations come to Jerusalem?

Knowing their hypocrisy, Jesus said to them, “Why are you putting me to the test?  Bring me a denarius and let me see it.”  ¹⁶ And they brought one.  Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?”  They answered, “The Emperor’s.”  ¹⁷ Jesus said to them, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”  And they were utterly amazed at him.

Jesus dismissed their question by transcending the categories of   If the coin, which his opponents had to produce, revealing their own allegiances, had Caesar’s image on it, it must belong to him.  Caesar has made an idol and Jesus says, “give that idol back to Caesar – it is his.”  Jesus’ concern belongs elsewhere.  What matters to him is what belongs to God?  If the coin belonged to Caesar because it had his image on it?  What or better, who bears God’s image?  What matters to Jesus is those who bear God’s image – women and men, girls and boys, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile.   In his response Jesus is inviting us to take steps to extend the rule of God to everyone and everything that belongs to God.

Closing Prayer,

Dear God, during this Holy Week may I ponder how I am giving my life to you and how I am inviting others to belong to you too. Amen.