The Gospel of Luke 20:19-26 Render unto Caesar and to God
Luke 20:19-26 · Vern Peterman · Jul 10, 2016
Gospel of Luke, No. 77
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926536195678

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to be stepping our way through this passage that Courtney read for us here, Luke 20, 19 through 26. And without the donkey's help here, we're going to take a look here just at this perspective. Here's the Dead Sea kind of off in the background and Bethany. is the place where Jesus stayed during this crucifixion week with Mary and Martha and Lazarus, whom he had just resurrected, right? And then coming across the Mount of Olives over there to where the temple was, the Temple Mount, as it's labeled here. And we'll take another look at it here in terms of perspective.

You have this on the top of your handout. Here is Jerusalem in the time of Christ. Some of the walls that are on the west, north, and east side are ones that were built after the time when Christ was carrying on his ministry. About 40 to 42 AD is when those were built.

Bethany is about two miles to the east of where the temple is located there, or was located. And so we'll be zeroing in on this temple and what's there. This would be a picture looking from the Mount of Olives towards the temple as it was constructed. It wasn't one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but it was still a spectacular building as it was described by people who lived during the time. the inner part of the temple built of gleaming white stones with lots of gold including on the top they would have on the top this sort of spiky gold appearance to keep off the nasty birds because remember the Jews weren't allowed to have certain birds as food and so they wanted to keep the nasty birds away besides that they made a mess, right?

So, at any rate, so that was kind of the appearance. This is available as a supplement on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room. And just to highlight certain things, this is the courtyard. And in general on the perimeter, there was kind of a colonnade. And so that colonnade around the perimeter was a place where frequently Jesus would gather with others to teach. And so that was a fairly large area.

Here is the Fortress Antonia. This is where Jesus, in just a couple of days after the events that we're going to be reading about this morning and looking at, he would be beaten there. And there's also a prison there where he would be held temporarily. So this is the Fortress Antonia. It's also the place where Paul was grabbed and taken up into later on in the Book of Acts. And we're hoping to get through the Book of Acts and take another look at it from that standpoint. Here is the inner part of the temple. As a matter of fact, that arrow points down to what is inside the Holy of Holies.

And just to give you some sense of scale, that was about 15 stories high. So this is really tall. If you see a lot of the apartment buildings towards downtown, a lot of those are about 12 stories high. So a little bit taller than a lot of those buildings.

Additionally, right about here in the colonnade, there is a perspective we're going to go to next. So looking out from that would give you an idea what that looks like. So this would be looking out from that colonnade where Jesus might be teaching that was called Solomon's portico on that side of it and then this would be the the temple This was actually supposed to be a video clip, but it's not working. So we'll leave it at that The the Israel Antiquities Authority worked together with the UCLA to actually model this and so they actually got several of these and so I hope to get that working to be able to show to you. But it's a good idea to get a sense of what was this like? What would it be like to be in this, you know, colonnade and have Jesus be teaching?

The other thing to point out, this was very likely, just examining things, this was likely on Wednesday. Christ would be crucified two days later to give you some sense of perspective on this. This event, Luke 20, 19-26, appears to be just a couple of days before Christ's crucifixion. And I think as we go through this, that also is another perspective for us to look at here. According to the chronology developed by Dr. Harold Hohner on the earthquake during Christ's crucifixion, confirmed by Dr. Stephen Austin, a geologist, It appears that this interaction took place on April 1st, 33 AD.

Interesting, the scientific and historical information appears now increasingly to be able to pinpoint exactly when this took place. There's a parallel account in Matthew 22, 15 through 22. I put that in your handout. We won't go through it. It does add a few pieces of additional information, however. And so we'll draw upon that. So here's Luke 20, 19.

So it says, The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on him that very hour, and they feared the people, for they understood that he spoke this parable against them. And Jesus said, Your hat sure looks funny. Anyway, they sure did wear weird looking hats anyway.

Okay, so plan A here was to arrest Jesus, right? So the initial plan that day was to arrest Jesus, which is to be done by the temple guard. They had the temple guard. Matter of fact, the temple guard would be the ones who showed up later in the Garden of Gethsemane, and we'll be taking a look at that before long. And then the temple guard would then hand Jesus over to the Roman authorities for crucifixion.

So that was the plan. That was plan A. There are two details about that particular time we'll take a look at in order to understand this dilemma that these guys were in. So we'll look at that shortly. One had to do with the Romans, and another part of the dilemma had to do with the Jews. So we'll examine that in just a minute.

First of all, take a look, we've got four groups are described when we put Matthew and Luke together here. One, we have the Sadducees, then we have the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Herodians. So we put these accounts together. So first we have members of the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees, who are the chief priests. Again, there was only one chief priest at a time, but former chief priests were still called, you know, chief priests. And so that's how they're referred to in the New Testament. In addition to that, we have the Pharisees who make up the majority of the Sanhedrin, as well as their friends, the scribes.

Now, aside from the Pharisees and the scribes, a lot of these groups were frequently in contention with one another. As a matter of fact, sometimes great contention with one another, but they all looked upon Jesus as such an enemy that they were willing to put that all aside in order to be able to cooperate with something to get this guy nailed down. And then even the very politically inclined Herodians, that's those who supported the family of Herod reigning, teamed up to try to arrest Jesus, right?

To come up with something here. So we have the Sanhedrin and their friendly enemies in a huddle, as we pointed out last week. So they're in a huddle. How are we going to take care of this? And at first they're thinking, we need to arrest this guy. And they're like, nah, we've got a problem because we've got all the people out there and, you know, we're going to take a look at that here in a minute. So there are two time windows, the Roman and the Jewish time window to take a look at.

So the opportunity of the leaders of the Jews to have Jesus tried, Roman trial, and then crucified by the Romans was because Pontius Pilate's headquarters were not in Caesarea, excuse me, was in Caesarea, not in Jerusalem. So this is key. Pilate came to Jerusalem only on visits. and otherwise he would stay over in Caesarea. So the Jewish leader's thing, in order for us to have him tried and crucified, we have to catch Jesus while Pilate is in town, which is only going to be for a certain number of days, and then we're going to lose our opportunity until the next time he comes in.

So they looked at that as, okay, here's a time window. So here we have Caesarea, which was, by the way, something that was created as a port and military installation under Herod the Not-So-Great. And so this was a Herod the Not-So-Great created city and port facility. And then we have Jerusalem here, which is, of course, where the Jews are located.

The key thing is Pilate only comes in for visits from time to time, and when he comes, he comes with a contingent of soldiers, because otherwise there aren't that many just in Jerusalem. They're all over Caesarea. So they have a particular time window that they have here in order to get Pilate to try Jesus hand down a sentence of crucifixion. So Pilate would come over from time to time, especially at the times of the Jewish feasts, with an extra contingent of Roman soldiers.

Why? To keep him safe and also to keep control in the Roman hands. Because here's the Jewish time window. The Jewish time window was that the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread created a problem for the leaders in carrying out their plan. Here's why.

Ordinarily, there were about 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem. A bit more if you include the villages like Bethany and Bethphage in the surrounding area. But during feast times, the population of the Jerusalem area would swell to about a quarter million people. Huge increases. And by the way, the people who lived in Jerusalem and in the surrounding area were expected to host this huge swell of Jews. The Jews would come from Rome, they would come from Babylon, they would come from the northern and southern Mediterranean, and it was a huge swell of Jews.

They were expected to host all this huge increase of people, and you were not allowed to charge. for hosting all these people. But a massive increase. So you have all these people who have sometimes traveled from great distance to be here during this feast time.

And of course, that was a time when the Romans were nervous because they didn't want this thing turning into a mess. Some kind of riot or disturbance of some kind. So you had, one, the Romans are there because there's lots of Jews. That's why Pilate's there, that's why Pilate brings over some extra soldiers from Caesarea, because of all the Jews that have come into the city and the area around it.

At the same time, there are lots and lots of Jews there, and you don't want to do anything to get them upset, because they might riot, and there's no way to keep control of them. The Romans and the Temple Guard together, Temple guard might only include less than a thousand. Less than a thousand. Could not keep 250,000 rioting Jews under control without massive bloodshed.

They'd just have to start killing a bunch of them. Even if they worked together, that would be the case. So you didn't want instability to happen, right? That was bad. So for Jesus to be generally well-received by the people was a huge problem for the leaders of the Jews. Why? It's because you might get a riot started if they're not happy with what you did. So it was real touchy. Lots of tension. On Wednesday, right before the Passover, on Thursday evening, lots of Jews are gathering, including Jesus and his disciples. The plan was to catch Jesus in some fatal error. To catch Jesus in some fatal error.

Jesus, as we had studied before, had told a parable of the vine growers, in which the vine growers beat and sent away empty three servants. Ordinarily, the expectation was the servant comes in, he gets his contracted percentage of the crop, turns around and sells it and takes the money back to the owner who is somewhere else. That would be the usual plan. They went through and beat three servants, then killed the owner's son.

And this was spoken against the leaders. Problem. The Jewish leaders, including members of the Sanhedrin, the ruling council, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Scribes, and the Herodians understood that this parable was aimed right at them. Jesus told them, you guys are gonna kill me. He told them that. And for that, they said, oh yes, we are. So here's Luke 2, 20, 20.

So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be righteous in order that they might catch him in some statement so that they could deliver him to the rule and authority of the governor. So you can see what they're cranking on in terms of a plan. They were hoping to do it that day. Why didn't Jesus let that happen that day? But we'll get to that. Okay. All right. So there's good guys, eyes, ears and spies, right?

So the mixture of otherwise contentious groups of Jews, they ordinarily they were squabbling with one another. And by the way, doesn't mean the Pharisees were all united. They actually had great areas of debate and contesting between one another. In some records we have they had 300 different doctrinal areas of difference within the Pharisees. So, that doesn't mean the Pharisees were all together on things, but these groups were especially contending with one another.

They sent a delegation to Jesus to spy on Him, listening very carefully and watching very closely. This word for spy, the word translated spy, means someone who is hired to lie in wait. Hired to lie in wait. They would pretend to be very righteous, even complimenting Jesus publicly to see if they could catch Him in something that would end up sending Him to the Romans to get killed. So they're going to watch and they're going to listen and try to catch Jesus in some fatal error. But meanwhile, they're going to be very nice about the way that they present themselves.

So you start getting the picture here, this is a very tense time, between the small Roman time window. In other words, we can't just eventually let this happen. We've got a time window here and we've got to get her done. Pilate's going to be in Jerusalem only for a certain period of time. And if we don't get this thing done, he's going to go and this thing isn't going to happen.

Then, there's the great crowds of Jews. The great crowds of Jews, and you don't want to get them upset. And right now, it's not looking very good because the Jews seem to generally favor Jesus. So we've got to somehow pull this off without, you know, having this thing get a hiccup where the people start a riot, where the Romans say, uh-uh, not doing this, right? So this delegation of righteous acting, very complimentary spies, hired to lie in wait, had to find something pretty soon. But they had to also pull it off very carefully. So as to play both the Romans and the Jewish crowds, huge number of Jews. The very next day, everybody would be preoccupied with Passover. So it's like, OK, if we're going to ask questions, today's the day. We've got to get her done today. They had a problem, however.

It has to do with who Jesus actually was. The leaders of the Jews had rejected Jesus as deity. And by the way, Orthodox Jews today who are looking for the Messiah's coming as a descendant of David. reject the Messiah's deity. Still, they don't look upon the Messiah's deity. So Jesus' claim to be deity and the Messiah to them was just unthinkable.

So they didn't realize who he was and they were not going to be able to catch him in a fatal flaw. So they kept trying and trying. We're going to actually see two more attempts after this one. Two more attempts. to try to nail Him this same day. But who Jesus really was kept them from being able to fool Jesus about who they really were and what they were thinking. Can you imagine? These guys are just desperate to come up with some kind of question that will nail Jesus. Meanwhile, who is Jesus?

He is, in fact, deity. He knows everything they're going to ask ahead of time. He knows how it's going to turn out. He knows not only that they are not going to succeed, but that he himself will lay his own life down when the time is right. The time is not right yet. Jesus had told them a parable that said that they would kill him. So it's going to happen. Jesus knows it. And he knows that they understand the parable. Luke 20, 21, and they question him, saying, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and you're not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth.

Now, is there anything in error about anything that was just said? Everything there is true, but it's not what these guys meant, right? It's not what they intended. They spoke falsely in everything that they said, but told him the truth in doing so. They just didn't believe it. So, teacher we know. Oh, the Jews would call a revered teacher a rabbi. That actually literally means great one. It's a euphemism for teacher. So they just come right out and say, teacher.

These men who have been sent as spies, literally the one hired to lie in wait, begin by addressing Jesus respectfully, but in fact their intention is to kill Him. That's nice. Next they lie to Him, telling Him that they know that He speaks and teaches correctly, when in fact they don't believe that. Now does He speak and teach correctly. Yes, He does. They just don't believe it. So they're telling the truth, but they're lying. But wait, there's more.

Exodus 23, 2 and 3 and Leviticus 19, 15 from the Law of Moses require that Jews making a judgment about anything cannot be partial to the poor or even the masses. So what do they tell Jesus? He's hired to lie and wait liars with fatal intent, tell Jesus that he even complies with the law of Moses in this regard.

He's not partial. Boy, you are right down the line, Jesus, right? In order to try to trap him, so they thought. You teach the way of God in truth. In Jewish vernacular, they falsely tell Jesus that He teaches the law of Moses without bias or partiality. That would be what they are intending to convey. And what He teaches is the truth.

So we take a look at the words they have here. Everything they said was true. They just didn't believe a word of it. None of what they said is with good intent, nor do they believe it. They spoke the absolute truth, but because they didn't believe it, they were lying. And the intent was not to do anything good, but to find something that will kill him. Isn't that amazing?

So then the question comes across, is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? So let's say what their question is not. Their question is not, does Roman law require that we pay taxes to Caesar? Well, of course it does, right? That's not their question. Their question instead, does the law of Moses prohibit us from paying taxes to Caesar? That's what they're asking.

And what they're hoping that he will answer is, well, of course the law of Moses prohibits you from paying taxes to Caesar, because then they could turn him over to the Roman authorities and job done, right? So they're hoping he'd come out and say in front of everyone, the law of Moses is prohibited, prohibits paying taxes to Caesar, right? So these hired-to-lie-and-wait liars with a deadly intent were hoping that Jesus would just outright say, Law of Moses prohibits you from paying taxes to Caesar. And they'd say, that's great.

See that Fortress Antonio over there? We're just going to walk over there and see it in a bit. They could walk across to that Fortress Antonio that we showed in the diagram there, turn Jesus into the Romans, He would be crucified promptly, or at least that's what they were hoping.

In the worst case, if they didn't get that answer out of Jesus, then maybe they could get an answer out of Jesus that would have the rest of the Jews looking at Jesus not so favorably, and that might help with their other problem, that is, the Jews were looking at Him too favorably. So they figured, you know, we with this question might get Jesus killed, but at very least, if it comes off badly, they thought, then the people who all hated the Roman tax collectors, the people would turn against Jesus. At least that's what they were hoping. So if Jesus would do something, would offend the Jews, it would get the Jews out of the equation.

So Luke 20, 23, and 24, but he detected their trickery and said to them, show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? And they said, Caesar's. So a denarius was a coin that was used during biblical New Testament times. It was an average day's wage for a laborer. It was also for the lowest level Roman soldier. It was their typical wage. And so he says, show me a denarius, show me a coin. And he had spelled out that specific coin. And we'll soon see why he asked for that one and not others.

So now just so we get the background here is Deuteronomy 28, 15. And I didn't have this in the slide, but But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe, to do all His commandments and His statutes, which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Some of them specific to this situation is Deuteronomy 28-25. The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies. Have they been defeated before their enemies? Yes, 63 B.C. was when the Romans came in.

Next, Deuteronomy 28.33, A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually.

And then Deuteronomy 28.48, Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. And verse 49, The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth. So guess what? All this has happened. Why? because they didn't obey the law of Moses. These are all curses God told would happen in the first place if they didn't obey.

So, what we see in this instance in verses 23 and 24, Jesus, instead of just responding to their request, made them produce the coin. You guys, show me the coin that you guys have. Show me a denarius coin. So he made them produce the coin from their own possession. It was an open admission that they were under a pagan Roman government because they were disobedient to the law of Moses. You guys produced this coin, right?

I'm going to take a further look at that coin. He asked them to say whose likeness and inscription were on the coin. Both the front and the back of this Denarius coin have an image and inscription. We'll take a look at here. Here it is and you have it on page three of your handout. So here's a Denarius coin from the time.

And the Romans use some abbreviations, but nonetheless, both sides have some inscription on it, and both of them also have a likeness or image on the face there. So the first one shows a picture of, in the writing, when you expand the abbreviations, it says, Augustus Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus. and on the back of it shows ruling from a throne and then it says Pontiff Maxim. This is where the title for the Pope comes from, from the title for the Roman Emperor.

So here's Deuteronomy 5, 8 through 10. You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers of the children and on the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not make for yourself any likeness."

Whose likeness is it? Here's what Jesus could have asked but didn't. Jesus could have asked, why are you guys carrying around another nation's likeness of a pagan deity living clearly in violation of the Law of Moses? You guys are carrying around with you in your pocket this likeness of a pagan deity. And you guys always do that? And he could have said, did you guys know that you're under the Romans and carrying around their coins because you're living in violation of the law of Moses? And that's why you're paying taxes to Rome.

He could have said that, but he didn't need to. Here's Luke 20, 25. And he said to them, then, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Now, this is a brilliantly ambiguous answer, right? Because what did it do? It had them say, OK, here's this image of Caesar, and you guys know you've got that. It had them decide what's God's and what's Caesar's, instead of what they were hoping for him to do, and that is to answer it one way or the other. He didn't tell them not to pay taxes to Caesar. Nor did he tell them not to reserve everything material for God. He left it with them for them to decide what's Caesar's and what's God's. Even the coins brought into the temple treasury violated the law of Moses. You see, the Jews didn't issue their own coins. All the coins that they used were coins produced by pagans around them. So every coin had some image on it. And this particular one that Jesus asked for was the worst, because not only did it have an image on it, but it said that that Caesar was divine. Here's Luke 20, 26.

And they were unable to catch him in a saying in the presence of the people, and being amazed at his answer, they became silent. The attempts to catch Jesus over words were not getting it done for the Jews leaders, even though they would try a couple more times.

They'd already tried before and had tried this last time in a joint effort among the parties. The next two attempts, likely taking place that very day, would be the Sadducees saying, hey look, this group thing isn't working, so we're going to try a Sadducee only question. So they try that, and Jesus shuts them down. And then the Pharisees have one more try, and then he shuts them down. So, the questions are not going to catch him. They're going to have to lie and manipulate to kill Jesus. That's what it comes down to. And that's what they did. Here is what the leaders of the Jews do not understand on this day when they're coming to him with tricky questions again and again.

Here's John 10. 11 through 18, I am, and that was by the way a claim to deity, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And by the way, from the Old Testament, who's the Good Shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd, right? He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.

I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, I lay down my life. He will do it voluntarily in His timing. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again."

He will not be subject to some tricky question. He will lay down his life at the right time. which will only be a little more than a day later than this. But he will lay down his life. It won't be because they caught him in a trick question. It says this, I lay down my life so that I may take it again, which means he's going to be resurrected. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my Father.

It wasn't the right time. It wasn't the right time. He still had a little more than one day with his disciples. And he had some very important things to tell his disciples. And that wasn't going to be shorted. He would say things like, in my father's house, or many mansions, I go to prepare a place for you. I'll come again and take you to myself that where I am you may be also. He needed to have time to say that. He needed to have time to tell them, as he did and is recorded in John 14, 15, and 16, to tell them about the Holy Spirit's coming. He needed to have time to tell them that.

He was not going to let this time get cut short. At the right time, he would lay his own life down. Voluntarily not as a victim Not getting caught short. He would lay his own life down for you and for me Entirely voluntarily entirely in his time and the Jews would have to lie and manipulate to get it done But Jesus would lay down his life for voluntarily because he loves you and me.

Let's pray. Lord we thank you as we look through this account we see yes the Lord refused every single opportunity that men were taking and in fact when his life was taken it was his own initiative that he laid his life down for us and we thank you for that. We thank you that in that You've just shown your love and your care and even that you wanted to delay this event just for the sake of leaving instruction with the disciples. And we do just give you thanks. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.