The tax trap – Luke 20:19-26.

Well, I do have that passage open in

front of you. Luke chapter 20. That will

Luke 20 · chapter mention

be helpful for you. Um, historically,

I've had a very hard time saying no.

Now, I'm sure I said no plenty as a

child, uh, probably at quite some volume

and probably some considerable pitch as

well, as children have a way of doing.

Uh but as time went on, I began to

realize that when I said yes to the

things that people asked of me, they

would like me more. Well, that's how I

experienced it. They would be happy with

me.

The word no, which was so easy,

became a lot harder.

I like it when people like me.

In the context of churches, you can say

yes to things because you want to serve

God.

But it's very easy to know actually that

in your heart your motivation is not to

please God but to please people

or or going back to me as a child

screaming no. If you are blessed with

children, when it's your child screaming

no in public,

is your reaction to them based on what

your child needs

or on what the people around you are

going to be thinking of you?

And when you make a mistake, do you try

and cover it up

or do you own it?

And when you didn't know something that

someone said, for example, men who were

here last night, that there are 42 dots

on a pair of dice, right? If you pretend

to have known something you didn't

really know,

well, what's that saying about you?

When you walk into church like

everything is fine,

and it isn't.

Very often the thing that lies behind

these experiences is what the Bible

calls the fear of man.

When our words, our actions, and our

thoughts are shaped by our concern for

what other people might say, do, or

think rather than being shaped by a

concern for what God thinks.

And here in Luke's account of some spies

of the religious leaders sent to try and

trap Jesus in his words, we see the fear

of man writ large over the scene,

except of course in the person of the

Lord Jesus Christ.

So we're aiming at the fear of man today

to see it for what it is, to see what it

does, and to see how it is counted.

And that will lead us into a time where

we will share in the Lord's supper

together. So let's walk through the

passage. First of all, the plan. Verse

19 of Luke chapter 20. The scribes and

Luke 20 · chapter mention

the chief priests sought to lay hands on

him at that very hour. For they

perceived that he had told this parable

against them, but they feared the

people.

I got us to reread that parable which

Matt took us through very helpfully last

week.

uh the story of those some people who

were appointed as tenants to a vineyard

who reject the owner of the vineyard.

They want it for themselves

ultimately going so far as to kill the

owner's son

and so the owner will come along destroy

the tenants and give the vineyard to

others and Jesus uh the religious

leaders know is speaking about them.

They are being accused of trying to

replace the authority of God over his

people with their own authority. They

are trying to seize the vineyard, which

was a commonly used idiom in the Old

Testament for the people of Israel,

God's people of the Old Testament.

And so verse 19 tells us they want to

lay hands on him. They want to deal with

this man who would dare to challenge

them.

But

they feared the people.

Think about it. If the worst that they

assume about Jesus is true, which seems

to be that Jesus is some sort of

populist politician upstart who has

managed to dupe a large group of people

into listening to him. If that really is

true, surely they should act here.

They are the religious leaders of the

people after all.

Sure, a crowd might be against them,

but they must try.

But as we see elsewhere, and so we see

here, they're not really concerned for

the religious well-being of the people.

It's their own authority that they love.

In fact, Luke tells us specifically,

it's not that they've been worn down by

Jesus triumphing them over them again

and again in debate. The reason they

won't act in the open is because they

themselves are what they would accuse

Jesus of being. They would say he's the

populist politician who's just saying

what people want to hear so that they

follow him. Really, they are the

populists.

They don't want to get on the wrong side

of the crowd.

They fear the people.

And so they resort to another method to

try and get at Jesus. Verse 20. So they

watched him and sent spies who pretended

to be sincere that they might catch him

in something he said so as to deliver

him up to the authority and jurisdiction

of the governor.

This marks a shift in their policy.

Remember, at this point, we're within

what is sometimes called Holy Week, the

week that leads up to the events of Good

Friday when Jesus is crucified.

It's here that they start to decide

they're not going to act in the open.

They're not going to arrest him in the

temple courts during the day.

Ultimately, it will be at night in a

garden under the cover of darkness.

Indeed, as Jesus will say to them in

chapter 22:53,

he says to them, "When I was with you

day after day in the temple, you did not

lay hands on me. But this is your hour

and the power of darkness."

They're going to resort now explicitly

to lies and deception.

And this leads them to that moment in

the garden. It's a phase shift that

occurs here.

They send spies to catch Jesus in

something that he says. Can they make

him say something that will mean they

can go to the governor who is Pontius

Pilate and say, "He said this. You need

to deal with him."

Well, we carry on looking at the passage

by looking at the question.

The question,

uh, a gossip is a really nasty thing.

Uh, it's a blight that we all too easily

tolerate. Gossip is when you say

something about a person behind their

back that you would never say to their

face.

Well, flattery, flattery is the opposite

of that. Flattery is where you say to

someone's face what you would never say

about them behind their back. Flattery

is often manipulative,

assuming that what people most want to

hear is praise.

Um, have you heard of the the love

languages? This is something that a few

years ago became very popular. I think

it's it's still hanging around. There's

other things that have come up, but it's

this idea that there are different ways

in which we might express or receive

love. You can go online and do a little

questionnaire and find out what your

love language is. Yeah. Is it

giftgiving, acts of service? Is it

physical touch, quality time, words of

affirmation? Can be a very helpful tool.

But one of the traps of the love

languages is that once we identify, oh

yeah, that's how I like to be loved. One

of the things that often seems to happen

is we become more overt in doing the

things that we want other people to do

to us so that they will see that that's

what we want. Now, that's not quite the

love others as you would be loved

yourself. It's actually not at all. To

love others as you would be loved

yourself is to try and seek out what's

best for them. Not try and hint at, hey,

look, I've done the dishes again. Be

great if you did the dishes. Hey, look,

I've given you a gift again. I'd love it

if you gave me a gift. It becomes a

selfserving thing. Love for others

becomes really a love for self. And that

can be true with flattery as well. A

person who flatters other people, puffs

them up, often does so

because that's what they want for

themselves.

Someone assumes, "Yeah, I like having

nice things said to me, so I'll say a

bunch of nice things to them, even if

they're not true."

Well, look at what the spies do. Verse

21. So they asked him, "Teacher, we know

that you speak and teach rightly and

show no partiality, but truly teach the

way of God." Obviously, I'm emphasizing

it there, but do you see they're trying

to flatter Jesus?

And here is the fear of man showing up

again.

They themselves are most concerned about

what other people think of them.

They very much exist within the fear of

man as their of u the normal way they

operate.

They are so consumed by the fact that

they care about what other people think

that when they think about how they can

trap Jesus, their first thought is,

"Hey, he must be the same as us.

So let's flatter him. We care about what

other people think. He must care so much

about what other people think."

This is what the fear of man can do.

When the fear of man is a significant

factor in how you work in life, it will

distort your view of other people.

You'll start to assume the same

motivation in them and change the way

that you behave because of that.

Now, the irony is of course what they

intend as flattery is absolutely true.

Jesus does speak and teach rightly. He

does not show partiality. He is not

driven by a fear of man as another way

of saying not showing partiality. He

does truly teach the way of God.

So as they unwittingly

speak the truth about Jesus, they're

actually laying bear the truth of their

own hearts. They love praise.

So they give praise, albeit insincerely.

And then comes their question to butter

him up a bit. Butter him up. and then a

question. Uh, this is what they're going

to try and catch Jesus out with. Make

him say something that will get him in

trouble with Pilate, the governor of the

region. In fact, interestingly, they try

to use the same method by which Jesus

has just stumped them only a few verses

before. At the start of the chapter,

they ask Jesus, "By whose authority? By

what authority do you do this?" Jesus

replies in verse three, he answered

them, I also will ask you a question.

Now tell me, was the baptism of John

from heaven or from man? And they

discussed it with one another, saying,

if we say from heaven, he will say, why

did you not believe him? But if we say

from man, all the people will stone us

to death, for they are convinced that

John was a prophet. Jesus asked them a

question they couldn't answer, the

unanswerable question. And so they tried

to do the same thing. Verse

22.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to

Caesar or not?

The subject of the question is a tax

paid to Caesar. Um unlike other taxes,

this would go straight to the imperial

household, straight to Caesar. And

Luke's original readers, and remember,

we know from the start of Luke's gospel

that he's addressing Theophilos, which

is a Roman name. is a gentile, a

non-Jew, they would have been very

familiar with this sort of tax. They

would have known what this question was

about without really even having to

think about it

because this tax, this tribute to Caesar

is a sign that you're under the

authority of the emperor.

You pay it to him because you're under

his power. At the time, it was Tiberius

who was Caesar. paying it was a kind of

act of submission.

Well, the crowd of Jews that Jesus is

surrounded by generally do not like this

tax.

And so, the spies are banking on Jesus

being driven by a fear of man. They're

banking on him being a populist

who will say what the crowd wants to

hear to keep his following. And the

populist answer in a crowd of Jews in

the temple where he's having this debate

would be this. No, we shouldn't pay this

tax. We are Jews. The only leader we

submit to is Yahweh, is God.

And of course, an answer like that would

get him killed as a rebel by the Romans.

On the other hand, if Jesus was driven

by the fear of man, if what he cared

most was was what this crowd thought of

him,

uh, then saying that it was right to pay

the tax would be the wrong thing to do.

If he cares about what these people

think, if he says we should pay it, the

crowd isn't going to like him. That

would be an unpopular thing to say. And

it seems a very clever question. I'm

sure as they came up with it, they were

very pleased with it. Rubbing their

hands together, scheming as spies. It's

a lose-lose, Jesus. Here you go. Here's

a taste of your own medicine. Here's a

question you can't answer. Either Jesus

gets killed as a rebel or all of your

followers are going to leave you.

But

the fear of God silences the fear of man

as we shall see in the answer.

Meeting your potential in-laws can be an

intimidating prospect.

Uh, when your potential mother-in-law

has a degree in psychology and extensive

experience in the field, take it from

me, it's very easy to worry that they

have X-ray vision and can see everything

about you, [snorts] every little messed

up thing about you and why you just

aren't suitable.

Now, of course, my in-laws are

delightful and very gracious. And if any

x-raying went on, I didn't I wasn't made

to feel it.

But Jesus,

Jesus has this X-ray vision. He knows

the hearts of men. Being perfectly in

tune with his body and with his

knowledge of the brokenness of humanity,

he sees exactly what's going on in these

spies. Verse 23, but he perceived their

craftiness

and said to them, see Jesus knows. He

knows what they're up to. He can see the

tax trap laid out for him. And in a

brilliant display of wisdom, he shows us

that he knows the perfect answer. Verse

24,

show me a dinarius.

Whose likeness and inscription does it

have? They said Caesars. And we pause

there.

Uh wisdom can be defined as when someone

knows what is right or knows what is

true and they act accordingly. you know

what's true and so your life is shaped

by it. So for example, if you know that

you haven't eaten for a little while and

you know that tends to make you a little

bit more irritable, before you go into

that meeting, you should have a banana.

Right? It's that that's wisdom, isn't

it? Knowing yourself. I know what's true

about me. I will act accordingly. Or you

know that the kids are going to start to

play up if they have to hang around for

too long. So you make a plan to leave

within a sensible window of time. That's

wisdom.

When the Bible says the fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom, it's saying

that ultimately to be wise, one must

know what is true about God and act

accordingly.

Well, Jesus here embodies great wisdom.

Because think about it, everybody in

that crowd would have been able to

answer the question, whose likeness is

on a dinarius? They would all have

known. But that's not what Jesus asks

initially, is it?

I mean, we all know that the king's face

is the face that appears on a new stamp

that you buy. They all know it's going

to be Tiberius Caesar.

But he doesn't ask that. He asks firstly

to be shown a dinarius.

Now, a plain reading of the passage

suggests that the spies who have come to

trip him up are the ones who produce the

coin. They're the ones he's speaking to.

A and remember part of this trap part of

the trap of their question is that

paying the tax was unpopular because it

it reflected a submission to Caesar, a

submission to the Romans.

They think that Jesus won't want to say

uh that they should pay the tax because

they assume that he has the same fear of

man as they do. He wants to keep the

crowd happy. You know, we don't live

under the Roman yoke. We live under

gods.

But not only does Jesus not have that

problem, he's also able to expose that

the question that they're asking is

actually irrelevant.

Paying the tax is a sign of submission

to the Romans.

By making them reach in their pockets or

whatever they had, bags maybe, and

produce a coin,

Jesus is showing, hang on, you're

already submitting to the Roman

authorities. You're already under their

sphere of influence because you use

their coins.

You have one on you because you use

them.

And so the question already becomes moot

by the fact that they pull it out of

their own pockets. They've already

answered their own question. And then

Jesus speaks some of the most famous

words in the Bible. Verse 25, he said to

them, "Then render to Caesar the things

that are Caesars's and to God the things

that are God's."

And here is the winsome, wholesome

wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You live under the authority of the

Romans. Therefore, the Romans have a

right to make you pay tax.

Some of the Jews feared that by paying

this tax to Caesar, they were aligning

themsel with his acts.

And they were concerned because Tiberius

Caesar was a man who followed the pagan

Roman religion. Were they betraying the

one true God by paying tax to a man who

worshiped the Roman pantheon and was

engaged in all kinds of gross

immorality?

Well, Jesus makes clear, no, submission

to an authority is not the same as

endorsing everything about it.

The rest of the New Testament speaks

about this. We won't go into this, but

Romans 13 and the first seven verses are

particularly key as we think about our

relationship with the authorities.

But the spies are trying to make Jesus

make a political statement.

And he does, but not in the way that

they expect.

And it doesn't have the damning effect

they hope for because the prop for

Jesus's point comes from their very own

pockets.

And Jesus says something far more

radical than that they should pay the

tax. Verse 25 again he said to them

render to Caesar the things that are

Caesars's and to God the things that are

gods.

He's saying yes you should submit to the

authorities over you. Yes, they do have

a claim over your money and your

obedience,

but that comes under the overarching,

all-encompassing, totally eclipsing

majesty of the rule of God, of whom it

is said, "His dominion is an everlasting

dominion, which shall not pass away, and

his kingdom one that shall not be

destroyed."

Now, to translate this into our own

times, right? Yes. Kstama and his

government have a legitimate claim on

your money in the form of taxes.

Yes, you are bound by the laws of this

country.

Now, while a a totalitarian regime might

try to seize control of every aspect of

a person's life by force, you think of

North Korea,

the domination of home, of work, of your

leisure time, of your religion,

everything. They try to seize it all by

force.

Well, the kingdom of God does make a

totalitarian claim on you,

but not by force.

It doesn't seize control by violence,

but by relentless grace and mercy and

love.

By virtue of the fact that he is our

creator, God is due all that we are.

render to God what is God's. We are his.

Sin truly is rebellion.

And there are horrific tales that can be

told from history of how rebels have

been dealt with by human authorities.

And you think back in the history of our

own country here, the practice of

hanging, drawing, and quartering speaks

to a brutality that was applied to

rebels.

The response of God to our rebellion

is the cross.

Sending Jesus, the son of God, to pay

for our rebellion.

Where we absolutely deserve to be

crushed, he was

where we deserve nothing but the wroth

of God. He bore the wroth of God that we

might know the love of God.

And each one of us must put our faith in

Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins to

shelter in what Christ has done for us

on the cross. Otherwise, the day will

come when we will face the consequence

for our rebellion.

If Jesus had been accused of being a

rebel, if he'd fallen into the tax trap,

the Romans would have dealt with him

probably in a similar way to which he

was finally dealt with, a crucifixion.

Of course, there was no charge against

him that could be brought.

The charge of rebelling against an

eternally glorious God

for rejecting his eternally wonderful

offer of forgiveness

is eternal punishment in hell.

Render unto star what is staras, but

render unto God what is God's.

For those of us who are trusting in

Christ, while Romans 13 tells us how to

respond to the governing authorities,

Romans 12 tells us what rendering unto

God looks like.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by

the mercies of God to present your

bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God, which is your

spiritual worship.

It is a totality of all that you are

that should be given to God. What begins

as an attempt to catch Jesus out in his

words ends as an opportunity for Jesus

yet again to display his wisdom. They

assume he operates under the fear of

man. But the fear of God which Jesus

bears silences the fear of man.

Verse 26. And they were not able in the

presence of the people to catch him in

what he said. But marveling at his

answer, they became silent.

So

when I find it hard to say no

and because I like people to think well

of me, to be pleased with me,

when your reaction to your child is more

based on what other people might think

than what is actually right.

Now when you make a mistake and cover it

up to avoid damaging your reputation.

When you pretend to have known something

that you don't,

when you walk into church like

everything is fine and it isn't.

Understand that for what it is.

Often, not always, but often it is

rooted in the fear of man. When man has

become big and God has become small. A

really helpful quote by Ed Welch. When

man has become big in our vision and God

has become small,

we should see in the religious leaders

here how destructive the fear of man is.

It leads them to distort the truth.

They are controlled by the fear of the

crowd. And so rather than truly consider

what Jesus has challenged them on,

they try to find a way to make Jesus the

bad guy.

The fear of man distorts our view of

other people.

They assume that Jesus operates in the

same way that they do. They think

they're setting a trap up for Jesus. But

for them, I've not put the verse up. I

thought I had. The fear of man lays a

snare. As we thought about with the

children, Proverbs 25:29.

The whole premise of their trap is that

Jesus is a populist who will try and

keep the crowd happy in the way that

they are. They flatter him because

flattery is what they really desire.

Jesus shows us that the fear of God

silences the fear of man. Jesus doesn't

allow the crowd and their opinion of him

to change the way he acts. He operates

in wisdom.

He's shaped by what he knows is true

because he knows who God is.

He knows that the opinion that matters

is God the Father's.

Now, that's not to say that Jesus didn't

care of what the other people around him

thought of him. Clearly, he had close

friendships with him with them. Of

course, he cared about what they thought

of him, but his life wasn't shaped by

those things.

It wasn't a way to feel good about

himself that he was concerned for what

they thought in love for them. He was

concerned as to what they thought of

him. And at the end of the day, Jesus

actions were always shaped by who God

is. His relationship with God the Father

came first.

So, does it feel impossible?

Does it feel impossible that you would

ever overcome the fear of man and speak

up about Jesus when the opportunity

comes when you're with a group of

non-Christian colleagues or family

members? You know that feeling? You've

been a Christian for any length of time.

Really,

here's my opportunity. I could say

something. The fear of man

keeps it from your lips.

Does it feel impossible

that you would ever be able to ignore

the judgment of others as you seek to

please God in what you do?

Even if they're going to think of you a

as a fool for parenting in a gospel-

centered way or being sacrificial with

your money or whatever else it is, those

things might feel out of reach.

If the fear of man feels too strong,

remember this in the gospel, we don't

only receive the forgiveness of sins.

We also receive the righteousness of

Christ.

So that when God looks on us, he doesn't

just see someone who's morally neutral,

sins forgiven, but that's it. He sees

the perfection of his son.

But there's more.

The power of sin over us is broken

through Jesus on the cross. The power of

the fear of man over you is already

defeated.

The reason we struggle with the fear of

man is not because the fear of man is

too hard to remove,

but because we forget what is true.

Because we failed to live by faith in

the son of God who never gave in to the

fear of man so that the fear of man in

our lives would be broken. Look to Jesus

in a crowd asked a question designed to

trip him up assuming his heart to be

shaped by a love for approval from his

followers. But Jesus who spoke in a

staggering marvelous silencing wisdom

out of a fear of God.

The death of the fear of man in your

life has already been achieved if your

faith is in Jesus. The moment you became

a believer, the power of the fear of man

over you was ultimately broken.

Now sometimes our faith will waver.

We lose sight of the gospel.

Man becomes big, God becomes small.

But by the power of the Holy Spirit and

in the infinite love and mercy and

goodness of the kingdom of God, we

overcome in Christ.

And do you believe that

as you look at Jesus

and do you realize he he lived the way

he did

and that the power of sin over you would

be broken?

Will you exercise faith

in Christ? The fear of God silences the

fear of man.

The fear of God is displayed by faith in

Jesus.

Faith in Jesus and overcoming in him is

exercised

as we prioritize gathering as his body,

the church.

So

don't go to home group this week in

order to please your group leaders.

That's the fear of man.

And don't come to the prayer meeting to

make the pastors happy. Don't come

consistently on a Sunday and share

fellowship with your brothers and

sisters in Christ in order to be

impressive to each other.

That's the fear of man.

No. No. Render unto God what is God's.

Fear God, not man. Exercise faith in

what the Bible says to be true.

The church is the family of God. We need

each other to overcome the fear of man

to be reminded of what has been achieved

for us in Jesus.

We need the church.

God will supply exactly what we need in

this life.

But not just as individuals, as a

family. He has supplied his church here

with exactly what is needed for each of

us to walk faithfully in the fear of God

and not the fear of man.

And so fear God, not man, in the way you

prioritize your church family.

Now, of course, dark nights are hard for

some to come out in. Uh for some, being

able to physically gather with the

church is nearly impossible.

If you find yourself in that situation

or those situations, please do talk with

the leaders of this church. We can run

prayer meetings during the day if that's

what's needed. We can try and help

arrange lifts. We can make sure there'll

be a meal for your family that's already

cooked if that's what it takes.

But render unto God what is God's. Fear

God. And so put the fear of man to

death.

It shouldn't surprise us that a neglect

of the church will lead to a growing

fear of man.

Express your faith in Christ, the head

of the church, by gathering with the

body.

By prayer and in the power of the Holy

Spirit, the fear of man loses the

strength of its grip on your heart.

Look to Jesus.