Matthew 22:15-22 - Giving What is Rightfully His

If you would take your Bible and turn with me over to Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

Jesus shines brighter than the sun, and we get to see the sun in all of his brightness in this passage of scripture.

Those of you that are just visiting or coming, we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew together.

We've been working our way through it from beginning to and hopefully to the end.

We're in chapter 22 now.

We're in the middle of a section that's part of the last week of Jesus Christ and his ministry here on earth.

The past few weeks we've been noting Jesus in Jerusalem and particularly in the temple, teaching in the temple and healing people in the temple.

And while there was accosted and confronted by chief priests and the elders of the people who asked him a question for the authority that he had that had been conferred to him.

Where did he get that to be able to do the things he was doing?

And Jesus replied to them in that sort of confrontive question by asking them a question about John the Baptist.

If they could answer that question, he would answer their question.

Well, they didn't, and so Jesus didn't.

And then Jesus followed those that question with three parables.

And we've looked in the past couple of weeks at those parables as they reveal the lack of integrity of the religious leaders in Israel.

They walk away from that confrontation, seething, angry, upset.

They want to get back at Jesus for exposing them in front of a crowd.

And that brings us to what the passage we're going to look at today.

Because what we look at today and what we'll be looking at in the next few weeks ahead is Jesus interacting again with the leaders, the religious leaders of the people of Israel.

Today we'll see him speaking to the disciples of the Pharisees and to the Herodians.

And then next week you'll see him confronting another group of religious leaders called the Sadducees.

And then after that, Jesus will have a talk with a law expert about the greatest commandment.

And then finally, Jesus will talk again to the Pharisees and a question about the Messiah as the Son of David.

So here is the first of a series of conversations that follow on from the three parables that we've looked at the past couple weeks.

And in each of these conversations, the people that are meeting with Jesus are trying to set him up in a trap.

They're contriving questions and situations in order to sort of catch him out and condemn him.

And each of these times, Jesus takes on the confrontation.

Today we're going to look at a question that was a political question of the day.

But in the middle of this answer that Jesus gives to this political question that's posed to him, he gives us a principle about human existence and life.

He gives us an understanding of what human flourishing is all about, what the center of our very souls ought to be directed toward.

He moves us way beyond the earthly discussions that are being asked him into the realms of eternity, and not just for the people of Israel, but for all people for all time.

And so this morning, let's take a look at that as we work through this passage of scripture.

And the first thing I want us to notice is the plot that's been contrived against Jesus.

Verse 15, it says this.

And the Pharisees went and plotted how they how to trap him by what he said.

Matthew chapter 21, we learn that they were ready to arrest Jesus.

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

And now in verse 15, they're plotting together to find a way to justify that arrest.

They're plotting to entangle him in his words.

Certainly they don't know who they're dealing with.

And the bait that they'll use, as we'll see in a moment, is a tricky question.

And their hope here is by bringing this to Jesus, to impale Jesus on the horns of a dilemma that would land him in trouble.

A question that no matter how he answered him, would cause him to be captured.

They think they've got it.

This is the right question for him.

Let's take a look at the players for a second, verse 15 and 16.

Verse 15, it said the Pharisees went and plotted how to trap him by what he said, and so they sent, verse 16, their disciples to him along with the Herodians.

Now, part of their ploy is to set this up as a plausible situation.

Notice it doesn't say the Pharisees grabbed some Herodians and went and talked to Jesus with a question.

It says they sent the disciples of the Pharisees with the Herodians.

Because if the Pharisees and the Herodians had walked in together, it would have been an immediate signal that something was up.

Because as we'll see, these these two people had very wide-ranging divergent opinions about the question that they're about to pose to Jesus.

And it would have been obvious to anyone, what's going on here?

Why are you guys together?

Because they wouldn't have been together.

However, by having the disciples of the Pharisees mixed together with the Herodians, there is an air of plausibility to the question.

Maybe the disciples of the Pharisees had sort of, you know, like a like a young seminarian, you know, just walked out of theology class and is full of ammo and just wants to go find somebody to argue with.

And so these disciples of the Pharisees have sort of been, well, we've just got all that we need to get from our teachers.

Let's go find some Herodians and have an argument with them.

And so there's this air of plausibility.

Maybe this is exactly what's happened.

And the disciples of the Pharisees have gotten in a little too deep because the Herodians had some good answers.

So Jesus, let's talk to him.

Let's see if he's got an answer.

Here's their ploy.

Verse 16.

So they sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.

Teacher, they said, we know that you're truthful and teach truthfully the way of God.

You don't care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality.

Tell us then, what do you think?

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Well, this is their ploy.

They've got a plot, they've got a plan, they've got people in partnership, and here's their ploy.

And the first one is this smarmy talk.

I mean, this these smooth words, right?

This sycophantic fawning over Jesus.

Oh, Jesus, teacher, teacher, we know that you're truthful and teach truthfully the way of God.

You don't care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality.

Please share your wisdom with us.

Tell us what you think.

They don't mean a word of this, not a single word of it.

It's all just a trick.

And why do they use flattery?

Because they themselves were people who loved flattery.

Jesus warned about the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

When you fast, don't fast like those who walk around looking like they're fasting.

When you fast, wash your face, anoint your head with oil, look like you just come from a party.

Do it in secret, because these guys want to be seen of others.

When you pray, don't stand on the street corner so you can be heard of men like the Pharisees.

Pray in secret.

When you give to the poor, don't flash your cash at the street corner and say, look what good I'm about to do, like they do.

These people were faking their flattery because they themselves loved flattery.

They love the greetings in the public places.

They loved the chief seats.

They loved to be seen of others.

They love this sort of bolstering one another's reputation with loud public words.

Oh, teacher, teacher.

Oh, how wonderful you are.

Oh, how admirable your qualities, how forthright you are to tell the truth.

You don't care where it lands.

Teach us.

We're we're just humble learners.

Can you answer this dilemma we have?

And then they give him a sticky question.

Tell us then, what do you think?

Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

Well, that's a sticky question, all right, because well, this tax, this poll tax, or this tribute to the Roman Emperor, was an extremely contentious issue.

In fact, there rose a guy in Galilee, I think his name was Joseph of Galilee, who rose up in 6 A.D.

Because of this very issue.

And the government surrounded them and murdered them all because they were acting in seditious sedition.

People were bitter about this, as any people would be under an overlord.

Jesus, come on, what do you think?

Pay it or not?

This coalition of the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians, well, the Herodians would have agreed with the tax, the Pharisees would not have agreed.

Because if Jesus had said, no, it's not right to pay this tax to the Roman Emperor, then he would have been liable to the charge of being siding with those who were in rebellion against Rome.

And the Herodians would have sort of run straight to the Romans and said, You got a traitor on your hands here.

Here's a guy in the middle of the temple trying to raise up a ruckus in rebellion against you.

And he's telling people to stop paying their taxes.

But if he said, Yes, pay your taxes and left it at that, then the Pharisees would have said, You see, he's a friend of Rome, just like we've been saying.

That's why he hangs out with the tax collectors.

He's just like one of them.

But there's more to it than that.

He would have been abdicating his messianic role because the Jewish understanding of the Messiah at this time was that he would never bow to Gentile powers.

The Messiah was one who was going to come and rescue us from them, not tell us to be responsibly observant to them.

He's meant to be the deliverer.

He's meant to set up a global empire.

You can't have the messiah saying emperor is greater than he and pays taxes to him.

So if he said yes to the question, then he could be discredited as being the messiah.

The sticky question.

So that they plot together, they got a partnership of disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians.

They come with this ploy, with this sycophantic language, this smarmy talk, and this sticky question.

They think we've got him.

But do they?

First of all, let's take a look at the rebuke that Jesus gives them.

Verse 18, perceiving their malicious intent, Jesus said, Why are you testing me, hypocrites?

None of this is past his eye.

None of it.

He calls them hypocrites, something he uses 13 times in the Gospel of Matthew.

We know what a hypocrite is.

And it comes from the term of the stage of somebody putting on a mask and playing a role that they're actually not.

The mask is the role, and of course that's what these people are doing.

They've put on a mask of discipleship to Jesus when there's nothing like that underneath.

And so Jesus calls them hypocrites for several reasons.

First of all, because of the false assertions that they've just made.

They call him teacher.

Well, they've been questioning his teaching throughout the whole gospel of Matthew.

We've been looking at that.

They're not going to call him teacher with sincerity.

They say he's true.

And well, they've believed everything that Jesus has done has been of the devil and false.

You taught the way of God in truth.

Well, they haven't they haven't submitted themselves to his teaching ever.

They've always opposed it.

And if he truly was teaching the way of God in truth, it would have shown up in their willingness to accept what he had to say a lot before this.

You don't care about anyone.

You're not biased or prejudiced.

And then he says, You have no regard for the person of men.

You don't show partiality.

The Greek word here is a face looker.

You know, somebody who's up there whose mouth is going, but what they're about to say is dependent upon what kind of faces they're getting in the crowd.

Right?

They're saying, Jesus, you don't do that.

So he calls him a hypocrite because every single one of those things is a lie.

Everything they said in every little detail is just hypocritical.

But it's hypocritical because of their motives.

Sensing their malicious intent.

He knows that.

Psalm 55 says his speech was smooth as butter, yet there was war in his heart.

His words were softer than oil, and yet they were drawn swords.

It's exactly what they've done.

They've taken the weapon of words to try to trap Jesus.

He calls them hypocrites because of their forced coalition.

He can see right through that, even if it is the disciples of the Pharisees and not the Pharisees themselves.

Herodians, they're friendly to the Herodian rule and friendly to Rome.

The Pharisees obviously are in opposition to Rome, more nationalistic.

But he also calls them a her a hypocrite for a fourth reason: because of the coin that he's about to ask for.

Perceiving their malicious intent, he said, Why are you testing me, hypocrites?

Show me the coin used for the tax.

They brought him a denarius.

Now there were all kinds of coinages that were there, not just Roman coins, Greek coins, Hebrew coins, coins used in Israel in all kinds of different ways.

But there was only one coin that they would use for this tax, and that was a denarius.

Denarius was worth about one day's wage.

And so they say, you know, Jesus says to them, so you know, show me the coin.

And they're like, okay.

Pull it out of their pocket.

Here you go.

Now, why would Jesus call them a hypocrite for that?

Well, remember where they are.

They're in the temple.

They're in the temple complex where the worship of Yahweh alone is to take place.

And these guys pull out a coin in the temple.

And Jesus asked them, Whose face is on that?

And they're like, Caesar's.

Well, we know from archaeology that it was the coin of Tiberius Caesar, the son of Augustus Caesar, and on it would have been his head with a crown of bay leaves.

And on one side it would have said this in English, Tiberius Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Augustus.

And on the back of it would have been a seated female figure, which would have been a sign perhaps of Rome or maybe a relationship to Augustus or Tiberius Caesar.

But it also said this Pontiff Maxim, the sovereign, highest role in the Roman religion.

Obviously, this coin has some trouble explaining itself in light of the first and second commandment.

You are to worship the Lord your God alone.

You're not to make a graven image.

Here is a coin in the temple that these religious men have brought out that says, Divine Augustus, head priest of the Roman idolatrous religion.

And it's in their pocket, in their temple.

So they are certainly worthy of this rebuke.

Hypocrite.

But look at the rebuttal that Jesus gives.

They think they've got him.

They think, you know, as soon as they hand him the coin, he's going to just sort of burn against this and make a deatribe about polytheism or something, and stand alone and say, God alone should be worshipped, don't pay, or something.

But that's not what he does.

He says to them, Give then to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

And there's a word plague going on here.

There's a word plague that's going on here that shows us the strength of Jesus' arguments.

In verse 17, they asked, Is it lawful to, well, we translate it pay taxes, but it's give taxes to Caesar or not, with the idea of giving it as a gift.

Is it lawful literally to give Caesar something?

For the Jewish people, that would have been an obnoxious thought to give their overlords anything.

This was not for them a legitimate duty, and it was done with the greatest reluctance.

But here they're saying, should we give Caesar this?

But this is not the word that Jesus uses when he speaks in verse 21.

He uses a different word.

It's not give to Caesar like a gift, it's give back to Caesar.

Something that's been loaned out to you.

You owe Caesar this.

He gave you the coin, give the coin back to him.

That's how it's supposed to sound.

This is not a gift at all.

In fact, you have an obligation to give back to him what is under his realm.

This tax belongs to the domain of Caesar.

Give it back to him.

And the using of this coin would have already been an acknowledgement of Caesar's authority.

Already an acknowledgement of his rule of the realm, give it back to him.

Jesus is not trying to bring some statement about the social political structure of the time.

He's simply saying this: you're enjoying Caesar's benefits, you're enjoying what the Roman Empire provides you, the clean water you have, the sanitation that you're given, the roads that you walk on and travel across, the law and order that's found here, the police protection you have, the Pax Romana, the peace that you have among the nations, all of these things have been granted you.

This is their domain.

Give them what's due them.

Give it back to them.

All he's asking for is one day's wage out of a year's salary.

It's not much.

There's two parts to his answer.

And the first part is this Jesus is teaching us that while we're in exile here as Christians in this earth, that we continue to have roles and responsibilities that relate to this world.

That we interact as citizens on earth, even though our citizenship, in Philippians says, is in heaven.

And when you read the scriptures, the New Testament epistles that draw out this principle that Jesus is providing here, especially in a time when there was not a lot of friendliness of the Roman Empire toward Christianity, you don't read words in the New Testament that speak about rebellion and revolution.

You don't even read words of political gripes about how heavy-handed it is.

What you have are words about prayer and respect and submission.

Let me just read a few of them.

First Timothy 2.

I urge that petitions, prayers, and intercessions and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.

Not to raise our hands in anger, but raise our hands in prayer.

Romans 13.

Therefore you must submit not only because of wrath, but also because of your conscience.

And for this reason, pay taxes, since the authorities are God's servants.

Pay your obligations to everyone, taxes to whom you owe taxes, tolls to whom you owe tolls, respect to whom you owe respect, and honor to whom you owe honor.

Titus 3.

Remind them to be to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to slander no one, to avoid fighting, to be kind, to always show gentleness to all people.

1 Peter 2.

Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as to the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.

Honor everyone.

Love the brothers and sisters, fear God, honor the emperor.

There's no words of rebellion here, just words of submission and honor and prayer.

And we live in a government that, in its structure, is so much freer than what they were under when those letters were written.

God is not opposed to government.

Government is a servant of God, and it will give an account for that service.

But we are not the instruments of God's wrath when it does wrong.

That's the first lesson, but not the biggest lesson.

There's a bigger lesson.

You see, the question that they asked Jesus could have stopped right there with that answer.

But Jesus says more than they asked.

This tax, Jesus, um, give it or not to Caesar.

Show me the coin.

Give back to Caesar what is Caesar's.

Question answered.

Doesn't stop.

And to God the things that are God's.

Render to the Caesar, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, give back to God the things that are God's.

This little extra point is the point that Jesus is making.

The render to Caesar is just the simple lesser lesson.

The render to God is the major lesson.

And what he's saying is, well, the coin that you have, that you've shown me, it's got Caesar's image on it.

It belongs to Caesar.

Then give it back to him.

What has the image of God?

Every single person.

Every single individual that's lived on the face of this God-created world has the image of God in them.

What Jesus is saying is give yourself back to God.

Take that deneri, the denarius that you have, the one that says Tiberius Caesar Augustus, and give it to him, even though he calls himself divine.

How much more should you give everything back to the one who actually is?

God.

In one eloquent stroke, in one short little phrase, Jesus raises the discussion from this minefield of partisan politics and gives us all a remark that all of us should be focused in on and excited about.

The adventurous quest of pursuing our Creator.

What is the chief end of man?

The Westminster Catechism in its first question.

What is the ultimate aim and focus of human existence?

To glorify God and to enjoy him forever is the answer.

That's an adventurous quest, pursuing our Creator, glorifying Him, enjoying Him, sort of looking into all the different ways that we can do both of those.

So Jesus here says we are to give ourselves back to the one who gave us life, to give ourselves without reserve to the God who's given us everything and formed us in his own image.

And it was this, this awareness of our glorious destiny of humans, this culmination of human existence itself.

Jesus is inviting these malicious men into this adventurous quest of their life.

Give yourself to God.

Render to God the things that are his.

Give back to Caesar what you have.

Give to God what you are, is what he's saying.

This is the gospel.

This is the good news of Jesus Christ.

This is the message of salvation that we share with humanity.

A world filled with rebels, all, every single one of us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There is none righteous, no, not one.

And the message of the gospel is give yourself to God.

You're telling a rebel to give himself to the one he's rebellious against.

Yes.

Repent of your rebellion and turn to the Lord Jesus is the gospel message.

Listen to how Paul said it when he was preaching to some people who were actually trying to worship him.

He said, People, Acts 14, verse 15, why are you doing these things?

Acts 14:15

We're people just like you.

And we're proclaiming good news to you.

Good news that you turn from these worthless things to serve the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

In past generations, he allowed all the nations to go their own way, although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven, fruitful seasons, filling you with food and your hearts with joy.

God has given you existence.

He's given you the ability to benefit from that labor and to do so in a way that gladdens your heart.

He's given you it all.

Give yourself to him.

Sadly, in our day, people preach the gospel as if we're trying to sell something to a skeptical crowd.

You know, we're so used to buying Fords, and some Toyota guy comes along saying, try this.

And we sound like a Toyota salesman in the middle of Detroit.

You know, just give it a shot.

We're actually a little better than what you've been used to driving.

Try Jesus on for a little while.

It'll be better for you.

No.

The gospel is speaking to rebellious people that they're missing life itself.

You're missing out on what you were designed to be and to do.

You were created by God, who is good and rich and full, who blesses even people that don't know him or care for him.

He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust.

He's given you all this that Paul just talked about.

Why would you rebel against that?

Give yourself back to God.

And so he's calling us.

Jesus is commanding us to discover in God what is the deepest sense of our identity, to understand what is the source of our existence.

He's repeating what Genesis said that repeats itself.

Genesis 1.27.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created them.

Such an emphasis, the words get doubled in one verse.

What Jesus is saying here is so brief that we can feel like it's isolated.

But the whole of scripture speaks about this.

Isaiah 41, God is the one who casts down nations before himself and overthrows kings.

Psalm 24, to him belongs the earth and all that is in it, the world and all who live in it.

Everything belongs to God.

Heaven and earth, all people, all nations, all empires, all emperors, everybody.

Give yourself back to God.

So Jesus is here.

Let me say this.

He's not adding some religious command to a political question.

He's not adding to the command to pay taxes, the command to do something religious.

What he's saying here is that obedience to God supersedes all of your life.

That everything about us comes under this.

And that his claim on us has no limits.

It embraces every part of us.

It embraces our words.

It embraces our will.

It embraces our work.

Why did God create us?

For his own glory and to enjoy us.

When you read the creation accounts of the ancient Near East, and I've had the privilege of seeing them and reading them, you'll read one that comes out of Mesopotamia, the creation story called Enuma Elish.

And it talks about the creation account according to this God called Marduk.

And this is what Marduk says about creating people.

Blood I will amass and cause bones to be.

I will establish a savage man shall be his name.

Verily, savage man I will create.

But when you read Genesis one and two, you see that God made humanity in his own image, and then he communes with his creation.

Relationship.

Intimacy.

The biblical record of creation is very different than those ancient Near East records of creation.

You see, humanity is the crown of creation.

God made us in his own image, unlike anything else that he made.

And he did so so that he might relate to us humans, that we might find enjoyment in each other's company, that there might be a pleasurable relationship, that all our doings might be done in mirror of his and in return to him as our Lord.

That we would glorify him and enjoy him forever.

This is what Jesus is saying to these men.

Oh, they're religious, all right.

Yeah, they're religious to the max, but they don't know God.

And they have not given themselves back to God.

What is this about then?

Well, it means to tell us that, first of all, we're not ourselves.

We're not self-determinate.

We can't just make up what we think is right and what we think is wrong.

As though we were the sovereign one of the universe.

We're to give up that right of self-determination and submit ourselves to the God who made us.

That we are to live with a different principle in mind.

It's not about self-indulgence, but service.

And in a couple weeks, Banu is going to lead us through a passage that talks about what that service looks like.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

That the center of human existence is God, and that the center of human energies and actions is one of service to God and others.

It means that we are not to be living our life as though it was all about us, but to give ourselves to Him, body and soul.

But it also means that we trust in this God, the one who made us, the one who's calling us back to Himself, the One who wants to commune with us, even when life is hard, even when things are tough, even when we come to death.

Now let me finish by drawing this out one last time.

These men have come full of hypocrisy, with dishonest intent, with evil intentions to trap Jesus out.

How does he respond to them?

With the strong medicine of mercy and truth.

You see, Jesus wasn't interested in winning this political discussion.

He wasn't even interested in exiting this argument with his own life.

No, what he was concerned about was confronting his own creation with the very problem that would, once solved, would change the whole of their existence to bring them back to the Father.

You see, in 1 Peter it says that Jesus Christ had given himself up on the cross.

He bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that having died to sins, we might live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed, for we were like sheep going astray, but you've now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

You can only give yourself back to God through the one who brings you back to God, and that's Jesus Christ.

Jesus transforms the Pharisees, this net of half-truths, this net of flattery, with their intent to ensnare him in that trap, and he turns it into an invitation.

Turns it into an evangelistic opportunity.

And here's where we need to stop for a second, to pause, and to marvel, actually, and to give thanks for the way God has turned this conversation.

That Jesus is not affronted and walking away, not answering the questions and taking aside.

He's giving himself to these men in the pursuit, turning away every ruse to deceive him, turning away every temptation to flee from the conversation, in order that we might be brought back to God.

He loves sinful humanity so much that he won't let us go.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The pursuit of sinners, God pursuing his rebels, and he continues that today.

Here is Jesus Christ, the one who is the image of the invisible God, the one who is here in front of them, and he's saying, Instead of trying to trap me, won't you give yourself back to me today?

You're happily working toward April 15th to pay your taxes.

But have you ever given a thought about giving yourself back to God?

He gave it to you, your life, everything you are.

You can only do it by the one who brings you back.

You can't go alone.

We won't go alone.

We're rebels.

Jesus can bring you back.

And he'll bring you to the place not only where you can glorify God, but that you can enjoy Him forever.

Forever.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus.

Lord, there's not one of us would have reacted the way He did.

We would have fought and scratched and punched and yelled or just walked away in disgust.

What tender mercies are shown us in the Savior here who pursues the very ones who are trying to get him arrested and murdered.

And we thank you, Father, that you continue to pursue us, who, given the opportunity, would be in the exact same place as they by evil hands have crucified the Holy One.

Oh Lord, don't stop pursuing us, we pray.

Don't leave us to our own devices, we pray.

Help us to see the Savior.

Awaken us to the understanding that our only hope is in Him.

And may we come to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through the renewing of the spirit of our minds, in the transformation of our life, so that we might be truly those who put on the new self, the one that was created according to your likeness and righteousness and purity of the truth.

Thank you for this lesson, Father.

Thank you for showing us Christ, who truly does shine brighter than the sun or the moon.

And we pray this in his name.

Amen.