Whose Image Do You Bear

Our scripture reading this morning is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 20, verses 19 through 26.

Luke 20:19–26

I'd encourage you to turn there.

And if you don't have a Bible with you, there should be one located in the shelf right in front of you.

You can find the scripture passage on page 879.

And if you find yourself in a situation where you don't have access to a Bible of your own, please take that Bible home with you as our gift.

We'll replace it for next week, but we would love for you to have it so that you have access to God's word whenever you desire.

Luke chapter 20, beginning in verse 19.

Luke 20 · chapter mention

The scribes and 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.

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.

So they asked him, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, Show me a denarius.

Whose likeness and inscription does it have?

They said, Caesar's.

He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveled at his answer, marveling at his answer, they became silent.

This is God's word.

We live in an era of gotcha politics.

Questions are asked to find out what a person thinks, but really that's not their motive.

They just want to catch him in an impossible situation.

The more awkward and controversial the entrapment, the better.

It's a divide and conquer strategy.

Get your opponent to say something that alienates part of his base, part of his most loyal supporters.

The goal is embarrassment and to polarize your opponent.

The motive is really, I don't care what you think, as long as your answer makes you look bad.

And so we live in an era of gotcha politics.

But how does a good politician answer?

He does what I call the non-answer answer.

He says something without really saying anything.

It's possible to say something, to sound like you're saying something, but you're really not saying anything.

It's like when somebody asks you, so what do you think of this outfit?

And you say, nice.

And then, well, no, what do you really think?

Wow, that's different.

Well, so what do you mean?

Well, it's really you.

You haven't said anything.

But another way a good politician deals with it, the non-answer answer is one, but also to ignore the question completely and continue on with your talking point.

And you see this all the time.

You know, you watch a debate and they ask a question, and the answer has nothing to do with what was just asked.

We come here to this gospel, and the Pharisees and the Herodians are conspiring to trap Jesus, and it's gotcha politics.

How is he going to answer?

The Pharisees, we find out in Matthew and Mark's gospel that it was the Pharisees and the Herodians.

And those are strange bedfellows.

We're familiar with the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

The Pharisees were the religious conservatives.

They were the fundamentalists, they were the legalists, and the Sadducees were the religious liberals.

Doubting miracles, doubting the supernatural, we'll see that shortly, doubting the resurrection.

But right now we have the Pharisees and the Herodians.

The religious conservatives team up with the political left.

The Herodians were people who supported Herod and by extension supported the Roman government.

Think of Ted Cruz and Nancy Pelosi teaming up to move forward in politics.

That's what was going on here.

And they were mutually motivated by hatred of Jesus.

They wanted to murder Jesus.

That's what their intention was.

They sent spies pretending to be sincere.

They were pretending to be sincere inquirers.

But if they were truly sincere inquirers, wouldn't they already be following Jesus?

Notice they try to flatter him, they try to butter him up.

I love what one author said, Kent Hughes.

He said, flattery is the reverse mirror image of gossip.

Gossip involves saying behind a person's back what you would never say to his face.

Flattery is saying to a person's face what you would never say behind his back.

Their gotcha politics revolved around the question of the relationship between God and government.

They don't care how Jesus answers because they're convinced that they've trapped him.

This morning we'll unpack Jesus' reply, and his answer is revolutionary.

What he says, in essence, is this there is a proper place for government under the sovereign rule of King Jesus.

First, we're going to examine the impossible question.

Then we'll look at the incredible answer, and finally we'll unpack the immense implications.

So let's begin jumping into this passage, looking at the impossible question.

They say, Teacher, we know that you speak the truth, speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.

Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

We don't really recognize the full weight of what is being asked here, but what they're asking Jesus is what kind of revolutionary are you?

That's what they're really asking.

I appreciate the insights of Dr.

Tim Keller into this passage and some of the history of it.

It's important that we understand the background to catch the true weight of what's being asked.

This tribute was a poll tax, it was a head tax.

It was a tax that was instituted 25 years before, and it was to be given once a year one denarius in order to exist.

And it galled the Jews because, in essence, what they were doing was paying a tax to live in the promised land.

It wasn't a lot of money.

A denarius was the equivalent of one day's wage of a poor laborer.

And so it wasn't an onerous task, it wasn't something that was an incredible hardship, it was really a pittance.

But it was the point behind it that just riled the people.

In fact, 25 years before, when this was put in place, there was an insurrection.

A man by the name of Judas of Galilee, Judas the Galilean, led an armed revolt.

And he did three things.

One, he said, We will not pay this tax to Caesar.

This money belongs to God.

Two, he led an armed revolt and overthrew the temple.

He cleansed the temple.

And then third, he declared that the kingdom of God is here, that now God is going to be king.

Jesus had been preaching for three years that with his coming the kingdom of God had begun.

He had just for the second time cleansed the temple.

And so now they're asking him, what kind of revolutionary are you?

Are you going to say, no, we shouldn't pay the tax?

And this is the gotcha.

Because if Jesus says no, don't pay the tax, what happened to Judas was he was, Judas of Galilee was put to death.

And if Jesus says no, they'll run to the Romans.

The Romans will come and say he's an insurrectionist, we'll put him to death.

But they know if he says yes, all of the people are going to look at him and say, He's just blowing smoke.

He's not a revolutionary.

We have to understand what they thought about the kingdom of God.

When they heard this term, they understood it as a political, military kingdom.

Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, but he talks about the terms of, as we often say, the already and the not yet.

In one sense, in Jesus' first coming, the kingdom of God was inaugurated, but we wait for the second coming for the kingdom of God to be consummated.

And so right now, Jesus reigns in the hearts of his followers.

One day he will set up a physical kingdom where he will rule and reign.

But to the Jews, to hear the kingdom of God meant the overthrow of Rome.

And so if Jesus says, yes, pay this tax, what they're going to hear is you have no power.

And the masses of people will walk away.

And so they they believe they have Jesus in an impossible question.

We've understood and examined the impossible question, but let's look at the incredible answer.

Tim Keller, in commenting on this passage, notes this, and I'll use his language here.

He says Jesus avoids three things.

He avoids political simplicity, he avoids political complacency, and he avoids political primacy.

And what do we mean by that?

Jesus avoids, first of all, political simplicity.

We want yes and no answers.

That's what they're asking Jesus.

Jesus, it's a very simple question.

Yes, pay the tax.

No, don't pay the tax.

We want simple answers, and Jesus wasn't going to be caught in that trap.

We want Jesus to come down specifically and exclusively on one side of an issue or another, which is it, Jesus.

But his answer is a both and, not an either-or.

It's a thoughtful, nuanced, paradoxical answer.

Now we know that there are moral issues that the Bible is clear on, and there is a clear right and wrong.

And I'm not saying that every issue is open to debate.

But even within those issues, there may be a difference of opinion on how best to answer and address those questions.

But many issues are a question of perspective and conviction.

The Bible talks about the sanctity of life and issues of justice, of caring for creation, of protecting and providing for the poor and the powerless.

And yet, as we evaluate those, we recognize they're not all equal.

And yet, people have a difference of perspective and conviction on them.

And Keller notes: don't try to do to Jesus what he did not do for himself, and that is give a simple, simplistic answer to a complex problem.

As Tony Evans once said, Jesus does not ride on the back of an elephant or a donkey.

And so we have to be careful that we don't align Christianity so closely with the political party that that party's platform is assumed to be the Bible's position on every issue.

And this happens both on the left and on the right.

And so we need to be careful to avoid political simplicity, which Jesus avoided.

We also need to be careful to avoid both political complacency and political primacy.

Whose likeness and inscription does it have?

Whose image and inscription is on this coin?

Now the denarius had the picture of Tiberius Caesar, and the inscription said this Tiberius Caesar, son of the god Augustus, Pontifus Maximus.

So what it said was, Tiberius Caesar, the son of God, the chief priest.

And so they asked Jesus, the true son of God, the true high priest, do we pay this tribute to Caesar?

Now Jesus could have rejected it outright and said, no, it's blasphemy.

But notice Jesus gives a different response than even what they ask.

Look at what they look closely at what they ask.

And it's in both in the English and most translations as well as in the original.

They say in verse 22, is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?

The word there for give is a word means to give as a gift.

And notice how Jesus answers.

He says, Show me a denarius, which was interesting that they were carrying them, the Roman money that they so despised.

He says, Whose likeness an inscription is on?

It's Caesar's.

Then he says, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's.

The word for render there is a different word than what they asked.

The word for render means to give back or to repay what is owned, to give back what already is somebody else's.

The denarius was minted from Caesar's wealth, literally from his own silver.

They were literally his coins.

Jesus, in essence, is saying, pay back what he deserves.

Well, what does the tyrant deserve?

He deserves this much and no more.

With these words, Jesus gives the first expression of limited government in the history of the world.

There was a presumption that the king had a divine right to rule.

And some thought that the king himself was divine, and that was shortly after this time the case with Caesar.

Even the Jews believed that the king was appointed by God and he couldn't be challenged to challenge the king was to face possible death.

To go in the presence of the king without having permission was to invite upon yourself the wrath of the king.

And in Jesus' statement, he tells us that there are two kingdoms at work here: the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God.

And these two kingdoms are not equal.

That the kingdom of this world is under the kingdom of God.

Notice again what Jesus asked: whose likeness and inscription does it have?

And this is a key principle for us to understand what Jesus is saying here.

Literally, what he says is whose image, literally, whose icon is on this coin?

And what's the answer?

That was Caesar.

Okay, thank you.

Caesar, whose image is on this coin?

Caesar.

So render, give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

Now let me ask you another question: Whose image is Caesar created in?

God.

So who owns Caesar?

You see, this is the reality of what Jesus is saying here.

He says, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but recognize that Caesar is created in the image of God, and he bows his knee, and one day he will bow his knee to the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

And whether he recognizes it or not, God is Lord over Caesar.

He made Caesar, and Caesar is God's possession.

And so the kingdom of this world is under the kingdom of God.

Presidents and potentates and politicians are created by God.

They are in his image, and he owns them.

They are his possession.

He is their Lord, He is their King.

As the famous Dutch pastor and politician Abraham Kuyper said many years ago, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not say mine.

Every square inch of the created order is under the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, including the politicians that we love or despise.

There were two other groups that had a different response to politicians and politics.

There were the zealots, we're familiar with the zealots, one was a part of Jesus' entourage.

The zealots were a group who thought that the world would be changed by political means.

If we could just have enough right people in the proper positions, we could change this world.

If we could overthrow the government and instill our people.

But another group were the Essenes, and the Essenes were, they were the group that gave up on society and withdrew from culture.

In fact, the Essenes were the ones that had the Dead Sea Scrolls.

They withdrew even from the cities and had their own communes outside.

And Jesus avoids political simplicity.

He avoids political supremacy.

And we must neither put our hope in politics nor withdraw into our own personal world.

Jesus doesn't allow for either of those answers.

We have seen an incredible answer to an impossible question.

But now we need to unpack what are the immense implications.

There are more implications to this than we can cover this morning, but let me just share a few.

Whole books have been written talking about this.

But first of all, let me observe one of the implications that there are kingdoms in conflict.

This world values power, success, comfort, and recognition.

Power, success, comfort, and recognition.

But Jesus, our king, had no earthly power.

His success was being put to death, his comfort was being homeless, and his recognition was being abandoned by his followers, his closest friends, and his heavenly father on the cross.

But the kingdom of this world ultimately.

Will not change anything because it does not have the power to change the human heart.

Another implication, we need to recognize the role of the church is not the same as the role of individual Christians.

The church is the assembly of God.

We've talked about that.

God's gathered people collectively.

What is our role as a church?

Our role as a church, our mission as a church is the gospel.

It is the good news.

It is the Great Commission.

The church does not exist to promote political parties or advance political agendas.

The church is not a political action committee.

We're here to win the lost, to build up believers, equip them for ministry so that they can multiply and do it all over again until Jesus returns.

Billy Graham, in the height of his popularity, was approached and they said, Billy, why don't you run for president?

You're so popular, you will most likely win.

And I love Billy Graham's answer.

And I will not step down and take a lower office.

We must never confuse what the role of the church is.

The role of the church is to proc to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified, buried, and resurrected, and the forgiveness of sins for all who come to faith in Christ.

That is the mission of the church.

And from the pulpit, we have a responsibility to present the truth of Scripture.

We have the responsibility to address issues, moral issues, in light of the gospel, and we should never cower or compromise our convictions because of political pressure.

But you don't need to know my personal opinions on political issues.

I have them.

Even if I don't know the issues, I have them.

As individuals, we have to recognize individually, our response is different from collectively the role of the church.

So what is our role individually?

We said the role of the church collectively, as the church has a mission of proclaiming the gospel.

But individually, God may call us to different roles.

In fact, as individuals, we have a duty and a responsibility to engage in our culture and bring biblical truth to bear to the larger world.

This means as individuals, we should speak with clarity and conviction.

We should speak truth.

As citizens who are Christians, we should run for office.

We should try to influence our laws and vote based on biblical truth.

We should know the issues, we should understand how they intersect with the Bible.

We should weigh them and prayerfully consider what God would have us to do.

In one sense, there is a separation of church and state.

But there is not a separation of beliefs from practice.

The state should not try to run the church, and the church should not become a political party.

The church should not become a political entity.

But we must never be pressured to relegate our convictions to a private sphere of life as if we could make laws pretending we have no moral convictions.

And we ought to be moved and motivated by the truth of God's word and every decision we make, whether it's private or public, and this divide between the private life of an individual and the public life of an individual is not a life that a Christian should ever live.

There's a third implication.

There is a legitimate but limited role of government.

Paul teaches in Romans 13, verses 1 to 7, a passage we don't have time to turn to this morning, that government is established by God for the purpose of administering justice and preserving order in this fallen world.

Romans 13:1–7

Bad government is better than no government, but some governments are incredibly evil.

And we need to recognize that and see the evil for what it is.

Government is limited and derives its authority from God.

Government has delegated authority, not inherent authority.

It has delegated authority from God, and when it asks you to do something that is immoral and unbiblical, it has lost its authority and has no real claim over you.

And at that point you need to do what the apostles did and say, I must obey God rather than man.

Two other implications very briefly.

Being a faithful Christian means paying your taxes.

Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

Pay all that you owe in taxes.

Take every legitimate deduction that you can.

There's no virtue in giving the government more than is owed to them.

And so you don't need to feel an obligation.

Those are legally allowable and you have every right to do it.

But don't under-report.

Don't lie about your income.

Don't falsify documents.

Some try to go around the system.

Some try to pay under the table so that they don't have to hassle with the taxes, and the people who receive the money don't have to claim it as taxes.

But as a Christian, we need to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.

To give to all everything that is owed.

And then one final implication: being a faithful citizen as a believer includes running for office.

It includes serving in our country's military with honor and distinction, with your first allegiance to King Jesus.

And so God calls us neither to withdraw nor to make politics primary.

He calls us not to have simplistic answers to complex issues, but to think through things in light of the Bible.

We serve a king who rejected the world's power, success, comfort, and recognition.

He became poor so that we might become rich in him.

We follow a king who lived in humility, who was rejected in animosity, who died in anonymity and rose in victory.

You are created in his image.

Have you yielded yourself to him in faith?

He is your king.

Is he your savior and lord?

Do you recognize and acknowledge who he is?

And for each one of us, he is our king and we pledge our ultimate allegiance to him alone.

Let's pray.

Father God, the topic that we talk about this morning is one that intersects our lives at so many points, whether we like it or not.

And Father, as we see Jesus answer this impossible question with an incredible answer.

An answer that avoids simplicity.

An answer that avoids political primacy.

Father, give us wisdom to not withdraw, to not expect Bismarck or Washington to change the world, but to recognize that you are sovereign Lord over all.

This is your world.

Every inch of it you say is mine.

May you rule and reign in your hearts until one day we look up and see King Jesus return to rule and reign forever.

In Christ's name.