Once I was sitting my four-year-old granddaughter and poured her a glass of grapefruit juice. “Grapefruit juice is my favorite kind of juice,” she said. To which I replied, “Yesterday you said that orange juice was your favorite juice.” Without blinking her eye, she came back with, “Orange juice and grapefruit juice.” I laid out a trap for her, and she just stepped over it.
Today we have two groups of Jesus’ adversaries laying out a trap for him. Watch how he steps right over the trap and leaves them dumbfounded (Mark 12:13-17).
“Some Pharisees and Herodians were sent to Jesus to ensnare him in his speech. They came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion. You do not regard a person’s status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.’”
A strange coalition—Pharisees, religious leaders and Herodians, political leaders. What could these two groups possibly have in common that they suddenly become “bed buddies?” What they had in common is that they wanted to do away with Jesus; he was a threat to their power. Being of the same mind as John the Baptist, Jesus stood against Herod’s divorce and weakened his respect with the people. Exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, Jesus discredited them with the people. We wonder how many meetings these connivers had before they came up with a perfect trap to undermine Jesus’ credibility.
First, notice how they “buttered him up” and tried to inflate his ego. They pretended to admire him as a truthful, God-fearing, wise rabbi who wasn’t concerned about people’s opinion of him. They feigned sincerity.
Then they tossed out their trap.
“Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?”
Neither the Herodians nor the Pharisees liked paying taxes to Caesar. If Jesus lined up with Caesar and the Romans, he would no longer be popular with the people who hated Rome. On the other hand, if he opposed taxes to Rome, he could be arrested as a revolutionary. Either way Jesus would lose out.
“Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, ‘Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius.’ They brought one to him and he said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this’ They replied, ‘Caesar’s.’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.’”
The coin was minted in Rome, and therefore belonged to Caesar. Duh! It didn’t belong to them. And their political biases had nothing to do with God. Their primary responsibility was giving God the love and worship due him—which it seems neither group did.
Jesus stepped over their trap with a “both-and” response to their “either-or” question and slipped in a tough sermon besides. By giving Caesar what belonged to him, they were honoring God; there was no conflict in paying taxes.
Once again the smart aleck students who tried to “stump the teacher” got stumped themselves.
“They were utterly amazed at him.”
Never had they experienced such wisdom. They didn’t realize that they were trying to undermine God’s own son. Each of them, as well as Caesar was a creation of the Father. Without realizing it, these men were standing face and face with the Son of God. They fell into the pit which they had dug.
