The story goes that a recent college graduate invited his friend to church in Chicago. After the service, he asked his friend what he thought. “What do you think about the preacher, Dwight Moody? Wasn’t he great?” His friend said, “I don’t know so much about the preacher, but he sure has a wonderful Savior.” (“Jesus” – files)
Jesus is wonderful! No one can compare with Jesus; he is incomparable. As we continue on the Lenten path leading up to Easter, we’ll uncover a portion of Jesus’ life we rarely glimpse, which will cause us to love Jesus more; the One we praise and adore.
Our story starts with a full-speed attack right at Jesus. The Jewish priests are furious at Jesus. He has entered Jerusalem, gone in and thrown the money-changers out of the Temple, quoting the Old Testament prophet, “My house (says the Lord) should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” The temple is the priests’ responsibility. When Jesus says, “but you have made it a den of thieves,” he is speaking to the priests as well as the money-changers. Jesus has gone onto their turf and shaken things up, and they are furious. Like a hornet’s nest stirred up, the religious leaders take repeated runs at Jesus to destroy him. And you don’t want to stir up hornets.
Last summer, the headlights of my car caught sight of something in the tree by the driveway one night. I hadn’t seen it before, so I investigated. I turned my flashlight right on a hornet’s nest, bigger than a basketball. Just seeing it caused my body to shiver. I almost started sweating thinking about how I had recently mowed the grass right under that tree. I knew I had to take care of it immediately, so next morning… I called the exterminator. He came out on a Saturday morning. He took a look at it and he started to break out in a sweat, knowing he had to do something about it. Just about that time, two pairs of Jehovah’s Witnesses had made their way almost around to our house. Lucy went out and told them to watch out for the hornets and maybe they might want to just keep walking. She spared them from the hornets and us from them!
The priests, like hornets swarm around Jesus, seeking to destroy him by posing a question that will catch him and provide grounds for his arrest. (Read verse 13) They start out by reminding Jesus he is a man of integrity, that he wouldn’t think of avoiding answering their questions. All they are doing is trying to pin Jesus to the wall. (Read verse 14, 15)
This is an impossible question! Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Roman government?
Either way Jesus answers, he can’t win. If he says, yes, pay the tax, we angers many in the crowd and turns them away form him. If he says no, the crowd cheers and the Roman soldiers may come and arrest him. It’s an impossible question to answer well.
Jesus says, “Bring me a coin.” (read verse 16) When he is handed a Roman coin, he asks whose image is stamped on the coin. Just like the penny is stamped with Abraham Lincoln’s side profile and the nickel is stamped with … so the Roman coin was stamped with the Emperor’s side profile. It was a common understanding then that whoever’s face was on the coin was the owner. If you had a coin with the Emperor’s face on it, it belonged to him. He was just loaning it to you to use. Jesus flips it back to the person and simply acknowledges that since the coin technically belongs to Caesar, the Emperor, it should go to the emperor. “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.” After all, his image is on it. But, Jesus isn’t done.
“Give to God what belongs to God.” If the ownership of the coin is determined by the image stamped on it, whatever has the image of God stamped on it belongs to God. It didn’t take the religious leaders long to understand what has God’s image stamped on it. You probably know already the answer. Humans have the image of God stamped on them. Remember when God creates humans and says, “Let us make man in our image”? (Genesis 1:28) All humans bear the image of God. Therefore, all humans belong to God.
The religious leaders bring up a tax issue. Jesus says the question they ask is really about ownership. To the proud Jew of the first century, to pay the Roman tax was humiliation. It meant Rome was in charge. It meant Rome owned them. And they couldn’t stand for it. That is why there were several Jewish revolts, including the one that destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. The Jews refused to be owned by anyone. It’s the same today with Americans. Anyone who can stand up today and say, “I’m proud to be an America because at least I know I’m free,” refuses to be owned by anyone. The Jew said to the Roman, “You can’t own me.” Americans say, “No one owns me. I’m free.” Slip over with me 6 books farther back into the New Testament. to I Corinthians 6, verse 19 at the end: “You are not your own. You were bought with a price.” The price is the life of Jesus Christ. Those who choose to follow Jesus Christ acknowledge that they are owned by God. Made in his image, choosing to follow Jesus Christ, they agree that they are no longer their own. In what area of life do you need to decide ownership? Will it be you, or Christ? What back closet of your life are you keeping locked from Jesus’ ownership? Give him all of you, every part. Are you thinking you can have it both ways? Jesus’ call on our life is a call of submission to his ownership of us. Jesus is so wise. He proves it here. Let the God of wisdom rule in your life as well.
Jesus avoids the trap. He is so wise. But, more than wisdom is here. Jesus doesn’t only defend himself against these attacks. He continues to engage the priests, showing them the deeper issue, calling them to respond to God’s way of living, if they will only listen. Who does that? “I don’t know much about the preacher, but he sure has a wonderful Savior.”
Jesus has answered so well the trick question posed to him, but the hornets gather again to attack. (Read verses 18 – 23) This is, as you may imagine, an impossible situation. Seven brothers, one after another marry the same woman and each brother dies, one after another? By the time it comes down to the seventh brother, I would imagine him politely refusing! Those who posed this question, the Sadducees, did not believe in the resurrection of the dead because it isn’t mentioned in the books of Moses, the most ancient Old Testament books. Theirs is a trick question designed to make a belief in the resurrection appear foolish and Jesus appear foolish.
Jesus answers, verse 24. (Read) When we die and go to heaven, we will be like the angels, Jesus says. We won’t look like angels, but like angels, the center of our attention will not be on human attachments, but in communion with God. The importance we attach to friends and family on earth will not longer be top concern. Instead, living in the presence of God will be our great purpose and center. Then, Jesus continues. (Read verses 26, 27) Jesus points out that when God identifies himself to Moses at the burning bush, He speaks in the present tense, not he past tense, as if Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive, even though they lived hundreds of years before Moses. He doesn’t say, “I was the God of Abraham.” He says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” Therefore, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must still be living!
But, there is something else going on here as well. God made a promise to Abraham, his son Isaac, and his son Jacob in turn. He would be their God. He chose them, not because they were great. He chose them out of love. He promised to guide them, protect them, love them, and lead them into the land that would become their descendents, the Land of Promise. He did all this to fulfill his purposes and to be faithful to his promise to them. It makes no sense for God to do all this, and then abandon them at the point of death. God’s power extends from before birth through death and into eternal life.. As Biblical commentator William Lane says, “If God has assumed the task of protecting the patriarchs from misfortune during the course of their lives, but fails to deliver them from the supreme misfortune of death, his protection is of little value…. It is in fidelity to his covenant that God resurrects the dead.” (William Lane, The Gospel of Mark, NICNT) When God claims us, He holds us and nothing can shake his power to prevail with us.
What is it you are going through that causes you to worry about your life? What fear are you facing? Turn ahead to Romans, 4 books ahead in the New Testament, to Romans 8:31- 32) What are you anxious about? What do you fear? The God of promise, will act faithful in your life, as well. Take courage, and hope. “I don’t know much about the preacher, but he sure has a wonderful Savior.”
Jesus has answered well and wisely, but the priests aren’t finished yet. The hornets continue to swirl around him. (verse 28) “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” When we think of commandments, we think of the 10 commandments. Which one would be most important? “You shall not kill”? “You shall not steal”? There are ones that deal with our relationship with God, too. Which one would we pick? When the religious leaders think about the commandments of God in the Old Testament, they are thinking about all of them – 612 of them. Which one is most important? How could anyone possibly choose? Jesus responds…. (Read verses 29 – 34) Love is so important. Love fulfills the intent of every law. If we love God, if we seek God, we are fulfilling the commandments. If we turn God’s love for us then in the direction of others, we fulfill the commandments. To the Jew, the Law required caring for his neighbor, a fellow Jesus. To Jesus, God’s love for all people find expression in a radical love for all people, too, including tax collector, prostitutes, even religious leaders.
Whom do you need to love? What person do you have difficulty with? This part of Jesus’ life shows us that Jesus didn’t just teach us to love our enemies. He loved his enemies. He didn’t just defend himself against the attacks of the priests. He continued to engage them, to teach them, if they would only listen, to show them God’s way of living. Even at the point of death, Jesus continued to love his enemies. He is so wonderful. “I don’t know much about the preacher, but he sure has a wonderful Savior.”
The religious leaders are silenced. They have no other attacks to run at Jesus. But, Jesus is not finished. His truth and love continue to extend to them. (Read verses 35 – 37)
Here’s the sequence. King David, writing this psalm, says, “The Lord – (that is God), said to my Lord (that is, David’s Lord); sit at my right hand….” We have God and we have King David. These two we easily understand. Yet, David refers to a third person, whom he, the King addresses as his Lord, someone greater than himself. Who would be greater than a king? That is a puzzling question to the religious leaders. They took this to refer to the coming Messiah, whom they thought would be descended from King David and take on the kingship of Israel and kick out the Romans. However, if the Messiah is a descendant of David, David’s son so to speak, why would David refer to him as his Lord? The religious leaders have no answer. They asked impossible questions of Jesus. He answered every one. Now the tables are turned on the religious leaders. Seeking to entrap Jesus, they have fallen into their own trap! Jesus’ wisdom shines through in these questions. He is so wonderful.
Jesus reveals the truth about ownership – whose we are. He declares the faithful promise of God that stretches into eternity; and he shows us how to love, even our enemies. He is more than a wise person. He is Lord. Lord of the universe and Lord of our lives. That is why David in the psalm calls him, “My Lord.” Jesus is magnificent. Words can not describe him. He is worthy of our praise and adoration. Seeing him as he is enlarges our love for Jesus. He is wonderful. “I don’t know much about the preacher, but he sure has a wonderful Savior.”