12:16,17
Then Jesus asked them whose image was on the coin. The answer, of course, was “Caesar’s”, as was his inscription. Jesus then gives His famous answer, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and God what is God’s”. By using the Roman coins they were tacitly acknowledging that Caesar had some authority over them, and that they owed him something. But the more important part was rendering unto God what is God’s. Were the Pharisees or Herodians (or any of us, for that matter) doing that? It is easy for us to question the right of the government, or some other authority, to exercise power over us, and all of them do it badly to some degree. But our first concern should always be are we seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness? (Matt 6:33)
12:18
The second question comes from the Sadducees. As Mark notes, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They only accepted the first five books of the Bible, i.e. the “Book of Moses”, neither were they keen on angels or miracles. In fact, there wasn’t that much that they did believe, and they were opposed to the Pharisees. In some ways they were very much like many of the current hierarchy in mainline denominations such as the Church of England or Church of Scotland. They came with a question, no doubt what they considered to be a very clever question, designed to illustrate how foolish Jesus was. It is likely that the high priests at this time were Sadducees.
No comments:
Post a Comment