Reflective Bible Study

The Pharisees were notorious for trying to trick and trap Jesus saying something wrong. However, every spiritual challenge they brought Jesus’ way was side-stepped, countered, or answered in a way they were not expecting.

After discussing and collaborating with one another, the Pharisees came up with the perfect no-win scenario, but in order to really back Jesus into a corner, they needed to temporarily team up with a group they hated. The gospel of Matthew describes what happened “Then the Pharisees left that place and made plans to trap Jesus in saying something wrong. They sent some of their own followers and some people from the group called Herodians.” (v. 15-16a)

The Herodians were Jews who had aligned themselves with Herod and the Roman government at that time. These Jews were the government supporters in a nation where most leaders disliked but tolerated the government. The Pharisees brought the Herodians with them so that they had both angles covered with enough witnesses to make a case against Jesus with whatever answer He gave.

After setting the question up by giving Jesus some insincere compliments, they get to their question, “So tell us what you think. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” (v. 17)

Jesus knew exactly where this question was going, and He easily saw the trap that was in front of Him. If He said to not pay taxes, He would align Himself against the government that imposed taxes. But if He said to pay taxes, He would decrease God’s rule and sovereignty and place a human, oppressive system in its place. In essence, paying taxes off the top of one’s income is stealing the first money that should have been set apart as tithe to God.

Jesus saw the challenge, and He saw the insincerity in how they asked the question. But to really get the point across, Jesus needed to ask a counter question. He asks them to show Him a coin, and then asks, “Whose image and name are on the coin?” (v. 20)

The answer is obvious. There is a right answer, and it really isn’t a trick question. Instead, Jesus uses this obvious illustration to get a point across. There was no way around admitting that Caesar’s image and name are inscribed on each coin.

After they respond, Jesus gives His clear and unexpected response. He says, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and give to God the things that are God’s.”” (v. 21)

In this response, Jesus both calls out the idea that we put our name on the things that are ours, but more importantly, He makes the statement that what belongs to God is so much more significant than money. Money is simply paper and coins — or in today’s era, it is simply a line item in a spreadsheet called a bank account. In contrast, our life, our breath, and our eternity belong to God.

Jesus’ response says that the government can have its money, but that we are to dedicate ourselves – the very essence of who we are – to God. Everyone of us has life because of God, and that makes us His.

While many people read Luke’s version of Jesus dying on the cross to draw out His promise to a thief about instant salvation (and deathbed confessionals being possible), in our journal entry for today, let’s look at Luke’s description of what happened from a slightly different angle.

In this journal entry, we have a pretty simple idea that has profound implications: Jesus didn’t get what He deserved, but He chose it so that we wouldn’t have to get what we deserve!

I want to point out that Jesus “chose” the cross. The whole salvation plan was developed in heaven before earth was created, and Jesus was within the planning process. Jesus was involved in the creation of the prophecies that were given in the Old Testament, and He could have easily changed things to have pointed towards a different type of death.

However, that is not the most profound way to view this idea.

There are two views I have seen floating through the internet (and books that were written before) that are completely inaccurate to this idea:

• The first idea is that God (the Father) forced Jesus to come to earth to die for our sins. This idea is rooted in a “good cop, bad cop” idea regarding the Godhead. If that were really the case, Jesus had it completely within His freedom of choice to say “No”, or to die a different way. Jesus tells each of us that if we’ve seen Him, we’ve seen the Father. The two of them share the same character. Jesus was scared of the path of the cross, but He specifically chose it because He knew what it meant for each of us.
• The second idea is that Judas caused Jesus’ death by betraying Him. This idea pulls the broad ideas in Jesus’ life out of their Biblical contexts and pictures Jesus as merely a “good man”. However, as we’ve looked at several times in our journal, Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples He is going to die, including details about how it will happen. Even the night before the arrest, we can read about Him trying to warn the disciples to not be fearful and to not fall into temptation. If Jesus wanted to, He could have avoided going to the garden, and completely avoided the angry crowd who wanted to arrest Him.

Both these views are false, and we can see this played out in the events leading up to the cross.

Jesus didn’t get what He deserved, but He chose it so that we wouldn’t have to get what we deserve!

When reading events in the gospels that all four writers choose to cover, certain words or phrases that one author chooses to use often will jump off the page at me. It is this way in how all four gospel writers include Peter’s huge failure on the night of Jesus’ arrest.

The gospel of John includes a brief summary of this event, while Matthew, Mark, and Luke go into greater detail about what happened. However, each of these three gospels shift the exact words of Jesus’ warning to Peter.

Matthew writes that Jesus said, “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” (Matt 26:75)

Mark includes an extra detail when he quotes Jesus as saying, “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” (Mark 14:72) – Mark includes the detail where a rooster will crow twice rather than once.

But only Luke includes a detail that frames time. Luke quotes Jesus warning Peter by saying, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” (Luke 22:61)

Luke includes the word “today” in his quote. This prompts me to look at Luke’s writing differently.

If there was any question in your mind about how people in that time period calculated their days, Luke tells us that these days must have been calculated from sunset to sunset – or at least that is how he does it. This has strong implications as we read Luke’s writing, because not only did Luke write the gospel that bears his name, but also the book of Acts, which details the history of the early church.

When Luke frames Jesus’ words as saying that previous evening, after the sun has set, that “today”, Peter will deny Him, we get a picture that Luke firmly believes in a sunset-to-sunset way of framing a day, rather than our typical thought where days go from midnight-to-midnight or sunrise-to-sunrise.

This observation is one that prompts me to pay closer attention to the other places in the scripture where Luke is writing about days, evenings, and nights and it helps me understand exactly the time Luke meant when he was writing.

This also leads me to a big thought: Comparing how each gospel writer shares an event is just as important as comparing how a single writer uses a consistent idea throughout his writings. Had I not compared all four gospels, I may not have noticed Luke’s unique framing of time, and now that I see this detail, I can use it to understand all other areas where Luke references the passing of time.