Mark 12:13-17

Mark 12:13-17  Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words.  They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity.  You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.  Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?  Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”  But Jesus knew their hypocrisy.  “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked.  “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”  They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this?  And whose inscription?”  “Caesar’s,” they replied.  Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's."

In the above passage the Pharisees and Herodians were attempting to divide Jesus' following.  Clearly, the  Jewish people were obligated to pay taxes to Caesar, for the Romans controlled their country.  However, a few dissentient Jewish people, the zealots, did not pay taxes to Caesar out of protest to his rule.  The disciple Simon was a zealot.  Jesus knew their question was dissimulative, not one that needed to be answered.  Nonetheless, Jesus gave them a very practical answer.  Whose coinage do you use?  Well, the legal tender of that time was Roman coins.  Jesus literally said, if you use Roman coins to do business, you need to pay Caesar, the minter of those coins.  This rational and succinct answer confounded his detractors.  Yet the latter part of Jesus' answer, give to God what is God's is still pretty much ignored by most of the people in the world.  How many people give to God what is God's?  The majority of the people in the world give to Caesar what is Caesar's out of obligation to him.  If they don't, there will be heavy consequences to face from their government.  On the other hand, since God is not observable to people, since He seems not to have any authority over them, and since maybe He doesn't even exist, the latter part of Jesus' answer goes unfulfilled in most people's lives.  

However, to give to God what is God's is a matter of "saving" faith.  To believe in God so much that you are willing to give him your energy, thoughts, and material goods is a statement of faith.  Indeed, this is a strong statement of faith, for in a practical sense, this God is unknowable through the physical senses.  For those who say, "Yes, I believe there is a God," but pay no price whatsoever in their everyday lives to support that belief are basically claiming something that they really don't believe in actuality.  There are no works behind their statements of faith.  James says, What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save him?  Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  (James 2:14-17)  Jesus said, give God what is God's.  Well, what is God's?  Our lives are God's possessions; we are to give our lives to him.  We are to give everything that we are to him for his purposes to do his will.  He is asking that of us.  We are not just to give our money, but we are to give our energy, our thoughts, our everything, for He gave everything for us.  We have only a short time here on Earth.  We have only a short time to bring glory to our heavenly Father.  For us, this time is his time.  It is time to give what is God's to God.  In complete surrender to him, we find happiness, peace, and joy.