Mark 12:13  And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
14  And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
15  Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
16  And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.
17  And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.

Since the fall of man there has been a war raging. The central focus of that war has been the devil against the Lord. The devil is a defeated foe who knows it but yet does not know it. He is a fool for rejecting the true God. The Bible warns of those who follow him and choose to reject the reality of the true God.

Psalm 14:1  The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

In our text we read of the Pharisees and Herodians who made it their purpose to attack Jesus. They knew they were wrong but they still believed they could defeat Jesus and be rid of Him. It is a sad thing to waste time and energy on that which can never succeed.
The majority of mankind is fighting against the truth. God made man to glorify Him. The few who are saved understand that life is found in Christ. Sometimes we can become distracted and think we can help God accomplish His Work through humanistic efforts. We need to be brought back to our foundation and serve Him properly.
In our text, two different groups of heretics attacked Jesus. The Pharisees were quite well known. They had developed many laws that they demanded people follow. They were constantly fighting against Jesus. The Herodians were not religious in the same sense that the Pharisees were. The Herodians were connected with Rome. They were in an alliance with king Herod. They joined with the Pharisees in our text because they had a common enemy. That enemy was Jesus Christ. The Pharisees assumed they were following God but they had a corrupted view of God.
These false groups were precursors to the ecumenical movement of our time. They all assume they are following God and they fight against the true God.
In our text the Pharisees and Herodians came to attack Jesus regarding taxes. They began by using flattery. Flattery is one of the devil’s many tactics. We as people can be knocked off balance due to pride. We allow the flattery to go to our heads and that is not good. We need to guard against that empty praise. True saints need to remember that our worthiness is found in Christ, not in man.
These religious deceivers were speaking the truth. Jesus did speak the truth. He did not adjust His message to try to please people. He spoke the truth at all times.
The question was with regard to taxation. Jesus was living under the Roman law. The Herodians were not opposed to the Roman law. The Pharisees hated it. However, they would work together to try to attack Jesus. Jesus knew the nature of these false teachers. Jesus confronted them with their attack. He rightly exposed them for what they were. They were not seeking truth. They were tempting Him. Jesus told them to bring Him a penny. He would settle their foolish attack.
Jesus took that penny and asked whose superscription was on the penny. They had to admit that it was Caesar’s image on the penny.
Based on the image on the penny, Jesus reminded these hypocrites that the image on the penny demonstrated ownership. These people needed to be reminded that the secular governments have some ownership given to them by God. No one is above God’s law. The Caesars assumed they were greater than God.
Jesus taught these heretics that the money used in Rome was under the government’s jurisdiction. The heart of man belongs to God. We are created in God’s image. We are fallen creatures, however, we are still created in God’s image. The Pharisees and Herodians were answerable to God, but they were not submissive to Him.
Much of the money the Roman government collected went for ungodly ventures. They would answer to God for that. Jesus did not teach that we should look for ways to fight against unjust taxation. He taught us the importance of right priorities. If God comes first, then our goal is not to make money. Then our goal is to serve Him. We want others to see the benefit of knowing the true God. We live in a sin-cursed world and we need to abide by the laws of that sin-cursed world. We need to purchase things, but we do not need to live for the world. We need to live for God and put Him first in our lives. Some people hire shrewd book keepers. Some of what they do may not be illegal according to secular laws. How just is what they do according to God’s laws?
In our text, Jesus silenced the hypocrites. They did not repent, but they could not come back at Him with anything at this point. They marvelled at Him. Jesus did not stop these men from continuing to think in their irrational way. He exposed them for their hypocrisy but due to their pride, they refused to repent.
The truth is still powerful today. We are not mind readers. We can know what people are thinking as we listen to them. We will not necessarily know all there is to know of men, but we can get a general sense of where a person is coming from if we listen to what they have to say. It is important to ask God to guide us and then to answer people honestly. We do not help anyone when we entertain their false ideas. Everyone develops a philosophy of life. Those who are saved need to learn to listen to what people are saying, but we also need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can answer every man with the reason of the hope that is in us. We need to have the right attitude that will not hinder the Holy Spirit from affecting the hearts and minds of the hearers.
We will not find every person responding favourably to our answers. We need to be careful not to judge our success based on the results we receive. We need to be careful to answer according to God’s will and leave the results in His hands.
In Acts 4 we read that Peter and John were bold servants of God. They refused to bow to the ungodly demands of the false religionists. Those people took note that Peter and John were not sophisticated men. However, they also took note that Peter and John had been with Jesus. That is quite the compliment to receive. That needs to be what people observe in us as well. If we are truly saved, we need to be refined by God so that we can help others to notice the difference a walk with God truly makes.
Pastor Bartel