Lent: Tuesday

March 27
Tuesday-“The Coin”
Mark 11: 20-Mark 13: 37
Send home devotional
You were created in God’s image. Do you belong to God?

Intro
Lent-Sunday & Monday which means we are on…Tuesday.
Longest Day and most active day-115 verses.
We have a lot of ground to cover and only a couple of hours to get it in, so let’s get started.

2/3 consists of conflict with the temple authorities and their associates.
Using these stories to continue the illustration of the temple the day before-in the end they don’t get it.
The remaining third warns of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and speaks of the coming of the Son of Man, all in the near future.

This last week has a lot of teaching it. Why is this noteworthy especially as we journey through Lent. After we self examine we need to continue to learn
Empty yourself out in self examination and it needs to be replaced

The teaching day (models of teaching)-teaches in ways that people learn best
Parables
Examples
Greatest commandments
Law interpretation

Focus on a story that is one of my favorites:
Point counterpoint-Jesus has the habit of turning their questions against them. This story is no different.

Mark 12: 13-17
13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, 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 the imperial tax[b] to Caesar or not? 15 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.” 16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

And they were amazed at him.

We’ve heard this story a thousand times-hang with me you might learn something new.

What was this about? What is the debate?
Multiple levels:
Let’s talk about the people who confronted Jesus:
Pharisees and Harrods did not get along-Pharisees resented the Romans oppressors and the Herod’s liked the system because they were getting rich-alliance of convenience.
Pharisees and Harrods make an odd combination. The Pharisees were the religious fundamentalists of their day. The Harrods were the assimilated and secular liberals of their day. Ordinarily the two groups would have nothing at all in common. However, it is their opposing worldviews that turns the question they pose to Jesus into a trap-enemy of one of the groups.

80-90% of population was barely making it-Taxed-Caesar, Herod, Temple-most people are struggling to get by
Upper City group of Jews in partnership with Pilot-control Temple area-getting rich off of people’s offering to God-people would give offerings to God and other people would pocket it and live really well-totally different than television today, it’s what is so exciting about living in today we’ve come so far. $5k bottle of wine-unbelievable wealth-among religious rulers supposed to be leading people closer to God-were in fact profiting mass amounts of money and wealth from the people.

Money and possessions are huge-greed can completely consume you-casino story-as we journey through Lent-does money or possessions stand in the way of your relationship with God? How generous you are with your time and money is a great determinate in how integral your faith is with your life. How you handle your money shows the maturity of your faith.

What was the money they were talking about?
Romans collected a tribute-after all it was an honor to be in the Roman empire-head tax on Jewish males-but the amount was much more than just a per person tax. It wasn’t collected by the Roman authorities, but rather the local Jewish authorities.

How did you pay?
Coin-Commandments-1st Commandment-no other Gods, 2nd make no graven images-a coin had a what?
In the Jewish homeland in the first century, there were two types of coins. One type, because of the 2nd commandment, had no human or animal images. The 2nd type (including Roman coinage) had images. Many Jews would not carry or use coins of the 2nd type.

Back to the story:
So the Harrods and the Pharisees come to Jesus and ask.
Jesus responds show me.
Which means he’s not carrying a what?
Religious leaders who are trying to trap him are carrying a what?
To which Jesus responds…
Trying to trap him-Jesus is like hmm…I don’t seem to have a coin-oh I do…
Brilliant you ought to think about following him.

The coin they produced had Caesar’s image along with the standard and idolatrous inscription heralding Caesar as divine and Son of God. They are exposed as part of the politics of collaboration.

The problem is not whether to pay Caesar’s taxes, but whether to carry Caesar’s coins. And Jesus has already decided on that point. It is unfortunate that we have for centuries misunderstood Jesus’ meaning and no longer hear his laughter or that of his companions as they walked away from the trap.

The Pharisees and Harrods saw only 2 responses-
don’t pay taxes which would be sedition-turn him over to the Romans
Pay taxes-risked discrediting himself with the crowd, who for both economic and religious reasons resented Roman rule and taxation. They wanted to lead him into an unpopular response. But Jesus, of course, doesn’t fall into the trap.

The first half of the answer is really a nonanswer. Doesn’t say to or not to.

We know the answer to the 2nd half-what belongs to God? Everything so if everything belongs to God what belongs to Caesar.

You were created in God’s image. Do you belong to God?