Happy Sunday and 4th Week of Advent,
Read Luke 20
Our passage today takes through Jesus teaching in the temple. I like to call this section in Luke, and Matthew especially “The Great Debates” between Jesus and the religious leaders as they move back and forth questioning each other, telling parables and sending verbal spars back and forth. Today, Jesus’ authority and John the Baptist’s authority are questioned, a parable about wicked tenants is told, questions about taxes, the resurrection, and David’s Son are all on the table.
As I think about this chapter in light of our proximity to Christmas I am struck by the reappearance of the emperor/governor and the outside political world and the impacts they have on the birth, life and death of Jesus. Let’s remember that Joseph and Mary only traveled to Bethlehem because an empire wide edict went out for a census. We also have the story of King Herod’s anger and rage at the news of a newborn king and wise men seeking him. And here, we have the religious leaders trying to trap Jesus with a question about taxes in the empire in hopes of trapping him to give him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.
It’s important to remember as we prepare for Jesus’ birth, he was born into a specific historical context, that he lived in a specific context, and he died in a specific context. The fulfillment of Israel’s prophecies, and it’s story takes place in this Roman world of political intrigue and dealing.
Yet, Jesus is clear that his followers are to “give to the emperor those things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s” (Lk 20.25). The two are different. We are not to give to the emperor the things of God. Or as Peter reflects later in Acts, we are to obey God rather than human authority (Acts 5.29).
How do you delineate between what is God’s and what is the “emperor’s”? How do you delineate between what is God’s and what is culture’s? How do you delineate between what is God’s and what belongs to the false idols (money, sex, power…to name a few) around us? How do you walk this line at Christmas?
Grace and Peace,
Matt