GOSPEL MEDITATION

Mark 12:13-17

Paying Taxes to Caesar

1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
7. Jesus had powerful enemies who desperately wanted Him out of the way, and murder was the end goal.
8. The Roman coin denarius was the yearly tax for every male Jew; it was called a “poll tax.” The Romans would calculate the potential rebel force liable against them.
9. The coin has Tiberius Caesars imprint on it with the words, on the reverse side, “Highest Priest.” The coin was considered “unclean” by the Jews.
10. A calculated plot by the leaders, the Sanhedrin, now combined with the Herodians, a political/religious party that served Roman interests — a perfect chance to trap Jesus.
11. If Jesus denied paying the tax, He would be counted a rebel. If He taught it right to pay the tax, His enemies thought He would lose favor with the people who hated to pay the denarius to the hated Romans.
12. What a mind, what a quick and cutting rejoinder: He asked for a coin, the one used to pay the tax.
13. He asked the obvious, which question pointed out that the coin was minted by Tiberius and therefore belonged to him. He who ruled had the right to tax.
14. Render to Caesar, one of the most oft repeated phrase in human history. So then, pay the tax whether liked or not.
15. But larger is what is owed to God, the Creator, the King of all people – render to Yahweh then what is owed.