A Blossom Bible Podcast
A Blossom Bible Podcast
Mark 12:13-17 Render Unto God: The Divine Claim on Our Lives
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When religious leaders attempted to trap Jesus with a seemingly impossible question about paying taxes to Rome, they never expected His answer would echo through centuries. The Pharisees and Herodians—strange bedfellows united only by their hatred of Jesus—approached Him with fake flattery and a political landmine: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?"
Their trap was carefully designed. If Jesus supported paying taxes, He'd alienate Jewish nationalists. If He opposed it, He'd be reported to Roman authorities as inciting rebellion. Either way, they thought they had Him cornered.
Jesus saw through their hypocrisy immediately. Yet rather than dismissing them, He requested a denarius coin and asked whose image it bore. When they responded "Caesar's," Jesus delivered the profound statement that continues to shape our understanding of faith and civic duty: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
With these words, Jesus acknowledged legitimate governmental authority while establishing a deeper truth: while coins bearing Caesar's image belonged in some sense to Caesar, humans bearing God's image belong ultimately to God. The principle extends far beyond taxes—it speaks to our very identity and purpose.
This message transforms how we view everything: our time, resources, relationships, and ambitions. If we truly grasp what it means to bear God's image and to render our lives to Him, we'll never look at ourselves the same way again. In a world obsessed with self-determination, Jesus reminds us that we are God-made, not self-made.
Take some time this week to reflect on what areas of your life you might be holding back from God. What would it look like to fully render to God what is God's?
Mark, chapter 12, verse 13, and you know that we are in the final week of Jesus' earthly ministry.
Speaker 1:By this point it is Wednesday in the time frame and you know Jesus has successfully stirred the pot there in Jerusalem. He's made a scene from riding into Jerusalem, accepting praise and worship there on the Mount of Olives. He's gone into the temple and made quite the scene when he cleansed the temple, when he threw people out and, through a parable we saw last week, he has accused the religious leaders of being wicked tenants who have rejected God's servants and were rejecting God's son. And before the week is over, you know they will have tried him and they will have killed him. Now, in our account today, the religious leaders send representatives to Jesus to trap him in his words, verse 13. There it says that they are trying to catch him in his words. That idea just to kind of get the flavor of it in verse 13, is that they're trying to hunt him down and catch him. They are wanting him to be their prey. So with that in mind, let's read Mark 12, verse 13, through 27. Then they, that's the religious leaders, sent to him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him in his words. When they had come, they said to him Teacher, we know that you are true and you care about no one, for you do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God. In truth, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay? But he that's Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them why do you test me? Bring me a denarius, denarius that I may see it. That's a coin, by the way. So they brought it and he said to them whose image and inscription is on this? And they said to him Caesar's. Jesus answered and said to them render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. So here we are, mark 12, 13. And first off, we see some wise guys. Now, I say wise guys as in the wise guy, right, I say it as that. That's the professional way to look at this term wise guy. We see the wise guys. We also see the wise one and his wise words, right? So let's spend a minute with these wise guys. The religious leaders Notice what we know about them.
Speaker 1:The story is set up with the coming of the Pharisees and the Herodians Right. Pharisees and the Herodians. Now check it out. The Pharisees were the theologians Right To use a nice big word. Theologians. The Pharisees were the theologians right To use a nice big word. Theologians, the Pharisees. They were concerned with the holiness of God and a holy life, knowing the word and doing the word. That's the Pharisees.
Speaker 1:The Herodians were the politicians of the day right, you could say religious politicians. They supported a man named Herod, not just a man named Herod, but a family of the Herods. Right Now, you who have been around the Bible, you know the Herods are sleazy people. Right, they are. He was known as King Herod, but he was really just a representative of the Jewish people and he wasn't even of Hebrew DNA, hebrew descent. He was a representative king. It was a political thing. He was there by the Romans to keep the peace and you remember he was anything but a noble person. Pretty much no matter whatever Herod you look at, and pretty much no matter whatever Herod you look at anything but noble. They're corrupt, they're perverted, they're vicious and prone to intrigue. It was said of one of the Herods that it was safer to be one of his sheep or his cattle than one of his sons Because they were prone to killing off their own kids if they got jealous. They were prone to throwing away wives if they wanted a different one. And so these Herods are political slimeballs right, that's what it says in the Greek Political slimeballs. And the Herodians they supported Herod. That's what they were there for. They supported Herod, that's what they were there for.
Speaker 1:Now, when you look at these two groups that come the Pharisees and the Herodians you could not find two more different people. Pharisees were into holiness. The Herodians were just into supporting a very unholy person, herod. And notice, they come with this common ground that they hate Jesus. It's interesting what that can do for a relationship, right, as long as we have this mutual hatred for Jesus, we can get along.
Speaker 1:And they come to Jesus and notice verse 14. Notice verse 14. They come saying teacher A little bit of flattery here, right, the word is rabbi. So picture this. They come to Jesus and they call him rabbi. Now, he was a teacher. He was a rabbi in the day, but he wasn't their teacher by any means. They didn't respect the words that he said. So it's a bit flattering here that they call him teacher.
Speaker 1:Look at verse 14 also. They say about him we know that you are true and notice a little further that you teach the way of God in truth. So here's something they admit about Jesus You're true and you teach the way of God in truth. Now they say that, and it was true, jesus was true and taught the way of God in truth. But they didn't really believe that, did they? Because if they had believed that they would have trusted Jesus and followed Jesus, they didn't care about that. Notice what else they say about him, though, there in the middle of verse 14. You care about no one. Now, this isn't to say that Jesus didn't care about people. They weren't saying that. They knew that he cared about the poor, care about people. They weren't saying that they knew that he cared about the poor. They knew that he spent time with the sick and the downcast and the demon-possessed. It wasn't that he didn't care about people, it's more.
Speaker 1:What's said next? Notice, you don't regard the person of men. So, jesus, we know that you don't get into this whole thing of politics and positions. You aren't treating powerful people better than the lowly, right. You're not treating rich people better than poor people or vice versa, right? You don't look at people on the outside and treat them differently because of who they are. You're not into celebrity. You treat everybody equally.
Speaker 1:Now we see this as a positive. Right, jesus loves everyone. They see this as a negative because, check it out, they were into position. The religious leaders were into working to make your name great and having people respect you. Jesus doesn't care about that. And they come to him with this flattery. But even more than that, they come to him with a question. Notice the question. It's a huge question, even for our day, right, verse 15. Is it or shall we pay or let's? I'm sorry, let me back up Verse 14. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Big question Should we pay taxes? And the Bible has something to say about that. Jesus has something to say about that. We want to see what he says.
Speaker 1:But we want to notice a couple more things as we look at this. Check it out the religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Herodians come, but what's their motivation? Because that says a lot about a person. What is your motivation? Look at verse 13. They sent him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to catch him. In his words, verse 13,.
Speaker 1:The narrator here says their whole purpose in coming to Jesus was to trap him, to catch him. Again, that word is a hunting term. It's about baiting someone and trapping them like an animal. Right, this is their motivation to trap him, to destroy him. Notice verse 15. Jesus knew their hypocrisy.
Speaker 1:So another thing we are told here, from the narrator I guess you could say, is that these people were hypocritical. Right, they're coming to Jesus with their flattery oh, teacher, you respect no one. You speak the words of God in truth, teacher. And Jesus sees right through that. He sees through their flattery, he sees through their hypocrisy, their fakes. Now pause for a second. This is important for us to know. Jesus sees our heart. God looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 16, samuel is told, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So right now, even though we're all here and I can't tell what's going on in your heart, god knows what's going on in your heart. He sees our hurts, he sees our concerns, he sees the points where we're honest and the points where we're not honest. And amazing to understand that God still loves us. Because I know what goes on in my heart. God still loves me Kind of crazy. So Jesus here sees their hypocrisy. They're just a bunch of fakes. They're here to trap him. Notice not just their motivation, but we could say their affiliation.
Speaker 1:We talked about it the Pharisees and the Herodians. The Pharisees were into holiness. They were the ones who would look at people and go are they being holy? Are you a holy person, like? I'm a holy person, I've been there, right, I'm a good Pharisee, right. But they would look at people and they could judge Now check it out. Would look at people and they could judge, now check it out. With this in mind, if Jesus says something blasphemous, pay taxes. That would have to some degree been idolatrous. We'll see in a second. The Pharisees were there to jump on that. They would say, oh, that's blasphemy what he says. And they would get everybody to pick up rocks and throw them at Jesus. That's the way that the Jews would have put somebody to death throwing rocks at them until they were dead. The Pharisees were there for that. That would have been their job. Now check it out.
Speaker 1:The Herodians, again, were there to support what Rome said. They were there for the political side of things. So if Jesus were to say something against Rome like, don't pay your taxes, don't pay your taxes to Rome, don't obey Caesar. The Herodians would be there to take that to the governor and have Jesus executed for being a rebel and calling for a revolt. So when we see their motivation and we see their affiliation, we realize that this trap is serious business. They really want to find a way to kill Jesus. That's their whole point here. That's their whole point here, and Jesus knows it.
Speaker 1:They're there verse 15, to test him. So the wise guys are there and there's not much else we want to say about them, nothing good really to say. But the wise one, jesus, is also there and that we want to look at. Verse 15, they ask their question Jesus, knowing their hypocrisy, he says why do you test me? You're trying to get me to fail. Bring me denarius.
Speaker 1:Jesus knows all this, that this is their intention. Intention is to trap him and test him and destroy him. And he still talks to them. You know, an option would have been you know what guys? I'm not getting into this. You're just here to test me. You're here to trap me. You're here to destroy me. I don't need to answer this question either, and Jesus could have just left. But Jesus takes the time to address the question and he gives them insight way deeper than they were looking for. That's the love of God. Even people who hate God, god takes time and patiently follows after us and patiently follows after us, pursues us. It's so amazing to see. Now notice what Jesus says here. Knowing all these things, what Jesus says in his patience and his kindness and his love. He says this whose image and inscription is on. So check it out.
Speaker 1:A denarius we don't use those anymore. A denarius was a coin. It was about the size of a quarter Right, a little smaller, so you can picture it. It was a coin. It was known as a day's wage for the common worker. That's kind of the significance. It was what you would get for working a day. So you saw these. If you were working, you'd get one every day. You worked.
Speaker 1:A denarius On one side. On one side it had a picture of Tiberius Caesar, the king at the time. On the back side it had a picture of his mom. Because why not? Right, you know, want to have a picture of your mom on the coin if you can. It's nice. She was dressed in robes and sitting on a throne with a scepter in one hand and an olive branch in another, as if to say you can choose the scepter or you can choose peace. If you choose peace, it's good for you. If you choose the scepter, clunk, it's not going to be good to oppose Rome. And so this is the picture that was on both sides of this Picture of Caesar on one, picture, of his mom on the other.
Speaker 1:And what was also significant in this was the words. Jesus will get into the words that are on it. But on the side of Caesar's face, it said this Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine, augustus, augustus. Tiberius Caesar, son of God right. Tiberius Caesar, son of God right. On the other side, it said Pontifex Maximus, high priest. So all these things put together, caesar was making a huge statement.
Speaker 1:Every time you worked a day, you got a denarius and you looked at this picture of Caesar, caesar, tiberius, son of the divine, high priest. You turn it over and there was this coin. Jesus asks for this coin, and verse 16, he says this Whose image and inscription is on this? Well, it's Caesar's image, that's obvious, the one we're looking for. The inscription it's blasphemous Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine. It said so much. Now, this was Caesar's coin. Check it out. You couldn't get away from it. Right, there's so many things in the society of ours that are wicked at their ground level, but they're just a part of our everyday life. We live in the world right Now. We're not of this world, but we live in this world and we deal with all sorts of stuff like this every single day. But Jesus brings this coin, and somebody had it, and he says whose image is on it? Caesar's. What's the inscription? It's Caesar's.
Speaker 1:And notice Jesus' remedy here in verse 17. And this is one of those things that could be a life verse. You could definitely consider this verse all week, all month, all year, whatever you want to. There's so much in this. Notice verse 17. Jesus answered and said to them render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
Speaker 1:Now, in a practical sense, jesus is saying this about taxes. We love to talk about taxes. It's April, tax season is upon us, right, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. Pay your taxes. That's a biblical mandate. Pay your taxes. That's a biblical mandate. Pay your taxes, I know. Right, by paying your taxes, you're doing the will of god. Oh, that's not a very american way to look at things, is it? But that's something that god says to do. Um, we should probably be aware of what Paul says in Romans 13 why don't we turn? Because we're so far ahead of things. Romans 13 you want a good verse proof text on paying your taxes? Right, who doesn't? 13 verse 1. Romans 13 1.
Speaker 1:Let this is Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same, for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain, for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore, you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake, for because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render, therefore, to all their due taxes to whom taxes are due. Customs to whom customs are due? Fear to whom fear.
Speaker 1:Honor to whom honor so very clearly here in the Roman Empire, very corrupt Roman Empire. Rome was brutal. If you stepped out of line, they just worked you over, right? And Paul says honor the government, listen to the government, pay your taxes. Titus 3.1, same kind of thing. Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. Check it out, peter in 1 Peter, 2.13, in case you're still skeptical. Peter says this in 2.13, therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king of supreme or to the governors or those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. So even people who knew what Rome was like said give honor to the government, Listen to them, obey them. Now point of balance here.
Speaker 1:Acts, chapter four, verse 19. The story there is Peter and John. They're taken into the religious authority still authority, still government, but the religious government and they're told stop teaching in this name of Jesus. You're causing trouble, we don't like it. Acts, chapter 4, stop teaching this name of Jesus. And Peter says this. Peter and John answered and said to them whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God you judge. So Peter makes a clear point here that we ought to know that if government ever gives you a rule or regulation that goes against God's word and be sure it's not just opinion, but we're talking about God's word, god's specific word don't preach Jesus, don't read the Bible right, don't talk about sin Then we ought to obey God before man. That's the balance of these things and so pretty straightforward in the Bible Honor the government, pay your taxes. If the government tells you anything that's contrary to God's word, don't listen to them. Listen to God before you listen to man.
Speaker 1:So at any rate, we're back here in Mark, chapter 12. And Jesus says render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God. Now, the first part. That's fascinating. It's good to know. But the second part is the best. This is where we really get the devotion out of it. Right, the second part there, verse 17. Render to God the things that are God's. So if this picture of Jesus holding up this coin and saying whose image Caesar's Render to Caesar the things that are God's, so if this picture of Jesus holding up this coin and saying whose image Caesar's Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, then of course, you know the punchline here.
Speaker 1:We can look at our lives. Whose image is on us? Genesis 1, 16, that God made man in the image of God. We're made in God's image. Now, I'm not 100% sure what that all means, right, does God have feet and arms and hair? I don't think so. I don't think that's the image we're talking about. I think it's something more than that. It's the spiritual side of things, maybe. But we know very clearly people are made in the image of God. Therefore, it makes good sense to render to God the things that belong to God.
Speaker 1:If God made us, then we own our life Right Now. That's not the way we look at our lives in any kind of way. Right, look at our lives in any kind of way? Right, we're self-made creatures. But Psalm 100, verse 3, says it's he that made us and not we ourselves. We forget that. I'm a self-made person. Crazy, you had zero to say about being born right. If God didn't make us, we wouldn't be here. Born right. If God didn't make us, we wouldn't be here. We're self-made, we're self-sustaining, at least.
Speaker 1:Well, daniel, chapter five, is an amazing passage where a very cocky king gets up and praises the gods of silver and gold, and the prophet Daniel comes in and says you know what? The prophet Daniel comes in and says you know what? The God who holds your very breath in his hand, you have not acknowledged. That's an interesting thought. Take a breath Feels good, right. Feels good to be able to take a breath. It feels bad to not take a breath for a long time, right. But every time you breathe in, it's because God gives you another breath. It happens while you sleep. You're not even aware of it, and yet God takes care of us, he sustains us. So we're not self-made, none of us are self-sustaining.
Speaker 1:And yet, generally, we don't acknowledge God at all 99%. I don't know if that's a real statistic, but I'm just going to say it. 99% of people who have ever existed did not acknowledge God Never. They arrogantly just said I'm my own person, I do what I want. And yet, even just on the surface of things God made us, his image is on us as human beings.
Speaker 1:It makes good sense that we render our lives to him. That word render is really cool. It means to give back to somebody something that they've already given to you, right? So in the case of Caesar. The idea was Caesar provides for you this money and this employment. You give back to him a piece of that. Even better, with us, god gives us a life. We give back our lives to him.
Speaker 1:Now, for us, as believers. If you are a believer, if you've trusted what God has done for you even more so, think about it Even more so. He saved us. That's what the cross tells us that Jesus died on the cross to save us. We were lost in our sins, every single one of us. We were destined in our sins, every single one of us. We were destined for hell. And yet God, the hero, jesus, he saves us. We owe him our life. He redeems us. That's cool terminology, right. Redeems. That's the idea of buying something back that was lost. It's the idea of slavery, right? We're slaves to sin, the wages of sin being death. We owed everything because of sin, and yet God redeems us. He buys us out of slavery. He pays the debt for us. He buys us. That means we're not our own.
Speaker 1:Let's turn to Romans one more time. I don't know if you turn back to Mark. I guess we were in Romans. Romans chapter 12.1, classic Romans 12.1. I beseech you, I beg you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God or because of God's mercy, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Speaker 1:So Paul here paints us a picture. He says, guys, god's done everything for you, and that's what the book of Romans, 1 through chapter 11, are all about, what God has done for you. And he says God's done everything for you In light of everything that God's done for you. And he says God's done everything for you In light of everything that God's done for you, present your bodies a living sacrifice, render your whole lives to God. It makes sense, it's reasonable service in how he saved us and bought us and redeemed us. It just makes perfect sense to offer everything, to render everything to him.
Speaker 1:Now, that's the application, right. More than taxes, pay your taxes. That's a great application, right? If you come out of it with I'm going to pay my taxes, then you probably missed it, right?
Speaker 1:The punchline here, the application for the week, is to look at it that way God truly has done everything for us. He redeemed, bought, saved us. It only makes good sense to render our lives back to him, our life. Think about it as you see it this week, your life. We're going to guess that you have life in front of you this week. Render it to God. God, it's yours, my life. You have some power right Now. Some of us look and we go on. Not much power, strength to get out of bed is about all I feel like I have sometimes. But you have some strength, you have some energy, you have some time this week and yet, to look at it, god, every good thing comes from you. My breath comes from you, my salvation comes from you. It's yours.
Speaker 1:Now, we don't usually get to the point where we say that we're already, you know, planning our week. What am I going to do with my time? What am I going to do with my energy this week? But yet, to look at it as a fact, it's God's, it belongs to him. God, how do you want to use this week?
Speaker 1:It makes sense because of how he saved us. If he truly has saved us, we owe him everything. So, god, it's so beautiful what you do to us and, truth be told, we may most of us may get through this week and realize that we haven't even thought about you. It's not what we want, but it's sadly true, because we get very distracted when we think about our own needs and our own wants, and yet we haven't thought about you, god. I just pray that we would have this on our mind from the beginning here, god, that we would have in our minds that you've done everything for us. We owe you our lives. That just makes good sense. Help us to render all these things to you, god. You're so good. You deserve all of our praise and all of our thanks. You deserve our life. Help it to be true in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name Amen.