The Tax Trap...

Luke 20:20-21, 23-26 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. He saw through their duplicity and said to them, “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”“Caesar’s,” they replied. He said to them, “Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent. That first Easter, like this one, was near April 15th. Taxes were on people's minds. They didn't like them, nor the taxcollectors who gathered them. They also wanted to discredit Jesus. Here was a way to get at both. But like them, we are the problem. We don't like taxes, but we expect too much from government. We want them to provide all we need; we trust in them instead of God. And, like them, we often want free from God's expectations on our lives; we are not will to give to God what is God's. Jesus gets to the core issues here this final week before the cross: "Am I willing to give, or is all I want to do is get?"