Confronting Our Shallowness
Luke 20:19-26 ·September 8, 2024· Joel Passmore
Part of: Luke, Merciful Confrontations
5 week miniseries in Luke 20: Merciful Confrontations.
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I know that Explorers, you are remaining in the service today. I want to ask you if you've ever been to a wonderful site in our great Commonwealth called Luray Caverns. Anybody been to Luray Caverns? Adam, you have? So, adults, who's been there? So, okay, a pretty good percentage of the room. It's a great trip. It's a little expensive, but it's a lot of fun. Nikki and I have been, and then our family has been once. There are, if you've been, there's so, so many amazing formations in there.
It's huge. All below ground, and it's just amazing how much of a world there is down there. There's one really interesting formation in there, this reflecting pool. So, Avery, put up that picture for me.
Okay, it's a little hard to see with the lights in here, but I'm going to try to describe it. So, you're standing on a platform, and you're overlooking a ledge, and maybe from the distance from me to the seats here, the pool begins. And it stretches out as far as from here all the way to the back of the room. And it's reflecting the ceiling with all these stalactites coming down, as you can see. And you're looking at it. You can't really get all that close to it.
And you're looking at it, and it just looks impossibly deep. The water is perfectly still. There's no wind. There's nothing even dripping. There's nothing moving. There's no animals in the pond. It is so still, and it's reflecting the ceiling so perfectly that it looks just dozens and dozens and dozens of feet deep. You look at the pool, and you swear that it is. And then the tour guide tells you it's just an illusion. It's just inches deep. It is so shallow, it wouldn't even get your feet all the way wet.
But it looks so deep. It's really just a big puddle. But it looks enormous. What looks deep is actually very, very shallow. And today, the religious leaders, they try to trap Jesus with what they think is their trickiest, their thorniest question. Something they've been keeping in their back pocket to catch Jesus. Something that they really think is going to trip him up. But when Jesus answers, it's like a rock hitting shallow water. And you can tell, nope, that wasn't a very deep question at all.
In fact, it was quite shallow. It takes Jesus. If somebody were to throw a rock, they won't let you, you know, they really discourage you from throwing things in Loray Caverns. But if you were to throw a rock from the platform, you would be able to tell that it's deep. That it's shallow. Thanks, son. That it's shallow. It takes Jesus here, piercing through the confusion, the illusion of depth that the Pharisee's question tries to bring to Jesus. So let's come, and let's see how he confronts them.
This is week three of our sermon series called Merciful Confrontations. Jesus, in his mercy, is confronting the religious leaders about something. Something that we can see in ourselves. And if we are willing to put ourselves in that same position, to be confronted by the Lord Jesus, we too can experience that mercy of being called out of the places where we tend to doubt, where we tend to cross our arms and resist him. So let's have him confront us today in Luke 20.
Turn with me there. This is the word of God. It is holy. It's inspired. It's infallible. And we could and should build our lives on it. So let's seek him and hear from him in his word. Luke 20, starting in verse 19.
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him that very hour. For they perceived that he had told this parable against them. But they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said. So as to deliver him to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. So they asked him, Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God.
Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not? But he perceived their craftiness, and he said to them, Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have? They said, Caesar's. He said to them, Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said. But marveling at his answer, they became silent. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, by your spirit, I ask you please to cut through the shallowness that we have, and lead us into true, deep spirituality, true, deep seeking of you, true, deep rest in you.
Lord, show us what it means really to be your disciples, and help us to see you as the all-sufficient Savior, the one that we should submit our entire lives to. Do good work in our hearts today, God, because of your promises, because of your great love, and your great power, because you're faithful. And we pray this in Jesus' name.
So, you might have guessed this by now. Today, Jesus is confronting our shallowness. Real worship is about who we give ourselves to. Now, the religious leaders are relentless. They have been pressing and pressing and pressing. They heard Jesus' parable last week, the last parable of the Gospel of Luke. They heard his parable. They knew that it was about them. They knew that they were the wicked tenants of the vineyard in his parable, the ones who rejected the owner's messengers after messengers, and finally rejected the owner's son and killed him.
They knew that Jesus was talking about him, about them. They want to grab hold of him right now and just end this thing now. But they can't because it might start a riot against them. So, they get crafty. They get clever. They get cute. At least, they think that they do. And they come up with this whole plan and it centers on this question that I have to believe they've been keeping in their back pocket because they think it's really good. They come to him with a controversial question.
This question has one goal. It is intended to get Jesus in trouble with the Romans. That's what they're trying to do. That's what they're trying to do. The scribes and the chief priests, if Jesus is accused of treason, then the Romans would have him killed, that their problem would be solved. They want the Romans to do what they couldn't do themselves easily. So, they send spies out into the crowd, undercover agents, to catch him in something that he said.
They try to trick him with insincere flattery. Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Nice words, except they don't believe a word of it. The irony is that all of it's true, right? It's completely true, even though they don't mean it. They come with a question. Jesus saved his most accusatory parable for last, and they have saved what they think is their most difficult question for last.
It's a hot-button issue. Something that has been debated among them, probably debated among lay people in the Jewish community, maybe for decades, longer even. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar or not?
Tribute is not, this is not the tax that the tax collectors will gather. The tribute is something that goes directly to the imperial court in Rome. It goes directly there.
It is one denarius per year for every male above the age of 20. That's what is owed. A denarius is worth one day's wages. For a laborer. So, this is not a lot of money. I mean, no one wants their money taken. But one day's work out of a whole year, every year, it's not the most financially onerous thing that the Romans could have done. But it's controversial because of what it symbolizes. This is only imposed on conquered peoples. It's a way of rubbing it in their face.
You belong to us. Don't you forget it. Give me that denarius every year. You're not free. You're under our control. You're under my control, says Caesar. On top of that, at this time, the denarius had an image on it. Go ahead and show that picture, Avery. There's the front and the back of a denarius, maybe one very similar, identical even, to the one that Jesus holds later in this story. The front is an image of Caesar, and on the back is an image probably of Caesar's mother, Tiberius' mother.
She is seated, and she is depicted there as an incarnation of the goddess of peace. And the inscription around the edge of that coin, it means high priest. So the coin that itself they give to Caesar was blasphemous. Not only does it have an image on it, which to some of them, you might think of the second commandment, don't make any graven images. Certainly the back of it, calling someone high priest, to Jews, giving this coin to Caesar would imply false worship.
Jewish people hated paying this tribute, right? It's blasphemous, but it's also just a reminder to them that they are under the thumb of the Romans. They don't like any of it. And that's exactly why the religious leaders come with this question.
If Jesus says, yeah, it's lawful, they think the crowd's going to turn on him. Jesus, I thought you were supposed to be the liberator, the deliverer, the one that frees us from the Romans. Don't you know how godless this government is? I thought you were going to do something about that. Forget you. But if he says, no, it's not lawful, then they can run to the Romans and say, hey, you got an insurrectionist on your hands. Everybody loves him. They're all listening to him.
And he just said that we shouldn't give tribute. What are you going to do about it? They think this is a perfect trap. But Jesus isn't worried. In fact, he might even be a little bit disappointed. You all probably know the shortest English verse of the Bible, right? Jesus wept. Of course, we don't know, but I wonder if those who witnessed this event might have said, Jesus sighed. Because their question is both very easy to answer and very trivial.
This hot button topic is what you might call a tempest in a teapot. It's a big storm that's real tiny. It doesn't really matter. It's a controversy about something that's ultimately so small. We see that in how he answers the question. He asks for a denarius. He asks whose likeness and inscription does it have? And of course they say Caesar's. And he says, well, you probably all know this verse quite well. Render to Caesar what is Caesar's. Give it back to him.
It's got his image on it. Give it back to him. It belongs to this world. It belongs to him. Give to him what belongs to him. Paying taxes, I hate to tell you, it's not a violation of God's law.
Even when those taxes go to secular government. Giving a coin to a ruler is not false worship, even if that ruler calls it tribute. It's not false worship. Using a coin with blasphemy on it is not itself committing blasphemy.
Why? Well, because of what he says in the very next part of the verse. Render to God the things that are God's. There are things more valuable than the coin. In one sentence, Jesus has cut through this controversy and he said, yeah, of course, give it to Caesar. And then he stops it right there. Give that to Caesar and no more. Render to God the things that are God's. There are things that are more valuable than the coin and those things ought not to go to Caesar or any government.
They belong to God alone. His answer is like a rock thrown in that reflecting pool up there at Leray Caverns. It shows that the question really was very shallow. It shows that their focus is really very shallow. They've spent so much energy. If there were internet comment sections back at this time, they would be full of discussions about this topic. And you know how those comment sections are full of discussions now of other topics. So much energy they have put in to debating whether or not to pay this tribute.
And they have missed the whole point. What are you offering to God? Forget about whether or not you have to pay Caesar and how much to pay Caesar and what the coin looks like and what he's done lately and what it means. What are you giving to God?
These religious leaders have been drowning in shallowness. Now it's easy for us to hang out in the shallow end of discipleship with our water wings on. Touching the bottom. Not wanting to go into the deep end. This is what happens when we focus exclusively on behaviors. As if that's all that matters. Debating endlessly as Christians about what foods to eat. About whether or not we should drink alcohol. About what words are bad and what words are good.
How much media is too much. What kind of shows are allowed. What clothes to wear. How we should and shouldn't spend our money. How much to tithe to church. How much to give to missionaries. How we should relate to our government. Who we should vote for.
Now don't get me wrong. All of these and more are real applications of the Christian life. There are things that we ought to consider. In fact we must consider those things. But being a Christian is not defined by getting the right answers on all those topics. That is not the Christian life. Being a Christian is a matter of worship at its core.
That's what Jesus is saying when he responds. He shakes his head. For goodness sakes give it to Caesar. And then think about what you're going to give to God. Being a Christian is a matter of worship at its core. I've got a close friend a dear friend who I really connect with about music. we play guitar together we talk about music together we geek out over bands and all kinds of things. And in college he told me he was going to stop listening to non-Christian music.
And as someone who is on the other side of the aisle on that particular topic I tried hard to convince him that he could and he should listen to non-Christian music. I tried hard over and over. I told myself I was trying to help him. I was trying to help his Christian freedom. But really I just wanted to play the same music that we had been playing and talk about the same music we had been talking about and listen to it together. It was really it was really selfish of me and unloving of me.
He was trying to honor God with the choice that he made. And I was being the Pharisee focusing on actions. Instead of the heart of worship. It is much easier. In fact I'm going to go ahead and say it's our default. It's the thing that we return to to emphasize outward behavior and disregard inward posture. That's where we go. Outward behavior instead of inward posture. And Jesus calls us out of that in his great mercy with wisdom from above. Because there is no life to be found in just focusing on outward behavior and disregarding your inward posture.
He says give Caesar the coin because it has his image stamped on it. And what has God stamped his image on church? What has God stamped his image on? Us. Us.
Each one of you. Each one of your neighbors. Everyone you read about on the news. People of the opposite political party of you. All stamped with God's image.
We create like him. He created out of nothing. We create out of something. He gave us the raw materials. We conceive of new things and then we build them. We make them. We build and design. We make art and aircraft and poetry and bridges. We communicate like him. We invent languages and use them to describe the world. To articulate our thoughts our feelings. To connect with each other. We use the language to give things names. We do it all with beauty and with humor and with insight.
We think and we reason and we understand like him. Him infinitely and us finitely but still in his image. We investigate the order that he made the world with. We move into it to try to understand it. To describe it. We discover concepts. We test theorems and we do it all with moral agency. The ability to distinguish right from wrong and to be held accountable for it.
None of these aspects of the image of God are the same since Adam and Eve sinned and sin entered the world. They're not the same. Our human nature was warped and infected by sin. The image has been marred. It's like someone has thrown dirt and thrown a hammer at a mirror. The image has been marred but the image is not removed. It is still there.
People, every person on the earth deeply appreciates the doctrine of the image of God even if they have never heard of it even if they don't understand it or even if they outwardly disagree with it. Deep down they like it. If someone believes that if a firefighter has one trip just one trip inside a burning building if they believe that they should rescue a person instead of an animal then they believe in the image of God.
One trip remember. If a person believes that they and other people have inherent dignity and value no matter the color of their skin no matter how much money or education they have that person believes in the image of God.
Jesus' point is this God has stamped his image on you and me. That's why we believe the things that we rise up in moral indignation when something wrong and inhumane is done against another person. God has stamped his image on you and me. It is a blessing beyond comprehension to bear that image but that means that our life belongs to him. He's marked it.
He deserves our allegiance and our affections. That's what real worship is all about. Seeing ourselves as his and offering ourselves back to the one who made us to the creator in humble devotion. That's what the word render means. It means give back to the one to whom it is owed.
I appeal to you therefore brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.
Let me try to make this more last thing I'm going to do is a sermon like this and start rifling down a bunch of do's and don'ts. But let me do Jesus is look I don't have a problem with you giving the denarius to Caesar as long as your heart is going to God if it's not worship in your heart if worship is going to God then go ahead but if you are worshiping Caesar by giving that coin then you better examine your heart motivations matter and the good news is that God purifies those motives by the spirit in Christ he does that work here's the second question reflect on God on the God whose image you bear reflect on him think about who he is think about his character his promises think about his faithfulness what he's done for you what he's done for people around you and then ask yourself what amazes me about him what amazes me about him I think if you're married you know that if you just ask for a list from your spouse tell me all the things you want me to do and all the things you don't want me to do and you do those things but there is no you are beautiful you are wonderful I'm so grateful to be with you if there's none of that going on in your heart your spouse is not really all that impressed by you perfectly executing the do's and the don'ts what amazes you about God reflect on that these questions will help you render to God the things that are God's because friends in the pool of discipleship the truth is there's no shallow end it's all deep end there's only the deep waters
of offering yourself to God but here's the wonderful truth is that the gospel draws us deeper God is like a swim coach saying no it's okay come follow me our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he came for shallow people like you and like me the perfectly righteous one fully dedicated to his father with all the right reasons for doing so all the right motives in his heart he gave himself for us that obedience was for us because we were the ones who had impure motives and disregarded the worship of God Jesus died in our place and rose again to accomplish something deep in each one of you a deep work of salvation all of our concern about behavior all the effort that heart only comes through the work of God through his spirit changing us when we submit ourselves to him in repentance and faith the spirit enters in gives us a flesh heart takes out our stone heart and when that happens not only is your heart new it's got the inscription of the Holy Spirit on it Jesus said he asked about the inscription on the coin whose likeness and whose inscription does it have listen to what Paul says to the church in Corinth you are a letter from Christ delivered by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of the human heart the spirit's writing on your heart I saw writing along route 10 a couple weeks ago writing on a door that made me really hopeful made me excited it said coming soon kava I know that's how I felt I screamed just like that when
I saw that writing that meant that good food would soon come from that corner of the plaza if you're united to Christ then the spirit has written on your heart God's workmanship God's workmanship you know you know something about that that's something to be hopeful about more hopeful than I was about seeing kava that means that good fruit is going to come from your life it's going to come from that heart love and joy and love isn't that deep that's the deep work of God that is so much more deep than should I give this coin to Caesar all of the frivolities that we debate about endlessly love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self control why don't we have internet comment sections between Christians talking about how we can pursue that great fruit together fortunately for us we have the spirit of God calling us out of that calling us into the deeper discipleship that he has for us render to Caesar what is Caesar's but render to God what is God's the heart that he has given you that he has written on God's workmanship and the final outcome when we stand in we're not just going to bear the image of God we're going to bear the image of Christ he has purposed to conform you to the image of your savior you're going to look like him this is sacred work this is divine work this is deep work it's work that God is committed to in your life and in my life let's offer ourselves to him friends because we're already his he stamped his
image on us and if the work has begun let's pray