Luke 20:19-26 Give to Caesar
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: November 7, 2018 Luke 20:19-26
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at 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 up 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 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.
(Understanding the Text) Jesus had just told the parable of the unfaithful tenants, and the people understood the meaning clearly. The scribes and chief priests knew that Jesus was speaking directly against them, so they wanted to kill Him even more, but Jesus was surrounded by crowds who were hanging on to His every word and believed that He was the Messiah. The leaders could not just arrest Jesus for no reason, so they tried to create a situation where Jesus could be arrested. They sent in spies who were to pretend to be just one of the crowd and ask questions that would cause Jesus to say the wrong thing and get Him into trouble. They thought they had the perfect question with the tribute question. After all, Caesar claimed to be god, and if they paid tribute to him, it would be like idolatry. However, if Jesus said not to pay taxes, the Romans would come down on Him hard.
However Jesus bypassed the issue by pointing out the problem with the spies’ logic. God does not care about riches and tribute. He cares about love and loyalty. Caesar’s government made the coins, so the coins already had the inscription of Caesar on them. Just using the coins could be considered to be just as much idolatry as paying tribute. Thus, there was no problem in returning idolatrous coins to a idolatrous government. God does not need or want tribute. God wants our hearts.
Jesus’ answer made His opponents rethink their own assumptions. They were silenced by His answer. It says they marveled at it. I think that means that Jesus gave them a new perspective to think about. Hopefully, the spies thought long and prayerfully and maybe some of them were among the converts after Jesus’ resurrection.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Edersheim points out that Jesus’ answer might not have been totally new to the Jewish way of thinking in His day. “We know how later Judaism would have answered such a question. It lays down the principle, that the right of coinage implies the authority of levying taxes, and indeed constitutes such evidence of de facto government as to make it duty absolutely to submit to it. So much was this felt, that the Maccabees, and, in the last Jewish war, Bar Kokhabh, the false Messiah, issued a coinage dating from the liberation of Jerusalem. We cannot, therefore doubt, that this principle about coinage, taxation, and government was generally accepted in Judaea.” There were among the crowd those who supported the government of King Herod and thus his Roman backers and there were those present who felt that paying a tax to Rome was a betrayal of their own nation. Jesus pointed both groups away from politics to the kingdom of heaven. There is a separation between the politics of this sinful world and the allegiance that we owe the kingdom of heaven, and too many people choose their loyalty to this world and its governments over loyalty to God. They place the principles of the kingdom of heaven secondary to survival and influence in this world.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that I need to always keep my priorities straight and not give more to my job or the world than they require. I must not steal from God, but it is okay to give the job the time and effort required to perform it well. However, I must never consider it more important than the jobs that God gives me to do. I must always put God’s jobs as highest priority. The other application is that when others try to argue against God, I need to look below the surface for the fallacy behind their argument instead of simply answering to their direct accusations and questions. I need to reshape the argument into the truth rather than buying in to false dichotomies and invalid assumptions. Give me the wisdom to see beneath the surface and to know how to reply. Show me the way to balance my priorities in such a way that I am always serving You. Give me the power and desire to do the balancing and the answering.