Mark 12:17 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him. NIV
The Jews in first century Palestine were not big fans of Caesar or Rome; I’m not sure present-day are either. One thing is for sure, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were against Him – one of their own – even more than they were of Imperial Rome and Emperor Caesar. Jesus was doing what not even Rome dared to do – calling the Jewish leaders on their beliefs. That really made them mad because their beliefs were whacked; their beliefs were wrapped around a heartless hierarchical system of cronyism and power. Romans they could deal with, but a whistle-blowing Jesus – unh-uh!
Jesus called them on their beliefs and when they tried to indict Him, they made a crucial mistake: they left their God out of the equation. Jesus said, “…[Give to your] God what is [His].” And when He said that, they were shocked. What is God’s anyway? And, what does He own!?
Romans and men own things like time and space, brick and mortar; systems and earthly, temporal things. Men and Romans own pettiness and hypocrisy. Men and Romans own governments and taxation. But God owns our hearts. You might not think so because of how we act sometimes, but it’s true – God owns our hearts. God owns things of heaven and eternity and beckons those who will to live their lives believing in what He owns.
So when we give to God what is God’s, we give Him the things of the spirit, like truth-telling, like humility, like obedience – those are things that belong to God. And those are the exact things that the Jews then, and many today, are unwilling to give. The unwillingness comes because the things of God get in the way of the things of Caesar. Caesar, it’s perceived, gets things done; but he only does on a temporal, earthly basis. God gets things done too, like changing my heart from Caesar’s things to His things – that alone, is miracle enough for me.
Father in Heaven,
You truly own everything – heaven, earth and everything everywhere in between and everywhere else. What is Yours is my heart and my faith. What is Yours is my willingly obeying everything You tell me to do. Lord I give You my heart, I give You my soul; I live for You alone. Every breath that I take every moment I'm awake, Lord have Your way in me** – amen.
**Hillsong United
No comments:
Post a Comment