2025年11月9日 / グレース・トロント日本語教会
マルコの福音書 12章 13~17節
13 さて、彼らはイエスのことばじりをとらえようとして、パリサイ人とヘロデ党の者を数人、イエスのところに遣わした。
14 その人たちはやって来てイエスに言った。「先生。私たちは、あなたが真実な方で、だれにも遠慮しない方だと知っております。人の顔色を見ず、真理に基づいて神の道を教えておられるからです。ところで、カエサルに税金を納めることは、律法にかなっているでしょうか、いないでしょうか。納めるべきでしょうか、納めるべきでないでしょうか。」
15 イエスは彼らの欺瞞を見抜いて言われた。「なぜわたしを試すのですか。デナリ銀貨を持って来て見せなさい。」
16 彼らが持って来ると、イエスは言われた。「これは、だれの肖像と銘ですか。」彼らは、「カエサルのです」と言った。
17 するとイエスは言われた。「カエサルのものはカエサルに、神のものは神に返しなさい。」彼らはイエスのことばに驚嘆した。
November 9, 2025 / Grace Toronto Japanese Church
Mark 12:13-17
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus 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.
OPENING
A Korean friend of mine from my university is now a medical doctor in Germany. In 2012, my son Paul and I had a chance to visit him in Bonn, Germany. We spent a couple of days together. He told me many fascinating things from his time working in German hospitals. One story, in particular, stuck with me:
One day, an elderly lady in her late 90s came to see my friend in the clinic. She’d been relatively healthy. It was her routine checkup. Nothing serious. She entered the building and talked to the receptionist. The receptionist asked her to have a seat and to wait to be called into the doctor’s office. The lady sat by the window. It was a warm sunny day. The lady felt a bit tired and sleepy. She leaned toward the window and soon fell asleep. And she never woke up. She passed away so peacefully in her sleep! You’re jealous, aren’t you? I am because that’s exactly how I want to die. What a wonderful and blessed way to die!
R. C. Sproul is one of my favorite theologians. He passed away in 2017. This opening question came from one of his sermons I listened to: concerning how to die, people always talk about various ways of dying and dream of ideal ways of dying (just like the German lady who died peacefully in her nap). And people are terrified of awful ways of dying, e.g. terminal disease, accident, Alzheimer’s, cancer, etc. However, the Bible teaches that there are only two ways of dying: (1) you die in faith, or (2) you die in your own sins. Like this, true Christian faith always leads us to a higher realm. It’s a kind of “paradigm shift.”
This paradigm shift is what’s happening in today’s text.
CONTEXT
Remember Jesus’ cleaning of the temple? After that he left the temple and went out of the city. And he came again to Jerusalem. Jesus returned to the temple. And today’s story took place in the temple.
TEXT
This time, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders sent some Pharisees and some Herodians to Jesus (v. 13).
Who were the Herodians? We learned about them in Mark 3. When Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on a Sabbath, the Pharisees went out and began to work with the Herodians to kill Jesus. Back then, Judea was ruled by the Roman Empire. But Rome didn’t rule the region directly. They installed a kind of proxy king. His name was Herod Antipas. He’s the one who killed John the Baptist. Herod Antipas was therefore loyal to Rome because his dynasty was dependent on Rome. And the “Herodians”—as the name shows—were those who loyally supported Herod Antipas. So, the Herodians also supported the Roman control of Palestine. So, to Herod Antipas and his supporters “Herodians,” what was the most important task? It was to keep the region at peace. There should be no riots, no uprising, nothing like that. Peace, stability, and lots of tax money for Rome—that was all they wanted. So, whenever there were popular teachers, leaders, or rabbis emerging in the region, the Herodians didn’t like it because they could easily lead to uprisings or rebellions against Rome. And when Jesus started his ministry and became known for his amazing teachings and miracles, the Herodians were probably concerned about the situation because a large crowd was always following him. So, the Herodians were probably keeping their eye on Jesus because they had to remove him if something happened, and that’s why the Pharisees sided with the Herodians to make a plan to kill Jesus. Do you see it? They wanted to destroy Jesus for different reasons:
- The Pharisees – for religious reasons
- The Herodians – for political reasons
It was in Mark 3. And today in Mark 12, finally, the came together to destroy Jesus. And their goal was “to trap Jesus in his talk” (v. 13), or to entangle him in his own words.
In other words, both the Pharisees and the Herodians had had plotted a brilliant idea:
- Make Jesus say something against Rome.
- Accuse him and deliver him up to the Roman authority and have him killed by them (Luke 20:20).
Such a great idea! If it worked, they didn’t even have to lay their fingers on Jesus. They will make Rome kill Jesus for them. Their goal was clear: (1) stop Jesus and (2) have him arrested and killed.
When they came to Jesus, they began by saying many good things about him (v. 14):
- You are true.
- You do not care about anyone’s opinion.
- You are not swayed by appearances.
- You truly teach the way of God.
But in fact, that’s not what they wanted to say. Their real question—their trick question—was this: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not? (v. 14).
People say there are two things you can never avoid: (1) death and (2) taxes. Taxes existed even in the Roman Empire (almost two-thousand years ago). There were many kinds of taxes. But the tax that they refer to here appears to be a particular tax called the “head” tax or “poll” tax. The Roman Empire ruled a wide area. They conducted a census regularly to know how many people they were ruling. And Rome imposed a direct tax on each male between 14 and 65. That tax was called “head” tax or “poll” tax.
It’s interesting that they asked this question because all had already been paying that tax to Rome. There was no exception. The chief priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Herodians were all paying that tax. Then why did they ask such a question? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not? (v. 14).
It was their hypocrisy. They were hiding something. Their actual goal was not to get an answer for that question but to entangle Jesus and hand him over to Rome. Luke 20:20 says they were “spies, who pretended to be sincere.” They were hypocrites (Jesus called them “hypocrites” in Matt 22:18). Jesus knew their hypocrisy and malice and said, “Why put me to the test?” (v. 15). They were testing Jesus. They were trying to trap him.
And Jesus responded: “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it” (v. 15).
What is denarius? Denarius was a silver coin used for this tax. One coin (one denarius) was worth approximately a day’s wages (i.e., in today’s Canadian dollar, I don’t know, minimum $150?)
Why denarius? Jesus asked for it because
- it was used to pay the poll tax—the tax was one denarius per year.
- a denarius coin had (a) the image of the Roman emperor—his name was Tiberius Caesar—and (b) an inscription in Latin.
TI[BERIUS] CAESAR DIVI AUG[USTI] F[ILIUS] AUGUSTUS
Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, (himself is also) Augustus
Who was Augustus?
- Gaius Octavius (27 BC–14 AD).
- The Roman Senate gave him the title Augustus (“blessed one”): Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius)
- Caesar Augustus was acclaimed as the savior who had brought good news
- He had absolute power
- He marked the beginning of the Roman Empire (27 BC)
- Augustus was proclaimed by the Senate to be a Roman god.
- Following Caesar Augustus, the Roman emperors were called “lord” and were worshipped as “son of god” (divi filius)
- Tiberius Caesar was a stepson of Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus and was the second emperor—he was the Roman emperor during Jesus’ time
So, when they brought a denarius coin, Jesus held it and asked them: “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (v. 16). And they answered, “Caesar’s” (v. 16)—it was Tiberius Caesar’s.
And Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (v. 17). In other words,
- the things that are Caesar’s, give them to Caesar.
- the things that are God’s, give them to God.
What happened then? “They marveled at him” (v. 17). Matthew says “they left him and went away” (22:22).
Neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians were persuaded by Jesus. They lost for sure. But they never repented. They just left. They were standing in front of Jesus. They were seeing him face to face. And they were absolutely amazed by Jesus’ absolute wisdom and power. But it’s very striking that, even so, they found every reason and every means to reject Jesus, and they went away.
APPLICATION
They couldn’t stand their ground before Jesus because, first of all, Jesus broke the unity of the Pharisees and the Herodians. When he said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (i.e. pay the tax to Rome), the Pharisees were upset by the answer, but the Herodians were satisfied to hear that.
Now, why were the people amazed by Jesus’ words? They were amazed because Jesus brought in a paradigm shift.
Their simplistic paradigm was like this: There was Rome. And there was Israel (Jews). And God was on Israel’s side. So, what mattered to them was:
- Israel is God’s chosen nation. So, God is on Israel’s side.
- Rome was a pagan nation. God is not on their side.
- But now Israel is under Rome.
- So, they were sensitive about Rome–Israel relationship/interaction.
- i.e. how the Romans would deal with the Jews
- i.e. how the Jews would respond to Rome
So, their scheme was to lure Jesus into the Rome–Israel conflict and destroy him.
But by saying, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus broke their old paradigm and gave a new paradigm.
Basically, what Jesus said was:
- Look at the denarius coin. It bears Tiberius Caesar’s image. So, it looks like it belongs to him. So, why don’t you let him have it? Caesar wants it. So, give it to him.
- But the things that are God’s, give them to God. But remember that everything belongs to God: (1) Rom 1 (the entire nature and universe); (2) Gen 1:26–27 (you bear the image of God—just like the denarius coin bears Caesar’s image). So, the whole world and everything in it are God’s. So, in fact “nothing is left for Caesar” (M. Strauss). Even the denarius you give to him belongs to God (but Caesar wants your coin. So, just give it to him).
So, Jesus was saying: Give the denarius coin to Caesar because at least on the surface it says it belongs to Caesar. And give God the things that are God’s—and remember: everything belongs to God.
Do you see Jesus’ wisdom here?
- Give the coin to Caesar and let him be happy.
- Paying taxes to Rome doesn’t mean you’re disloyal to God.
- (And Jesus was saying to the Pharisees): [Roman rule] is not as big a deal as you think it is—what’s important is whether you give your everything to God. You care about taxes, but it’s a trivial issue. What’s at stake here is NOT whether you pay taxes to Rome. What’s far more important is whether you are giving everything to God. The whole of your life belongs to God.
So, Jesus’ paradigm shift was:
FROM: the Pharisees and the Herodians talking about paying taxes (not even for the sake of discussion but for the sake of trapping Jesus)
TO: the wider and more fundamental issue: everything belongs to God—are you giving God everything?
CLOSING
So, Christianity challenges you to paradigm shifts.
In today’s text, when the Pharisees and the Herodians were talking about paying taxes to Rome, Jesus challenged them and declared that tax payment was not an important matter at all. What’s important is that God owns everything—even Rome and Caesar himself. So, what truly matters is whether you give God everything.
Let’s return to the opening question. Human beings only care about relatively easier ways of dying. For example, they want to die peacefully in sleep rather than to die painfully after a long battle with a terminal disease. But the paradigm shift that the Bible gives is that it’s not an important matter at all. What truly matters is your relationship with God when you die: either you die trusting God or you die in your own sins. Our dear sister Shoko san passed away in last Spring. And she died in faith. She died trusting God. This is what matters. And I want to die like that, too.