Have You Ever Tried to Trap Or Trick God?

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have you ever tried to trap or trick God?

• Ask so blatantly in that way, I suspect it would be hard for any of us to say “yes.”
• But if we think about it and are truthful, we probably have.

The dialogue goes something like this…….

• “Oh Lord, I’m not doing that bad. I only messed up a little and committed that sin once.”
• “And it was a little sin. I only did it because I was making the best of a bad situation.”
• “Overall God, I really do good.”
• “Oh Lord, You know how hard I try. I really do give it my all.”

Or how about these statements……….

• “I really do put You first in my life, God. You are my highest priority….well, at least most of the time.”
• “I really wanted to do it. But I was so busy. There is just so much going on.”
• “I know God, I’m supposed to speak up for You. There just was something that wouldn’t allow me to do it.”
• “I’m doing all that I can to give and help those in need.”
• And on and on the list goes.

Today in our Gospel reading, the Pharisees are back at it again.

• We are in Holy Week.
• It is the Passover Festival and the Pharisees are trying to trick Jesus.

As you read the account this becomes quite clear, but there are also a couple of hints as to what is really going on here.

• The first verse of our Gospel reading says, “The the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle Jesus.”
• And as further evidence we are told the Pharisees were teamed up with the Herodians.

The Herodians were a group that their name implies.

• They were in opposition to any idea or Jewish kingship; but instead…..
• Submitted themselves to Herod and thus Caesar and Rome.

The Pharisees, on the other hand, of course, unlike the Herodians were opposed to Roman rule.

• Israel was to be the chosen people and nation. That included from their perspective, earthly kingship.
• And thus, the Pharisees and Herodians would normally be opposed to each other.
• But now, in attempting to entangle Jesus, the Pharisees and Herodians have teamed up and in our Gospel reading today approach Jesus.

They begin by trying to trick or soften Jesus with flattery.

• “Teacher, we know that You are true and teach the way of God truthfully; and You do not care about anyone’s opinion, for You are not swayed by appearances.”
• Yeah, right. If they only believed what they said.

And then they sprang the question on Jesus.

• “Tell us then, what You think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
• If Jesus says, “yes”; then the Pharisees think they have Him. This will surely cause a revolt with the people.
• And if He says, “no”; then those Herodians will bring Him up on charges of insurrection.
• A perfect plan. They cannot lose. They’ve justified themselves and think they have manipulated an outcome as to what they want.

And Jesus gives that answer that we are all familiar with and have probably quoted before……

• “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
• The second half of that statement, the words that are on the cover of your bulletin, form the basis for our meditation this morning.
• “Render to God the things that are God’s.”
• And oh, if we only lived by those words.

You see, sometimes we erroneously act as if what we possess is ours from which we freely choose to give to others…..

• Versus faithfully recognizing that all of life, including governing authorities, is given by God…
• And our response is a matter of giving back in recognition of that which we have received.
• You see, sometimes when we try to trap or trick God……
• All we end up doing is trapping or tricking ourselves.

If we look closely at the events of Holy Week, surrounding our Gospel account, we see this clearly shown.

• Holy Seek is the time of the Passover when Israel, remembers and celebrates redemption.
• But what we see instead is God’s rejection.
• God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, has come to the temple….
• But the people respond to His presence not by worship but by rejection.

Having entered the temple, Jesus is disputing with Israel’s religious leaders in a series of controversial dialogues.

• Jesus is inviting them to repentance through a series of stinging parables….
• Some of these parables we have looked at in sermons the last few Sundays.

Step back and look at the dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees…….

• Instead of revealing the ingenuity and goodness of the Pharisees…..
• The dialogue reveals their spiritual bankruptcy and the spiritual bankruptcy of the temple itself.
• The church leader’s mouths attend to the lawfulness of paying the census taxes…..
• While their hearts neglect the weightier matters, such as justice and mercy and faithfulness.

When God comes to the temple……

• He finds it filled not with mercy but with malice.
• Not with the blood of sacrifice but with the blood of the righteous shed upon the earth.

The last time we are in the temple, before the death of Jesus, we will see it abandoned.

• The religious leaders stand there with money in their hands and questions about lawfulness in their mouths…..
• And yet they are completely oblivious to the things of God in their midst.

While the religious leaders try to trick Jesus with the question of what to render to Caesar and to God….

• As we shall see later during Holy Week, they don’t know it but they truly are spiritually blind to discern what to render to Caesar and to God.
• They will take Jesus, the one God gave them as Israel’s king, and turn Him over to Caesar.

They will be given one of Jesus’ disciples…..

• Judas comes to them in remorse saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
• These shepherds of God, or entrapping church leaders with self-serving motives, now facing a sheep that has strayed, neglect matters of “justice and mercy” and reply “what is that to us?”
• Having turned away God and having turned away man…….
• Immediately they will take counsel with what to do with the blood money and whether it was lawful to put it in the treasury.

There focus on themselves and their agenda has left them unable to discern the true treasures of God….

• Even as they ironically revisit their earlier question…..
• They have Israel’s king who came to bring salvation…..
• And a person caught in sin and in need of forgiveness in their midst.
• And all they are focused on or trapped in are matters of blood money and lawfulness before God.

Pretending to care about matters of the law, the church leaders break the law, seeking to entrap Jesus in His words.

• Later in response Jesus rightly declares that they have neglected the weightier matters of God’s law.
• While God desires to show forth mercy, they practiced malice.
• When God looked for faith, they fostered rejection.
• Where God has given them the blood of sacrifice, they have sought the blood of the righteous.

And so the air is thick with irony…..

• The religious leaders stand in the temple arguing about money while the temple itself is spiritually bankrupt.
• They have condemned their Messiah and disregarded their calling to tend to God’s people and care for their needs.

Yet while the temple and its leaders are spiritually bankrupt, the world is now rich with the mercy of God.

• Outside the temple, outside Jerusalem, the true king of Israel reigns from a cross.
• Here the treasury of God’s mercy is now thrown open and the priceless blood of the Passover sacrifice is now shed.
• God comes to redeem His people.
• Here we see a true king, the king of Israel, doing the work of a servant-king.

Jesus said His rule is not like that of the Gentiles as He ……

• “Came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
• Through this merciful rule of Jesus, the world is forgiven and true disciples are formed.

So as we bring this message to a close, let’s come full circle and make sure we are clear on the applications for us here today.

• We must examine what truly is in our hearts. What we are about and what is really important.
• We must examine our actions and the motives for them.
• We must be careful not to lose proper focus on our Savior and true discipleship.
• We must follow in the steps of our Master.
• We must be careful never to try to trick God and as a result, trick only ourselves.

Because the reign of God is eternal, the church always faces the temptation to take this gift of salvation out of our daily life and only look at it and ponder.

• Take it, if you will, our of a present reality and look at it only as a future thing to hope for.
• Yet the reign of God is now…..
• It is among us…..
• And it has present as well as eternal value.
• God’s reign is now in your life through Jesus Christ.
• God’s eternal mercy matters in the daily life of this world.

Our Lord rules over all things.

• He has established governments for the good ordering of life….
• And He has created the church in His mission to give life to all people.

Here in this place, God gathers us in His house…..

• It is to be a place of mercy not malice.
• Here He forms us to be His people…..
• Known by our love for God…..
• Known by our love for one another…..
• Known by our service in His merciful mission to a fallen world…….

Known by our proclaiming of His Word…….

• A message of mercy and love to those in need.
• A message of forgiveness of sins and life and salvation.
• In total, we need to truly examine ourselves and render to God the things that are God’s.
• Amen.

(Please stand) Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Having heard the Word of God we now prepare our hearts to confess the words of the Nicene Creed as found on page 158 of your hymnal.