Mark 12
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Mark 12:13-17:
And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it. And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s. And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him. |
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One traditional Christian interpretation has it that Jesus’ message is for people to be as diligent in fulfilling their obligations to God as they are in fulfilling their secular obligations to the state. People work hard to pay their taxes in full and on time because they know what will happen to them if they don’t. Fewer think as hard about the even worse consequences they derive from not doing what God wants, so they need to be reminded that God is every bit as demanding as Caesar and should not be ignored. This is not a flattering depiction of God.
Jesus declares, “Give Caesar what is due to Caesar.” What happens if you do not “Render unto Caesar”? Jesus is saying something like “pay Caesar what you owe him.” Some people in the audience might think “we owe him nothing” while others see taxes as payment for the service the Romans provide (roads, aqueducts, military protection). Could someone pay the taxes without worshiping Caesar? A Pharisee might say yes: if we pay the taxes then Rome leaves us alone and we can study Torah in peace. A Herodian would agree as well, they are the local government benefiting from Roman taxes, although they might have been more inclined to offer more deference to the emperor (there was an Augustan Temple in Caesarea, for example).
Jesus then adds, “But give to God what is due to God.” If Jesus is right about paying taxes to Rome because they are obligations which are due, then how much more important are one’s obligations to God! In the context of the first century, one’s obligation to God might include the Temple Tax (which Jesus paid, Matthew 17:24-27, for example). Consider all of Jesus’s teaching in Matthew: one’s obligations to God go far beyond money (tithes and offerings). There are several times in the book Jesus’s demands from the true disciples go far beyond the Pharisees, for example. In the context of the parables in Matthew 21-22, the Pharisees and Herodians who are asking him this question are not giving to God what he is due, they are hypocrites. Since they rejected Jesus as Messiah, they are not “rendering unto God.” |
Lastly, let subjects pay tribute to their magistrates; yea, let them, if necessity so require, not to stick to bestow their bodies and lives for the preservation of their magistrate and country, as I have already taught you in the fifth commandment. The Lord in the gospel doth simply say, “Give to God that which belongeth to God, and to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar.” They therefore are worthily blamed, that pinch, grudge at, or defraud the magistrate of any part of his tribute. Taxes and tributes are due to the magistrate, as the hire of his labour, and as it were the sinews of public tranquillity and commonweal. For “who goeth to warfare of his own proper cast?” [1 Cor. 9:7] Every man liveth by that labour wherein he is occupied. The prince taketh pains in governing the commonweal, and preserving it in peace; he neglecteth his own private and household business, whereby he should live, and provide things necessary for himself and his family, by looking and attending on his country’s affairs: it were against reason, therefore, but that he should be fed and maintained upon the public treasure and cost of his country.
It is requisite, also, that kingdoms and commonweals be sufficiently furnished with money and substance to help in distress, either of war, famine, fire, and other miseries; or else to the setting up again of men fallen into poverty, or putting away of greater calamities. I say nothing now touching the keeping in reparation of common buildings, as the city-walls, bulwarks, trenches, ditches, gates, bridges, highways, wells, conduits, judgment-halls, and market-places, with many more of the same sort. There are also certain common persons, as serjeants, watchmen, and such like, which are to be nourished and maintained of the common cost and treasury; and, unless that money be still at hand and in readiness, there can no kingdom nor any commonweal stand long in assurance. They, therefore, that grudge to pay tribute deny the hire of the magistrate’s labour, and go to the next way to work to subvert the commonweal, and to bring it to nought. The men that in the commonweal’s affairs (as some of custom be) are negligent and careless, sin not against any one lord, but against the whole commonweal: and, therefore thou mayest see that such slothful workmen are seldom times enriched with the good blessings of God. Henry Bullinger, Fifty godly and learned sermons divided into the five decades containing the chief and principal points of Christian religion, ed. Thomas Harding (1849-52 Parker edn; 4 vols, Grand Rapids, 2004), i, 391-2. |
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Mark 12:29:
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: |
 Charles Ellicott
In St. Mark's report (Mark 12:29) our Lord's answer begins with the Creed of Israel ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"), and so the truth is in its right position as the foundation of the duty. It is significant (1) that the answer comes from the same chapter (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) which supplied our Lord with two out of His three answers to the Tempter (see Notes on Matthew 4:4; Matthew 4:7); and (2) that He does but repeat the answer that had been given before by the "certain lawyer" who stood up tempting Him, in Luke 10:25. In their ethical teaching the Pharisees had grasped the truth intellectually, though they did not realise it in their lives, and our Lord did not shrink, therefore, so far, from identifying His teaching with theirs. Truth was truth, even though it was held by the Pharisees and coupled with hypocrisy. --Charles Ellicott
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Mark 12:30
2You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”. |
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Nicolas Wolterstoff
“But we all suffer. For we all prize and love; and in this present existence of ours, prizing and loving yield suffering. Love in our world is suffering love. Some do not suffer much, though, for they do not love much. Suffering is for the loving. This, said Jesus, is the command of the Holy One: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In commanding us to love, God invites us to suffer.” ― Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the “whole” duty of man.
To fear (or respect with reverence) God and to keep His commandments is the “whole” duty of man. There is nothing else that man is supposed to be doing other than respecting God and do His commandments. There clearly is perfect harmony between what King Solomon is saying and the position we are proposing here that the “only” thing man is to seek is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. -Biblical Diagnosis
To fear (or respect with reverence) God and to keep His commandments is the “whole” duty of man. There is nothing else that man is supposed to be doing other than respecting God and do His commandments. There clearly is perfect harmony between what King Solomon is saying and the position we are proposing here that the “only” thing man is to seek is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. -Biblical Diagnosis
When we love anyone with our whole hearts, life begins when we are with that person; it is only in their company that we are really and truly alive.
--William Barclay
--William Barclay
The parallel record of Luke 12:31: It is interesting to note that Luke 12:31, which conveys essentially the same message as Matthew 6:33, does not include the word “first”.
Luke 12:31 – But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Compared to Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31 has two notable omissions: the word “first” and the word “righteousness”. Why “righteousness” is not mentioned here is, I am sure, an entirely different topic, which is well beyond the scope of this article. However, that the word “first” is not mentioned here is particularly noteworthy for this study. In Luke, Jesus tells us simply to “seek the kingdom of God”. And from this record, it is rather evident that the kingdom of God is the only thing to be sought, since just as in Matthew, “everything” else will be added to us as we do so. -Biblical Diagnosis
Luke 12:31 – But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Compared to Matthew 6:33, Luke 12:31 has two notable omissions: the word “first” and the word “righteousness”. Why “righteousness” is not mentioned here is, I am sure, an entirely different topic, which is well beyond the scope of this article. However, that the word “first” is not mentioned here is particularly noteworthy for this study. In Luke, Jesus tells us simply to “seek the kingdom of God”. And from this record, it is rather evident that the kingdom of God is the only thing to be sought, since just as in Matthew, “everything” else will be added to us as we do so. -Biblical Diagnosis