The scribes and the chief priests of Israel wanted to kill Yeshua. He spoke truth against them… against the established ways of religion and man. It upset them greatly. However, Yeshua had great standing amongst the people. They tried to trick Him so as to have a reason to accuse and arrest Him.
Yeshua can not be fooled. However, the chief priests and scribes indeed tricked themselves in rejecting Yeshua as He stood right before their eyes. They were blinded by their own bias and had their mind made up before ever considering the evidence before them.
Tribute to Caesar
19The scribes and the chief priests tried to lay hands on Him that very hour, and they feared the people; for they understood that He spoke this parable against them. 20So they watched Him, and sent spies who pretended to be righteous, in order that they might catch Him in some statement, so that they could deliver Him to the rule and the authority of the governor. 21They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, we know that You speak and teach correctly, and You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. 22“Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 23But He detected their trickery and said to them, 24“Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar’s.” 25And He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 26And they were unable to catch Him in a saying in the presence of the people; and being amazed at His answer, they became silent.
On the surface we can pay attention to the teaching about paying taxes… give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Let us not only walk away with this knowing we should pay what taxes are due to government, but let us also recognize that we should give to God what is His. All that we are and all that we have belongs to God. Let us hold nothing back.
We should take care not to fool ourselves, for we surely can not fool Yeshua. Let us commit our lives fully to YHWH without excuses and without holding anything back. There is no good reason why any part of our life needs to be or should be outside of our submission to YHWH.
And for any who, like the chief priests and scribes, wish to find some fatal flaw in Christ or Christianity… you will not find it if you look thoroughly and genuinely enough, following the evidence and studying the scriptures and praying for the Spirit to guide you. You will find many flaws in people who claim Christianity and you will find many flaws in the Christianity which is taught in churches, but there are no flaws in Christ Himself and the Word of God is perfect, if properly understood. If you do go on this journey, do so with clear intent to follow the evidence in unbiased manner. If you go in, like so many, already with your mind made up that Christ is not God, or that God does not exist, you may find the answer you desire through your own bias. Follow the evidence in an unbiased way, not your opinions or those of the world.
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