And they were seeking to arrest him but feared the people, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them. So they left him and went away. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk.
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Here we find Jesus in a perfect storm of circumstances. Fortunately, Jesus exemplifies complete confidence in God, even when he knows that his enemies and even his friends will soon be turning on him. It is in this context that Jesus is confronted with three loaded questions and demonstrates several traits that can help us when our faith is questioned:
1. Answer with Discernment. "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?" (Mark 12:14 ESV). Mark has already told us that these religious leaders were trying to trap Jesus with a loaded question. By making Jesus take a stand on a hot button political issue, they were looking to discredit him and stir up the Roman authorities against him. And they start their question with flattery! It takes real discernment to know others' motives and not run headlong into a semantic trap. (However, you may also discern good motives, as were apparent in the scribe in verse 28. Here we see Jesus being sensitive to the context and encouraging the seeds of apparent faith in the scribe).
2. Answer with both Love and Firmness. Jesus would have been perfectly justified in disregarding these duplicitous questions altogether. Instead he condescends to answer even the petty question from the Sadducees about marriage in the resurrection. Petty questions about religious minutiae drive me crazy, but time after time Jesus (and later Paul) patiently redirected people to what is fundamentally important: the big picture of God's redemption through his Son. But coupled with love must be a direct firmness in correcting obvious errors. Calling out dangerous lies that threaten the core truths of the gospel is in fact the most loving thing you can do in this situation: Jesus said to them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? (Mark 12:24 ESV).
3. Answer with Scripture. The verse quoted above also points to the most powerful lesson that can be taken away from this chapter: be unashamed of basing your answers on the eternal truth of God's revealed Word. Our culture is far from the first century Jewish context, where revelation was respected as a viable source of truth. But even in a purely postmodern context, the simple statement of truth from the Bible can be unexpectedly powerful and convicting. After all, what was it that ultimately convinced me of God's love and truth? Was it not the plain statement of the gospel: that God's Son loved me in his sacrificial death, proved he was God by rising from the dead, and offers new life in the Spirit both now and in eternity? These truths are not the result of observing nature or mere abstract reasoning. The core of the gospel must be our ultimate answer, and it must always be rooted in Scripture to have any lasting affect on the human heart (see Heb. 4:12).
Lord, help me to walk in your Spirit by displaying these Christlike traits in my daily conversations. Help me to properly discern each situation, answer with both love and firmness, and be unashamed in my hope that is revealed in the written word of God. Tame this tongue, Lord, and let it serve to spread the life-changing grace of the gospel. Amen.
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