Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:07] We're gonna jump into Mark and chapter twelve. So, Jesus in politics, right? A lot of times we. It would be easy to say. Well, Jesus doesn't really engage in the political arena. Where there is one specific moment. And really more than this, but one specific moment that we're gonna talk about today. Where Jesus is embroiled in. They attempt to trap him in a political conversation. A deeply political conversation. And that happens in Mark, chapter twelve.
[00:00:33] It says later, the leader sent some Pharisees and supporters of Herod, or Herodians. So these are two opposing sides of the political spectrum. The Herodians are supportive of Rome's occupation of the people. And the Pharisees are not supportive. They want the traditional jewish customs to be at the forefront. So the supporters of Herodot trap Jesus into saying something for which he could be arrested. And teacher, they said, we know how honest you are. You're an impartial. And you don't play favorites. You teach the way of God truthfully. Now tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? What an incredible setup.
[00:01:14] Jesus, we know you're super honest. Right? You gonna keep being honest with us? Okay, let's present a riddle for you. A difficult question.
[00:01:25] Should we pay them or shouldn't we? It says in verse 15. And Jesus saw through their hypocrisy. And he said, why are you trying to trap me? Show me a roman coin, and I'll tell you. And when they handed it to him, he asked, whose picture and title are stamped on it? Caesar's. They replied, well, then jesus said, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And give to God what belongs to Goddesse. And his reply completely amazed them.
[00:01:55] Now, on the surface, it would be tempting to say Jesus is avoiding the question.
[00:02:02] We need him to answer the question. Have you ever watched a political debate. Or listen to a candidate. And they get asked a difficult question, and they avoid the entire thing altogether? They change the subject and begin to talk about something else because the answer is too hard? It would be tempting to say that Jesus has done so in this moment. But Jesus isn't avoiding the question. He's actually presenting an answer to them. That they have never considered before.
[00:02:27] And I believe that that is the role of the church in moments like these. It's not always to have this straight, exact, laser focused answer. Instead, it's to present an answer. That the world is often not considering. Of course, that is the way.
[00:02:44] So what's happening here? What's the greater context of this story? Why would they ask him about a specific tax? This is also known as a head tax, where everyone in the kingdom would need to give a denarius back to the government. And a denarius isn't worth a lot. It's basically a quarter, kind of, to us. But the entire idea and the reason that it was instituted was so that everyone in the kingdom would be reminded that it is a privilege to be in Caesar's kingdom.
[00:03:12] And so what happened? About 25 years before this, there was a man named Judas, Judas the Galilean, who led an insurrection into the temple, and he threw out and killed so many people as a response to this head tax that he insisted that they not pay. And so now the people who are sitting around Jesus now are asking him this question, not because they want him to respond just to a political thing, but they want to know, are you a revolutionary?
[00:03:37] Are you like Judas the Galilean?
[00:03:41] And now the two sides are interested in this because if they get their answer, that means Jesus loses the other side. The tension here is that if he says, don't pay the taxes, the authorities will come and crush him, and that will be the end because they don't want another Judas the Galilean involved.
[00:03:59] But if he says, go ahead and pay the taxes and just be a good little person and, you know, go ahead and do whatever they ask. The people who have been following him, who believe him to be the messiah and the son of God coming in to bring in a new kingdom, then he'll lose the people.
[00:04:16] So the question is genius in how it creates this tension to draw Jesus in. But what jesus does is he answers over the long term course of his life that he is a revolutionary, but it's a revolution that they've never seen before.
[00:04:33] And in taking neither road, but instead building his own, he refuses these three things, and they are three things that I believe that we, as the church, should refuse as well.
[00:04:46] Jesus refuses number one, political simplicity.
[00:04:51] You remember high school and how not that complicated it was. Maybe it was complicated for you personally, but your outlook on the rest of the world was pretty simple, right? Especially when it came to people. There's the jocks, there's the band people, there's the goth kids, there's the smokers. And you kind of went down the line and you knew exactly all the groups that existed. You kind of knew how to interact with them, and you thought you knew because of that simple minded idea. You thought you knew how each of these people and who each of these people were. Depending on the group that they existed in. It was a simple life to walk through. You knew where you slotted in and where others did, too, even in our relationships. I remember before high school, I suppose, one of my friends moved from a little town of Glendale that I lived in to Roseburg, and we were close friends. And all of a sudden, he up and left. And the narrative that I told myself all the way through junior high and high school was that my friend just didn't like us anymore.
[00:05:50] And, of course, I got a little bit older. I went on to do my friend's sister's wedding a little while ago. I hadn't really been in contact with them previous to that, since we were kids. And I learned this entire family story, that their dad was a severe alcoholic, that there was abuse in the home, and they had to leave where they were in order to find safety so that their family could be safe. There's a dynamic and a complexity to this entire life story that I had told myself when it was so simple when I was a child. Often, in our ignorance, we believe that these moments are so simple. Well, isn't it clear that's the right answer? That's the right people? What Jesus refused to do in this moment is to offer up that simplicity that we often crave now. We shouldn't do anything to Jesus that he wouldn't do to himself.
[00:06:39] And while it's tempting to say this program, this party, this thing, is where the Jesus people are. It's where the Jesus stuff is. Jesus would refuse to do that, and I believe so should the church today.
[00:06:51] It's an easy strategy for people to take that want to split and divide and create hate among the church and among the people of the world. You are on the correct side, and they are on the wrong side. Goodness is here, and evil and wickedness is here, and jesus would not submit to that trap.
[00:07:12] These partisan boxes are a lot like these high school cliques. They become isolated bubbles with people who think just alike.
[00:07:20] And just like in junior high and high school, slander and gossip and drama continue to manifest themselves in and outside of our direct lives.
[00:07:32] It's just as stale and scripted these partisan divides as our high school cliques were.
[00:07:39] Jesus would not engage in the simplicity that we often want to create. He actually allows our politics to be really, really complex, while his relationship with us is deeply simple.
[00:07:51] He loves you and me, and that can never, ever be taken away. It's simple and it's straightforward. And our issues in politics are often very complex.
[00:08:03] The second thing that Jesus resists, that I believe that we should resist as well, is political complacency.
[00:08:12] You notice he doesn't allow them to just say, you know, forget it, don't pay the taxes, let's bail out. Let's wash our hands of this entire process.
[00:08:22] One historical group you could think about is the Essenes. The Essenes are the people that are the reason that we found the Dead Sea scrolls in the forties and fifties. Maybe you've heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. They were found in a series of caves. It was a collection of writings from what we would call the Old Testament. And the reason that they were out in the desert and they were in caves, is that the Essenes decided to deal with the corruption and injustices of the day by saying, we won't have anything to do with it, political complacency, we're removing ourselves completely from this issue.
[00:08:58] And the third thing that Jesus resisted, that I believe that we should resist as well, is Political Primacy. So if you have the Essenes on this side, you have the zealots on this side saying, the only way to achieve the kingdom of God, to create justice in this world, is through the Political Systems. Jesus doesn't allow us to be politically complacent, and he also doesn't allow us to be. To place Everything on Political Primacy, where this is the only way.
[00:09:27] The reality is, is that Jesus is revolutionary, but he's not like any other one that's come before. The Zealots are looking for Revolutionary, for someone to fight the Fight alongside them. But Jesus fights this fight. He revolutionizes the world in a way that is not simply an insurrection in a temple and destroying this group of people and these leaders. Instead, it's embracing the entire world. For God so loved that world that he gave himself.
[00:09:57] And what kind of a king is this anyway? What kind of a revolutionary is this? It's so difficult for us to understand because we often do believe that in order for anything to get done, and everybody that is on your commercials during your football game today is saying, the whole thing's going to get messed up unless I get in power, unless I get elected. You know what Jesus does? Is he often or constantly refuses this power.
[00:10:20] Jesus is not saying, you need to elevate me into this certain point of the government so that I can actually get something done. The revolution of Jesus comes from someone who has never grasped at that power, comes from someone who doesn't even have money to make power happen at this moment. You notice that Jesus in this story, he asks for someone to give him a quarter.
[00:10:41] He says, somebody give me that Denarius. I don't even have one, you guys.
[00:10:46] I'm just trying to have an illustration. I'll give it right back.
[00:10:49] This is a king without a quarter.
[00:10:52] This is a king without any of that power and that comfort. And really, that's what a lot of these elections are based on. It's based on, can we gain power? Can we gain success? Can we gain recognition? Can we gain increased comfort? People don't move to bend because they think, I think that there's a bunch of folks around there that really, really need a good neighbor.
[00:11:12] We despise people that often don't have power, success, recognition, and increased comfort in the world. Every revolt that we've seen over history is about moving those things around.
[00:11:26] It's about changing who has the power and who has the recognition, who has the comfort. But Jesus seeks something more than our pithy historical revolutions.
[00:11:39] Instead, he seeks to love the whole world that everyone might be seen because they are as made in the image of God.
[00:11:48] So what's our goal?
[00:11:51] Well, the goal isn't to become a moderate. As tempting as it might be, that's not where we're trying to lead the church. That's not where we're trying to lead you. And by the way, I have loved my seasons of being a moderate because I get to make fun of everybody. Oh, it's so good to be the detached person that says, you are all idiots fighting over stupid things, and you'll never agree and you'll never figure it out. Oh, it's the greatest place to be as a cynic, which I often am.
[00:12:24] But the goal isn't to be a moderate, if that's what you're wondering.
[00:12:30] A lot of times we go to moderate because we don't have any hope.
[00:12:34] We just want to be the airport people, watchers of politics.
[00:12:38] We want to be able to laugh at everybody and gain our clout that way.
[00:12:43] But I do believe that something should happen when we follow Jesus, that we should move in a direction.
[00:12:50] Okay, finally, we're here. Is it left or right? Which way? Which direction do we move in as a result of following Jesus? Well, this is how I've seen it often manifest itself in healthy Christ followers.
[00:13:02] If you found yourself in that moderate, I'm going to make fun of everybody space by meeting Jesus and believing in him and seeking to follow after him, to become more engaged, because you see that there is an impact for people in this world. Through the realm of politics, you begin to ask questions, engage more deeply than you have before, because you know that there's an impact on this world and the people that God loves.
[00:13:27] And if you've been really deeply in one camp or another, I believe that when you meet Jesus, you might actually move in the direction of more moderation, not for the sake of a lack of interest, but for the sake of understanding that often when we get into a radical position or deep into a camp, we begin to develop the ideology that the wicked people are over there while the good people are over here. And Jesus rejects that premise altogether.
[00:13:54] When we understand who Jesus is, we begin to listen to more stories, hear more people, begin to collaborate and hold hands more with people that we have never been able to before. We're moved into a place of compromise and understanding and a deeper love for the whole.
[00:14:14] So what does this look like? Actually jumping in to the fray and caring for people while walking humbly.
[00:14:24] We have to get out of this philosophical and theoretical space when it comes to politics, and we begin to understand that there's actually a deepen, soulful group of people in it.
[00:14:35] To illustrate that, I love to reference one of my favorite movies of all time, good will Hunting.
[00:14:41] Now, any of you who watched good Will Hunting, I have edited this bit just to keep it pg. Okay?
[00:14:47] But if you don't know good will Hunting, good Will Hunting is about Matt Damon's character, who is this really smart, bright, really genius level kid who's had a lot of issues in his life and has really begun to put everybody in the world except for his closest friends and family, at a Ydez very long arms distance. And he ends up with this therapist played by Robin Williams, who's trying to get to the deeper core of Matt Damon's character.
[00:15:12] But every time he tries to do so, Matt Damon pushes him back and pushes him back and pushes him back and usually uses intelligence as a way to guard from anybody understanding who he really is.
[00:15:26] And so Robin Williams character says this. He says, if I asked you about art, Will, you'd probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him, but I bet you can't tell me what it smells like in the Sistine chapel.
[00:15:41] You've never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling and you've seen that if I asked you about women, you'd probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. But you can't tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You're a tough kid. I'd ask you about war. You'd probably throw Shakespeare at me, right? Once more into the breach, dear friends. But you've never been near one. You've never held your best friend's head in your lap and watched him gasp his last breath looking for you to help. I'd probably ask you about love, but you would quote me a sonnet, and you've never looked at a woman and been tonally vulnerable.
[00:16:15] And he asks, you're an orphan, right?
[00:16:17] And Matt Damon says yes. He says, you think I know the first thing about how hard your life has been and how you feel and who you are? Because I read all of her twist. Does that truly encapsulate you?
[00:16:29] Personally, I don't care about all that, because you know what? I can't learn anything from you that I can't just read in a book. Unless you want to talk about you and who you are, then I'm fascinated, and I'm in.
[00:16:43] So I would put this to us.
[00:16:45] We could probably ask about our country, and all of us, through the realm of politics, could probably tell me where the blue states are and where the red states are, what the ideologies are of each. You could tell me about the northwest, and you could tell me about the deep south. You could quote to me civil War history.
[00:17:05] You could name me the president and what their policies are.
[00:17:09] You could talk to me about all of this history, and you could share intelligently what has gone on in our nation historically. But what I believe that Jesus is asking us to do by resisting simplicity and complacency and primacy, what Jesus is asking us to do is to go ourselves to stand in the Sistine chapel and to look up at the ceiling of our nation.
[00:17:34] Jesus is asking us to hear and listen to the stories, not just of theoretical people or people that are on the news or people that have great hot takes that come across our social media pages, but Jesus is asking us to engage with our neighbor that has a different experience than you, that has heard things differently than you, has had different traumas than you, has a story to tell, just like you, but from a different perspective.
[00:18:00] Jesus is asking us to get out of this theoretical and book knowledge version that's been exaggerated and fear based in all of our communication.
[00:18:11] He's saying, look at the people.
[00:18:16] So give to Caesar what is his, what bears his image. Does that coin bear his image? It came from the actual treasury and the wealth of Caesar. Go ahead and give it to him. It looks like him. It belongs to him.
[00:18:28] But the thing that bears the image of God is all of humanity. And while you can give Caesar your taxes, you are not meant to give Caesar your soul.
[00:18:39] In west side church in this time, we will not give our allegiances to people that do not earn it, that do nothing. It's not owed to them.
[00:18:52] We are made in the image of God, each and every single one of us, no matter what region we come from, no matter what perspective that we have. And so we must give ourselves unto God.
[00:19:05] While we also submit our humility to others.
[00:19:16] Those that bear the image of God belong to him.
[00:19:20] I want to be careful and understand that we've done a lot of work on how we treat each other, and that is of great value. But we need to know that our allegiance ultimately belongs to God.
[00:19:30] Politics becomes an incredibly safe and pathetic haven when it continually gives us reasons to despise our neighbors.
[00:19:43] Jesus is after something greater and more than that.
[00:19:47] And I'll quote Matthew, chapter nine as we close here in just a moment.
[00:19:52] This is just another reminder of the expansive nature of Jesus table.
[00:19:57] It says, while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? They're the worst. They are the outsiders. They do not belong.
[00:20:13] We can't spend time with these people.
[00:20:18] On hearing this, Jesus said, it's not the healthy that need a doctor, but it's the sick. So go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not a sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
[00:20:34] Why don't you stand with me, and we'll get ready to take communion here in just a moment.
[00:20:42] If you'd like the elements brought to you, raise your hand and someone will bring those to you.
[00:20:48] First Corinthians 1123 says this. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. And then he broke it into pieces and said, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant between God and his people, an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink it. The bread and the cup are powerful symbols of Jesus sacrifice. Christ's body broken for you and his blood shed for you on the cross.
[00:21:20] No one is obligated to participate in this practice, but everyone is welcome. All of you who have much faith, those of you who would like to have more, you who have tried to follow Jesus, and those of you who have failed, come to the table. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again.
[00:21:38] Come, Holy Spirit.
[00:21:40] Maybe bow your heads with me and I'm going to say this prayer over us.
[00:21:45] God, we come before you in this deeply divisive season in our nation, giving our hearts with hope and trust in your sovereignty. As our nation navigates this important time, we ask for your guidance and peace to be the first thing on our hearts.
[00:22:02] We confess that these things can bring division, anxiety and uncertainty, but we place our hope in you, knowing that you are the authority over all things. Give us wisdom as we make decisions, to vote with a heart that seeks the good of all people and to remember the values of justice, mercy and humility that you have called us to live by.
[00:22:21] Help us to rise above fear, engage with kindness and respect, and to trust that you are working for all of our good.
[00:22:31] We pray for our leaders that they may seek your wisdom and lead with integrity, compassion and a deep desire to serve. Protect us from violence and unite us in a shared hope for a future grounded in love and mutual care.
[00:22:45] Lord, in this time we place our hope not in political outcomes, but in you. You are the one who holds our future. We trust you with our nation and the world. Give us peace, unity and hope. In Jesus name we pray.
[00:22:59] Amen.
