Watching for a chance to get him, they sent spies who posed as honest inquirers, hoping to trick him into saying something that would get him in trouble with the law. So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you’re honest and straightforward when you teach, that you don’t pander to anyone but teach the way of God accurately. Tell us: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” He knew they were laying for him and said, “Show me a coin. Now, this engraving, who does it look like and what does it say?” “Caesar,” they said. Jesus said, “Then give Caesar what is his and give God what is his.” Try as they might, they couldn’t trap him into saying anything incriminating. His answer caught them off guard and left them speechless.
Luke 20:20–26
The word for “watching” in verse 20, is the word [paratereo] which carries the sense to “watch closely”, “to observe someone carefully to see what he does”, or perhaps more to the point, “to watch with malicious intent” or “to lie in wait for”. The word for spies is [egkathetos] which means one who is hired to lie in wait, to be a secret agent. When this noun is added to the sense of the verb before it, it is strong Greek for one who is hired to lie in wait, or be surreptitious in action, or to watch with malicious intent, or to lie in wait for someone to watch carefully what they do. But there are more words yet in this string which warrant investigation.
The Literal version records the subordinate clauses as follows: And watching carefully, they sent spies, pretending themselves to be righteous, in order that they might seize upon His words so as to deliver Him to the power and to the authority (LITV). The word [hupokrinomai] means to pretend or make believe, to pose as something else, to be in the guise of something else (disguise). They posed as those who were [dikaios] – sincere, honest, righteous, just. Those who were devoted to the Law and genuinely seeking the right thing to do. But in reality, they were hypocrites who were pretending to be something they were not, in order to trap Him and hand Him over to the authorities. I think the Sanhedrin were waiting for the evidence to have Jesus tried for treason against the Roman State. When they got that evidence, they could then accuse Him before the Governor, of trying to bring down the Roman Empire and so He would have to be crucified.
What is ironic, is that Jesus has told them, in order to get into heaven they need to be [dikaios]. They need to be righteous. But the only way to be righteous is to believe Christ came to save them. When they do that, His righteousness is credited to their account. But they don’t want that. They pretend to be righteous rather than being righteous. What an indictment! They are only looking for something He said, to use as proof of His subversive nature to bring before the Roman Procurator. They wanted to deliver Him over to the ruling power or the Roman authority. They want to get Him in trouble with the law. Not the Temple Law or the Law of God, but the Roman law. The Jewish Law doesn’t have enough bite or authority in it, to warrant Him being condemned to death. But the Roman law does. They want Him delivered over to the [hegemon] from which we get the word hegemony. Imperial hegemony is the overriding authority or imperial rule over a kingdom. This is what they desire. They sought to find the proof that will enable them to convict Him of the highest charge possible so that He will be condemned to death. They want to kill Him but they can’t kill Him themselves. They don’t have the proof, they don’t have the power or authority and they don’t have the courage because as Luke tells us, they feared the people, the masses.
So they come up with a perfect plan. You can imagine them discussing this for some time and settling on the question that was asked. What is interesting in the first instance, is that Luke doesn’t introduce the subject for this segment. It is dependent on what has gone before it. Hence, we are talking about the teachers of religious law and the leading priests, the ones who Luke told us in the previous section, were afraid of the people. They must have discussed for a while how they were going to trap Him. I am sure the teachers of the Law came up with the question about paying taxes to Caesar. The question has two barbs in it. It is a perfect question to trap Jesus. We will look at that in the next Gem. But before we do, look at the pre-amble. It is the classic, silky smooth approach of the con man.
“Teacher, we know that you’re honest and straight forward when you teach, you don’t pander to anyone but teach the way of God accurately.
- Teacher,
- we know you’re
- honest // straightforward
- you don’t pander to anyone
- teach the way of God
- accurately
Faced with this list, it is like the child who comes and says, “Daddy dearest, whom I love, with all my heart; daddy who always does good for me, please . . . ”
“Teacher” – they begin with the honorific which gives accreditation to His being a rabbi. That’s ironic!
“We know you are” – well, if you know all these things, why don’t you respond accordingly? If you know these things are true, then why don’t you put the teaching into practice and do it?”
“honest” – [orthos] – plain, right, correctly, in a straight forward manner. I can imagine them saying, “We know you are a straight up kind of guy. You don’t mince words. You speak straight to the point. Give it to us straight now. . .”
“You don’t pander to anyone” – show partiality, favouritism, not influenced by the face, the outer appearance, the appearances of power or influence.
“teach the way of God” – we get God’s plain words from you, you teach in accordance with God’s truth.
“accurately” – accurately, truly, the real deal, no flowery words. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I can imagine Jesus saying, “What do you want?” It is obvious this statement is thick with compliments and praise for one purpose. We call it greasing.
And now we will break for a recess. Court is adjourned. Take time to find the barbs in the question that was posed. It is cunning to say the least.
The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.
Norman Vincent Peale
We would seldom be deceived by flattery if our own conceit did not promote the delusion.
Norman McDonald
Remember man does not live on bread alone, sometimes he needs a little buttering up.
John Maxwell
Truth divorced from action is the epitome of hypocrisy.
Robb Thompson
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.
Anon