THE KING’ S BUSINESS
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burnt their fingers and burned their souls. “ They marvelled at His answer, and held their peace.” ' Thursday, February 24 :- Luke 20 : 27 - 40 . Jesus now comes into contact with another class, the Sadducees, the rational ists o f that day. His plain and constant teaching that there is a resurrection greatly annoyed them, . and they plan in a very scholarly and philosophical way to prove the absurdity o f His teaching. They come to Him with a supposed case, a favorite method with errorists and quibblers. Hay ing put their subtle question, they wait with great self-complaisance to see His discom fiture. But they afe doomed to bitter dis appointment and chagrin. With a single sentence He demolishes the fine looking structure their sophistry has s'o laboriously built up. Friday, February 25 . Luke 20 : 41 - 47 . Up to this point they had been question ing Jesiis, now Jesus questions them. He soon silences them. He does not take them separately but puts the whole company to confusion at once. He was able to do this because God was on His side (Isa. 8:9, 10), and because o f His deep knowl edge o f the Scriptures (Ps. 119:98, 99). The question Jesus first put to them, as reported by Matthew, is (Matt. 22:42), “What think ye o f Christ? Whose Son is He?” An all-important question, our hav ing eternal life and'our victory «over the world, depends upon what we think of Christ, as-to whose Son He is (John 20:31; 1 John 5:5). The only way to get right thoughts about Christ is by being taught o f the Holy Spirit (1 John 5 :1 ; John 5:39; 16:13, 14). Jesus’ question seemed an easy one to the Pharisees and they glibly answered, “ the son o f David.” They got into difficulty at once. The answer was true (ch. 1 :21, 9 ; Isa. 11 :l-4 ), but only part of the truth and the least important part at that (Rom. 1:3, 4; Matt. 16:16, 17; John 6:69; John 1:49; Rom. 9 :5 ; Heb. 1:8). Jesus showed them the inadequacy o f their
ceding verses was clearly understood by the chief priests and scribes and it stung them to the quick. It did not bring them, however, to repentance. Truth resisted always hard ens, and the words o f Jesus hardened them. They became more determined than ever to put" Jesus out o f the way. Only one thing held them back, fear o f the people, who were still on Jesus* side. What they dare not do openly and directly, they now undertake to do underhandedly. They planned to bring Jesus into conflict- with the Roman government. They will get Him to say something treasonable and then hand Him over to the Roman governor to deal with Him. They will -entrap Jesus into saying that the tribute money must not be paid to the heathen government. They begin with words o f smoothest flat tery, “Master, -we know that Thou sayest and teachest rightly, and acceptest not the person o f any, but of. a truth teachest the way o f God.** The devil is never so dan gerous and. so malicious as when he flat ters. But Jesus was not blinded in the least by these honied words. Then fol lowed the question “ Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not?” The snare is well laid, surely He will say “ No.” In a moment-they will have Him caught. But wait, He calls for the Roman denarius with which the tax is paid. “Whose image and superscription hath it?” He asks. Cae sars.” Very well, you accept the money of the foreign government, you must then accept your responsibilities to it, I f you use Caesar’s money you must pay Caesar’s toll. “ Render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar.” There are things which are due to human governments, and one is surely the taxes that are necessary to their support in the exercise o f the func tions o f which you enjoy the benefit. Render, therefore, to the human govern ments the things that are their due. But there are things that belong to God, viz., absolute surrender o f the will, gratitude, praise, worship; render these unto Him; Christ’s enemies were completely foiled, “ They were not able to take hold o f the saying before the people.” HiS answer
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