48. Mark 12:13-17: Taxes
Mark12:13-17 bookends the Parable of the Vineyard with 11:27:33 and the Questioning of Jesus’ authority. We’ll treat it here before turning to the parable. Authority is the issue here as well. [1] This story is infamous in all the varied and conflicting ways it has been used. Most think in terms of “Two Kingdoms” – God’s and Caesar’s. We are to divvy up our loyalties and stuff between the two and live according to the rules of each in their proper spheres. But . . . Pharisees and Herodians approach Jesus to catch him up in the “question of the day” that divided loyal Judeans from Roman collaborators: “Should we pay taxes to the emperor or not?” Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of his interlocutors by unveiling their allegiance by requiring them to produce a coin, one with Caesar’s visage on it. A loyal Judean would not have one. The “August and Divine Son” inscribed on it could only remind of them of the one to whom that title truly belonged (1:1). This is a story not of div...