Traps
“Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Matthew 22:19-22 (NIV)
In the temple that day, amid tension between opposing factions, those who were against Jesus decided to collaborate. You know you’re in trouble when people who hate each other work together to come after you. They decide to collaborate to make sure Jesus is the target of the takedown, with the goal to take Him out. Herodians, Pharisees, and religious leaders are falling fast into the trap of their own anxiety and their need to redirect the people’s attention and affections back toward them.
There’s a plot unfolding—an attempt to trap Jesus. The trap is laid in the form of an innocent, innocuous question regarding payment of taxes to Caesar. The question is straightforward: “Jesus, is it lawful to pay Caesar taxes?” The question, of course, is designed to trap Jesus because the answer may appear to be simple, but it is very dangerous.
If Jesus answers yes, He risks alienating the Jewish people because they resented Roman rule. They saw paying taxes as a betrayal of faith. But if He answers no, He could be accused of inciting rebellion against Imperial Rome, which would mean that Rome would see Him as a political threat, which would justify Him being arrested, perhaps even killed. It’s a crafty trap.
So here’s Jesus’s answer: “Render to Caesar what belongs to him, but give to God what belongs to God.” Jesus does something here that is so spiritually profound. Jesus’s answer reveals dual citizenship for the child of God. It really is a revelation that the child of God is in this world but not of this world. Christians are dual card-carrying members, one of the earthly realm and one of a heavenly realm. We are not separate from the society we traffic in, but in salvation we carry a much more important citizenship because we have been blessed to have been born from above. We call it the kingdom of God, and the Bible says, the kingdom dwells within us.
It’s not only the promise of heaven when you die, but when you anchor your faith in Jesus, it’s the promise that heaven can be brought to your life while you live. So Jesus avoids the trap by revealing that there is a separation of realms, that there is in fact an earthly authority, and there is a divine authority. Jesus shows us that honor is called for in both realms, but greater priority is placed on the divine realm because that is where a relationship with Jesus is nurtured.
The Heartbeat of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.
Galatians 5:22 (NIV)
The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit in us. You can’t create it. You can’t manufacture it. You can’t duplicate it. The Spirit produces it. And one of the things that the Spirit produces in us is joy, where the color of life becomes brighter. It creates this sense of warmth.
We all have these attributes that enable us to counter the intent of dark moments, low places, and unhappy tasks. You and I, because of the production of fruit by the Spirit, show up to places differently, interpret things differently, and respond to circumstances differently.
The work the Lord does in us and for us is to transform our lives. This transformation is evidenced by the fruit we bear. We can stand in the middle of what ought to cause despair and instead speak joy.
Child of God, no matter how bad it gets, you’ve got this. You don’t have to live life from the place of dread and inner fatigue and frustration and despair and despondency. You can live life and handle your responsibilities and shape your narratives fueled by an inner gratitude for the strength and power that the Lord gives you.
You may not like it, but you have the capacity in life to lift heavy weights without being frustrated by them. Instead, by the help of the Spirit and the power of His might, you can live gratefully, patiently, joyfully, with kindness, love, and faithfulness.
Dancing in the Dark
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)
Child of God, it’s a pleasure to dance with God in the sunshine, but if you’ve got faith and belief in Jesus Christ, you also have to learn how to dance with God in the dark. Find joy in your walk with God despite not ever having seen Him. Find joy in your walk with God despite what your living conditions are.
This text is teaching us that life is lived not in the absence of darkness. Instead, life is lived in the discipline to steward the coexistence of both joy and despair, strength and weakness, confidence and skepticism, excitement and human indifference.
You don’t have to let the dark things in life make you sacrifice your peace and your joy. You decide: I’m going to enjoy where I am because no matter where I am, I can learn how to dance in the dark. If I have to wait to dance in the light, then I’m going to enjoy dancing here in the dark. It’s not about where I dance; it’s about who I’m dancing with.
You have been graced in your faith to live a transcendent life. You are always where you are, but at the same time, you are always living above it. You are in this world, and at the same time, you are not of this world.
What looks like peril becomes an opportunity for you because God is working it together for your good. Peter really releases this truth when he defines what dancing with God in the dark really means. He says, when you dance with God, it results in inexpressible joy. This is the grace that God releases to every one of us.
Don’t focus on trying to eliminate the suffering. Don’t forget how powerful joy is to help you transcend suffering until it passes.
Keep showing up. Keep a smile on your face. Keep talking positively. Keep uttering your prayers. Keep lifting your praises. Keep showing up in worship. Keep testifying. Keep witnessing.
He is leading you toward “the end result of your faith, the salvation of your soul.”
An Act of Gratitude
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”
Genesis 8:20-21 (NIV)
Cain and Abel are the very first mention of giving in Scripture. Noah represents the second mention in Scripture when he builds an altar and offers burnt offerings to God out of gratitude.
All of God’s creation was flooded because God released rain from the heavens to wash away the sin from creation, and what is it that Noah does first when he emerges? The very first thing he does is build an altar, and then he offers to God burnt offerings, and the Bible says God was pleased with Noah’s offerings.
While this is the first we hear of the building of an altar, of course that altar is a symbol of where Noah rests his confidence. That altar is an acknowledgement that Noah is acutely aware of why he now stands on dry ground.
If Cain and Abel teach us that generous giving is an act of obedience, then Noah teaches us that generous giving is an act of gratitude. Noah realizes, “I’m on dry ground because God decided to let me enjoy life on the other side of flooding,” and the text teaches that this requires a response.
Noah is not worshiping and giving because he’s attempting to manipulate God to keep giving. He worships and he gives because he’s thankful.
What should our response be other than grateful and generous when we stand on dry ground? We respond to God’s giving with an altar, with an offering, with worship, and with thanksgiving because it’s part of how we live out our gratitude to the Lord.
It really ought to excite us to give to God as an expression of gratitude. Giving is not just connected to worship, it is worship.
Trusting God’s Abundance
Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38 (NIV)
Jesus is teaching struggling, marginalized, disenfranchised people to live in spite of their cultural seasonal predicaments, to live generously with their lives, their resources, and their ministry to each other because to Christ, generosity is a core principle.
The Bible in general and Jesus specifically feel no need to hesitate in teaching, admonishing, and encouraging the soul that is saved to live generously, and giving is connected to spiritual maturation. God is a giver, and God expects us in turn to be givers. He sees it as a spiritual matter. He grows us closer to Him through it. He makes us accountable to each other through it. He connects it to our worship.
Give and it will be given to us. This is God’s promise. We are to live generously because when we do, there is spiritual reciprocity attached to it.
God’s measure starts with more than flow; it starts with overflow. He gives back to you what He presses down, shakes together, and causes to run over. He is the God of exceedingly and abundantly.
What does God use to measure how He interacts with us? He doesn’t use your arm because it’s too short. He uses His arm that stretches from eternity to eternity. When God measures out how He will reciprocate to your generosity, it is so much more than you expect that you come to understand what Malachi meant when he said it is synonymous with the windows of heaven being opened and blessings being poured out.
Here’s what God is saying. Good measure means God will measure it out. Live generously and trust that He will reciprocate with good measure.
