Luke 20:20–27 | Giving to Caesar and Belonging to God

In this episode of the Jim Cantelon Today Podcast, Jim Cantelon explores Luke 20:20–27, where Jesus is challenged with a carefully crafted question about paying taxes to Caesar. His response points beyond money and politics to a deeper truth about our ultimate allegiance. Discover what Jesus' words reveal about our responsibilities in this world and what it means to belong fully to God.

Jim Cantelon Today Podcast brings trusted, verse-by-verse Bible teaching from Jim Cantelon. Each episode explores God's Word with practical insight, historical context, and a focus on applying biblical truth to everyday life.

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Transcript

Stacey 0:01

You're listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. Today's message comes from Luke 20: 20 - 47.

Jim Cantelon 0:12

You know, friends, it would have been fascinating for us to have been there time and time and time again when, as a part of the crowd, there was always a crowd surrounding Jesus, we would have seen these Sadducees, the scribes, the Pharisees trying to corner Jesus, taking issue with what he was saying, issue with what he was doing, all these Sabbath controversies of which I've covered many times with you as we've been going through the Gospels. Jesus doing things on Shabbat, as we call it in Israel, that were verbolten, forbidden, or in Hebrew, Asur, because it was Shabbat. But Jesus couldn't be cornered. And here we have a case in point where they're trying to corner him again. Verse 20 of chapter 20 of Luke. Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. So the spies questioned him. Teacher, flattering him, teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not? He saw through their duplicity and said to them, Show me a denarius. That's another medium of exchange. Whose image and inscription are on it? Caesar's, they replied. He said to them, Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. That's the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees, sent spies who pretended to be sincere with what they thought was a very clever question. Okay. So they flattered Jesus publicly. Teacher, rabbi, okay, rabbi. Is it right to pay the annual poll tax levied by Rome on every Judean male? Now that's not what the text says, but that's really what the question was. Everybody had to pay this tax. Should we pay it? Now, what they were hoping was that he would say no. That is Roman oppression. As soon as he would say no, they could have him arrested for insurrection, drag him before Pilate, the procurator, and have him crucified, just because of that. So it's a loaded question, okay? If he says yes, then he alienates not only all the fervent nationalists, including the 12, among that myriad of followers, because he was surrounded by religious nationalists. But if no, then he'd be arrested for treason. So Jesus' answer was succinct. Hello, fellas, God's property is his, Caesar's property is his. Pay both what is due to them, full stop. Give to Caesar what's Caesar's, give to God what's God's. Well, these flatterers had no comeback to that, and they once again had to slink away. You know, you don't want to mess with Jesus. And I'd say I don't say that lightly. You stand in opposition to him, he is the Savior of the world for those who put their trust in him, but you don't trick him, you don't con him, you don't hide anything from him. He is God, he is omniscient. Anyway, let's pick it up in verse 27. Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. Teacher, they said, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now, there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. The second, then the third, married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. Finally, the woman died too. Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be since the seven were married to her? Jesus replied, The people of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. For they can no longer die, they're like the angels. They are God's children, since they're children of the resurrection. But in the account of the burning bush, even Moses showed the dead rise, for he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive. Some of the teachers of the law responded, Well said, teacher. And no one dared to ask him any more questions. This is what you might call a Sabbath controversy, I should say a resurrection controversy. Now, just a reminder here, the Pharisees and the scribes, who mostly were from the Pharisaic school of thought, believed in resurrection. The Sadducees did not. The Pharisees were the conservatives, the Sadducees were the liberals. And these liberals came to Jesus with what they thought was a clever question, based on a very complicated scenario. The first of seven brothers married, dies, his brother marries, dies, dies, dies. Seven brothers marry the same woman and die. Now, you're saying, what's up with that? Well, this was what's called leverate marriage. You can read about it in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verses 5 and 6. It was a law of Moses that if a man died without children, his brother would marry the widow, and any son that she bore to the brother would be counted to the departed brother. This was a day when people had three and four and five wives. I mean, this was not an issue for them. But the issue was to raise up seed to the memory of your brother, okay? And so seven of them die, and there's still no children, so they're now on the other side. And whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus answers it very cleverly. Now, to give them their due, the Sadducees only believed that the first five books of the Bible were scripture. And to their knowledge, there was no reference to resurrection in the first five books of the Bible. So their question had a legitimate theological justification in their mind. And with this hypothetical challenge to Jesus, they were just trying to illustrate the obscurity of resurrection and trap Jesus in at least a non-Sadducean heresy. Okay? We can't get them to say something to get them killed with the Pharisees or to get them killed with the scribes, get them to say something to get them killed by us Sadducees. Jesus was quick to declare that marriage has no relevance in heaven, where there is no death and no need of procreation. And those who will one day in heaven will be those who are considered worthy. And this is a view consistent with the Pharisaic belief in what they call the resurrection of the just. So Moses may not have written about resurrection, but he implied it when he recounted the voice of God from the burning bush in Exodus. Sadducees, it is in the first five books. Listen to this. God is a God of the living. He's speaking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the present tense. So, I mean, you know, these guys weren't dumb. They realized they'd been hammered again by truth. And the scribes, the other hand, who'd heard this exchange and who believed in resurrection, actually complimented Jesus, which is a rare thing indeed. Well said, teacher. Why? Because they supported resurrection. Okay? Jesus at least is saying something we can agree with, finally. Jesus maybe have been a touch shocked by this, but then again, he knew where they were coming from. So, theological differences can be very polarizing. And we know from the study of church history that there have been all kinds of splits and divisions throughout the ages, almost since the very early days of the church. Even with the very first church, the split between the Hebrew-speaking widows and the Greek-speaking widows. And the challenges that brought to the deacons and leadership of the very first church. But throughout history, if you study any church history at all, you know. There have been a myriad and myriad and myriad of splits and divisions. And, you know, you may be a part of a Christian denomination right now that began with a split. And every time there is a split, of course, because we know better than you do. Or we are fine-tuning something that you know you're being very sloppy with. Or we have we have a new revelation. You know, there's all kinds of justifications for these theological divisions. Theology is really important. That's why I wrote the book, Theology for Non-Theologians, which you can get on the internet. But as important as it is, God is above our theology. Our theology tries to describe him, define him, in some ways constrain him. And truth is truth. I'm all for that. But ultimately, the Lord is the one who is the author of the big picture. And we must never, ever lose sight of the fact that he will do according to what he will do. So the Sadducees retreat because of this unexpected question. Well, let me let me let me read the question. I'm getting ahead of myself here. Look at verse 41. Jesus said to them, to the Sadducees, Why is it said that the Messiah is the Son of David? David himself declares in the book of Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. David calls him Lord. How then can he be his son? Well, there's no way the Sadducees could answer this question. You know, maybe a few of them understood what Jesus was getting at here, and maybe it's tough for us to understand what he's getting at here. They had not questioned him about resurrection out of theological interest. No, they had questioned him publicly in order to undermine his public credibility. And they were trying to chip away at his massive popularity with the people, those very ones who triumphantly were hailing him as son of David, which was a code word for Messiah. And the Sadducees knew that. Because son of David, in their mind, was loaded with political ramifications. It was an earthly term for insurrectionist. Now, why would that be? Because David had been the king of Israel, right? Any talk of Messiah is a talk of king. Any talk of king in a Roman-occupied country is insurrection. All right? And so the Sadducees are being very subtle here. Jesus was even more subtle. So he deals a blow to this inference that he is an insurrectionist. He says, look, son of David can't mean Messiah. Don't you, Sadducees, know the Psalms? Yeah, yeah, we know the Psalms. Well, you recall David himself referring to the Messiah as Lord? So how can he be at the same time his son? In other words, Jesus was saying, don't saddle me with political agendas. You know, yes, Jesus was a Messiah, of course he was, but not on their terms. So out of this conversation, Jesus says this. While all the people were listening, Jesus said to his disciples, Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing rooms and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely. So what's going on here? Even as the Sadducees are slinking away, the Sanhedrin is slinking away, he turns from their backs to address the twelve and the crowd who's listened in, and he focuses his scathing comments on the scribes, the very ones who had commended him earlier. Beware of the scribes was his blunt warning. These guys purported to be holy men, tasked with the vital ministry of defending the Mosaic law. But in Jesus' view, we're scoundrels. Exploiting the weakest link of society, widows. The crowd knew what Jesus was referring to here. These guys were going in and having sex with widows, and in many cases robbing them of their possessions. These holy men, all right? That's that's what he means here. Parading around in their long robes, preening and praying publicly. Well, Jesus says they're in for greater damnation. That's the word in the King James Version of verse 47. Greater damnation in the world to come. Friends, don't think hell doesn't exist. And don't deceive yourself, you know, as you talk about all the love of God and kind to gentle Jesus, that hell doesn't fit in with that scenario. Jesus came to save us from hell, friends. And he talked about hell a lot. And here he's referring to it as we read. Heaven doesn't look kindly on show-offs. Spiritual pride combined with social injustice, robbing widows, having sex with widows, injustice. It's a sure formula for greater condemnation. This is Jesus talking, it's not Jim Cantelon talking, this is Jesus talking. Which raises this issue that for many is almost not to be spoken. Does hell really exist? I mean, we're very happy to talk about heaven, you know. Everybody's talking about heaven. Somebody dies and we talk about somebody looking down on, you know, there's nothing in the scripture to support your loved ones looking down on you while you're playing your football game or while you're singing in a concert or while you're having a family time. That's a very sentimental notion, but it's not biblical. We like to talk about heaven. We have a warm view of heaven. Nobody wants to talk about hell. Now, when you look into even the fairly recent history of the church in North America, let's just talk about that. Going back a few hundred years to what we now refer to as the Great Awakening, even to beyond that, to the founding of the United States of America, which was founded essentially by religious dissenters, pilgrims who would not put up with what they called popery anymore, and with the relationship between Rome and the various monarchs of England and France and Germany and all that. They felt they needed to get to a new land and create the kingdom of heaven there. And so that was what motivated the pilgrims. And then for, I mean, you've got the Quakers coming, you've got so many. John Wesley came to, I think it was Savannah at one point in southern Georgia. The view was that America would be a city on a hill and it would be a righteous place altogether. The Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, who by the way was a great intellectual, he is some some historians called him America's very first homegrown philosopher, but he was also a fire and brimstone preacher. His most famous sermon was Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And people who heard that sermon, and he was short-sighted, and he would read it, which is not good homiletical style, felt the heat of hell on their feet. Some would fall down, prostrate, so afraid that you know they were going to be swept into the fires of hell. Well, this was not mythology. Jonathan Edwards and other preachers of the Great Awakening were very strong on heaven and hell. C. H. Spurgeon, maybe the most prolific writer of all preachers out of England back in the 1800s, he was very direct about damnation awaiting those who do not put their trust in Jesus. He didn't want to be damned. You don't want to be damned, neither do I. We don't like that word. The King James Version uses it all the time. But throughout Christian history, friends, hell has been as much a reality as heaven. But in our kind of gentrified saccharine days, we don't want to talk about it. We don't want to be seen as a fundamentalist damning people, judging people. I get it. The culture is just all against it. It's not politically correct. Jesus came to save our souls from hell. The justice of God demands punishment for those who live and die outside of relationship with their Heavenly Father. And if Jesus believes it, and if Jesus teaches it, how can I do anything less? Because I believe it and I teach it too, with full view that no one needs to go to hell if they will just allow the grace of God to flood their souls. God be merciful to me, a sinner. That's where it all starts. And I pray that heaven will be your everlasting home.

Stacey 18:35

You've been listening to Jim Cantelon from Jim Cantelon Today. This episode first aired on July 26, 2026, on Jim Cantelon Today.

Jim Cantelon 18:47

Hi, Jim Cantelon here from Jim Cantelon Today. I'm the founder of Working for Orphans and Widows. I'm committed to being the hands and feet of Jesus to dying and at risk orphans and widows in Africa and India.

Stacey 19:06

 To learn more about Jim Cantelon and WOW – Working for Orphans and Widows visit WowMission.com