LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

TUESDAY DAY # 3

Having gone after the RELIGIOUS crowd first on Monday, Jesus now turns to Imperial Rome; however, his actions against them cannot be so blatant and open, so he resorts to hidden messages: aphorisms, parables, proverbs, and questions were the tools of Jesus. And, this drives us nuts! Why couldn’t he have just answered questions instead of responding with more questions, ambiguous stories, and symbolic actions?

Why didn’t Jesus ever write- other than on the ground?

He tells the story of the wicked tenants (Mark 12:1-12) and then He asks them if they get the teaching (which they seldom do). In order to try and trap Him and set up a situation where the balme for His demise came from the Romans and not the religious leaders, they asked Him if it was lawful to pay taxes. We have the same situation today. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Federal Reserve Board and taxes are unconstitutional, an argument too lengthy to get into here now.

The answer that Jesus gave, “Render unto Caeser“, has been used for 2,000 years by governments to support all manner of atrocities, and particularly taxes and war(s). A closer examination of the incident is deeper than we have made it (naturally). Jesus was saying that the coin had an image of Caeser, which meant it was his coin, so give it back to Him. However, the second part is where we back off. Jesus in essence, affirms Psalms 24:1. He’s saying that ALL belongs to God, which is what He was saying in teh parable of the Wicked Tenants.

Since that didn’t work, they try to trap Him with the Levirate marriage question (who is married to whom in heaven?). But, the big debate of this Tuesday was over Messiahship and therefore who is really King of the realm. Pilate would be interested in that question.

It’s the hidden question of today as well! Who is Lord in your life?

What’s the role of government? How much authority does the State have?

The phrase “son of God” has been so misinterpreted by modern day Christians. In the days of Jesus, son of David, son of man, son of god were common terms that had nothing to do with the 2nd person of the trinity. Roman emperors came up with a novel way of deifying themselves. Augustus for example, lavished praise and honor on Caeser, making him a god, and then guess what- Augustus, being the emperor who followed him, was the “son of God”. It worked especially well when a natural son followed. But, Jesus was speaking of the “Coming Son of Man“. He was merely harkening back to Daniel 7:13.

Tuesday was a day of debating!

And it still is today. We not only debate, but we argue everything. We’re still asking questions the Romans and Pharisees did 2,000 years ago. The answers are still the same. The answers will never change. God will never change. Jesus will never change. So, the question for this Easter week especially is, WHEN WILL YOU (we) change?

Can God alter your life this week? Can God get you back into His house on Sunday (and not just this Sunday)? Or, will you, and are we, as a nation, facing what Jerusalem was headed towards in 66-70ce? Is the end right around the corner (5-15 years?) for America? Are we listening or too busy making a living?

Whatcha think? Your life can be transformed! It’s His desire. He loves you!