There’s a video from the U.K. Telegraph dated September 5, 2011. It’s the story of Kevin Murray, a New York City fireman, and his guilt over the loss of life on September 11, 2001. If you have time, it’s worth watching. (Google: Kevin Murray’s guilt.) It’s a little over eight minutes long and what he says at the 6:50-7:11 mark strikes me as profoundly biblical.
Murray says, “I asked someone as we were digging, ‘How big were these office buildings?’ Two hundred forty stories and yet when we were digging there wasn’t one desk, one computer that we saw, nothing, it was all dust.”
There’s an encounter in the Gospels (all three synoptics) that pits Jesus against the scribes and priests during His final Passover. It’s after He’s ridden into Jerusalem on the back of the colt. It’s after He’s cleansed the temple. It’s after He’s been challenged by the religious leaders as to His authority. Luke says that the religious leaders send spies into the crowd to ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” For years this encounter has been the foundation for stewardship messages. Jesus’ statement, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s…” has been the grist of Christian policy positions on the role secular authority plays in the life of the Christian. But interestingly such extrapolations are far from the heart of this encounter. They are also far from the reason that Matthew, Mark, and Luke include this incident in their Gospel accounts. Something much deeper is being communicated here – something that has to do with the minting of coins and lives.
This Sunday we are going to delve into the essence of this brief text to see what Jesus is saying about the purpose of our lives. While taxes and tithes are a part of what He says, a small part, here, hours before His death, Jesus is saying something so profound that it gets at the heart of one’s reason to be.
Remember our year-long study of brokenness and the transformation that Jesus alone can bring? What Jesus does in the temple this week vividly underscores all that we’ve studied together since September 2011.
In preparation for Sunday’s message entitled “Stamped in Dust,” you may wish to read not only our text – Luke 20:19-26, but also our companion verses in Genesis 1:26-27, 3:17-19, and Romans 8:28-30. Then consider the following:
1. What is the location of this encounter?
2. What bearing does the location have on all that transpires?
3. What time of year is it?
4. What is the purpose of moneychangers in the temple?
5. What did Rome do with the currencies of nations and regions they conquered?
6. What dilemma is posed by the question asked of Jesus?
7. When Jesus asks for a coin, what’s the significance of them having one?
8. What does Jesus mean when He says, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”?
9. How many images are being referred to here? And how many “image bearers” are in view?
10. How is September 11, 2011 a powerful picture of what every disciple of Jesus is called to do in following Jesus?
See you Sunday!
