Give God His Rightful Due

Mark 12:1-17 

The Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers

1 Then He began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 2 Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers. 3 And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated. 5 And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some. 6 Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7 But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.

9 "Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not even read this Scripture:

The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
11 This was the LORD's doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

12 And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them. So they left Him and went away.

The Pharisees: Is It Lawful to Pay Taxes to Caesar?

13 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. 14 When they had come, they said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?"

But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it." 16 So they brought it.

And He said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's."

17 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

And they marveled at Him.

The lessons of this parable and answer of Jesus both point us to give Gospel what is due to Him.  This includes all honor and praise in willing obedience to His sovereign reign over us and all of creation because all is made by Him and for Him (Colossians 1:16-17).  The parable of the vinedressers who were given charge of looking after the master’s vineyard while he was away on business comes first.  He sent messengers to receive the profits when harvest came, but they acted as though the vineyard was theirs just because they had taken care of it.  Their greed led them to not only refuse to give the own what was due to him, but they beat and even killed the messengers (from where we get our saying of don’t kill the messenger).  Finally, the owner sent his only son thinking they would respect him because he was the heir and not a hired hand.  Their sinful greediness moved them to murder him to steal the land for themselves!  What the master of the land did in response was to enact justice over the criminals by destroying them and then handing over the vineyard to others more willing to honor the owner and his son as heir to that kingdom.  We see the Son of God being dishonored and murdered as the real story that the parable spoke to the religious leaders and self-serving of that day.  They beat the prophets who faithfully delivered His word to be good stewards of the land of milk and honey given them to serve Him with the fruits of their righteousness and obedience (Deuteronomy 4:1-2), but they mistreated and killed them (2 Chronicles 36:16, Acts 2:23).  In the final act of disobedience and rejection of the sovereignty of God, they killed His only Son to take everything they had been given for themselves, not grasping that they were only stewards of what always belonged only to the Lord.  Like the devil, they chose to exalt themselves and attempt to rise to sit on God’s throne (Isaiah 14:13-14) to rule instead of Him over His vineyard which is the world entrusted as a stewardship to Adam and all his descendants.  Jesus reminded them of the scripture in Psalm 118:22-23 to point out their rejection of Him as the Son of God and right ruler over them who they were attempting to kill and throw out of the world so they could steal the inheritance.  They understand the meaning of the accusation and were incensed against Him for exposing them.  They feared the people who believed and supported Jesus, so they had to leave until the time was right to be able to enact their insurrection against God.  

After this, Jesus faced a feeling attempt by those set against Him by baiting Him on who is due the taxes that they might show Him to be unworthy of supporting the nation against the Romans.  They hissed like sly serpents as they calmly asked by a cunning argument if it was lawful (by the Law of religious and not worldly rules) to pay taxes to the ungodly government they were under.  Jesus wisely went to the real issue of their test to show what honor was due to who and why.  He simply asked who owned the money which they used by the government who minted and owned it.  They had to admit the obvious fact that is was Caesar’s and not theirs.  They were commanded therefore to give what was due by ownership to Rome and what was due by ownership to God and not mix the two together for a single incorrect answer.  We see the same today among “Christian nationalists,” who suppose to overthrow or control governments to conform to their religious ideals to gain their own rule of power and pride instead of giving God His just due in worship and willing obedience while submitting to the government placed by God over them as a separate thing (Romans 13:1-4, 6-7).  We are to be heavenly minded which means we pay taxes to the earthly Caesars of the land we live in while not neglecting to give God His due obedience that includes such submission to these rulers in a display of righteousness and godliness.  Our kingdom is not of this world, but we also live in this earthly one to do good and not evil as a demonstration of the theocracy only existing in the heavens that rules over any and all governments on this earth, including our precious democracies.  We are to give God His due and not strive to kick Him out of the vineyard to take over and dispossess or disobey those put over us for this time.  We are salt to flavor and preserve the citizens of earthly kingdoms and His light to shine the the gospel on them, which brings the only true freedom any man or woman can have.  Our faces are not on the money we give back in taxes but God’s image is placed on us (Genesis 1:26-27, James 3:9), so let us give God His due and not neglect to give our country’s rulers theirs in obedience to the true Vinedresser (John 15:1).