Having challenged the authorities with his memorable entry into Jerusalem on Sunday and his disturbance of Temple business on Monday, Jesus spent Tuesday in the Temple courtyard talking with a large group of followers. The chief priests, elders and scribes who were expected to keep the people calm, found his presence increasingly problematic.

Imagine you were one of that crowd, excited to be with Jesus and a little apprehensive that he was offending powerful people who were trying to trap him into saying something that would get him into trouble. The Temple elite asked him: "By what authority do you teach these things?" As he did so often, Jesus answered with a question: "Did John the Baptizer's authority come from heaven or from humans. The leaders talked among themselves: "How do we answer? If we say from heaven, he will ask why we did not follow John, but if we say from humans, the people will be angry because they think John was a prophet." So they answered: "We don't know." And Jesus said: "Then I'm not going to tell you where my authority comes from." Can you hear the chuckles and sighs of relief at how Jesus had deflected this verbal attack?

Then Jesus was asked if the people should pay taxes to Rome. Heavy taxes would have been one of the crowd's pet peeves. Jesus asked for a denarius, and one of his Jewish challengers produced a Roman coin with a likeness of the emperor on it. (Remember the commandment against graven images.) Jesus asked whose likeness was on the coin: "Caesar's." Jesus then said: "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." This would have satisfied the Romans, but good Jews knew everything belonged to God. The Temple authorities recognized the ambiguity of Jesus' answer - and they had been caught carrying coins with graven images in the Temple.

No wonder the crowd loved Jesus, and the chief priests, elders, and scribes looked for a way to get rid of him - without causing a riot. These powerful leaders were afraid of the crowd.

Lenten Devotions

March 30, 2021