Luke 20: Caesar's Coin and the God of the Living
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✝ Passage: Luke 20
Every question in Luke 20 is a trap, and Jesus answers every one by exposing the trap itself. The chief priests ask about his authority; he answers with a question about John the Baptist that leaves them stuck between two bad options. They stop asking after that round, so they send spies “who pretended to be righteous” to catch him on taxes instead.
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bible luke 20
A coin with a face on it
Asked whether it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus asks for a coin and asks whose image is on it. The answer is obvious — Caesar’s — and so is the conclusion he draws from it.
“Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” — Luke 20:25
It isn’t really a compromise between two loyalties. It’s a question underneath the question: what bears God’s image, and have you been giving that away too?
Whose wife is she
The Sadducees, who deny resurrection, invent an absurd case about a woman widowed seven times over, hoping to make resurrection look ridiculous. Jesus doesn’t play their game of levirate math. He tells them they’ve misunderstood both Scripture and the nature of resurrected life.
“He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him.” — Luke 20:38
The unanswerable question
Jesus turns the tables and asks how the Christ can be both David’s son and David’s Lord — a riddle from Psalm 110 none of his interrogators can solve. After that, nobody dares ask him anything else.
Questions for study
- What does the coin question reveal about where Jesus locates true allegiance?
- Why do the Sadducees’ assumptions about marriage fail to survive resurrection?
- What does it mean that “all are alive to him”?
- What questions are you avoiding asking Jesus because you suspect his answer will cost you?