Oops!

We all have those moments when we’re trying to show off, but we end up looking like fools . . .

In today’s reading, the authorities were trying to show off and trap Jesus.

“We’ll ask him if it’s good to pay taxes to Caesar or not,” they thought. “If he says, ‘Yes,’ we’ve got him! And, if he says, ‘No,’ we’ve got him.”

But, didn’t work the way they had hoped.

When Jesus asks for a coin, they happily produce one.

But, this coin has an image of Caesar on it.

According to the Mosaic Law this is idolatry. They shouldn’t have been carrying around these coins.

Oops!

They’d been caught in their own trap.

This is how the gospel works.

We may think we’re doing well, but then scripture traps us. It shows us the faults of our ways.

This is often embarrassing.

But, it’s in these moments we learn.

It’s in these moments we are given the opportunity for a change of heart.

It’s here when we experience God’s love and are able to grow closer to him.

The Reading

And the scribes and the chief priests longed to lay their hands on him in that very hour, and were afraid of the people; for they knew he told this parable in regard to them. And, observing closely, they sent spies who pretended that they were upright, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to hand him over to the rule and authority of the governor. And they questioned him, saying, “Teacher, we know that you speak correctly and teach, and you are not a respecter of persons, but teach the way of God in truth; Is it lawful or not for us to render tribute to Caesar?” But, perceiving their wiliness, he said to them, “Show me a denarius; whose image and inscription does it have?” And they said, “Caesar’s.” And he said to them, “Then render Caesar’s things to Caesar and God’s things to God.” And they were powerless to seize upon any utterance of his in the presence of the people and, amazed at his answer, they were silent. (Luke 20:19-26)