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If you caught me in high school, I would not have been flying a kite out of a goodness gracious. See, add that to your file that you do that. I did just talk to a friend this week who said he grew up in the neighborhood and he said one of his fondest summer memories was driving by the high school here, shooting Roman candles out of a sunroof. So not a whole lot different. I could tell you who that is later that I think is illegal, so don't do that. I did not do anything even close to that in high school. I was a very good kid. But if you did find me driving around this summer, my windows for sure were down in my 85 Corolla and I was playing as loud as I could. One of my favorite bands of all time, which you've heard of, Rage against the Machine. And it's just so loud and I was so angry and they were just yelling about stuff I didn't even know. They were rebelling against things and revolting against things and causing a revolution. I didn't know what it was, but I loved it. And they were screaming and Rage against the Machine was often on my mix CDs that I was making. They were often on our warm up tapes and CDs for our sports teams. But I would be in the summer, especially Windows down, very loud music, very loud with friends hanging out. This music, especially that time in my life, I think there's a sense of like extra rebellion or like you wanna be part of a revolution. But I remember a moment, I show these two images here of a Rage against the Machine album and the band and the Beatles. Because I had a moment listening to this in the car. There was like a driving around with my mom moment and my mom was very sweet. She would let me play a song and she'd say, oh, those guys seem very passionate about their, their music. I don't appreciate the bad words, but I appreciate the music. And then she would pick a song and she often would pick her favorite band. I think almost always would pick the Beatles. And I would say, oh mom, the Beatles just didn't get it. Rage gets it. And I remember a conversation with my mom where she explained to me her what it was like to be a little kid when the Beatles like came on the scene, like when they're on the Ed Sullivan Show. And she used the phrase it revolutionized music. And I remember it because she used a word that I used to talk about raging against the Machine. She said it, the Beatles revolutionized. They're revolutionary. And they were. I mean, if you know any history, even if you don't know the Beatles, I mean, if you don't know music, you know who the Beatles are. It's. There's something about her love for them was. She loved the music, and she would admit they were cute, and she was wrapped up in all the. The boy band of it, but also just forever loved all of their music. If you asked her favorite album or song, she just says all of it. I have the joy of, like, inheriting her. Her record collection of the Beatles, and they're worn out. But part of that was because for her, that was, like, revolutionary. It was like. So for both of us, it was these things were things that, like, changed something. They, like there was a bit of a revolution, right? I share that because today, our passage, the questions being asked of Jesus are questions, I think, really at the heart of this. And they're really at the heart of, I think, a lot of decisions we all make all the time. And we often connect these to politics first. But I think they're decisions we make in a lot of things that we look for a thing, and we love things that change things, because there's a lot of things that we want changed, because they're not great, they're not good, they're broken, they're hurtful, they're not the way they're supposed to be. Even if we don't know why, there's something in us that's like, this is not how this was meant to be. Which is actually often a really good feeling, because it's not like how God made it to be. And so we're looking for something to change that, like a revolution. And so whether that be like. Often we think of it in politics, so we think of a person we vote for, or we think of maybe a policy that we want to get behind or a party we want to get behind, or a cause, or maybe it's even just a thing that we want to start doing in our life or taking in our life or being part of our life. All those are things we're saying. I want to adopt this thing or get behind this thing, because I think it will revolutionize, right? It'll become like a sometimes a mini revolution. There's a bit of a revolution, a revolutionary spirit in a lot of things. I think that's probably. If you talked about your favorite music, your favorite book that you read, you'd say, oh, that changed me. Or it stirred something in me. That's in us. And so today, the question that is going to be asked of Jesus in a passage in Mark is a very, very, I think, well known passage. If you've been around church, even in not church, this passage is used even outside of church as a common phrase. And I want us today to be able to step out, hopefully see it kind of fresh and see it in the context of what's happening and understand what Jesus is saying and maybe not get lost in maybe our normal interpretation or just the way it kind of flippantly gets used. I want us to really maybe try to pause and like enter the moment that they're in to understand what Jesus was saying in this moment. So we are in the Book of Mark. We've been in the Book of Mark for a while and we are going to take a little break here in a few weeks, but then we'll end it this fall. And we are in chapter 12. Now Jesus has come on the scene. We've heard that this new kingdom is coming, that there's this king, there's this good news that's being proclaimed about this new kingdom. And the king's name is Jesus. So we saw this incredible his identity being proclaimed, him showing that he's the king, him inviting these disciples on the journey with him and actually empowering them to join in the casting out of the other kingdom and entering and ushering in his kingdom. And now they've entered this last kind of part, the third part of Mark where they're entering into Jerusalem. And so they are staying outside in a town called Bethany, kind of on the edge. And it's this huge festival, it's the biggest festival where they celebrate Passover this time where God came and freed the people. It's really a great story of freedom, of liberation, of God changing and rescuing his people that we hear in the story of Exodus. And it's the foundation, the core of the Jewish people's identity. And they gather here in Jerusalem and they celebrate that when death passed over them and they were freed from slavery in Egypt and they passed through the Red Sea and they survived in the wilderness because of God's provision. And God gave them over to the into the promised land. And so they get together and he's there in that celebration. And this week, in this time, he's going to continue to move back into Jerusalem and he's going to establish and teach and help people understand what the kingdom of God looks like. And eventually he's going to usher in this new kingdom, maybe not in the way that people think, but in his death and resurrection. We just Had a story we just heard about him telling a parable, which is helpful to keep in the back of your mind as we enter into this. This story today. But first, this parable in Mark 12 was a story about there was an owner who owned, like, a vineyard land, and he put all these people in charge of it. So this is a really cool painting. I think it's really helpful to understand it. There's this owner of this vineyard, and he puts people in charge of it, and he sends people to go. He sends his people to go talk to them, which we understand in the parable are like his prophets, God's people. And they actually end up killing those people, beating those people. And eventually he says, I'll send my son, my beloved son, because they'll have to listen to him. And the people, the tenants, these wicked tenants of this vineyard, this land of the owner, actually kill the son and throw him out of it. There's actually a picture of like what we've seen earlier in Mark Gehenna, right? This dump outside of that's like bodies and garbage. So this picture illustrates this parable, right? We saw this picture. Jesus is telling them, these leaders, this is what's happening. You're losing sight, but this isn't actually yours. You've been given this to tend to, to care for it. And what you've done is continue to kill and hurt and turn away from the ones God has sent. And so it gives us a great big overview of, like, the picture, ultimate picture of what the world is, is God's, and that there's these people who get to take care of it. And God wants them to take care of it in the way he's created it. And what they do is they keep doing what they want to do with it. And God sends people to go, hey, I want to correct that. I want to help you understand what I want with it actually what makes you flourish and what brings life. And they send those people out. In fact, we hear kind of the gospel in this story of the tenants, that even when he sends his son, they end up killing his son. But we know from that story as well that that actually is their undoing. So right from that story we hear now, this happens in Mark 12. We're going to hear a story of Jesus being asked a series of questions. We're going to get to just the first question today, but a series of questions in Mark 12. So let me read you the first question here. This is in Mark 12. One, why don't you stand up? Let me read this to us as I read the word of the Lord. It's an opportunity just to respect the Word and the Lord's word. This is from Mark 12. It's just 1317. I'll read it and then pray for us as we enter into this time. Mark 12, 13, 17. And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it. And they brought one. And he said to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? And they said to him, caesar's. Jesus said to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. They marveled at him. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. I pray today your word would come alive. It would encourage us. It would change our hearts. It would make the stony parts of our hearts flesh that we draw closer to you. You'd make us come alive as well, and that we'd want to help others know you. Amen. All right, feel free to grab a seat. We're going to just take some time to walk through this passage. You probably have heard at least the end of this passage. It's a very common scripture that's used. One of the things I read this week was that it's like. Along with the passage that there's like, top five Bible verses used in the world kind of outside of, like, church context. And this would be one. Render to Caesar. What is Caesar's. The phrase or the phrase like judge ye not is a phrase that's often used by people. I think this is what's really important today, that we understand, like, what is the context of what's going on here? So I want to start with just the first part of this. Who are these people? What's going on? And maybe a little understanding of what's happening here as these people approach him. Now, what we know so far, Jesus has come to Jerusalem. He came in on a donkey, announcing that in the way a king would come into battle, except that he's on this humble donkey. It's interesting. Then he goes back to Bethany. He comes back the next day, starts flipping tables in the temple. He causes kind of a ruckus. He tells the people who are exploiting people for sacrifices and they're exploiting people and they're money exchanging, that this should be the Lord's house for prayer and not a den for robbers. So there's like some stuff going on here, right? And then he leaves. He comes back and he has the opportunity to tell his parable about the tenants. He's saying, hey, you are not taking care of the Lord's vineyard in the way that he, the owner, wants you to. So they already have. This is happening, right? Jesus is coming in, causing some trouble. Now they're going to come to him and ask him some questions. They want to know, like, what is going on here? What exactly is happening with this Jesus character. So here's some of the groups you're about to meet today. We're going to see the Pharisees and the Herodians, and you're about to see a series of three tests or questions that happen. Mark sets them up right in order for us. But these groups are going to come to him while he's there for Passover, and they're going to ask him questions because they're trying to figure out who he is and test him. And the word actually means trap him here. It's the word for like snare. Or it actually means they've come to hunt him, and so they're coming to hunt Jesus in the way of. We want to trap him in a way that somebody gets very upset with him, that maybe kicks him out or maybe angry enough to kill him, or maybe in trouble enough. Or maybe he'll say something that will cause them to, like, people just stop following him. Like, we just need to stop the momentum of this guy as people. He's getting attention. He's taking attention from us. He could hurt the mission. We have all those things that could be happening there. So they come to trap him. And who are these groups? Now, this is a big chart. You don't need to read it all, but I just want to give you a little insight into some of the main groups here we're going to encounter in the next weeks. Here's a fun little chart. We don't always get to do fun charts, but I thought it might be helpful. This in the top are kind of the four main. Josephus, who's a historian that we use a lot. He's one of the main ones that we can use. It's reliable. He calls them the four Philosophies. Of the first century Jews. And then the Herodians are one just mentioned. They're the followers of. Not followers, but the group around Herod. And they're good, just good Roman citizens. But the Pharisees, these are kind of the different groups. The Pharisees follow the written Torah, the law, and also the oral tradition. We've talked about that already in Mark, how they created, like, oral laws after that. Jesus has actually opposed. He said God's word does say this, and then you add stuff to it. And he's saying that those things you've added to it aren't the same as what God's word is. The Sadducees, who just say they follow God's word. The Essenes, who are ones who have removed themselves, released from society. The Essenes are ones that are known for living out in the desert. The Essenes are the ones that we believe we found the Dead Sea Scrolls from. And so we found these Dead Sea Scrolls. You may have heard of these. They're some of the oldest documents that we have of scripture. And we found those in a cave in the desert. And the reason we kind of could find those is because the Essenes were people who believed they should just disconnect themselves from society, should just like, go out and just be with God. And so they lived in desert communities. And because of that, they had scrolls in these caves in the desert. And they survived because they weren't in cities that were being attacked and stolen from and things. We're thankful for that from the Essenes. And then Zealots is a group that were seen as like the rebellious group, the revolutionaries. The Zealots were ones that often were the group that revolts came out of, and even violent revolts that we'll look at actually in a second. And so those all, though, would be considered themselves Jewish people, like, within the faith. So you get like the whole range of different kind of groups within the groups, which I think sometimes it's hard when you're reading your Bible. You just think like, there was Jewish people and you forget, like, even right now, if you said there's Christians, you'd say, what kind? Right. So there's like a whole range of what that could look like. And then we have the Herodians, who aren't following necessarily theology of a belief about God, but more of a political loyalty to the Roman people there. These are very general statements. Right? But the bottom here, the bottom, the key facts is helpful. The Pharisees typically are the kind of the beginnings of the rabbitic the rabbis. We see a lot of Pharisees in Scripture. Often the Pharisees get the worst rap. In the Gospels, we always call people Pharisees, but actually sometimes it's the Sadducees or other religious people. The Pharisees really want people to follow God. They really want people to be holy. They don't. They're not always going about it in a helpful way, but they really do. The Sadducees are around and we actually, after the temple falls in the year 70 AD, that group kind of falls to the side. We talked about the Essenes, the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Zealots are the group I want us to think about for a moment here. The Zealots were a group of people who came, very passionate people. Out of them, the Zealots would had some version of Rage against the Machine. I don't know what they would have been playing liars and harps, but they would have been screaming when they were playing it. And that'd be a good use of AI some 1st century zealot rage kinsheet. And they are very much a part of the history of the Jewish Roman wars, which could be a fun Wikipedia adventure for you as well. But to understand those just a little bit, a very quick journey down there. I want you to understand these because these happened right in the time we're talking about. And this I think is really important to understand the moment we have with Jesus here before we get to this moment. So there's a moment where the Jewish people were ruled by people, but there was a really cooperative spirit. They tend to like, they didn't feel as oppressed. Now history changed a lot, right? Lots of people came in and out and ruled in different ways. And there's times they were enslaved and not enslaved and different people enslaved. And then they'd flip, even they'd overthrow. But there is a time in 63 BCE, so about 60, 70 years before Jesus is on the scene, the Romans come in to Jerusalem and they take over through a series of events. And this is actually a relief carving made to show the moment they came in and actually went into the temple, into the Holy of Holies, and they actually like looted it, which is an enormously big deal. They went into the place that only high priests were supposed to go. This is the place where God's presence was. Nobody went in there and they just went in and took the stuff. And so this is like extremely offensive for people in this time. Your religion and your life and your public life, all those things were all tied Together. It isn't like now where we think like, well, my private life is my religious thing, and then I have this public life. It's all. So there's this great assault on you and your identity and your people. And they did not respect that. I don't think respects the word. They just essentially took that over and they took over the region. And there's a series of events where they put other people in power. Herod eventually gets put in power. Herod, we know of the Christmas story, Herod. And they actually name him King of the Jews. And so he is over the Jewish people at the time. And then he actually dies and his son gets put in the power. Herod Antiphas, who we actually meet in the Book of Mark. He beheads John the Baptist, kind of still in the family history, family line of not being great. They say all this. So you understand in the midst of all of that, there is a group of Jewish people called Zealots that rises up. And they're a group of people who rise up within the Jewish people, and they actually cause revolts. They actually have, like, violent, like, military missions to try to take back Jerusalem. That's like real history in the real time in those years. So in that time, there is this real intense, at times, violent, at times, people rise up and they even think, could this be the Messiah rises up and takes Jewish people and they, they rush in to the temple to take it back from the Romans, and those people are captured and killed and they're considered like these heroes to the Jewish people because they, they, they run in there like, we want to take it back because they've taken it from us, you understand? So that's a lot of history. In, in one generation, the people that Jesus is talking to have lived that. They have family members who have lived that. They have family members who have died in some of those uprisings. They have. There's like hundreds of thousands of people have died in these uprisings. Like many, many Jewish people, many, many Roman people have died in these uprisings. It's a very real thing that's happening in the moment for them, all of that's happening. There's a man named Judas, Judas of Galilee, who's actually referenced in the Book of Acts. There's a moment in the Book of Acts where they're talking about others have come before Jesus, and those people tried and they failed and they've died. But this, this one is a. Is a different one. And one of those guys mentions is Judas of Galilee who actually causes. They think Maybe they thought maybe was the Messiah because he was trying to overthrow the Romans and bring Jerusalem back to the Jewish people. He was caught and he was killed. And actually his sons later were caught and killed as well. So with all of that happening, Herod knows all of this history. His dad was part of all this history. The Romans know all of this history. The Pharisees know all of this history. And then a man named Jesus brings his friends into the temple, they throw a bunch of tables, they start calling these people robbers instead of leaders. And they come to Jesus and they say, what do you think about this tax? In the process of all that happening, Caesar came to the people and said, once a year, I'd like to give you. I'm going to give you all a denarius. Now, denarius is worth one day's wages for a peasant laborer. So it's like the lowest wages in the kingdom, essentially, and it's one day's wages. So it's very little amount of money. It's a piece of silver that actually Caesar took his own silver and melted it down and then made these little coins with his face on it and said, I'd like you all to give that back to me once a year to again just commit yourself a tribute to me to show your loyalty to me. That's actually what triggered Judas of Galilee and others, because they saw that as like him saying, you want us to worship you or a signal of us to worship you. And it's one of the uprisings happened because of this. And so they know historically that people have said, when Caesar said, I want you to give me this thing, it's not worth much, except it's worth a ton in the sense of what it says, right? You're saying, give me this coin back to say you're loyal to me. And so they are asking Jesus, not what do you think about taxes? Which sometimes this passage gets used like, hey, Jesus is talking about generally what we think about taxes, which is a whole discussion which you can have at lunch with your friends, should be lively. They're saying, what do you think about this tribute tax that Caesar has? Because what Jesus thinks about this kind of will put him in one of these camps, right? Are you a zealot like Judas was? Have you come to cause an uprising like we just saw a few times in a row? Because we gotta stop that. The Romans are gonna stop that. Have you come? And when we ask you about that, you're gonna say, everybody should move out in the desert and not pay Caesar his thing you should actually not have anything to do with the Romans. Are you in a scene? What they want him to do is say yes or no. What camp are you in? Where do you land? So they know how to treat him. Are you an enemy or are you not? Are you with us? Are you not? They need to figure out where he lands. That's the trap. Where you at? It's one of those moments where when we read, like in Hebrews, that Jesus understands. He's a high priest who understands our suffering. I often think of that, like, when I'm actually hurting or if I'm going through something difficult. This is the moment where we get to understand Jesus understands us. Like today, in the moment when you're in a conversation with someone, you can tell they're trying to figure out who you voted for, if they get to be your friend, or if you're, like, at work and they're asking you about something and you're like, they want to figure out where I land politically so that they can know if we're like, buddies, right? Have you felt that Jesus knows exactly what that feels like? They want to put him in a category so they can decide if they're with him or not. And in this case, essentially, who then gets to kill him, because who's against him? Pretty remarkable. And Jesus gives an answer, not the one they were necessarily hoping for. All this, though, in the context of this, is Jesus one of these Judas of Galilean, Is he going to cause an uprising again? Or is he going to lead all these people to get away from the Romans? The Herodians and the Pharisees are not friends. They. They're, like, politically on very different ends of the spectrum. They don't get along, except that they don't like Jesus. And so they both will kind of want to know, where does this guy land? So we know if he's with us or not. So asking him this question and this coin and what to do with it should answer their question. So then we get the answer of Jesus. And three things came out of this for me this week as I got into this, and we were just praying through this. I'm like, man, there's a lot that I'm really encouraged by. Some really good news and some really challenging stuff. And so I just want to share with you the three things that have been encouraging to me in this. First, my first one that comes with this got some alliteration for you who love that. The first is that I think Jesus gives us a considered conviction. I use Considered just because it's alliteration. It could be lots of different words here, but Jesus answer to this is not. He doesn't just say, yes, give it. No, don't give it. He gives the answer, give Caesar what is Caesar's, and give God the things that are God's. He gives a considered or a measured or a deliberated or an unhurried or a discerning or an astute or faithful or a listen. And then answer, answer from his conviction. He goes. He starts with who God is and what God is, and then he moves to that. So he doesn't just say, no, we don't give Caesar anything. He doesn't just say, no, we don't give God anything. He doesn't say. This passage can be used to say, like, we just let, like government can do whatever they want and we do whatever we want in the church. We separate those, right? There's lots of different ways this could be is used to interpret. Or we say, like, we'll just let secular, non church things do their things and we'll do our things. I think what he's saying is there's a place to engage in these things, but there's also a place for us very importantly, to engage in things of God. And if we look at all of scripture, right, we start with who God is and our conviction of who God is and what God has given us in the Word, and then we get to enter into the rest of it. So I'm encouraged here that Jesus just doesn't make this a very easy category. He doesn't go, those three groups are wrong and this one's right, and that's the one you should be in. I think that's a lot easier, simpler. He doesn't just give an easy simple, which would be really nice. Um, he doesn't. I. I think of a moment that I had a couple years ago. Somebody was writing a story about churches in Columbia Heights, and they said, hey, I'd like to meet with. I'm meeting with all the churches and I want to just know more about them. And so they just said, can we meet up really quick and we'll get to know about your church? And I said, oh, that'd be awesome. And so they're like, we just are writing this short little thing about the different churches and like, so people can see, like, all the cool variety of churches in your town. And I sat down and they said, politically, who does everyone vote for in your church? I said, that's your first question. I was like, well, I Think people at church vote different ways, depending on. And she's like, well, what? Yeah, but just tell me politically where your church lands, because that makes this so much faster. Because I can just fill in most of what your church is like from that. I said, well, I'm not going to say that. And she's like, I guess I'm going to have to get the notepad out and ask you some questions. Yeah, that'd be cool if you did that. It was very sweet. Great. But I thought, well, I think the hope was I could just say we're this or this, and then you would just assume a bunch of stuff about us. I hope you wouldn't do it with any organization. And then you just go, they believe this and this, this, this and this. And then I don't have. And then they're like, that'd be a quick review. And so I got to share all the things we love about the gospel and about our community together and about the mission of serving our community. And she's like, I'm glad I asked you, because you're confusing to me. I kind of like that we're confusing that we didn't land necessarily in one of those. It may be. It reminded me of this passage a little bit. I thought, oh, I like that. I can't just do it. But I think that we want that, right? We want to land in a certain spot because then we get to pick who's in or out. And I don't think that's what Jesus wants here. I think we can land strongly and understand so clearly what God wants for us. And from there, we can passionately get ourselves involved in all sorts of ways. Right. But we have to start there and understand who God is and what he has in these biblical convictions. And we can care deeply for the people around us. We're called to love God and love people, and we can do that. And it's difficult and it can kind of feel lonely because we. We aren't just put in a category. But I think first, one of the things Jesus does here is. Reminds us that that is okay and that's where we're at. And to follow him in the world sometimes means we have considered conviction. We have to consider where we're at. We don't just get to go, I'm a Pharisee. This is what I do. We go, what does God have for us? And who do I get to follow first and go from there? Secondly, one of the really, really cool things, Jesus acts something out here like he does. He Kind of performs. Sometimes we get a little performance art from Jesus and he does something here. He doesn't just say a thing. He actually acts something out here with this coin. And so they ask him the question. He actually asks for one of the coins. And I think it's really important that we might not know because most of us don't have a denarius in our pocket. We don't know what it is or what it looks like. But it is very helpful in this story to understand what that might be. And the second thing for us to think about is that Jesus is reminding us that we were made for our maker. This is what the coin looks like. The coin is a picture of Caesar and actually a picture of a goddess woman, who believe is a picture of his mom, who also is the goddess of peace. And on there, there's an inscription. And the inscription says, caesar, King, right? Son of the divine Augustus, high Priest. And then some of them, and some don't, but some say, have this picture of her and say, peace, goddess of peace. So essentially, what the coin that was made is declaring is King Caesar, son of God, High Priest, son of the Goddess of Peace, or Prince of Peace. That sounds familiar. Is that interesting? So he's. So there's a coin that Caesar puts out, and on the coin it says, Caesar, King Caesar, son of God, high Priest, Prince of Peace. So Jesus is standing with these people with an image of Caesar declaring that he's king, son of God, high Priest, Prince of Peace. And Caesar's asking everyone to give that back to him to. As a. As a token of loyalty. That Caesar, Yes. You are our king, Son of God, high priest, Prince of Peace. You can see why there's people who say, I don't know if we should do that. It seems like a. It seems almost like a little idol. It seems almost like I'm worshiping him. Could I do that? It's interesting. He says, give it back to him. I think what. What Jesus is here is reminding them of is that there is an image. There's image bearers. And the things that made those images are owned or belong to or in a sense, loved by, and part of the thing that they bear the image of. And so he's saying, hey, the little coin, the little silver thing that you have in your pocket, he. He can have it back. It was from his silver. It's got his little face on it. He can take it back. And there's also things that God made in his image that we know all the way from Genesis were made in his image. And those things belong to God, and he gets those back. So if Caesar gets the thing that bears his image, this little coin, he can have his coin, but God gets what bears his image back. Not the answer they're looking for. Maybe helpful to be reminded in Genesis 1. The word here we see in likeness in the passage is actually the same word we hear in Genesis. God said, let them make man in our image, our likeness, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock and over the earth, and over every creepy thing, creepy creeping thing, and creepy things and creepy things and creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. God makes something. It's not a coin. It's not a piece of metal. It's not a lifeless, hard thing that fits in a pocket. He made flesh and blood things that came alive, that bear his image, that actually take care of the world, that he also made, that also bear his image. And Jesus in that moment says, caesar made these little coins. It's cute. He can have those. Let him have his coins. But then God, you notice, he says, then God, not Caesar, who's God. But God gets to have his image back. He calls back his image bearers to him. And what he thinks about his image bearers. It just made me think of Psalm 139. It's one that encourages me and how God thinks about his image bearers. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well as a prayer. Sometimes I pray that I would like, fully believe and know that God thinks of me as wonderful and that he fearfully and wonderfully made me. He made these wonderful things, not coins that people give back out of. I mean, can you imagine what really the tribute is, right? Fear. Please just don't hurt us. Please just keep giving us. Please just keep peace, Caesar. But we have a God who created us. And out of his great love for us and our great love for him, we get to give ourselves back to Him. In a place, in a world, in a time of all time, when we're told our value comes from maybe our productivity or our appearance or our status. Jesus offers us something in this moment. He says, your value comes from the fact that you bear the image of the most high of the God of the universe, and he wants you. He calls you back to himself. It's a really big deal. Reminds me of the value that comes right of knowing whose mark is on you. Makes me think. One of my favorite painters ever is Rene Magritte. He paints this famous painting. You maybe see this is a good painting to talk about with friends, because people get very passionate about this. So it's a painting of a pipe. And then it says, this is not a pipe because it's not a pipe. It's a painting of a pipe. This is my philosophy degree coming in here and my art degree all in one. But at the corner of that painting, you see a little name. Magritte, right? That's his signature. His paintings sell for a lot. He just had a painting last year sell for $121 million. That doesn't make any sense. But it did. And the value came from that. Because of who painted it, Right? Because of who painted it. And so Jesus here is saying. They're saying, once you do this coin, and he says he can have his coin, but don't forget the image bearers that were made by the maker. He gets those back. He's reminding us. He's zooming us out. He's kind of calling us back to the story Mark just told us. Don't forget, there's an owner of the vineyard, and you're just the tenants. Which gets us to the last part, I think, for me, the great good news of this story, that the Liberator is finally here. And it actually brings us back to our painting. This painting was painted and became kind of famous. And Magritte actually said he had so many interactions with people about this, which was kind of the point, right? That's what artists do. But he said many people approached me. This quote from him, he says about the famous pipe. People came to me and they said, how could you paint that and say, it's not a pipe? And he says, can you stuff that pipe? No, you can't. It's only a representation of a pipe. If I had written on the picture, this is a pipe, I'd be a liar. You're like, oh, that's true. It's not a pipe. It's a penny. You didn't have to write, this is not a pipe. But it wouldn't probably be famous then. But there's something about that, right? It's just an image of a pipe. It's just a picture of a pipe. And I think this is a little bit of what Jesus is doing here. He's literally acting out, if you can imagine the Moment. This is what we miss by only reading it. They're standing with Jesus. They're worried, is he a revolutionary? Is he gonna try to come and cause a revolt? He's got a lot of people excited about him. Just a few days ago, a whole lot of people were cheering for him when he was on his donkey. Is this gonna really cause some trouble? Are we gonna lose some lives again? Are we gonna have to, like, capture these people? Are we gonna have this mess up all of the Passover festival? What's going on here? Jesus, tell us your intentions. And he holds up the coin that's an image of Caesar. And in a sense, he goes, this is not a king. This is just a picture of a king. And even if I brought this to the guy who says, he's the king, he's one of many, many kings. Only a few years ago, he wasn't the king. Remember, before him, there was another king, and then some people rode in and killed him and took over. And before that, there was another king, and before that, there was another king, and before that there was another king. And over and over and over. And then we tried, too, also to do that. And. And after Caesar, there'll be more kings, and there'll be more kings. Jesus holds up this coin that's just an image, in a way, and says, this is not really a king. As the true king of kings in the flesh stands before them, out of their pocket, they pull a coin. And the true image bearer, not just the image bearer of God, but God himself, stands before him, a ruler who sits on a throne, who they took or inherited, that will be taken from them. And the king who has always been king, who will always be king, stands before them. It's this incredible picture we get in that one moment as he holds up that coin. You want to see the king of kings. You want to see the son of God, you want to see the high priest, you want to see the Prince of Peace. You don't need a coin to see it. He's right here. And you want to see someone who doesn't need to come and overthrow with a sword, but in fact will come and change in a very different way. Picture I showed you before was actually a picture of the moment that we see in scripture where Barabbas is exchanged for Jesus. So this is supposed to be a. Not a photograph, a drawing. The moment, if you remember this in Jesus, when he goes to the court and they say, release Barabbas. I grew up thinking Barabbas. I was always told Barabbas is like this terrible dude. Barabbas was actually historically, like a zealot. He was a Jewish insurrectionist. He actually came to cause revolt. He was kind of like a Judas of Galilean. So actually, in a sense, not even in a sense, in real, in reality, they would have said, release Jesus. We want our revolutionary. We want our. We want our Barabbas. Who's going to free us from the Romans. This Jesus guy has been healing people. He's even talking about dying now. He's not freeing us. In 1970, a guy named Tom Skinner spoke at the Urbana conference. It's like a classic sermon he spoke on. He was one of the first black preachers to speak at Urbana. It's a very historic sermon, but he talks about this moment and talks about what happens in this moment and why they want Barabbas over Jesus. Here's just a little moment of it. He says, the crowd wanted a political activist. They wanted to zealot. They chose Barabbas because Barabbas stood for overthrowing Rome by force. But Jesus came to bring a radical liberation that didn't just change who sat on the throne, but transformed the human heart and destroyed the very foundations of oppression. The liberator has come. Tom yelled, the liberator has come. You can watch this online, and the entire room, your brain has this huge college conference of missionaries. The entire room started screaming, the liberator has come. And they wouldn't stop yelling, the liberator has come. You can't not get wrapped up in the good news that he has actually come, that they're so sick of the cycle of another Barabbas who. Who's gonna try to overthrow. And there's one who actually can overthrow and bring all things Jesus promise to us. When he came on the scene, he went to the temple. Remember, he went and read from Isaiah 6:1. And this is what he read. He read this passage from Isaiah 60:1. The Spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners, to protect the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our. Of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who grieve in Zion and bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of spirit of despair. They'll be called oaks of righteousness. A Planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. This is what I want when I listen to Rage against the Machine. Essentially, I want someone to come. I hope by listening by them yelling, they're essentially saying, someone has to come. And turn our mourning into joy and turn our despair into praise. Someone please grow me into an oak of righteousness instead of a withering tree. Please free the prisoners, Bind up the brokenhearted. There's people who are captive. We have to free them. There must be good news for the poor. I want someone to do that. And Jesus comes, says, I've come to do that. And he does. And so our Jesus comes, our King, our Son of God, our High Priest, our Prince of Peace. But he doesn't come with a sword and overthrow the temple and run the Romans out and take the throne like every other person has, over and over again. Instead, he comes and is actually taken by the Romans and by the Jewish authorities. And he's put on a cross. Instead of a sword in his hand, they put a nail in his hand and he dies on a cross. A death that each one of us should have been given for our rebellion against the King. And he's put in a grave, and they think he's dead. He raises from the dead. He defeats death, the thing no one else can defeat. And he raises from the dead and he ascends to heaven. And he's on his throne today, still on his throne. He's given authority over all of heaven and earth. He's king of kings. He's the Son of God. He's our high priest. He's our Prince of Peace. And one day will return, and this time it says, with a sword. And he'll cast out evil. There will no more be evil. So we have a liberator, we have our revolutionary. We have the one who will bring those things. So when we first go to him and are satisfied in him and are changed by him and can rest in him and say, you're our King, then I can enter into the world around me and help liberate and care and bring peace and all those things. But in the name of Jesus and with Jesus, because I'm reminded of our passage even before this, right, That I just get to help take care of the vineyard that the owner has given me. I'm going to invite our worship team up here. I want to read one last passage as they come up. This passage I heard yesterday at a funeral. But it rung in my head as almost like a battle cry of Jesus. I imagine the people that were with all those revolts, like chanting as they went in and were trying to overthrow. Imagine as they would sit afterwards around a campfire, they would like sing songs or chant things like, you can't, you know, we will not. We will overcome. And then I heard this reading of Romans 8 and it reminded me of the call we get to say now because of our great liberator and that he has come and he has rescued us. Let me read this as we move into a time of worship. This is really good news, friends. What then shall we say to these these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Hugh did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect is God, who justifies. Who's to condemn Jesus Christ? Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who's at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or. Or nakedness or danger, or a sword? No. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's good news, friends. We have a liberator and have freedom. And from there we get to go join him in the freedom and the liberation of many others. Few things I want to encourage us with as we move in our service here to some time of communion and singing. First, a few questions to consider. Do you know King Jesus, son of God, our Redeemer? Consider maybe what coins do you have your hope in? Who helps you return to your maker? Who even needs to know that a liberator is here? It's really good news. Consider taking communion this morning. You don't have to be a member of Hope, just a follower of Jesus. Out in the hallways, on both sides, there's a table with grape juice crackers, an opportunity. Remember that his body was broken, his blood was shed for us, that he went and did the work, he did the battle for us so that we could be free. And so we encourage you to go do that by yourself or with others. Throughout our time of worship, our band will lead us in a time of singing. There'll be people who'd love to pray for you. They're already back there in the back of the room with yellow lanyards. They'd love to pray for you for anything. And we could always give as an opportunity to give back to the owner of the vineyard with joy. Let me pray for us as we move forward here. Lord, thank you for your goodness and your kindness, your love for us, that you have given us so much. I pray, Lord, that we would run to you first as your image bearers, that we would run to our maker, and that you would change us and restore us and renew us. And that from there, Lord, we could join you in your work. Lord, thanks for these people in this place, in this time. And I pray as we sing now, these words would be very true to us, and you would restore our hearts. Amen.