Mark 12:1-17
I noted in the second link below that the group sent to Jesus with the tribute question differs in the three Gospels. Mark has the following statement: And they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap Him in his talk. (v. 13) Here “they” must clearly refer to the chief priests who at that time were from among the Sadducees. This is yet another occurrence of the Sadducees and Pharisees, opponents in many respects, now joined in their plot to destroy Jesus. The first occurrence that I noted was in John’s Gospel after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, where the high priest, Caiaphas had suggested that …one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish. (John 11:49-52) The third group in today’s incident, the Herodians presumably had nothing against Jesus, but were used by the other two groups in trying to trip Jesus up.
In his sermon yesterday Michael Matlock mentioned that God had ordained three institutions for our society – marriage and the family, the church, and the government. In answering the tribute question Jesus acknowledges the authority of both the government and the church. Interesting…
See also: September 10 / Mark 12:1-12; September 13 / Mark 12:13-17