On entering the Temple and recommencing His gracious work of teaching those assembled there, He was interrupted by the arrival of a formal deputation from the Sanhedrin, which had resolved to discredit Him if possible with the people (Mtt. xxi. 23; Lk. xx. 1).
They began by enquiring by what authority He acted as He was doing, and from whom He had received it (Mk. xi. 28). This question the Holy One met by another. Two years before[458] they had sent a deputation to the Baptist (Jn. i. 26), and he had borne a public and emphatic testimony to His Messianic claims. The prophetic character of John was generally admitted (Mtt. xxi. 26), and his bold rebuke of Herod had endeared him to the hearts of many—Whence, then, was his baptism, from heaven or from men? The question filled his hearers with embarrassment. If they replied that his was a divine commission, they exposed themselves to the obvious rejoinder, why had they not received his testimony respecting the Messiah? If they said of men, they would expose themselves to popular indignation (Mk. xi. 31, 32). Accordingly they preferred to own that they could not tell, whereupon He also declined to answer the question they had put to Him respecting His mission (Mtt. xxi. 27; Lk. xx. 8).
Though thus repulsed, His enemies do not appear to have left the Temple-courts, and were condemned to listen to still more humiliating language. In the parables of the Two Sons (Mtt. xxi. 28–32), and the Wicked Husbandmen (Mtt. xxi. 33–44; Mk. xii. 1–11; Lk. xx. 9–18), the Redeemer set forth with the utmost distinctness their neglect of their high vocation, the guilt of that outrage which they already meditated against Him in their hearts, their speedy rejection, and the bestowal of the privileges they had abused on other nations.
The drift of these parables the Pharisees and chief priests clearly discerned, and sought earnestly to lay hands upon Him (Mk. xii. 12; Lk. xx. 19), but feared to do so openly because of the multitude, who all regarded Him as a Prophet (Mtt. xxi. 46). Undeterred, however, by these manifestations of intended violence He warned them solemnly, for the last time, in the Parable of the Marriage of the King’s Son (Mtt. xxii. 1–14), that a day was at hand when the kingdom of God would be taken away from the Jewish people who had despised its privileges, and be bestowed upon the Gentiles[459].
CHAPTER III.
THE DAY OF QUESTIONS—THE ENQUIRING GREEKS.
A.D. 30.
THUS far the efforts of the ruling powers had been of no avail. The authority of the Lord with the people remained unshaken, His career was unchecked, and they themselves had been humiliated in the very midst of the Temple-courts[460]. A formal council was therefore held (Mtt. xxii. 15), and it was resolved to organize some plan for ensnaring Him in His speech (Mtt. xxii. 15; Mk. xii. 13), and beguiling Him into statements which might afford a pretext for delivering Him up to the Roman procurator (Lk. xx. 20). United, therefore, in one formidable conspiracy, the Pharisees[461], Sadducees[461], and Herodians[461], suborned (Lk. xx. 20) men, to all appearance right-minded and thoroughly in earnest, to propose various cases of conscience to Him as the Lord and Judge in the land[462].
i. First, then, approached the Herodians with certain of the Pharisees (Mtt. xxii. 16) enquiring whether it was lawful to give tribute to Cæsar, or not? How keenly this question was debated in Palestine, and what disturbances it had caused, especially in Galilee, the province of Herod, has been already noticed[463]. To answer it now, and to avoid on the one hand giving offence to the excited crowds in the Temple-courts, and on the other supplying matter for accusation before the Roman governor in the Tower of Antonia, so close at hand, appeared impossible. No patriotic Jew would admit that tribute was due to Cæsar. No one claiming to be the Messiah could allow it for a moment, unless he would forfeit all his popularity with the people. And yet if the Redeemer denied this, a charge of treason, which the Romans were always quick to hear, was clearly made out. But the Holy One, thrown off His guard neither by the affected courtesy nor adulation of their address (Mtt. xxii. 18; Lk. xx. 23), saw through their hypocrisy and the snare they had laid. With infinite wisdom He called for the tribute-money. They brought Him a denarius[464]. Whose image and superscription is this? He enquired. They answered, Cæsar’s. Render, therefore, He replied, to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. The snare they had laid so cunningly was broken. A single word had rent the whole “web of craft and hypocrisy.” The enquirers themselves acknowledged the wisdom of His answer. There was nothing they could take hold of (Lk. xx. 26). They were silent, and went their way (Lk. xx. 26).
ii. The Herodians thus repulsed, the Sadducees approached. With their wonted[465] philosophic pride they usually kept aloof from all popular religious movements. Now, however, they advanced to the encounter with a religious difficulty respecting the position in another world of a woman who had had seven husbands in this[466]. But their coarse question was met with Divine wisdom. Had they known the Scriptures, or the power of God, they could never have asked it (Mtt. xxii. 29). Such corporeal and earthly relationships ceased with this life, and in the next man would be exalted to a higher order of beings by the almighty power of Him, who even in the Law[467], which they professed to receive, had declared Himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the living, and not of the dead (Ex. iii. 6).
iii. Struck with the singular wisdom, with which He had put the Sadducees to silence (Mtt. xxii. 34), a scribe belonging to the Pharisaic sect (Mk. xii. 28) now drew near, requesting information as to the relative greatness of the commandments of the Law (Mtt. xxii. 36). The point was probably one much debated in the Rabbinical schools, though it is not clear in what way it was calculated to ensnare the Saviour. But the sublime, though simple response it received, comprising the whole of religion, under the precepts of Love to God and Love to Man, struck even the questioner with admiration (Mk. xii. 32); he frankly owned that such love was better than all burnt-offerings and sacrifice[468], and obtained the gracious declaration from the Redeemer that he was not far from the kingdom of God (Mk. xii. 34).