By: Dale Weckbacher
Mark 12:13
And
they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap
him in his talk.
(ESV)
Happy New Year everyone, or for
those reading this that live in the United States, happy presidential election
year. Yes, it is another presidential
election year in the U.S. This means the
inundation of the airwaves with continuous campaign ads that slam opponents and
tout candidates as saviors that will save the world. There will also be countless debates that are
not true debates over issues important to a majority of voters but opportunities
for candidates to make soundbites they will use in advertisements or something
used by opponents to win the nomination in their party. It is at these so-called debates that
moderators and candidates ask questions that may appear good at first but have
a political motive and agenda behind them.
Mark
12:13-17 describes an encounter Jesus had with the Pharisees and
Herodians. The text begins with these
people approaching Jesus with the purpose of trapping Him in His Words (Mark
12:13). It is ironic that the very
people given the responsibility to guard the Word of God are trying to trap the
author of scripture in His words. However,
they do not believe Jesus is who He says He is, and have an agenda to publicly
expose Jesus as a fraud using an issue impacting the lives of everyone, taxes, They ask a good question about whether it is
necessary to pay taxes to Caesar but they have the wrong motives for had Jesus
answered with a simple yes or no, they would have used His answer against
Him. Had Jesus answered yes, they would
have questioned why he condones paying taxes to sinful Romans and possibly even
accused Jesus of colluding with them by dining with them (Matthew
9:10-11). However, had Jesus
answered with a no, they no doubt would have accused Jesus and his followers of
planning to overthrow the Romans, leading to Jesus and his Disciples’ arrest
and execution for treason.
The question the Pharisees and
Herodians ask Jesus is a gotcha question or a question designed to make someone
give an answer that entraps them no matter how they answer it (Mark
12:14). The answer to the question
is a simple yes or no but Jesus, knowing the motive behind the question does
not fall into the trap of giving a yes or no answer but instead answers the
question with a question (Mark
12:15-16). In essence, Jesus asks
them a gotcha question revealing their real motive and exposing their history
of robbing God (Malachi
3:8; Mark 12:17).
Jesus as the Son of God and God
Himself had a perfectly centered focus on His heavenly father and was not about
to fall into the trap of those trying to entrap Him with a gotcha
question. However, we must maintain our
godly focus so as not to fall into any traps due to gotcha questions or false
teaching. The extremes of doctrines of moralism
or liberalistic theology prevalent in the Church today are false doctrines that
lead to one potentially falling into a gotcha question trap.
1) Moralism
(Romans
12:2-3) – Once one makes a profession of faith in Jesus as his or her
savior and receives justification and forgiveness of sins, they enter the
sanctification process where they lose conformity to the world and its manner
of thinking and are transformed (Romans
12:2). Romans
12:3 however, is a warning against becoming overly moralistic as this
transformation process occurs in our lives.
While this transformation is a miraculous process of the work of the
Holy Spirit in a believer’s life, it does not cause God to love them more than
he did when He justified them. The
greatest love anyone can have for another is to lay down his or her life for
them (John
15:13), something Jesus demonstrated by laying down His life to rescue us
from our sins (Romans
5:8). One professing a Gospel of
moralistic superiority runs the risk of falling into the trap of a gotcha
question with the exposure of some sin in their lives.
2) Liberalistic
theology (Ephesians
2:8; Romans 6:1-4) – However, while we receive justification and
forgiveness of sin by the grace of God (Ephesians
2:8), we must not use God’s grace as an excuse to continue sinning. This is the word of caution offered by Romans
6:1-2, for to continue sinning believing that our profession of faith provides
blanket forgiveness of any sin we may want to commit is, in essence, using God. Jesus did not die on the cross to provide an
excuse to sin but to rescue people from the death penalty of sin (Romans
6:23). Liberalistic theology tarnishes
one’s witness for Christ because a non-believer sees no change in the life of
someone professing Jesus as his or her savior and sees no reason to make such a
profession of faith.
3) Balanced
Gospel (Ephesians
2:8; Hebrews 5:12-13; Romans 12:1-2) – A balanced Gospel that does not fall
into the trap of moralism or liberalistic theology presents the best defense
against falling into the trap of a gotcha question. A balanced approach to the Gospel understands
that all have sinned and need a savior and that one only inherits eternal life through
the grace of God and the love of Christ demonstrated on the cross (Romans
3:23; 5:8). However, the calling of
the Gospel also involves making disciples which requires one becoming a
disciple themselves (Matthew
28:19-20). Discipleship occurs
through the worship of God and the study of the Word of God both personally and
listening to the teaching of the Word in Church or a Bible study group. However, as a disciple of Christ grows in his
or her knowledge of the Word of God, they must guard against pride or thinking
more highly of themselves as God brings transformation to his or her life (Romans
12:3). A balanced approach to the
Gospel allows one to react to a gotcha question by pointing the questioner to Christ
and His Word, disarming the trap of the gotcha question.
My prayer for those reading this
is that they have a happy and safe new year and that they would grow in the knowledge
of the Word of God. I also pray for
wisdom to handle any gotcha questions and avoid falling into any traps by using
the opportunity of engaging one asking a gotcha question by pointing them to
Christ and the Word of God. May God
bless everyone reading this.
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