Give back to God what belongs to God. (Mark 12:17)

In those words above, lies the heart of the Christmas story. I don’t think it’s just because I’m reading Mark 12 and writing this post on Christmas Eve. Jesus was born to give back to God what belongs to God. Humanity and creation were in the hands of another — firmly in the grip of death and the deception of the snake. Jesus came to give humanity and all creation back to God. Let me explain how this message is on display in Mark 12.

Setting the Scene

Has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 7:11)

In Mark 12, Jesus had just arrived in Jerusalem in grand, prophetic fashion. He entered Jerusalem heralded as the Messiah, and then he walked into the temple and trashed it (Mark 11). He called the temple a den of thieves, enacting Jeremiah’s critique of Jerusalem centuries earlier (Jeremiah 7). What will happen now that the Messiah has come to town with such a dramatic, confrontational entrance?

As chapter 11 ends and chapter 12 begins, the religious leaders in Jerusalem are gathered around Jesus: “Who gave you authority to act like this?!”

Jesus won’t answer them except to say, “You didn’t recognize John’s authority, and you won’t recognize mine. I’m not here to play your ‘authority’ games.”

He Strikes with a Story (Mark 12:1–12)

He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. (Isaiah 11:4)

Jesus’s wisdom is on full display as the scene continues. They stare at him waiting for him to justify his authority, and Jesus tells a story with a sharp, crystal clear point: “The Father sent me, his beloved Son, to help you, and you wicked servants are going to kill me. You are going to kill God’s Son, and as a result you will bear the wrath of the Father.” They hear this point loud and clear, and they want to arrest Jesus and kill him all the more (Mark 12:1–12).

Jesus’s Dilemma

This is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, “Give it back!” (Isaiah 42:22)

The next scene reflects Jesus’s dilemma and the message of Christmas. How can Jesus move forward to help God’s people, when that very people whom he came to help are the ones who are corrupt and want to kill him? It’s a two-sided coin. On one side, you have the corrupt people who want to kill you, and on the other side you have God’s mission for you to help those same people. Should Jesus give himself to wicked people and let them kill him? Should he help God’s people? It’s one coin. He can’t do one without the other.

Giving Back to God What Belongs to God (Mark 12:13–17)

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted … Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isaiah 52:13, 15)

In the next scene, the Herodians and Pharisees try to trick Jesus with a question about taxes. Jesus’s response stumps them, but it does more. The placement of the story here points the way forward for Jesus. It shows how Jesus will split the horns of the dilemma.

“Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” If he says yes, they’ll accuse him of participating with the corrupt Roman government. If he says no, they’ll make sure the Romans hear about it. “Give back to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and to God the things that belong to God.”

This is more than Jesus’s response about taxes. This is the rest of Jesus’s story, and it’s the message of Christmas and the incarnation. Jesus will give his body to those who want to kill him, and at one and the same time he will give his perfectly obedient life to the Father as an honorable sacrifice. “Give back to God what belongs to God.” That is the path forward for Jesus.

How it Helps (Mark 12:18–27)

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. (Isaiah 26:19)

How can such an offering help? How can death help anyone? It helps because Jesus will walk through death in perfect obedience like no other person ever has, and he will rise. Resurrection is the topic of the next scene (Mark 12:18–27), another debate with the resounding message “God is not the God of the dead! He’s the God of the living!” If you hear this message in light of the previous stories in Mark 12, you hear the rationale of Jesus’s life and death, the reason for Christmas.

Conclusion

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45; 20:28)

He came to earth to obey because that’s what we couldn’t do. He gives us his life. We unleashed death into creation because of our disobedience. By his perfect obedience, Jesus alone can step into death and make a way through it. That’s the message of Christmas: Through life and death, Christ’s wise and beautifully tragic obedience makes a way for us. He is laid into the manger so that the light of God can break into the darkness of death.

In the coming chapters of Mark, Jesus won’t just give back his own life to God. He will give God’s people back to God. Humanity and all creation will be redeemed.

☩ Lord, have mercy. Help us to walk with you through our own Mark 12–16. We want to follow you, Lord, but you are the one who has the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. Help us, Jesus. Now that you have redeemed your people, don’t let us flounder. Now that you have given us your Spirit, carries us through the rest of our story. It’s all your story. May we make it to our own Mark 16. ☩