Cleverness Wins

They thought they had him, but he was too clever for them, again.

When the scribes and chief priests realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to lay hands on him at that very hour, but they feared the people. So they watched him and sent spies who pretended to be honest, in order to trap him by what he said, so as to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor. So they asked him, "Teacher, we know that you are right in what you say and teach, and you show deference to no one, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" But he perceived their craftiness and said to them, "Show me a denarius. Whose head and whose title does it bear?" They said, "The emperor's." He said to them, "Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent. - Luke 20:19-26

Do you think Jesus planned ahead?

Did he say to himself, "Someday, they will accuse me of not paying taxes; what will I say?"

The way Luke writes it, he was definitely prepared to answer them.

But we don't know what he did. It was not his coin that he asked to see. So, did he get away without paying?

Or did Judas, who took care of such accounting matters, take care of the taxes using coins from the purse?

We don't know.

All we know is they failed to trap him in front of the people. 

Curses. Foiled again. (To quote Snidely Whiplash from the Bullwinkle and Rocky Show.)

Jesus was very good at foiling the attempts to trap him. These stories would have made a good Saturday Children's Cartoon Program.

Maybe that is the whole point of them. They are simple tales of truth winning out over lies and traps.

Was Jesus paying taxes? Maybe not, but they failed to get him on that.

So, what does this teach us? To be clever, perhaps? 

More to come...