Seeing through the Given - Luke 20:20-21:4

Luke records a series of tense exchanges between Jesus and the Jewish leadership in the Temple days before His crucifixion. The Herodians attempted to trap Jesus using politics and the Sadducees attempted to trap Him using theology. In light of these attempts, we consider Jesus’ teaching on attitudes toward government taxation, church giving, after-life, and His identity as Messiah. All four serve Luke’s purpose to stabilize the wobbly faith of the God-lover by transforming the way we think about things temporal and eternal (cf. Luke 1:4).