Il. A PAINFUL INSTANCE OF HUMAN UNFAITHFULNESS. This, as in all instances of a want of fidelity to important trusts, was sadly disastrous. But not only to them to whom the trust was committed, for all men expiate the sins of every unfaithful one. The condition of society is lowered; good fruits are blighted and cannot be gathered ; pains and penalties are incurred which fall heavily upon all. Had every man been faithful to his trust, what a paradise this hard earth would have presented] But the world walks on a lower plane for every unholy life passed upon it. Had that vineyard brought forth its due fruits, all nations would have been made partakers. Of the few small patches which bore, the world has the fruit in those holy records which are as the salt of the earth. But how much of the corn and the oil and the wine is wanting! On this account is presented—
Il]. A 8AD ILLUSTRATION OF THE DIVINE JUDGMENT. Israel is deposed. The sacred trust is withdrawn. The vineyard is in other hands. The unfaithful husbandmen, as such, are destroyed. Alas for Israel! Her crown is in the dust, her harps upon the willows. She does not with her voice sing the pleasant songs of Zion. She is not the great spiritual power in the earth for which she was designed. Her calling and election she did not make sure. ‘True, for the fathers’ sakes she remains a testimony in the earth. But it is as a broken-off branch. The world gains nothing by Israel’s rejection. The Gentiles are wise to weep and mourn on her behalf; and, knowing that “ God is able to graft them in again,” they are wise to pray earnestly for their recovery. “The receiving of them” would be “life from the dead.” So let every Gentile believer pitifully behold the nation sitting in the dust, having become the uncircumcision in the spirit: and at this time, alas! “separate from Christ” and really “alienated from the commonwealth of” the true “Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope.” Nor can it be otherwise till they who now are “ far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ.”—G.
Vers. 13—17.—The tribute money. Unable to take him with their wicked hande, because they dared not, they send selected men from the Pharisees and the Herodians, They have instructions to lay a trap with a view “to catch him in talk.” “In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.” But these blind catchers thought him to be blind also. In specious words they ply him with a question relating to an oppressive tax. “If he held that payment should be refused, he would compromise himself with the Romans; if he sanctioned it, he would embitter himself both with the Herodians and the ultra-national party.” But he who “knew what was in man” knew “their hypocrisy,” and in a word, and doubtless with a look, exposed it. “ Why tempt ye me?” ‘Then with the coin before their eyes, which was at once the symbol of their unfaithfulness to God and their subjection to man, he threw back upon them the onus of answering themselves in their own conscience and by their own deeds.
cH. xn. 1—44.] THe GOSPEL AUCORDING TO SI. MARK. 179
Ah! “in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.” But Jesus does not only evade the dilemma on which they had cast him; nor does he merely utter a word of condemnation to them who had failed to “render unto God the things that are God’s,” and who would be only too glad to escape rendering “to Caesar the things that” were “Cesar’s.” But he, in high wisdom, teaches the great truth for all time, that fidelity to the demands of God and fidelity to the constituted powers of earth need not clash. The loyalty of the subject and the obedience of the saint are on the same plane. So a just distribution is made of things pertaining to Cesar and of things pertaining to God, and yet the true unity of the service rendered to both is declared; and, moreover, as God is above all, the duty to him includes the duty to Casar. For our learning we may see—
I, THar CuRisT BEARS HIS TESTIMONY TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE CLAIMS OF BABTHLY AUTHORITY. The Christian need be under no apprehension of following this principle out to ita extremest limits. For if the earthly government be oppressive and unjust, he knows full well that the King of kings has his own methods of deposing ; for he believes that “he putteth down one and setteth up another.” He has learned to submit even to oppression for conscience’ sake. But these questions respect the extreme, the occasional, the exceptional conditions of political life. Fidelity to the constituted peed of authority would, according to Christian principles, secure the divinely appointed
ead.
II. Cugist UTTERS HIS EVEB-REITERATED DEMAND FOR FIDELITY TO THE INALIENABLE oLAImMs or Gop. “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” Is anything not God’s? If in truth all is first rendered to him in an honest consecration to his will, then may that which he ordains for the neighbour be given to the neighbour; that which is for the poor to the poor; or that for the family, or for self even, so given; and therefore that which is for “the king, as supreme,” to the king may be rendered.
Ill. Let THE MAN HIMSELF, WHO TRULY 18 GoD’s, BE RENDERED UNTO Gop. One has beautifully taught thus: “That which bears Caxsar’s image is, as belonging to Casar, to be given to him; but that which has God’s image belongs to God.” Had Israel been faithful to “render” themselves “to God” they would not in those late days have been given up to the Romans, as in earlier days fidelity to God would have kept back the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. The great principle to guide nations and individuals alike is truly to be the Lord’s. Then, when he is the God of the nation, all other service and all other obligations fall into their proper order and degree of importance. And he who serves his God in humility will serve his king in fidelity. He who is obedient to the Lord’s claims will know how to render the claims of masters, and lords, and rulers, and sovereigns. Not more truly is the Law one, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour,” than is “Render unto Cesar the things that are Casui’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”—G.