Big Idea: Two critical issues for all believers come out of the attempt of the leaders to entrap Jesus: (1) submission to government; and (2) the doctrine of resurrection, grounding our faith and hope in the reality of Christ’s resurrection and the certain afterlife that God’s people will enjoy.

Understanding the Text

David Daube has shown that the next four passages (12:13–37 = Matt. 22:15–46) correspond to the four major types of rabbinic questions: (1) of wisdom, on a point of Torah regarding taxes (12:13–17); (2) of mockery (scoffing at a belief), on the issue of resurrection (12:18–27); (3) of moral conduct, on the relationship between God and humanity (12:28–34); (4) of biblical exegesis, on a seeming contradiction between passages (12:35–37).1In this, Jesus is shown to have true k…