Controversy
Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/IVNqouC_YyU?list=PL4ByrircmXL6qt2QplU6IudoOYVgzBS3C
*The Pharisees had ever chafed under the exaction of tribute by the Romans. .......He added, Show Me a penny. They brought it, and He asked them, Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar's. Pointing to the inscription on the coin, Jesus said, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. Matthew 22:20,21
The spies had expected Jesus to answer their question directly, in one way or the other. If He should say, It is unlawful to give tribute to Caesar, He would be reported to the Roman authorities and arrested for inciting rebellion. But in case He should pronounce it lawful to pay the tribute, they designed to accuse Him to the people as opposing the law of God. Now they felt themselves baffled and defeated.
*The Sadducees denied the existence of angels, the resurrection of the dead, and the doctrine of a future life, with its rewards and punishments. On all these points they differed with the Pharisees. Between the two parties the resurrection was especially a subject of controversy.
The Sadducees rejected the teaching of Jesus; He was animated by a spirit which they would not acknowledge as manifesting itself thus; and His teaching in regard to God and the future life contradicted their theories. They believed in God as the only being superior to man; ...It was their belief, that, having created man, God had left him to himself, independent of a higher influence... Christ testified to a divine power that produces supernatural results, to a future life beyond the present, to God as a Father of the children of men, ever watchful of their true interests.