Matthew is committed to showing his readers the significance of Christ's final week in Jerusalem. Everything has come to a boiling point over who Jesus is. While the priests, elders, Pharisees and Herodians link arms in their opposition, Christ has set His face like flint on this city. Christ's claims to authority are total claims. He is not only Lord over Jerusalem; He is Lord over all. Christ is Lord over occupying nations, coinage, taxation, even over Caesar himself. Civil government is a gift from God, with legitimate yet limited authority. When the Herodians and the Pharisees are both content to accommodate the intrusion of idolatry and statism into the worship of God's people, Christ counters that image bearers, Caesar included, must render to God what is His due. When the early church confessed "Jesus is Lord", this was as much a political claim as it was a theological claim. It was a direct challenge to Caesar's claim of total authority. The charge for us is to recognize those areas where we have failed to give God ultimate authority in our lives. Are we giving God His due in all spheres?

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