May 15th, 2025
by Erik Williams
by Erik Williams
Activist, author and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali was born in 1969 Somalia. Hirsi Ali became famous for her stance that Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Western values, which is especially noteworthy considering that she was raised by a devout Muslim family, had a strict Muslim education, and even received the traditional Somali female genital mutilation. During her teen years, Hirsi Ali was influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood to become an activist, championing Sharia law and even donning a burqa.
However, her commitment to Islam was irreparably shaken in 1992 when her family arranged for her to marry a distant older cousin. Desperate to escape, Ayaan fled to the Netherlands, where she sought political asylum, altering her identity to avoid the threat of being killed for having been disobedient to Islam and to her family. Another pivotal moment for Hirsi Ali came on 9/11. Watching the Twin Towers fall and observing how some fellow Muslims celebrated the tragedy caused her to further question everything she once believed.
This journey of doubt led her to the famous lecture “Why I Am Not a Christian” by atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell. For Ayaan, Russell’s lecture affirmed her newfound skepticism of Islam. And so again she ran, this time from Islam and into the arms of atheism, becoming friends with prominent atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. Looking back on her friendship with these prominent men, Ayaan fondly recalls how they were so fun. And they were not only fun, they were fun and clever.
Eventually, even atheism left her disillusioned. In a recent turn of events, Ayaan announced that she has embraced Christianity. She shares, “I've also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable. Indeed, very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question, what's the meaning and purpose of life?” She admitted that her atheist friends believed that “with the rejection of God, we would enter an age of reason and intelligent humanism. But the God-hole, the void left by the retreat of the church, has merely just been filled with a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma. And that's why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist…I have recognized in my own journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.”
Ayaan’s journey to faith is remarkable, but let’s recall her atheist years with her fun and clever atheist friends. Surely they were both fun and clever, but as Ayaan is discovering now, fun and clever though they were, they were also wrong. Cleverness alone cannot answer life’s deepest questions. We see this truth come to life again in Mark 12 when Jesus confronts religious and political leaders who were determined to hopefully expose Jesus and finally get rid of him, leaning on their own cleverness and expertise in the Jewish scriptures, the law, and debate. They came to Jesus with all the cleverness they could muster, but what we're going to see is that clever as they may be, they're still very, very wrong.
The Trap of Cleverness
In Mark 12, we see two groups who didn't like each other unite to take Jesus down: the Herodians, a non-religious Roman political group that helped Herod, and the Pharisees, a religious group dedicated to amplifying the traditions of the Jewish faith. Though normally enemies, they temporarily unite to fight a common enemy: Jesus. Hoping to trap him, they ask a question about a controversial issue with a seemingly unwinnable answer: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mark 12:14)
It’s a clever ploy. If Jesus says not to pay taxes to the government, they can get him in trouble with Rome. If Jesus says that yes, they should pay the tax to Rome, then they can turn the Jewish people against him because the Jewish people hated the Roman rulers who imposed the tax on them. Either way, they think they’ve got Him cornered. However, they didn't realize or recognize who they were talking to: Jesus, the Son of God. Much to their dismay, Jesus truly is who he claimed to be. He knows their dark hearts, sketchy motives, and hypocrisy, and He is much more clever than they are. These leaders might be clever, but they're wrong, and Jesus avoids stepping into the trap they’ve laid for Him.
Instead, He asks for a denarius and points out Caesar’s image stamped on it. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” (Mark 12:17). This answer astounds them. With this simple response, Jesus acknowledges that while human government has a role and authority in our world, our greatest loyalty is not to the government–it's to God. While that coin might be imprinted with the image of Caesar, humans are imprinted with the image of God. This response exposes the leaders’ cleverness as insufficient. They tried to trap Jesus with worldly wisdom, but Jesus’s words reveal a deeper truth: while human governments can demand what belongs to them, God demands our whole hearts.
However, her commitment to Islam was irreparably shaken in 1992 when her family arranged for her to marry a distant older cousin. Desperate to escape, Ayaan fled to the Netherlands, where she sought political asylum, altering her identity to avoid the threat of being killed for having been disobedient to Islam and to her family. Another pivotal moment for Hirsi Ali came on 9/11. Watching the Twin Towers fall and observing how some fellow Muslims celebrated the tragedy caused her to further question everything she once believed.
This journey of doubt led her to the famous lecture “Why I Am Not a Christian” by atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell. For Ayaan, Russell’s lecture affirmed her newfound skepticism of Islam. And so again she ran, this time from Islam and into the arms of atheism, becoming friends with prominent atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. Looking back on her friendship with these prominent men, Ayaan fondly recalls how they were so fun. And they were not only fun, they were fun and clever.
Eventually, even atheism left her disillusioned. In a recent turn of events, Ayaan announced that she has embraced Christianity. She shares, “I've also turned to Christianity because I ultimately found life without any spiritual solace unendurable. Indeed, very nearly self-destructive. Atheism failed to answer a simple question, what's the meaning and purpose of life?” She admitted that her atheist friends believed that “with the rejection of God, we would enter an age of reason and intelligent humanism. But the God-hole, the void left by the retreat of the church, has merely just been filled with a jumble of irrational quasi-religious dogma. And that's why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist…I have recognized in my own journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.”
Ayaan’s journey to faith is remarkable, but let’s recall her atheist years with her fun and clever atheist friends. Surely they were both fun and clever, but as Ayaan is discovering now, fun and clever though they were, they were also wrong. Cleverness alone cannot answer life’s deepest questions. We see this truth come to life again in Mark 12 when Jesus confronts religious and political leaders who were determined to hopefully expose Jesus and finally get rid of him, leaning on their own cleverness and expertise in the Jewish scriptures, the law, and debate. They came to Jesus with all the cleverness they could muster, but what we're going to see is that clever as they may be, they're still very, very wrong.
The Trap of Cleverness
In Mark 12, we see two groups who didn't like each other unite to take Jesus down: the Herodians, a non-religious Roman political group that helped Herod, and the Pharisees, a religious group dedicated to amplifying the traditions of the Jewish faith. Though normally enemies, they temporarily unite to fight a common enemy: Jesus. Hoping to trap him, they ask a question about a controversial issue with a seemingly unwinnable answer: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” (Mark 12:14)
It’s a clever ploy. If Jesus says not to pay taxes to the government, they can get him in trouble with Rome. If Jesus says that yes, they should pay the tax to Rome, then they can turn the Jewish people against him because the Jewish people hated the Roman rulers who imposed the tax on them. Either way, they think they’ve got Him cornered. However, they didn't realize or recognize who they were talking to: Jesus, the Son of God. Much to their dismay, Jesus truly is who he claimed to be. He knows their dark hearts, sketchy motives, and hypocrisy, and He is much more clever than they are. These leaders might be clever, but they're wrong, and Jesus avoids stepping into the trap they’ve laid for Him.
Instead, He asks for a denarius and points out Caesar’s image stamped on it. “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” (Mark 12:17). This answer astounds them. With this simple response, Jesus acknowledges that while human government has a role and authority in our world, our greatest loyalty is not to the government–it's to God. While that coin might be imprinted with the image of Caesar, humans are imprinted with the image of God. This response exposes the leaders’ cleverness as insufficient. They tried to trap Jesus with worldly wisdom, but Jesus’s words reveal a deeper truth: while human governments can demand what belongs to them, God demands our whole hearts.
"This response exposes the leaders’ cleverness as insufficient. They tried to trap Jesus with worldly wisdom, but Jesus’s words reveal a deeper truth: while human governments can demand what belongs to them, God demands our whole hearts."
The Sadducees’ Challenge
Next, another group steps up: the Sadducees attempt to trap Jesus with a question about a bizarre hypothetical situation. Known as an unfriendly and judgmental group, the sadducees were Jews who rejected the beliefs and the traditions of the Pharisees, most of the Jewish scriptures, and were skeptical about the afterlife.They recount a scenario from Deuteronomy 25 about seven brothers, each of whom marries the same woman in succession after the previous brother dies childless. “In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” they ask, trying to force Jesus into a theological corner (Mark 12:23).
However, in all their religious expertise, these guys had missed something important. They falsely assumed that earthly marriage is going to be the same as marriage in heaven. Jesus again dismantles their logic: “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25). Meaning that Heaven’s joy and fulfillment will be found in God, not human relationships.
Then Jesus goes further, exposing their second false assumption, that there's no life after death. “Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26-27). Jesus reminds them that God himself speaks to Moses and tells him that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In doing this, he points out something they refuse to believe: that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive. God is the God of the living.
Jesus tells them that they’re wrong. The Sadducees call themselves an expert in the scriptures, but they don't know what it says. They see themselves as experts in God, but they have no idea what His power can do. The Sadducees are humiliated, as the fact has been exposed that they are not experts and they're not nearly as clever as they thought.
The Danger of Being Fun, Clever—and Wrong
Ayaan’s story demonstrates that atheism fails to explain the meaning and the purpose of life. The Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Herodians also failed to explain that, even though they were coming from a position of religion, power, and passion. They may have been clever, but they were still wrong. I hope we don't find ourselves guilty of that mistake as well, that in our own cleverness we miss Jesus or find ourselves walking away from Him, building a personal empire of beliefs that may be modern and progressive and cool, but are ultimately wrong.
Next, another group steps up: the Sadducees attempt to trap Jesus with a question about a bizarre hypothetical situation. Known as an unfriendly and judgmental group, the sadducees were Jews who rejected the beliefs and the traditions of the Pharisees, most of the Jewish scriptures, and were skeptical about the afterlife.They recount a scenario from Deuteronomy 25 about seven brothers, each of whom marries the same woman in succession after the previous brother dies childless. “In the resurrection, whose wife will she be?” they ask, trying to force Jesus into a theological corner (Mark 12:23).
However, in all their religious expertise, these guys had missed something important. They falsely assumed that earthly marriage is going to be the same as marriage in heaven. Jesus again dismantles their logic: “When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (Mark 12:25). Meaning that Heaven’s joy and fulfillment will be found in God, not human relationships.
Then Jesus goes further, exposing their second false assumption, that there's no life after death. “Have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26-27). Jesus reminds them that God himself speaks to Moses and tells him that he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In doing this, he points out something they refuse to believe: that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are still alive. God is the God of the living.
Jesus tells them that they’re wrong. The Sadducees call themselves an expert in the scriptures, but they don't know what it says. They see themselves as experts in God, but they have no idea what His power can do. The Sadducees are humiliated, as the fact has been exposed that they are not experts and they're not nearly as clever as they thought.
The Danger of Being Fun, Clever—and Wrong
Ayaan’s story demonstrates that atheism fails to explain the meaning and the purpose of life. The Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Herodians also failed to explain that, even though they were coming from a position of religion, power, and passion. They may have been clever, but they were still wrong. I hope we don't find ourselves guilty of that mistake as well, that in our own cleverness we miss Jesus or find ourselves walking away from Him, building a personal empire of beliefs that may be modern and progressive and cool, but are ultimately wrong.
"I hope we don't find ourselves guilty...that in our own cleverness we miss Jesus or find ourselves walking away from Him, building a personal empire of beliefs that may be modern and progressive and cool, but are ultimately wrong."
The Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees all misjudged Jesus because they refused to recognize who He truly was—the Son of God. They tried to use clever arguments to trap Him, but they were ultimately wrong. Similarly, Ayaan’s atheist friends believed they could fill the void left by God with reason and humanism. Yet, as Ayaan discovered, no amount of mere cleverness can replace the meaning, purpose, and hope that only Christ provides.
I hope none of us miss the point, which is that Jesus is alive. You may not be comfortable with it, you may not agree with it, you may want to ignore it, but that doesn't change who He is. Jesus is alive, which begs the question, will you worship Him today? Do you belong to Jesus or do you just observe Jesus? Do you surrender to Him or do you just support Him? I hope you're not too clever to give your life to Him.
This blog is based on a sermon by Pastor Erik Williams at South Shores Church in Dana Point, CA on Sunday, November 26, 2023.
I hope none of us miss the point, which is that Jesus is alive. You may not be comfortable with it, you may not agree with it, you may want to ignore it, but that doesn't change who He is. Jesus is alive, which begs the question, will you worship Him today? Do you belong to Jesus or do you just observe Jesus? Do you surrender to Him or do you just support Him? I hope you're not too clever to give your life to Him.
This blog is based on a sermon by Pastor Erik Williams at South Shores Church in Dana Point, CA on Sunday, November 26, 2023.
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