Pentecost 20 - Series A - Proper 24 (October 22, 2017)
“What Can You Give to God?” (Matthew 22:15-22)
There’s
an old saying that goes like this: “A common enemy makes strange
bedfellows.” Sometimes nations ... and people ... who
are sworn enemies get together when they have a common cause. That was the case in today’s Gospel
reading. The Pharisees and Herodians
were not the best of chums.
The Pharisees were
patriots and no fan of the ruling Romans.
They hated the idea of paying taxes to the Roman
Empire . Every time they
pulled a coin out of their pocket, they were reminded of the political
situation in which they lived. Caesar’s
face was stamped right on the surface of their money. And this wasn’t only a political issue. It was a religious one, too. Stamped on Roman coins in those days were
inscriptions which gave Caesar divine honors.
The Herodians, on
the other hand, were supporters of the family of Herod the Great, who ruled
only because the Romans had put Herod’s family in power. So, of course the Herodians would have been
all in favor of paying taxes to Rome.
Either way, both
the Pharisees and Herodians wanted Jesus out of the picture.
At this point in
Matthew’s account, opposition to Jesus is increasing more and more. His enemies are pulling out all the stops to
trick him into saying something with which they can finally pin him to the
wall. And so they ask him, “Is it lawful
to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” If he
answered “No,” then the Herodians would have him nailed as a traitor and a
rebel, and they could hand him over to the Roman authorities. If he answered, “Yes,” then the Pharisees
would have him nailed as an idolater and blasphemer, since he obviously supports
the idolatrous worship of Caesar and his rule.
Under Jewish law, then, Jesus would be deserving of death.
When the disciples
of the Pharisees and the Herodians first came to Jesus, they said, “Teacher, we
know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care
about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” Now, they didn’t really mean all that. They were just messing with Jesus, buttering
him up, and trying to trap him in his words.
But what they said is absolutely true.
Jesus IS true and teaches the way of God truthfully. He is the only way through whom anyone comes
to God the Father. He doesn’t care about
anyone’s opinions nor is he swayed by appearances. Moreover, he sees right through
self-righteous pretense and calls it what it is. Hypocrisy.
And so he says, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the
coin for the tax.” They hand him a
denarius ... one of those offensive coins with a picture of Caesar’s head and
the words “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” and “pontifex maximus”
... which the Jews would have understood to mean “high priest.”
Everyone would
have expected Jesus to blast the Romans for such blasphemy. Instead, Jesus’ answer surprises everyone: “Render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are
God’s.” And Matthew adds, “When they
heard it, they marveled. And they left
him and went away.” They were
speechless. Jesus had stumped them. This was a new idea with which they were not
familiar. Back in those days, government
and religion were intimately tied together.
Faithful Jews could not stomach the idea of paying taxes to foreign and
pagan rulers. And pagan rulers often
demanded their subjects to not only pay taxes, but also to pay homage to the
rulers as divine. This caused no small
problem for Christians in later years when it was demanded of them that they
offer sacrifices to images of the emperor.
“Render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”
We get this ... especially here in our nation. We have this idea of the “separation of
church and state.” And this really is
derived from Lutheran theology which used the words of Jesus here in our text
to clarify this concept at the time of the Reformation. We call it the doctrine of the “two kingdoms”
or the “two realms.” Government we call
God’s “left-hand kingdom” or “realm” and the Church we call God’s “right-hand
kingdom” or “realm.” These are the two
ways in which God rules and serves the world.
He offers forgiveness and grace in the Gospel of Christ through his
right-hand realm, the Church. He
maintains order through his left-hand realm, the government, so that people can
serve one another with earthly goods and bodily care. God even uses pagan rulers to do this, just
like he did with Cyrus the Persian, who was mentioned in today’s reading from
Isaiah 45. Cyrus was used as a servant
of God – even though he didn’t know the true God – to defeat the Babylonians
and to give God’s exiled people permission to return to Judea and to rebuild
Jerusalem. So no matter who is in office
in our land, they are “God’s servant for your good” (Rom. 13:4), whether you
agree with them or not on all points in politics or religion. We “Render to Caesar the things that are
Caesar’s.” Honor. Respect.
Obedience when it doesn’t conflict with Scripture (Acts 5:29). Taxes.
And prayer ... not TO them, but FOR them (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Tim. 2:1-2).
“Render
to God the things that are God’s.” This
one’s a bit more challenging. We know
what we owe Caesar. But what do we owe
God? What shall we give to God?
Give your heart to
Jesus? Well, that’s a fine gift. The prophet Jeremiah described the human
heart this way: “The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand
it?” (Jer. 17:9). And here’s what
our Lord Jesus says about our heart: “For from within, out of the
heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness”
(Mark 7:21-22).
Give
your offerings? We do this as part of
our worship. But does God really need
your money? Every beast of the forest is
his, as well as the cattle on a thousand hills, as he says in Psalm 50. God owns everything. Why would we think that a measly few dollars
– which belong to him anyways – would somehow be an appropriate gift?
How
about this one: Give your worship? This
is probably closer to what Jesus is getting at here. Remember that image of Caesar on the coin and
that divine honor was to be given to Caesar.
But the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah, “I am the LORD, and there
is no other, besides me there is no God.”
Worship God alone. But do we always
give our undivided attention and respect and awe and reverence to God in our
worship? Do we listen carefully to every
word in the readings and in the sermon and to all the words in our hymns and
liturgy? I’m afraid not. Our minds wander constantly, as we look at
what the person in the pew in front of us is wearing, think about what we’re
going to have for lunch later on, worry if our toddler is making too much
noise, get upset by the rude guy in the car at the stop light outside with the
booming stereo.
God
demands 100%. We fall far short of that
goal in the things we should give to God.
Our hearts are sinful. Our
worship is imperfect. Our offerings are
meager. Even if we could give 99%, that
still wouldn’t be good enough. We owe
him everything. We owe him our very
lives. But our lives are full of
sin. And “the wages of sin is death”
(Rom. 6:23).
We
have nothing to give to God. All we can
do is approach him empty-handed like beggars and rely on his mercy given to us
in Christ Jesus, who gave to God the Father what was demanded of us.
The heart of Jesus was always given over to complete devotion to his
Father and his will. Jesus said, “For I have come down from
heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).
And Jesus gave to God the Father his life in exchange for ours. Listen to how St. Paul describes this gift that Jesus gave
for us. He “gave himself for our sins to
deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father”
(Gal. 1:4). “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God” (Eph. 5:2). “Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her,
having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might
present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such
thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph.
5:25-27).
Through faith in
Jesus, what Jesus gave to God is yours.
The perfect life of Jesus is credited to your account. The shed blood of Jesus washes your sins away
in Holy Baptism. God now sees you as
“holy and without blemish” because of what the unblemished Lamb of God did for
you in his death and resurrection. “The
wages of sin is death, but the free gift” ... the GIFT, what God GIVES to YOU
... “is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).
And what do you
give to God after all that?
Thanksgiving. Praise. Faithful worship which continues to hear his
Word and receive often the Body and Blood of the One Crucified and Risen for
the forgiveness of all our sins.
INI
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