A sermon for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on Sunday, October 16, 2011.
Exod. 33:12-23
Ps. 99
1 Thes. 1:1-10
Matt. 22:15-22
Jesus has made the Pharisees not a little bit angry at him. In response to their accusation, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you such a right?”, Jesus told them three parables each showing that they are the ones who need to defend their actions. They have participated in the tragic history of the rejection of God’s messengers. They have been a disobedient son full of empty words, they have been tenants who refuse to acknowledge their true place in relation to the landowner and refuse to listen to the landowner’s messengers when sent to remind them of their responsibilities, and they have been those who refuse to join in the celebration of the wedding feast of the son of God. The theme in all of these parables is that the Jewish leaders while outwardly trying to preserve God’s way as they see it, are actually stifling God’s way as it is coming to be around them.
The Pharisees have lost all patience with Jesus and want more than anything to discredit him, to gain back the people’s support to themselves and away from Jesus – to regain their authority and prestige as leaders.
They will eventually go to great lengths to secure that they control the vineyard. But at this point they are still disputing with the landowner’s son.
They go off somewhere and think up a few good questions which they are sure will trap Jesus – force him to say something that will cause someone with power to be offended or insulted – get him in trouble and discredit him.
So the Pharisees send some of their disciples along with members of King Herod’s political party to go and present a this “doozy” of a question to Jesus.
First, some high class flattery:
“Teacher, we know that you tell the truth. You teach the truth about God’s will for man, without worrying about what people think, because you pay no attention to man’s status.”
Jesus you’re an honest guy– you don’t care if what you say offends anyone as long as it’s true, right? (well see how truthful you are in response to this!)
Then their question:
Tell us, then, what do you think? Is it against our Law to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor or not?
Craig Keener, in his commentary on Matthew’s gospel, writes the following about the situation that the group hopes to put Jesus in by this question:
“The coalition hopes to catch Jesus coming or going: either he will support taxes to Rome, undercutting his popular messianic support, or he will challenge taxes, thereby aligning with the views that had sparked a disastrous revolt two decades earlier. In the latter case, the [members of King Herod’s political party] could charge him with being a revolutionary – hence showing that he should be executed, and executed quickly.” (Keener 1997, 326)
This is a CATCH-22, a lose-lose situation. Or so the coalition of inquisitors hopes.
But Jesus is wise to their game. And wise, period.
And the questioners assume that Jesus will tailor his response to please the group of people that he prefers to please – they assume that Jesus will answer in a way that secures his own image, his own perception among the people.
They project their own motives onto Jesus.
But Jesus answers in a way that we read “amazed” his questioners and caused them to leave him alone.
Here is the beauty of Jesus’ answer.
First he calls them out on their evil plan. “hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me?”
Then he asks for a coin.
The coin they probably gave him would have had on one side, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the Divine Augustus” and on the other side “pontifex maximus – high priest” (Keener, 326)
This was the real scandal – not only that the coin represented the oppressive imperial rule of Rome over the Jewish land, but that the coin represented the rival religion of the Roman imperial cult. The Roman emperors would claim divinity and require worship from parts of their empire in order to secure their power. The Jewish resistance to the tax because of this had been the source of problems in Palestine in the first century.
“Whose face and name are these?”
The image stamped on the coin would designate that these coins are ultimately minted and issued from the Roman emperor himself and that paying the tax that is required is a giving back to the empire what was due – a form of required loyalty.
It’s a reminder that Caesar is Lord.
“Whose face and name are these?”
“The Emperor’s”
Well then, give to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor.
But Jesus doesn’t’ stop there.
If Jesus had stopped there, he would have satisfied the members of Herod’s political party. People would have interpreted him as in essence saying, “they’re Caesar’s coins, just give them back to him.”
But Jesus doesn’t just stop there. He goes on: “and pay to God what belongs to God.”
Now if we think about this, there is an interesting observation that can be made.
The Emperor’s coin was considered to be the Emperor’s because it had his face and name on it.
So what belongs to God? If the coins belong to Emperor because it bears his face and name, what bears God’s face and name and would then belong to God?
A Jewish person brought up with the stories and teachings of Torah would know the answer.
Genesis 1:27
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Humans bear an inscription too, humans bear an image.
While the Emperor may have created pieces of silver for his purposes, God has created humankind for his purposes.
Jesus’ response not only speaks the truth, it satisfies both the members of Herod’s political party because it does not deny that the coins should be given to Emperor. It satisfies the Pharisees because it does not deny that one should obey God’s law.
A deeper understanding would hear the second phrase “give to God what belongs to God” as superseding the first phrase since Jesus would agree with psalmist in saying that all that exists belongs to God. (Witherington, Commentary on Matthew 2001, 413).
Psalm 24:1 says “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;”
Ben Witherington suggests that we can actually hear Jesus’ words as saying this: “give [the Emperor] back these worthless pieces of metal he claims, but know that we are to render to God all things since God alone is divine and to God belong all things.”
We are stamped with God’s image. We are created by God for God’s purposes.
We are a people of dual citizenship. We are citizens of the kingdom of God, but we live in America, and are residents of Acworth.
But Jesus’ words remind us that though we are part of a global community, though we are citizens of America, though we are residents of Acworth – we are in a real and ultimate way citizens of God’s kingdom, the city of God as it has been called.
Ours is a different way of living.
We are only responsible if we join in the conversations at the Town Hall regarding matters of the common good and the town’s future, we are only responsible if we enter into the wider discussion of what is good for America. We are only responsible if we participate in the global conversation – advocating for justice and peace. But let us not forget that our understanding of what is good comes from our understanding of who God has created us to be.
We are Christ’s ambassadors, we read in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “as though God were making his appeal through us.”
We are necessarily involved in the politics of the world, the nation, the town in which we find ourselves – but we are there as ambassadors to the way of Christ, the way which speaks truthfully, which manifests the love of God for all people.
We are those who have come to know God’s forgiveness of our sins.
God’s forgiveness has transformed us from enemies into friends, and we now, living in response to that reality, love our enemies.
So when we enter into the conversation of the town, of the nation, of the world, we do so as ambassadors of love, of truth, of reconciliation. We do so representing the one who did not seek to dominate, to lord over others, “to be served but serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
When we enter into the world, into our jobs, the conversations with friends, with enemies, the political sphere, discussion about the political sphere – let us model the one who loved his enemies, let us remember that more than rendering to those in power what is due to those in power, we are to render to God what is due to God.
And God has committed to us the message of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19), the message of God’s love.
To Christians in the city of Ephesus, the apostle Paul wrote “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
Paul must have visited one of the Ephesian town meetings.
He goes on—
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”(Eph 4:31-5:2)
AMEN.
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