Göttinger Predigten
Göttinger Predigten im Internet hg. von U. Nembach
18.Sunday after Pentecost, 10/16/2011
Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22, by Samuel Zumwalt
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "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. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" 21They said, "Caesar’s." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s." 22When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
WHAT PART DON’T YOU GET?
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Surely you have had to deal, at some time or another, with some oily people who love to play word games. The goal is to embarrass or try to make you look stupid while feeding your adversaries’ innate sense of superiority. Every field of human endeavor has such people. They may rise to the top of their profession and even have a wide following, but they will never be loved, because deep down inside each one of us knows that people like that are sharks that really don’t discriminate between targets.
That’s the kind of people Jesus is dealing with in today’s Gospel lesson. On the one hand, Jesus’ adversaries, the Pharisees and Herodians, are trying to get some political dirt on Jesus that they can use to get Him in trouble with the Roman governor. If they can get Jesus to say that taxes shouldn’t be paid, they can brand Him as a revolutionary that the Romans ought to kill. But on the other hand if Jesus comes out in support of the Roman tax, that will surely take away His popular support – for the Jewish people hated paying taxes to the Roman Empire.
If you notice, the Pharisees and Herodians are not successful in pinning down Jesus. In fact, their attempt, at the outset, to play to Jesus’ ego with the most transparent type of insulting flattery simply sharpens their already odious image. We readers and hearers of Matthew’s Gospel should almost boo and hiss like a crowd watching some old melodrama. These are not likeable, not sympathetic figures – these adversaries of Jesus.
When Jesus asks them about the hated Roman money, His adversaries don’t have to go very far to find some. It’s already in their pockets. They know good and well that Tiberius Caesar’s face is on the money along with inscriptions that said “Son of God” and “High Priest.” Any pious Jew would have recognized this as a violation of the first commandment – to have no other gods including the type of gods that had their own graven images.
[Lutherans treat the prohibition against other gods and against graven images in Exodus 20 as one commandment. Many Protestants treat them as two separate commandments. Later in the same listing of Ten Commandments, the situation is reversed regarding the commandments against coveting – the first group divides them into two, the later treats them as one.]
When Jesus says to His adversaries to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s, He is not falling into their stupid trap. If anything Jesus is cleverly asking them: “What part don’t you get?” Are His adversaries so dense that they don’t recognize Who their Maker and Owner is? Yes, the Romans may force the people under their rule to pay taxes using Roman coinage. But Caesar is neither Son of God nor High Priest. His claims are temporary. God’s claims are eternal.
At the heart of the Gospel lesson, the Lord Jesus is raising a fundamental question for both His adversaries then and for us readers and hearers today: “Who has the biggest claim on your life?”
We preachers can be a fairly obnoxious bunch in the best of situations. [Peter Steinke once shared with a group of pastors Martin Luther’s irreverent comment that pastors were like manure. If spread out they do some good, but if gathered together in a big group, they just create a stink.]
Perhaps when you hear sermons that challenge you to be faithful in worship, in study, in prayer, in giving, and in spiritual relationships – perhaps you hear such words as excessively judgmental or legalistic. Perhaps you even detect a bit of presumed moral superiority on the part of the preacher. Or maybe you even suspect that the preacher’s ego can only be stoked by having full pews and overflowing offering plates.
Maybe you don’t like it when preachers start meddling by talking about where you spend your money, your time, and your talent. Maybe you really don’t like it when preachers start bringing up what you do with your body in the privacy of your own home. Maybe you don’t like it when preachers start to question your life – especially when you can name a thousand instances in which preachers end up on the wrong side of the law or with the wrong person.
Even though I am a preacher, I have my own problem with preachers that confuse their loyalty to God with their loyalty to the Democrat or Republican parties. If you apply the Lord Jesus’ implied question today to both parties, you will notice that God does not have the biggest claim on either the policies or the practices of either party. The goal of politicians is to gain and wield power. God’s goal is to own every heart, every mind, every body, and every soul completely. Nothing less will do!
If a Christian preacher is faithful to his or her calling, then she or he is bound to point out instance after instance after instance in which Christians are as hypocritical as Jesus’ adversaries in today’s Gospel. The Church of Jesus Christ does not exist merely to teach right from wrong. Any school teacher, scoutmaster, or coach who knows right from wrong can teach others to know the difference. The Church of Jesus Christ exists to tell each person that she or he has sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and that only Jesus Christ can save each person from him or herself! The Church of Jesus Christ exists to give voice to God’s claim on each heart, mind, body, and soul every minute of every day! Preachers come and go just like every human being. God’s Word endures forever!
In the first lesson today, the prophet Isaiah makes clear that even a Persian ruler like Cyrus can be God’s instrument for governance in the world. Cyrus, Caesar, ruler, or president may never know the Lord God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Wise or foolish human leaders wield power over others only for a brief moment from the view of eternity and then they go to their graves. The same is true for each of us no matter how great or modest our influence over others may be. Whatever our lot in life, Jesus’ implied question remains: “Who has the biggest claim over your life?”
Because daily and hourly each of us sins and falls short of God’s glory succumbing to the temptations of the most obvious and transparent false gods, we need to be saved from ourselves. Like the Romans and their religious cronies in Jerusalem, we nail Jesus to His lonely cross again and again as we so foolishly try to throw Him out of our lives – as we foolishly try to silence God’s claims upon our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. It is we who are exposed as hypocrites when we try to play games with God while claiming to be in charge of our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. But our calendars, our checkbooks, and our words and deeds expose us for the hypocrites we are. And surely Jesus wonders about each of us again and again: “What part don’t you get?”
The miracle of the Good News is that by the death and resurrection of God’s Son Jesus, God in human flesh was completely faithful as we can never be in this life. He died to save us from the wrath that is coming. He died to free us from bondage to sin, death, and the devil. He died to make us God’s own – to claim us in the washing of Holy Baptism and to remake us as beloved daughters and sons of the Most High God.
When we gather each week for the Word and sacraments, God comes to build up the new child of God in each of us by filling us with the power of His endless life. By exposing our hypocrisy, His Word surgically separates us from our delusions that we can be God’s beloved children while still trying to hold on to notions that we own our own hearts, minds, bodies, and souls. By giving us the medicine of immortality, the body and blood of Jesus in bread and wine, our God intends to inoculate us against the pervasive and daily threats of sin, death, and devil. Again and again, our God summons us back to the waters of Holy Baptism, where He says to us: “It is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.”
As St. Paul says to the Thessalonians, we Christians are called to be imitators of the Lord Jesus. Paul reminds them and us that the Lord Jesus holds nothing back from His God and Father, and that is the shape of the Christian life. We are called to give our lives away in humble service, recognizing that God lays total claim to our hearts, minds, bodies, and souls!
The Lord Jesus reminded the Pharisees and Herodians what any Jew should have known. Caesar’s claims were temporary. God’s claims were eternal. Today He is speaking to you and me, child of God, He is still asking: “What part don’t you get?” God owns you – heart, mind, body, and soul. Don’t keep giving yourself away so cheaply. Your Father in heaven only wants what’s best for you!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.