18.Sunday after Pentecost, 10/16/2011

Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22, by Erma Wolf

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" 21 They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away. (NRSV)

What Image is in Your Pocket?

A few years ago there was a popular commercial for a credit card company, touting all the advantages of carrying that particular card and how it would serve you well even under the direst of circumstances. The tag line always was, "What card is in YOUR pocket?"

This Gospel text reminded me of that commercial's tagline, as Jesus responds to the trick question of his adversaries with a question of his own. Should one pay the tax to the (oppressive, foreign, occupying army supported, power-greedy, monopolistic and dictatorial) government of Caesar, or not; and Jesus asks for a coin and questions whose image that coin contains. In other words, what card (i.e. Image) is in their pocket? Well, the image of that same Caesar, as it so happens. If the money carries the image of Caesar, than the money falls under Caesar's domain. So give him what is his; but then give God what belongs to God.

And just what is that? What belongs to God?

You do. I do. Jesus' words send us back to the first chapter of Genesis, where as the final act of creation God decides to make a human in God's own image, after his likeness. As the verses say, "And so God created man in His own image; in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." And regardless of sin's entrance into this world that God made, regardless of the fall and the sad state of human relationship both with God our creator and with one another, we humans still bear that image, enough to be claimed by God as His own.

The problem is, we forget that. We forget whose image is traced on our make-up, on our relationship with other human beings, both male and female, on our relationship with this whole creation, an one our hopes and dreams and disappointments and innate worth. We are claimed by the one Maker whose image can still be discerned on our faces, and in our lives. Even if we cannot see it, cannot believe it, cannot find it, God knows it and that is what carries ultimate worth and value.

We get it mixed up and backwards. We place the greater value, the greater worth, on those shiny coins (and also, now, bills) that we carry in our pockets. They are what matters in this world of ours. Do we have to pay them to anyone else? No one likes taxes! Do we have to give them away to others: the needy, the desperate cause, the offering plate that gets passed around the pews from one Sunday to another? Even without the images, the heads of the current ruler who claims possession not only of our coins but of our present state, our future hopes and dreams, and our very being, we are caught in a tug-of-war over what or who has the authority, the right, to claim ownership of us and that which seems to be of ultimate worth and value in our lives.

But Jesus sees otherwise. It is not the coins, the money, the financial items that are of ultimate worth. Let Caesar have that! What God claims is what is really valuable in this world. And what God claims cannot be bought and sold in the marketplace, cannot be "trafficked" to the highest bidder.

What God claims is that which bears his image, which he created and knows as his own. Even the worst that sin can do, even the worst which we can do to ourselves and to one another, cannot totally erase that image which we bear, the image of the God who knows us and loves us. God will not allow his image to be traded off for some trinket of lesser value. Give your money to Caesar, and be done with it! But know that you, your life and your being, belong not to Caesar, not to any of the competing dictators who wish to use and then discard us. Instead, we belong to God. Our lives are his, and God will have what is his own at the end of the day.

Even if it costs God His own life in the process of claiming us.

This was no game of semantics for Jesus. The stakes were high, and the cost would be great. A life for a life, you see. What was made in God's image must be returned to him, no matter what, and not allowed to remain lost or unclaimed. And if it would take going to the cross, and exchanging the righteous image of God's only Son for the tarnished, battered, defiled image of a sin-tainted human creature, then so be it. The price would be paid.

So, whose image is in your pocket? Whose image do you bear on your face, on your life and on your spirit? The cross of Jesus has been traced on you, and marks you for the God who gave himself for you. When will you learn what that means for your life here, and for the future that has been assured for you, a future with a promise and a hope?

Pastor, Interim pastor Erma Wolf
Hawarden, Iowa, U.S.A.
E-Mail: easwolf@me.com

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