Göttinger Predigten
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Pentecost 20, 10/22/2017
Sermon on Matthew 22:15-22, by Walter W. Harms
New International Version (NIV)
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
What Do You Owe?
How many of you are just overjoyed to pay your taxes, whether locally or to the national government? If you are not, you have a lot in common with the people of the Gospel reading for this Sunday. Two factions are mentioned: the Pharisees and the Herodians.
The Pharisees thought that the land they were living in was God’s country and no one else should have jurisdiction. Sadly for them, the imperial government in Rome was far too powerful in many ways that they had lost control many years before. They resented the Romans fiercely. One of the factors that stuck in their craw was the form of the Roman money they were forced to use in most of their business transactions. It had the face of the present Roman emperor on it. Remember the commandment of God? You shall make no, and I mean no, images of anything. Long ago that had gotten the people of Israel into lots of trouble with God when they did that and so much worse. To make the whole matter worse, on the reverse side of the Roman coin was the inscription claiming him to be divine or the son of a god, or something close to that.
Imagine what we as Christians would make of our president proclaiming himself divine or something close to that! We would be outraged, insulted, and protest like you have never seen before. That was what the Pharisees hated, and on top of all that, they were forced to pay the annual tax with the coin that had Caesar’s image on it.
On the other side were the Herodians, a group named after the local king. Most of us are familiar with “Herods” of one kind or another from the Christmas story of the infants killed by one of these Herods.
Now the Roman government was known for providing a peaceful environment for commerce. No riots under the Romans, no rebellions—these were crushed with force like you might crush a roach. Good for business and that was good for a group of persons who loved trade, business and all kinds of commercial ventures. They had no worries about getting robbed or that pirates would seize their ships. And these Herodians, as far as we know, were more interested in that than this graven image nonsense of the Pharisees. Thus they try to trap Jesus in this unsolvable situation.
If Jesus sided with the Herodians, the Pharisees and lots of the people would consider him a traitor to God because of the belief that Palestine was to be God’s sovereign country. If he sided with the Pharisees, there was a good possibility that the Roman government would consider Jesus a threat to the peace and get rid of him. (Well, they did do that but sometime later.) So Jesus, the Pharisees thought was caught, as we say on the horns of a dilemma. They would discredit him one way or the other.
Jesus knew that not only their flattery was bogus but that their question was also totally hypocritical. As usual Jesus answer is a bit puzzling to us. “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
What are we to give back to Caesar, that is our government, and more importantly what are we to give back to God? That is really the questions we face today.
Perhaps what we owe to Caesar, which is the government, is quite easy. Reluctantly or not we are to pay the taxes we are assessed. We may or may not like the government that rules our city, state and country, but as we heard in the OT reading for today, even a person like Cyrus, a person who knew nothing about the true God was God’s instrument.
So today the governments we elected or others elected are God’s instruments. What God intends to do through these governing bodies, is up to God. And we shall leave all that in the hands of God. Taxes may be properly used or misused. Governments may be corrupt or fastidiously honest. It makes no difference; they are God’s instruments.
I think that is the easy part of Jesus’ answer to these people. The more difficult part is what we need to “give back” to God. What do you think is the answer to that? Perhaps you have never thought about that matter at all. Well, we shall spend some time trying to give ourselves an answer to that.
It comes almost as a shocking surprise in some ways to remember that all of us were created in the image of God, that’s according to the Genesis account of the creation of mankind. We have, each of us, God’s image “stamped” on us. We are to give God ourselves, our whole selves, not just some part of what we are and have and enjoy. Why? We are his creation!
I know that we all know the expression first spoken by that person known as Benjamin Franklin. It goes like this. “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” And as God’s Word rightly instructs us: “we brought nothing into this world and we take nothing with us.” Naked we came and naked we go, despite what they may drape on our bodies in death.
All we are and have belongs to God. He gave us life and decides when this mortal life ends and our spirit goes back to him. In between we are not only to recognize this but we are to act in every way, in every way, with all we have and are as belonging to him, always mindful that we are his from beginning to end.
That is a hard lesson to learn. How many hours should we spend on God anyway? Is the time that we occasionally spend on Sunday mornings enough? Some of us may even attend a Bible class. And then we do offer a prayer to him once in a while when we feel the need or are somehow more stressed or distressed than usual? If we have heard the sermon on a Sunday, there certainly isn’t a need to discuss what it meant to me with the family, is there? Well, we may attend an occasional special event at church or a church picnic of sorts. We may attend a church bazar and buy something a church member has contributed. And, of course, we are there for special festivals, if we aren’t tied up with family and preparations for the celebration of that day at home.
Most of us give to the church from our income. Isn’t it right with God that we use the rest as we see fit? Why, we do contribute to United Way, the Red Cross, the Cancer Society, maybe Wounded Warriors, and St. Jude Hospital! What more can be expected of us? We can’t give to every kind of organization that wants us to contribute. We gave for Hurricane Irma, are we expected to give for every disaster that hits?
If we still belong to the same denomination as our parents did, we will get all that they got out of it, won’t we? We are, after all, the decent folks in our community. We do pay our taxes, obey the laws (mostly except when we want to get to some place quickly), and we don’t bother anybody. Isn’t that what God wants from us?
I believe we have to know our relationship with God is not judged by how we feel, or perhaps think. You notice that in this place where we worship, whatever that means, there is a cross of one kind or another, perhaps many. That tells us that God sent his one and only Son, Jesus to do something very special for us, that we couldn’t do for ourselves. He took all of our mistaken thinking--our notions of our thinking we know when we have done enough for God. That is to say nothing about what we really think of our neighbors, the other drivers on the road with us, the lack of work ethic among our fellow workers, our fantasies that wonder off to places we wouldn’t talk about with anybody, and some of our words and actions that are totally, and I mean totally mean and without any consideration of the other person, whether that is spouse, parent, child or even enemy. Have we ever really wished someone would go to hell? Now really!!! How nice we are!
Do any of us here today believe that in any sense he or she reflects the image of God in whom we are formed? Is that the “image” of God we want to reflect?
Do any of us here today have even the slighted notion that we do not now and tomorrow and forever need the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, God’s Son, to rescue us from not only the pits of evil in which we fall, but also the arrogance and distortion of our position before God without the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ?
God in wonderful and totally unbelievable love gave us life. I pray that the Holy Spirit has given you the new life through Holy Baptism. I pray that we treasure our lives. Treasure them, and remember that we are “stamped” in his image. How could we be more like him than when we forgive, when we serve others starting with family, and through our thoughts, words and actions reflect Jesus to others? That’s what God the Father did for us through Jesus. Now we are to give back to God what is his!
Do you now have at least a slight notion of what that means? Don’t go away from here simply amazed as the Pharisees did. Go away thankful to God through Jesus Christ. Go away joyful, at peace, because knowing and believing and trusting that as we give back to Caesar what belongs to him, we will give back to God all that we are and have through Jesus!
May God give us the heart and the will to remember in all we do and are that we are his!
Amen.