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Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost – Oct. 18, 2020
Matthew 22:15-22
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have a coin in your pocket or purse today – it doesn’t matter if it is a penny or a dime or a quarter – if it is American currency there are four words inscribed on those coins: “In God we trust.” These four words are on all our paper currency as well. They serve as a powerful reminder to not put your ultimate trust in money. It is a reminder to not put your ultimate trust in the persons or the names or the institutions depicted on those coins or bills. Our ultimate trust should be in God alone. In God we trust!
The coins in Jesus’ time had inscriptions too. There were Jewish shekels, which had very basic inscriptions of the coin’s value, along with perhaps the year and maybe a picture of a palm tree or the temple on it. And then there were Roman coins. Roman coins were inscribed with an image of the emperor, along with the words: Caesar Augustus Tiberius, son of the Divine Augustus. This inscription said that Caesar Augustus was a god! For any God-fearing Jew, handling this money and using it to pay the tribute tax honoring Caesar as a god was problematic to say the least. It smacked of idolatry!
Our gospel reading for this morning takes place on Tuesday of Holy Week. Things were getting very tense in Jerusalem. The Pharisees wanted an excuse, any excuse, to get rid of Jesus. So they came up with a plot to entrap him. They sent a delegation to Jesus, making sure to bring along some Herodians as well. You see, they were going to ask Jesus a question they knew would get him in trouble one way or the other. They didn’t really care about his answer, they just wanted to damage him. (This is a common tactic in politics even today!)
First they buttered him up with all kinds of fake, smarmy flattery, and then they asked their carefully calculated question: “Is it lawful (under Jewish law, that is) to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” If Jesus said yes and endorsed paying taxes to Rome he’d get into hot water with the Jewish people, who hated the idea of paying taxes to Rome. Not only that, but the Pharisees would be able to accuse him of supporting idolatry. If, however, Jesus said, “No, don’t pay the taxes,” he’d be branded a rebel and the Romans would do the Pharisees’ dirty work for them. The Herodians, who supported the Romans, were standing by, waiting for his answer, ready to narc on him. The Pharisees thought they’d laid the perfect trap!
But Jesus saw right through it. He knew exactly what shenanigans they were up to. He was aware of their malice. Jesus called them on it: “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?”
And then Jesus asked for a coin – specifically the coin used for the tribute tax. When they gave him one, Jesus pointed to the inscription and said, “Whose head is on it, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” And Jesus replied, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are God’s.”
This is what young people today call a “mic drop.” It is a response so clever and profound that there is nothing more to say! Even the Pharisees were amazed! They left him and went away.
This response is clever in that Jesus threaded the needle, avoiding giving ammo to either the Herodians or the Pharisees. But there’s more to it than that. Jesus is teaching something here that is so very important, so timely for us here today.
Jesus doesn’t say don’t pay the tax. Earthly government, even under a less than desirable ruler, even when it is messy, is necessary. It reminds me of a funny scene from the old Monty Python movie, “The Life of Brian.” There’s a group of Jews sitting around complaining about the Romans. “What have the Romans ever done for us?” one of them asks. And another starts listing things off, “Well, there’s the sanitation, and the medicine, and the public order, and irrigation, and roads.” Jesus doesn’t say don’t pay the tax. Good things come from paying that tax! St. Paul would later write that government is given by God for our good, and so we contribute to the functioning of the government!
But in the very same breath Jesus lays down an enormous caveat: “But give to God the things that are God’s.” Contribute to the government, participate in it, but not in a way that leads to idolatry. Don’t give your heart to the government. Don’t give your soul to the government. Don’t put your ultimate hope in the government. Don’t put your ultimate trust in the government. “Put not your trust in princes,” the psalmist wrote. Or as Jesus put it: “Give to God the things that are God’s”
The problems and conflicts in American society today are many and they are complicated, but one of the big problems is precisely this: people are pinning way too much of their hopes on the government. They are identifying themselves way too much with their political parties and their preferred candidates, so much so that people with different viewpoints or political philosophies are not just seen as different or wrong but as enemies and evil. For many, politics has become their small-g god, and so people outside of their ideological tribe are seen not just as opponents but as heretics to be burned at the stake. This is happening at both ends of the political spectrum.
I don’t deny that there are serious issues out there that demand a level of urgency. I understand that we are just a couple of weeks away from an intense, high stakes election. But that is no excuse for the widespread idolatry we are seeing. Too many of us are giving to Caesar what belongs to God alone: our hearts and our hopes, our identity and our ultimate trust.
By all means, pay your taxes. Participate in politics. Vote! Even though it gets messy at times, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. But at the same time, give to God that things that are God’s. God has made you in his image. God has inscribed you with the cross of Christ, forgiving you and making you his own forever. So give to God what belongs to God. Give him yourself. Give him your heart. Give him your soul. Let your identity be found first and foremost in Christ Jesus. Pin your ultimate hope not on election results but on his promises.
Pay your taxes, but let that change jingling in your pocket remind you of what Jesus is teaching us all today: “In God we trust.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church