+ 20th Sunday after Pentecost – October 22nd,
2017 +
Series A: Isaiah
45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1; Matthew 22:15-22
Redeemer
Lutheran, HB
In
the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Just
about everyone knows that if you want to have a polite conversation at dinner,
over coffee, or with your neighbors, you don’t bring up politics. Apparently,
the Pharisees they didn’t get that memo. They had no interest in polite
conversation.
They
saw the Palm Sunday crowds; heard “Hosannas” echoing in the streets of
Jerusalem. Great crowds followed this teacher all over Judea to see his miracles
and hear his teaching.
How
ironic that all this happens during the Passover; Israel celebrates God’s
redemption while the Pharisees reject God’s Redeemer.
The
Pharisees had heard enough of Jesus’ teaching and parables. They had seen eating
and drinking with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes too many times.
Jesus had to go.
But
how do you turn the crowds against Jesus? Pull out one of the oldest tricks in
the political play-book. Ask Jesus a “gotcha!” question. Have him spell potato,
show you Russia from his front porch, or explain what a Berliner really is.
Then the
Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words.
That’s
how the game works. It’s a trap! A lose/lose situation. Get Jesus to say
something that could be used against him. Draw him into a debate on religion, politics,
and taxes. And once he does, his approval rating and followers will vanish.
And
just to make things fun, the Pharisees invited their political and religious
enemies, the Herodians to their staged press conference at the temple. Now, the
Herodians and the Pharisees weren’t exactly BFFs. The Pharisees despised the
Herodians for their allegiance to Herod, a puppet of Rome and for their
alliance with the Sadducees, who oversaw the temple and priesthood. And the
Sadducees and Pharisees got along about as well as USC and UCLA fans at a rivalry
game. But they agreed on this: Jesus had to go. So, the enemy of my enemy is my
friend.
“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.
We’re not fooled. And neither is Jesus. Earlier in the
Gospels, the Pharisees accused Jesus of having a demon and being allied with
Satan. Solomon warns us about this in Proverbs 29:5: “A man who flatters his
neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” This is nothing more than another one of the
Pharisees debate tactics: flood your opponent with flattery to disarm them,
then move to attack.
Tell
us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or
not?”
It’s the perfect lose/lose, gotcha question. If
Jesus answers, “No, it isn’t lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”, the political
Herodians can go after Jesus for being a traitor and a religious nutcase. And
if Jesus answers, “Yes, it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar”, then Jesus is a blasphemer
for supporting the Roman and a traitor to his people.
But
Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to
the test, you hypocrites?
Jesus knows their wicked hearts. The Pharisees’
spiritual bankruptcy is exposed. They claimed to have kept and followed God’s
Law, but broke it failing to love God and neighbor
(22:37–40). They were more concerned about the lawfulness of the temple tax
than they were with God’s justice, mercy, and faithfulness. They were full of
malice, not mercy.
Jesus calls them out on it. “You hypocrites”.
Jesus’ words expose the Pharisees’ hypocrisy and
ours. Yes, we too are hypocrites. We thank God we’re not like other sinners,
and yet we’re spiritually bankrupt. We claim to follow God’s Law, yet fail to
love God and our neighbor perfectly. We spend far more time concerned with
political debates and our earthly desires than God’s justice, mercy, and
faithfulness. We are full of malice, not mercy.
Although, maybe the Pharisees were on to
something. After all, it’s easier to spend our days arguing about taxes or politics,
or anything other than repentance and forgiveness in Jesus’ name, isn’t it?
So, Jesus turns the tables on the us and the Pharisees.
Show
me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to
them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.”
There’s the answer. The coin bears the image and
likeness of Caesar. It belongs to him. “Therefore,”
Jesus says, “render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar's.”
Not exactly the answer the Pharisees were
expecting. After all, Caesar was ungodly. Caesar expected people to worship him
as divine. And yet, St. Paul writes that the governing authorities are God’s ministers, servants of God’s left-hand authority in the
earthly realm. They’re given to punish wickedness and reward good. And so, Paul
writes in Romans 13, we pay taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom
revenue is due; give honor to whom honor is due, and respect to whom respect is
due.
We
see a picture of this in today’s Old Testament reading from the prophet Isaiah.
God used a pagan Persian, Cyrus, to return His people to the land so that in
fulness of time His anointed Son could be born in Bethlehem of Judea to save
the world. You see, God will use any Caesar we throw at him to accomplish
his saving you in Jesus’ death and resurrection, even if it means being
crucified under Pontius Pilate for you.
That
is where this story leads us, to the cross. It’s not really about the legality
of the temple tax or the things of Caesar, though we are to render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s. And yet, Caesar, Pilate, or any other ruler would
have no authority if it weren’t granted to him from above. And that leads us
back to the main issue at hand:
Render to God the things that
are God’s. We know what Caesar
wants. But what about the things of God? What does this mean? What does God
want?
He doesn’t want your denarius. He wants you. You bear his
image and likeness, or at least we did when Adam and Eve were first formed of
dirt and rib. In the image of God, he created them…male and female he created them.
So too, he creates you and loves you. He wants you, your undivided heart, soul,
mind, and strength. He wants us to fear, love, and trust in Him above all
things. He wants your faith in him as King, Redeemer, and Savior. But the Pharisees
were so preoccupied with politics and power that they neglected the important
things: God’s mercy and forgiveness. Same is true for us.
What does God want from us? To love the Lord our God with all
our heart and soul and mind and strength; and to love our neighbor as
ourselves. And while we may be able to render to Caesar the things that belong
to Caesar, we are unable to render to God the things of God.
But there is one who has perfectly rendered to God the things
of God, and he did it for you with his perfect life lived for you and laid down
for you.
The denarius that the Pharisees and Herodians showed Jesus
bore the image of Caesar on it. But, Jesus
is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature,
and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:2).
In his birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus rendered
to God what was God’s: our humanity, to restore the image of God to our flesh.
He rendered to God the things that are God’s. And He did it “not with gold or
silver,” not with the coin of Caesar, but with His holy and precious blood, and
with His innocent suffering and death at the hands of the Pharisees and the
Herodians and the Roman government, all of whom served as God’s instrument to
reclaim a fallen cosmos from sin and death.
On the cross, Jesus throws the treasury of God’s mercy wide
open for you. For while we were still hypocrites, Pharisees, and sinners,
Christ died for us. Although we are unable to render anything to God, Jesus
renders himself to the Father to reconcile us to him by his cross.
In Holy Baptism, God places his image and inscription on you.
You belong to him. You are a new creation. In this world,
you render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. But you don’t belong to Caesar.
You belong to Christ, joined to him in his death and resurrection.
Here in the temple of bread and wine, Jesus renders to his
own body and blood in the bread and wine given and shed for you for your
forgiveness.
Through his Word and Absolution, Jesus gives his saving death
to you, that you may be his own and live under him in his kingdom, and serve
him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. You are rendered
to God in Christ crucified. This is most certainly true.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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