Rev. Carl Saxton
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24A
1 Thess. 1.1-10; Matthew 22.15-22
You may remember that just three weeks ago we talked about the beginning of this series of encounters that Jesus had with the important men in Temple and Jerusalem society. A little more than 30 verses ago in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus entered the Temple and was teaching when a group of priests and elders approached Him and asked by what authority he taught; and from whom did he receive that authority – remember? If you do you’ll also remember that I said the way the Gospel reading ended that day we were led to believe that Jesus refused to give them an answer, but that Jesus would spend the next two and half chapters proving His authority over and over again when confronted with similar questions designed to trap Him. This is the same day – the saga continues. Jesus has told them 3 separate parables; each of which highlights the refusal of these leaders to live up to God’s expectations.
Having grown sick of Jesus turning the tables on them, the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they send their disciples and some Herodians to ask a question specially designed to entrap Him. First, though, they try to butter Him up, they say:
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.
Then they ask the question: Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?
Now, Matthew told us back in chapter 12 that the Pharisees had already decided to destroy Jesus, to manipulate events that would lead to His death. In our reading three weeks ago the “powers that be” had asked Jesus by what authority he taught in an effort to trap Him into saying something blasphemous. Blasphemy would have led to stoning or some other terrible death, but the plot had failed. Having failed at luring Him into blasphemy, this group poses a question designed to lure Jesus into committing treason - and they had stacked the deck.
You see, by sending both Pharisees and Herodians they had hoped to force Jesus to slip up. The Pharisees saw paying taxes to Caesar as sinful, while the Herodians, followers of Herod the Great, did not. In fact, the Herodians probably benefited from these taxes because of Herod’s relationship with Rome. Had Jesus simply responded, Of course you should pay your taxes, the Pharisees would have decried Him as a Roman collaborator; while if He had declared it unlawful [meaning against the Torah, the law of God] to pay the census tax, the Herodians would have condemned Him as a rebellious Zealot.
But Jesus, once again, sees the trap! This time he even calls them on it, he says, Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Then to prove their hypocrisy he says, Show me the coin used for the tax. This is Jesus’ own little trap.
Remember the story of Jesus throwing the money changers out of the Temple? Well, the reason they were needed in the Temple in the first place was the answer to Jesus’ second question to those trying to entrap Him. Whose head is this, and whose title? They knew the denarius, the coin used to pay the tax - worth one day’s wages, had the head of Caesar and Caesar’s title. There’s the small matter of Jewish law forbidding the making of any “graven image,” which the face of Caesar on the coin would be considered; but the title is far more blasphemous. Caesar’s title found on the denarius was: TIBERIUS CAESAR, AUGUST SON OF THE DIVINE AUGUSTUS, HIGH PRIEST. Declaring Augustus, and therefore Tiberius, divine made the title and the coin repugnant to the Jews. It was forbidden to carry this image and title into the Temple, and here were the very cream of society, those secretly plotting Jesus’ death, with one in their pocket. Don’t forget, we’re still in the Temple where we began at our Gospel reading three weeks ago!
That little zinger aside, the real central message of this reading is Jesus’ next statement:
Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s. Or, for those of you who love the King James Version, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
We often hear this particular scripture verse interpreted as the Bible’s teaching on the separation of Church and State; I think that on the surface you could absolutely defend that interpretation. I also think the real meaning is found much deeper.
The word that is translated in the New Revised Standard Version as “give to” and in the King James Version as “render unto” can also be translated as “give back” or “return.”1
This is the sense Jesus seems to be giving. Having asked whose image is found on the coin Jesus then points out that the coin is already Caesar’s and, therefore, it cannot be unlawful to give back to Caesar what already belongs to Caesar – Jesus 1; Pharisees and Herodians 0.
Matthew’s original readers, mostly new Christians who had grown up steeped in the Jewish traditions, would have caught onto the meaning instantly. They would have recognized that Jesus’ question about whose image – in Greek whose εἰκὼν (icon) – is found on the coin was pointing back to the creation story of Genesis.
That scripture tells us that:
God created humankind in his image (εἰκόνα),
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1.27 NRSV)
If that which bears Caesar’s image, or icon, should be given back to Caesar; how much more should that which bears the “image and likeness”2
of God be given back to God? Jesus affirmed the tax while making it all but irrelevant. He implies that, though we do owe the state, there are limits to what we owe. Yet, Jesus places no limits regarding what we owe to God.
This text is often used to talk about stewardship in terms of what you give to the church. And it is about stewardship, but this is no passage on the tithe. Because if giving 10 percent of our income is all we do, we would fall way more than 90 percent shy of the mark. Jesus says that everything you have and everything you are is God’s already.
While this would certainly apply to the money you make, the formula is not that you give 100 percent of your income to God, God knows you need money for the necessities of life. The message is that once you have given God some of the money you earn, don’t feel that you have bought off an obligation. God wants to share in some of your time and energy, so the 100 percent formula relates to your calendar as well as your wallet.
In our culture Christianity has become a sort of family heirloom for many people. There are large numbers of people who would, if asked, say that they are Christian though they have rarely darkened the door of a church. These folks probably couldn’t name the four Gospels or tell you much about what Jesus actually said, instead they parrot what they’ve heard from televangelists, or what has been bandied about by friends as they explain why modern men and women should have outgrown the need for God and faith in Jesus Christ. These people identify as Christian because their families have always been “Christians,” or because, as products of a predominantly Christian culture, they don’t know what else to say.
This is the kind of faith that Jesus points out in the religious leaders of His day. That’s why he says, “You hypocrites,” to those who are trying to trap Him into speaking treason, when they themselves are committing a religious offense by carrying the blasphemous coin into the Temple. He wants their faith to reach deep into their lives and into their hearts so that it affects everything that they do.
What God wants is nothing less than to come and live in your heart. The point is that you’ve been made in the image and likeness of God. God loves you. God keeps your picture in the divine wallet and on the heavenly refrigerator. Jesus didn’t care about the tax, his real concern was that we live into the image and likeness of the God who lovingly created us.
Make no mistake - being a follower of Christ asks something of us. Jesus asks for all that we are and all that we have. We begin to live into the image and likeness of God by conforming our lives to be more like Jesus’ life. Giving back to God through the church does matter, but merely giving money to the government, to this church or anywhere else is only part of the picture. We are made in the image of God - it’s only fitting that that which bears God’s image should be returned to God.
C.S. Lewis says it best:
Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons [and daughters]† of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has ... Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else. 3
To live more fully into that image and likeness of God that is in you, give back your heart to God – it’s God’s anyway. When the time comes for communion in just a little while, I encourage everyone to remember that the Eucharist is our communal sacrifice to God. We make an offering, not only of our financial gifts in the collection, but of our hearts, minds, and souls - of all that we are. At this altar, we can meet Jesus once more every time we worship. Because in answer to the question, “What are the things that are God’s which we are to give back to God?” the answer is, “You.”
1. ἀπόδοτε, verb 2nd person, plural, aorist, imperative, active of ἀποδίδωμι.
2. Genesis 1.26
† - My addition
3. C S. Lewis, Wayne Martindale, and Jerry Root, The Quotable Lewis (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, ©1989), 93.
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