Trinity
23 – Matthew 22:15-22 – November 18th and 19th,
2017
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
Oh no,
what do you want? There's that moment, that thought that runs across
your mind whenever someone comes up to you and starts sweet talking,
starts buttering you up, and you think, “Oh no – you are laying
this on thick – what do you want? Just get to the point and tell
me.” That's the sort of situation Jesus finds Himself in this
evening/ morning in our Gospel lesson. This is during holy week
while Jesus is teaching in the temple, and we hear this: “Then
the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And
they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying,
'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.”
Can you hear it getting a bit deep in here? If our farmers could
spread a bit of that on their fields this winter they'd double their
harvest next fall, that is rich!
So
here's the situation – you have the Pharisees, the muckity-mucks of
Jewish religious society, and Jesus has been annoying them – so
much so that they want him ruined or dead. And they do get Him dead
by the end of the week – keep that in mind. And so to make things
awkward for Jesus, they start talking to Him in front of a bunch of
Herodians – these are Herod's people. Political movers and
shakers. Herod's allies – you know, Herod, very worldly guy,
chopped off John the Baptist's head. So, you've got the hyper
religious and the hyper worldly – and Jesus, You don't care what
anyone thinks, You speak your mind. Okay, if your thanksgiving
dinner can get a bit awkward because you have that one crazy super
conservative relative and that other crazy liberal one, and they'll
be sitting together at dinner and you'll be there thinking, “Just
no one bring up politics or the president...” - well, that's the
setting here. And they're buttering Jesus up to boot – see where
this is going?
So
Jesus, since you don't care about folks opinions and are just such a
straight shooter, “Tell us, then, what you
think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Oh, this is a 1st
Century sticky-wicket. See, because the Romans conquered Jerusalem,
the Jewish people were forced to pay a tax, which was a sore and
bitter topic. Now, the Herodians didn't mind, because this paid
them, but it's a touchy subject. And Jesus is in the temple,
surrounded by run of the mill Jewish folks who hate the Romans and
hate the tax – and then there's the money changers tables that He
just overturned – do you get how this is meant to be a trap? Hey,
you're honest – pass the turkey and then tell us, what do you think
of the new Tax plan – while Uncle Foxnews and Aunt MSNBC just glare
waiting to jump down your throat? My
this, turkey is good this year...
Well,
they were setting Jesus up, they were mocking Him a bit when they
said it, but they were right. Jesus doesn't pay attention to
appearance and He doesn't care about people's opinion, so He lays out
a blunt answer. “But Jesus, aware of their
malice, said, 'Why put me to the test you hypocrites? Show me the
coin for the tax.”
Okay, you guys are being jerks, and I'll prove it. Ready for me to
prove that you're a hypocrite? Well, you know, the Son of Man has no
place to rest His head, and Judas is the group treasurer, so I don't
have any money on me – can you can show Me the coin that you use to
pay the tax? “And they brought Him a denarius.
And Jesus said to them, 'Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
Hey guys, there's a graven image on this – funny that, we are in
the temple and all, where we you know, have our own temple currency
with those money changers, and they would bilk and rob people blind
in money transactions because we weren't going to use money with a
fellow's graven image on it here in the temple – oh, but you
brought some of this idol-money into the temple. Well then, what
idol is that there on this money? Whose word is written on this here
idol-money? “They said, 'Caesar's.' Then He
said to them, 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to
God the things that are God's.”
Well, it's his money – I suppose if you want to have this money
and use it to buy all the stuff that you Pharisees like, I guess
you'll have to pay your taxes. However, what you should be focused
on isn't just Caesar's stuff – but here we are, in the Temple of
God. Perhaps you ought to be thinking a bit more about what you owe
God. Because you know, it is written that you shall not put the Lord
your God to the test, and you just walked on up here to put Me, the
Messiah, to the test.
So
what now? Well, the Pharisees are left with their jaws dropped and
they walk away and start to plot to kill Jesus – the Herodians are
satisfied because Jesus said to pay taxes, but what of us? Where do
we go from here? Let me ask you a question – so we are to render
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that
are God's. So, what is God's stuff – what is this thing that
belongs to God that is to be rendered unto him? How do we take this?
Well, it is November, a traditional time of stewardship drives, so
we could turn this into a render unto God more in the offering plate
sermon. Ut-oh – better – check the bulletin and see if Pastor's
going to make us sing “We give Thee but Thine Own”! Fear not, it
is true that all that you have, including your money, is a gift from
God, and that when you manage these gifts, when you designate some of
them to be used in the Church for the preaching of the Word here and
for our congregation's mission work, you are simply giving back to
God things that already belonged to God in the first place. But
relax, that's not really the fullness or point here. Be generous,
but relax, I'm not going to harp on you.
No,
if you want to know what belongs to God – how did Jesus determine
that the denarius belonged to Caesar? “Whose
likeness and inscription is this?”
When I look at this coin, what is it that I see, what words are
these that I see? Oh, they are Caesar's likeness and Caesar's word –
well, I guess this belongs to Caesar. Now, how about it – where is
the likeness of God and the Word of God – what's the thing that has
God's likeness and Word upon it that is to be rendered back unto God?
You. You guys. Think back to creation: “Then
God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
That's you. And you know what else? What has the Word of God
inscribed upon it? I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit + Do you see and understand what is
going on here? Jesus isn't trying to shake out your pockets for
loose change – He's pointing to a greater and more wondrous truth –
you belong to Him. You are His.
Now, the simple fact is that we do not like to act as
though we belong to God. We often forget that we bear His image and
likeness, and we sin. That's what sin is – it is forgetting who
you are in Christ Jesus, it is acting as though you do not belong to
Him, it is not fearing, not loving, and not trusting Him above all
things, but rather running after something else. And then there are
times when we are brought to our senses, when we sit and look and we
say, “What have I done? I can't believe I did that – why did I
do that again?” We need that – we need those wake up calls
otherwise we just keep carrying on in the dumbest of sin. We forget
who we are sometimes, and then we see what we have done, and we feel
shame and remorse and guilt and sorrow and we hang our heads – the
fancy theological word is that we feel “contrition”.
Here's
the thing. Even in that moment, when you see your sin before you –
remember, you belong to God. Now, if you will recall, the Pharisees
had buttered up Jesus to start – and they didn't really mean it,
but you know what – they were right. Listen again. “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.”
They were right, more than they knew. Jesus is true and teaches the
way of God – in fact, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the life.
And Jesus doesn't care about anyone's opinion – you know what? He
doesn't care about your opinion. He doesn't care about your opinion
of yourself – so if you are thinking you're all that and a bag of
chips, He'll remind you that you need a Savior. And when you see
your sin, and your opinion of yourself is this [an inch] high –
again, He doesn't care about that. He's not swayed by appearances –
He's not impressed if you are the best, most upstanding member of the
Church nor shocked if you are the lowest of the low, the guiltiest of
the guilty. He's not swayed by appearances. Nope. He sees the
proper likeness and inscription. You are a baptized child of God;
you belong to Him. Period. And He will render you back unto Himself
– He will call you back unto Himself with His Word and Spirit.
It's what He's doing right now. The whole reason Jesus came was to
make sure that you would be His forever – that the image and
likeness of God would be restored and that you would dwell in the
House of the Lord forever. He Himself came and to cleanse you of
your sin took it upon Himself and crucified it upon the Cross. He
Himself calls you to His table and feeds you His own Body and Blood
so that you would be forgiven and conformed again to His image, that
you would live remembering this – because you were created to be
the image and likeness of Jesus, and Jesus isn't going to let Satan
and sin mess that up. And so He goes to the Temple and speaks the
truth, and He lets them kill Him and He rises again so that He can
say, “Yep, you there bearing My likeness, bearing My Name, bearing
My Word – know now that it is a Word of life and salvation.” We
see that now in part in receiving forgiveness, in being filled with
His Spirit and with His love; we shall see it in full when He raises
us from the dead and we see Him face to face, and we live as He
lives. Indeed, as Paul says, Jesus “will
transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power
that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, to us, your Baptized children, that we
would bear your likeness forever. In the Name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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