Sermon 10.18.26 Guest Preacher - Douglas Riga

May I speak only to the greater glory of God. In the name of the Father, the name of the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit. Amen. <Please be seated>

In today’s Gospel we hear about the first of 3 attempts to try and trap Jesus through His words. Spoiler alert…they aren’t successful with any of them. This shouldn’t come as a great surprise, since Jesus routinely rebukes and turns the tables (literally and figuratively) on his detractors. But knowing this, it is still sometimes surprising to hear how Jesus approaches these questions. Today’s question in particular seems pretty straight-forward and yet, like much of what He shares with us, Jesus’s response asks us to look a little closer and dig a little deeper.

The Pharisees and Herodians ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” Our immediate response to this is “of course it’s lawful”. The emperor sets the laws that require its subjects to pay taxes. You pay taxes. I pay taxes. I may not like paying taxes, but I pay them because that is part of the social contract we make. Paying taxes is something that provides for the common good through social services, roads, police & fire, schools, etc. So my first response is, yeah, paying taxes is lawful. Undesirable to some extent, but lawful.

But the “trap” is in the unstated details. The Pharisees and the Herodians start with flattery and some subtle pressure to respond, by addressing Jesus as “Teacher” and then describing Him as “sincere” and stating that He teaches “the way of God in accordance with truth”. They’re really trying to butter Him up and force Him to give an answer to this question that on the surface seems simple, but in actuality it is meant to trap Jesus because in reality the question is a much deeper theological and political one.

First century Jews were against the idea of paying taxes to a foreign occupying force, particularly one that did not share their beliefs in the one true God. This would have been the position of the Pharisees. Avoid paying taxes to their pagan oppressors. The Herodians were supporters of King Herod’s family who were dependent on Rome for their position of power, so they had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and paying taxes even though they were burdensome. So this question being asked by two groups who had different perspectives and favored different responses was unanswerable.

Jesus seemed to be between a rock and a hard place. If He said he was for taxes, He might alienate his followers and turn others from His cause. If Jesus said He was against taxes, He could be charged with sedition and dishonoring Caesar. Again, there is no good answer. No matter which answer Jesus chooses, one of the factions will be upset, but the reality was that they both wanted to see Him fail.

These kinds of binary decisions where both options are bad are certainly not unique to this situation. In the musical Hamilton, during the first Act, George Washington is faced with an impossible dilemma. On the one hand, he is being asked to wage a war against a far superior British force with no supplies and minimal support. On the other hand, he knows that if he retreats at this critical time, then the Continental Army will look weak and this will embolden the British. A no-win set of choices where either option could result in dire consequences to the cause. Just like Jesus and the question he faced regarding taxes.

But instead of answering the question directly, Jesus first responds by calling out their own hypocrisy. Here are two groups who could probably only agree on one thing: their hatred of Jesus. The fact that they approached Jesus together with compliments and respect would have raised some eyebrows to say the least. Jesus saw right through this thinly veiled deception and called them on it.

Then He asked for a coin and they handed him a denarius. Specifically, one that had the image of Caesar upon it. Conservative Jews like the Pharisees were supposed to avoid images, so this would have been troublesome to say the least. In fact, in the early days of Pilate’s governorship, there was a mass protest against Roman soldiers bearing military standards that displayed the image of Caesar into Jerusalem. So the fact that the very people asking Jesus this loaded question had one of Caesar’s coins with his image on it, would have been deeply problematic. So Jesus asks them who’s head appears on the coin, drawing more attention to the hypocrisy of those asking the question.

And here we come to the heart of the passage: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. Seems pretty straight-forward on the surface. Give the taxes to Caesar. They’re his coins anyway. And give God the things that belong to God. No brainer there. But it should come as no surprise that Jesus calls us to go beyond the obvious and dig deeper.

Let’s start by looking at the statement as a whole. Give to Caesar what is his and give to God what is God’s. Jesus is not asking us to choose one over the other. He is asking us to do both. In fact, in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 13 (Rom 13:1), Paul reminds us that everyone is subject to the governing authorities. This is reiterated in Peter’s first letter (1 Pet 2:13-14) where Peter tells us to submit to human authority (emperor or governors). And in the Acts of the Apostles (Act 5:29), Peter and the other apostles affirm that “we must obey God” (although one could easily argue that this message can be found in various forms throughout the New Testament).

Now let’s look more closely at each part of the phrase. “Give to Caesar what is his”. The coin, the denarius, has Caesar’s image on it, so this belongs to Caesar. In a similar fashion we are called to follow certain laws and fulfill certain obligations, like voting, because these are things that belong to the government, and so we are called to “give” these things.

“Give to God what is God’s”. Jesus’ response can be traced all the way back to Genesis (Gen 1:26) where God said “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness”. We belong to God in the same way that the coin belonged to Caesar. We are called to give of ourselves to God. To love God. To serve God. To live in communion with God, with creation, and with our fellow human beings.

In our Baptismal Covenant, we are asked to give back to God in a number of ways. We are called to proclaim the Good News. Not just necessarily in the way that I’m speaking to you now. But in how we live and act in the world. By how we treat others. And yes, by the words we say. We are called to seek and serve Christ in all persons. Friend or foe. We are called to strive for justice and peace among all people. To treat people with respect and dignity.

Jesus, in his simple statement “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” reminds us that we are citizens of the world and citizens of God’s kingdom. We are called to participate in our government. To vote. To follow its laws. And yes, to pay taxes.

But we are also called to participate in God’s creation. To praise God. Not just on Sundays, but every day. To sing Christ’s praises. We are called to feed the hungry, help the poor, and to support and defend the marginalized. We are called to care for God’s creation and preserve it for future generations. We are called to love our neighbors regardless of who they are, who they love, who they support, what they look like, or even what they believe.

Quite simply, we are called to go out into the world and give back to God what belongs to God. This is what Jesus was telling us. This is what we are called to do. To love God and to share that love with the world. Amen.