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The Things That Are God's
based on Matthew 22:15-22
Rev. Karen A. Goltz
The Pharisees must be getting
desperate. This Jesus has come into the Temple in Jerusalem at
Passover, its busiest time of the year, and systematically humiliated
and discredited them. First he makes a big show of overturning the
tables of the merchants and moneychangers, accusing them of defiling
God's holy place, then he begins healing and teaching the people. When
the Pharisees challenge his authority to do all this, he responds in
such a way as to not only claim holy authority for himself, but to also
diminish the authority of the chief priests and Pharisees. This Jesus
then goes on to tell a series of parables that serves to demonstrate how
the chief priests and Pharisees are not working according to the will of
God, and even suggesting that God himself will abandon them in favor of
others. They have to do something drastic to stop this now!
So they gather up some Herodians and
confront him. Now, you've got to understand that Jewish religious
leaders and Herodians didn't usually buddy around together. Herodians
were those who represented the interests of Roman rule in their
colonies, which is what Israel was at this point. Pharisees barely
tolerated Herodians, yet they enlisted their help to confront Jesus.
They wanted to trap him with his own words. So they butter him up
with flattery, and then ask him a no-win question: Is it lawful to pay
taxes to the emperor or not?
It's the perfect trap; if he says
'yes,' then he can be accused of being in collusion with Rome,
justifying Roman occupation and oppression of the Jews. This would
destroy his credibility with the people and solve the Pharisees'
problems. But if he answers 'no,' especially in front of the Herodians,
then he can be accused of revolutionary sentiment against Rome, and
addressing those charges would distract him from all this preaching and
teaching he's been doing. It might even get him arrested and executed
as a criminal. The Pharisees can only hope.
So they ask him this question. And
Jesus, never one to be fooled by surface meanings, answers them. "Give
to the emperor the things that are the emperor's," he says, "And give to
God the things that are God's." He manages to appease Rome without
compromising his people or, more importantly, his authority.
There are two obvious ways this sermon
can go: I can focus on the money aspect, and tie in the call to be good
stewards with our material resources, or I can acknowledge that most
people get very uncomfortable when the pastor talks about money, and
instead spiritualize the whole thing and wax eloquent about how
everything in this world belongs to God.
But this doesn't have to be a
stewardship sermon. It can be; like it or not, Jesus is talking
about money, as he does very frequently, and therefore money is
fair game for preaching material. And it is true that God gives us so
much more than money and possessions, and that we have plenty to give to
God in the form of our time and our talents, our worship and our
devotion. And all of that is right and proper, especially right now as
we're in the midst of our stewardship campaign.
But God wants more from us than even
that. When Jesus says to give to God the things that are God's, he
means all the things that are God's. The question is, what
does belong to God?
The easy answer is
'everything,' but
how do you define 'everything?' I've already talked about money,
time, talents, worship and devotion. What else is there?
I've made some mistakes in my life,
some pretty big ones even. I've made bad choices, and I've had to live
with the consequences. And I remember praying to God, that he would
forgive me and help me, and it was as though I could hear him saying, "Why won't you give this burden to me?" And my response was,
"Because it was my mistake."
And it was my mistake. But God
wanted it anyway. Jesus came not to heal the well, but to heal the
sick. Jesus took not my righteousness upon himself on the cross, but my
sin and my brokenness. Those very things that weigh us down and
separate us from God and that are considered too ugly or unholy to bring
into church, that's exactly why the church is here!
The Pharisees got their wish. Jesus
was arrested and executed as a criminal. The trumped up charge was that
he was an enemy of Rome, a challenger to the emperor. The real reason
was posted on a sign fastened above his head as he hung on the cross:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. And even that didn't quite get
it. The sign should have read: This is Jesus, God made flesh, King
of all creation. And because that was the truth of the
matter, it wasn't just Jesus hanging on that cross. When he died he
took with him all the fear, all the anger, all the hatred, all the
guilt, and all the uncertainty in the world, and when he rose again he
left those things behind, dead and buried, as he regained life without
end.
If the emperor wants to dig a piece of
metal out of the ground, shape it into a disk, have it etched with his
likeness and title and call it valuable, let him do it. If we have to
trade in those metal disks, or their paper equivalents, so be it. We do
live in this world, and we have to operate in it and use whatever tools
are necessary. But determining something's value? What can be more
valuable than having the peace of knowing that God knows me, warts and
all, and has called me by name, marked me with the cross of Christ and
sealed me with the Holy Spirit? What can be more valuable than knowing
I don't have to live condemned by my own sinful actions, enslaved to
someone else's definition of success, or burdened by my own
shortcomings? What can be more valuable than knowing Christ has
already bought me entrance into a city that uses precious gold and
jewels as mere building material and paving stones?
Don't hold onto your burdens. Don't
let them weigh you down and consume you. Don't feel they're too
terrible to give to God; God has already experienced the worst we have
to give. He took death and gave us life; let him take your fear and
give you courage. Let him take your uncertainty and give you
steadfastness. Let him be your God over and above any graven image,
because he has created you in his image. Giving to God the things that
are God's is not just a life of discipleship and good stewardship;
giving to God the things that are God's is a promise of incomparable
worth, a promise of sheer grace and love. The emperor will have his
coin, and we will have our God. I think we've got the better deal.
Don't you? Amen.
