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.