Matthew
22:15-22
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| The Pharisees Question Jesus by James Tisson |
Did you hear that final sentence in our
gospel this morning? “When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left
him and went away.” What was it about what Jesus said that amazed these disciples of the Pharisees who had been sent to Jesus to
try to trap him? Was it that he saw through their thinly veiled guise, through
their conniving and treachery? Was it the
way that Jesus turned their words and intent around, in fact ensnaring them in a trap of their own making? Or
was it simply the authority with
which Jesus spoke?
As we seek to answer these questions and
those others that we might add, it is
important to place this reading in its appropriate context. This story occurs during what we know of as Holy Week. The shouts of
“Hosanna to the Son of David” have all but faded away as Jesus enters the
divine space of these few days between his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and
his tragic crucifixion.
The temple leaders are trying in earnest
to trap Jesus and fulfill their mission to destroy
him. They have one goal in mind – to be rid of this man who is causing so much
trouble with his cross-cultural message. But they have also been taking great care in planning his downfall, because
they fear the crowds.
The 1st century Jews and everyone
living in the Roman territories are required to pay an Imperial tax, the one being referred to here. Of all the taxes that they must pay, and
there were many, this tax is without
a doubt the most despised because this is
the tax with which the people of Israel pay
their oppressors to do the very work of oppressing them.
Jesus avoids the trap that has been laid
for him by his questioners, by asking a question of his own, “whose head is
this, and whose title?” Someone pulls a coin from his tunic. They answer, “the
emperor’s. Perhaps it is at that moment
they realize their folly. And they are amazed. Because Jesus knew. He knew they would reveal their divided
loyalties by carrying this Roman coinage into this holy place, the temple. They
knew that this money was idolatrous,
bearing on it not only the face of the emperor but also an inscription that declares
him divine or the son of a god.
Jesus’ response must have cut them to
the quick. “Give, therefore, to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God
the things that are God’s”. Jesus doesn’t accuse
them. Rather, he calls them to a
higher fidelity than they had ever imagined; he calls them to live in a
relationship to God that bears evidence of their faith and understanding, that everything belongs to the one true God, the Holy One of Israel.
We, too are called to a higher fidelity
than we can ever truly understand. Our gospel text raises questions for those
who surrounded Jesus in the temple that day. It raises questions for us today. While
Jesus raises these questions, he doesn’t give us pat answers.
Instead, Jesus issues an invitation to
another kind of life, where we acknowledge that although we do have responsibility to render certain
elements of our lives to the world order within which we live, we also identify
our deepest self as belonging to God.
Jesus has made the amazing promise that no matter what we do or say, regardless
of where we go, no matter what may befall us, we belong to God. We are and will
always be, first and foremost, God’s own beloved children. Therefore, the simple
truth found within this text has profound
implications for how we live in the world, for the choices we make, and for how
we value and conduct the various parts and parcels of our lives.
One day, when I was about five or six
years old, I got mad. I don’t really remember what was wrong, but on that day I decided to run away.
I carefully and selectively packed my bag.
Into my little suitcase I placed my favorite pajamas and a frilly dress my
mother had just bought for me. I packed a sweater and my favorite stuffed
animal, Andy the Panda Bear. Then I set out on my own.
One of my neighbors must have seen me
and ratted me out because I didn’t get very far before one of my parents caught
up with me. I returned home for “The Inquisition.”
“What
were you doing?” I was asked. “Running away from home,” came my reply. “Oh, I
see,” my parent responded. We may or may not have discussed the reason for my
flight away from our home and family. I don’t really remember. But what
happened next is forever etched in my memory.
“So, what do you have there?” they asked, pointing to my suitcase. I
opened up and revealed the few treasures I had taken with me.
Well, my parents told me. They would be
really sad to see me go, they had really gotten used to having me around. But
if I must go, I must. However, the suitcase would have to stay. In fact, they
said, everything would have to remain
here, because as my parents so eloquently told me, “you arrived in your
birthday suit, and if you leave, you will have to leave in your birthday suit.”
I guess it was our own, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” kind of moment.
I got their point. I elected to stay.
You might say that my parents
strong-armed me that day. Perhaps they did. They certainly shocked me. And sometimes that
is what we need in order for us to see the truth. Perhaps, sly fox that he can
sometimes be, that is what Jesus did that day as well.
Remember the final sentence of our text,
“When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.”
Perhaps that conversation with Jesus was a sort of watershed moment for those
men. We don’t really know. We don’t know for sure where they went afterward, or
what they did.
But I wonder, might hearing those words
and considering the import of them for our lives today be a watershed moment
for us?
We reflect on those words of Jesus:
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things
that are God’s.” Exactly what is God’s?
We’re going to take just a few moments
now, and I am going to ask the ushers to give each of you a dollar bill. This
dollar bill is a gift. It is a gift from me to you. It may seem like a crazy
thing to do, for the pastor to give each of you a dollar bill, and out of her
own pocket, no less! But you know what? That dollar bill really was a gift to
me in the first place.
The ability to earn it is a gift. In
fact that dollar bill, multiplied by however many people worship here today
pales in significance as only the tiniest
portion of all that God has given me. Like the belongings that I placed
into my suitcase that day when I was five, none of these dollars is truly mine
except by the grace of God. As a precious gift to me, I am called to care for
them, to use them wisely and appropriately. My use of them should bear out the
fact that I belong to Christ.
And so, my brothers and sisters in
Christ, once you get your dollar bill, I invite you to take just a moment and
look at it. Examine it closely, and then talk for just a moment or two with your
neighbor. Tell your neighbor what you see in the dollar bill. What symbols are
drawn on it? What words written upon it? What do they mean to you? What does
this dollar bill represent for you? 
Next, I invite you to imagine what this
dollar bill might buy. What kind of work might it do for you, either alone or
combined with other money you have in your possession?
I invite you then to do with this dollar
bill what you see fit. There were no strings attached when you received it. If
you need it, keep it. You can choose to give it away to a worthy cause. You can
decide to put a portion of it or combine it with other dollar bills and place
them in the collection plate. You can take a pen and mark it with a cross, then
tape it to your bathroom mirror or carry it in your wallet to remind you that
you are a child of God and everything
you possess, from every moment of your day, to the very body you were given,
your loved ones, to your last dollar, and
finally your very salvation is a gift from God, given for you through God’s
everlasting love and mercy. It is, quite simply, amazing!
What would it mean then to see everything as coming from God and belonging to
God? It means that you fulfill certain civic responsibilities because God made
you a citizen with a homeland. It might mean that you see your role in creation
through new eyes, and determine to become a better steward of the environment. It
might be that the concept of the tithe takes on new meaning for you.
How hard is it to see everything as belonging to God?
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| Christ on the Cross by Carl Heinrich Bloch |
May the grace of God call us to the kind
of amazement that stays with us when we leave this place today, and colors all
the rest of our days.
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