Sermons Page
Minister Rev. Jeongsook Kim
Sermon from
Isaiah
45:1-7, Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13); 1Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew
22:15-22
The Pharisees despised the Herodians with good
reason. Like their namesake,
Herod, the Herodians cooperated with the Roman
occupiers and oppressors. The
Pharisees, though not advocates of violent revolution, were loyal to Judaism
and its God. The Herodians put political expedience
first; the Pharisees put
the Jewish faith first.
So, it must have come as a surprise to Jesus to see both Pharisees and
Herodians coming to him as a group and saying,
"Teacher, we know that you
are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no one, for you
do not regard the position of human beings."
You know you are in trouble when your enemies begin to flatter you, so Jesus
must have been instantly on his guard. Then after the kind words came the
punch line: "Now, tell us, Jesus," they asked, "is it lawful to
pay taxes to
Caesar, or not?"
By "lawful," of course they meant "according to Torah which
means a book of
Jewish law." If Jesus said that a good Jew should support the Roman state,
then he would have allied himself with a power that was occupying
killing Jews. That would have alienated the Pharisees and given implicit
approval to a state that regarded its ruler as a god. It would have been
idolatry. But to say that Jews should not pay taxes to
treason. The question was a perfect trap for Jesus. "Is it lawful to
pay
taxes to Caesar?" It was a good question then, and it is as difficult to
answer today as it was two thousand years ago.
There is much to say in favour of Jewish or Christian support of the state.
The state maintains order; it keeps the roads paved; and it operates
schools. Even the Romans, for all their brutality, created a system of roads
that ran the length of
power than it did in the 11th century when
of small kingdoms. Under Roman rule,
that fell drastically after the Roman state disintegrated and was not
recovered until the late 19th century.
Yet, the Roman state was brutal. Persons found guilty of treason were hung
or nailed to a cross and left to bleed to death and asphyxiate; it was the
cruelest form of capital punishment ever devised. Men
and women flocked to
the circuses or amphitheatres to watch convicted criminals fight wild
beasts.
"Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?"
The question seems easier to answer today. Compared to
Britain
the way their tax money is being spent. Liberals say that too much is spent
on national defence and conservatives say that too much is spent on costly
and perhaps wasteful welfare programs.
"Is it lawful to pay taxes to
Caesar?" One of the interesting
things about the story of Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees and the
Herodians is that he never answers their question.
"Show me the money for the tax," Jesus demanded. And they produced a
Roman
coin. As Jesus held it up, it glinted in the sunlight, and Jesus asked,
"Whose likeness and inscription is this?" The coin would have borne
the
image of Caesar, much as our coins display the profile of Queen or Charles
Darwin or Elizabeth Fry. Finally, Jesus said, "Render therefore to Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Well, that settles the question, doesn't it? There are things that belong
to Caesar, like the money with which we pay our taxes, and there are things
that belong to God. Such as? And there's the problem.
Jesus threw the question back at the Pharisees and Herodians.
His statement
just raises some questions. How and where do you draw the line between the
things that belong to Caesar and the things that belong to God? What are the
things of Caesar and what are the things of God?
The modern Western mind likes to put things in compartments. The icon of
Western civilization might be the filing cabinet or the encyclopedia.
If you
look in the filing cabinet under A, you might see "Annual church council
Meeting"; under C, you might find "Copy Machine"; under T,
"Taxes", of
course. Should this sermon be filed under T for taxes, C for Caesar,
or G
for God?
The filing cabinet frame of mind has led most Biblical scholars to
misunderstand completely Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees and the
Herodians. Our habit of compartmentalization leads us
to believe that
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things
that
are God's" means that some things belong to Caesar and others belong to
God.
But think about what we say when the offering is brought forward on Sunday
morning: "All things come of you, O Lord, and of your own have we given
thee."
We also seem to have forgotten that Jesus was a Jew who every Sabbath of his
adult life had recited the Shema: "Hear, O
Israel, the Lord our God is one
Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your might."
A whole God demands the service of whole human beings. The God of Jesus has
a claim on all of life. So if God demands all of life, what is left to
render unto Caesar?
The question Jesus threw back at the Pharisees and Herodians echoes
Genesis. Holding up the coin, he asked, "Whose likeness or image is
this?"
The image of Caesar was imprinted only upon coins; but the image of God is
upon every humanlife.
"The things that are Caesar's." What are
they? Caesar seems to have a claim
on much of our lives, but in fact, nothing belongs to him. Everything
belongs to God; the things that Caesar claims are merely on loan.
"The things that are God's." The way most of
us behave suggests that we
believe that God has a claim on about one hour per week and a small
percentage of our income. But God's mark is upon every particle of our
being.
When clergy preach stewardship sermons on this text, they usually ask people
to consider how much they should pledge to the church. But the real question
is not how much we should give to God or the church or how much belongs to
Caesar, but how much belongs to God? And if we ask that question, then the
real issue of stewardship is not "How much should we pledge?" but
"How much
should we keep for ourselves?"
All that we are and all that we have belongs to God. But we belong to God
not as slaves but as children. Rendering to God what God has a claim on is
not burdensome; it is liberation. We cannot divide our lives between God and
Caesar. Realizing that life is whole and not fragmented is an insight that
brings us freedom. It teaches us that our first and foremost priority is the
service of God.
If you, like many people, feel many claims upon your time and finances and
energy, then it is freeing to realize that in reality there is only one
claim upon our lives: to serve God in joyful freedom.