Sermon: Trinity 23 – 2023

12 Nov 2023

Text: Matt 22:15-22 (Prov 8:11-22, Phil 3:17-21)

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Today’s Gospel includes one of the most quoted sayings of Jesus: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Entire careers and endless books have been devoted to trying to apply our Lord’s words to the morality of either more government or less government, of a justification of taxes, or a condemnation of taxes.  

But it’s important not to forget what this question was really all about.  It wasn’t about taxes or Caesar or government or citizenship.  The Pharisees are asking this question after Jesus has entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  The Pharisees have already been plotting with several other groups, such as the Herodians (the devotees of King Herod, who was Caesar’s sock-puppet), to have Jesus arrested and killed on false charges that He was seeking to overthrow the Roman government.  And when Jesus (in only three or four days) will be questioned by Caesar’s governor, acting as prosecutor of His case, our Lord will answer that His kingdom is “not of this world.” The governor will seek to release the innocent Jesus.  In response, the various factions of the Jews will pressure Pilate with the taunt, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend.”  In three or four days, Jesus will have been executed by these conspirators that are now asking Him fake questions about taxes.

So, no, this isn’t about a Christian approach to taxation or government.  It’s not really about how to live when we are ruled over by a Pagan Imperial government – although we Christians can live under any kind of worldly government, Christian or not, legitimate or not, ruled by a dictator, or voted into office by the people.  In the final analysis, all of that is not really that important.  Today, there are no more Caesars, only a few marble statues and columns standing in ruins.  The Roman Empire persecuted Christians, then became Christian, then fell apart.  Now it’s a chapter in a largely unread history textbook.  Caesars and emperors and dictators rise and fall.  States and countries and republics come and go.  Taxes go up and down.  But the Lord’s kingdom remains.  The Word of the Lord endures forever.

These conniving Pharisees and Herodians hated Caesar, but were happy to turn their servitude to him into their own personal advantage.  And along comes Jesus to threaten the good life that they had – even ruled over by a Pagan emperor whom they hated.  They knew how to play the game.  And this is what they are doing with Jesus: playing a game in order to kill Him. 

But Jesus knows their treachery.  He has not come to play games with these conniving people.  Rather He has come to die for them, to call them – and us – to repentance, so that we might be saved and “live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”  For “this is most certainly true.”

Of course, we are called to be citizens, and we may indeed be aware of, or even involved in, our worldly governance.  But it is important to understand where the real action is: not in the Empire, not with Caesar, but in the kingdom, with Christ.  For one day, the White House and Capitol will be a museum of ruins, while the Holy Christian Church will continue until the return of Jesus and the end of the world, and even then will exist forever in eternity.  Caesars and kings and Pharisees and Herodians and Pagans and all those who plot to kill Jesus and persecute Christians will join the Christians in confessing Jesus as Lord.  For it will be they who are “entangled” by His words. 

For the image on the coin in that day was Caesar Augustus.  And within a few years, he was dead, and a new Caesar took his place, and a new guy’s picture appeared on the coins.  And so it goes.  The American dollar is the new currency of the new Caesar, being accepted around the world.  But these things change, and they change quickly, even as the “likeness and inscription” on our own coins and paper bills change, and every four or eight years, a new Caesar gets elected by half of the people, and he is hated by the other half.  The Roman Circus continues with different titles and names.  And they rise and fall just the same.

But the real teaching of Jesus is about the kingdom: “[Render] to God the things that are God’s.”  So, dear friends, what is God’s?  Or better yet, what isn’t God’s?  God was looking the Pharisees and the Herodians in the face, speaking to them, unlike a little silver idol of Caesar that you can hold in your hand, through which you become powerful in this world.  God was not only teaching them, but coming to die for them.  And the Pharisees and the Herodians, the Sadducees and the chief priests, and the Romans – were all too consumed with this life, their coins, and their taxes,  that they missed what was truly important: that Jesus is God, that He has come to save them, and that He is doing so by His upcoming sacrificial death on the cross.  He will be betrayed by thirty of these coins with Caesar’s image, condemned by Caesar’s court after being found innocent of the charge of plotting against Caesar (when it was actually Caesar conspiring with the Jews to kill Him).  But it isn’t coins with the image of Caesar that are important, but the new and eternal currency.  For we have been bought not by a coin with the icon of Caesar, but with a cross upon which hung the icon of God the Father: that is, God the Son in the flesh, and Him crucified.  For Jesus has “redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.”

So if you owe money to Caesar, dear friends, then pay Caesar.  Figure it out.  Jesus is not a tax attorney.  He hasn’t come to set tax brackets and marginal rates.  He hasn’t even come to give you your best life now so that you can have lots of coins and toys.  He has come so that you will have something far more valuable: forgiveness, life, and salvation.  He has come so that when you die, you will rise again on the last day, and live forever – something that in the kingdoms and empires of the world, nobody can buy: not Caesars, not kings, not presidents, not Pharisees, not Herodians, not Roman governors, not centurions, and not citizens of the greatest empire on earth.  It’s not for sale.

So render to Caesar the gold and silver that you owe.  Caesar is probably asking for more than you owe.  Caesars and kings and presidents always lust for more than we actually owe them.  And we all know how to figure out if you do owe money to someone.  But the real question is “What do we owe to God?”  What is God’s?  What does God own?  What does God share with us?  And what do we owe back to Him?  As the Psalmist asks, and answers: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits to me?  I will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord.  I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.”

Dear friends, let us render to God our worship, our time, our talent, our treasure, our love, and our devotion, and let us stop worshiping the little idols with the likeness and inscription of Caesars and presidents on them.  Let us focus our lives on God’s kingdom, on Christ’s cross, on His Word, His body, His blood, His baptism: His kingdom. 

Lord of glory, You have bought us
With your lifeblood as the price.
Never grudging for the lost ones
That tremendous sacrifice.
Give us faith to trust you boldly,
Hope to stay our souls on You;
But, oh best of all Your graces,
With Your love our love renew.

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.