Pastor David Swenson
Matthew 22:15-22
In our gospel reading today two opposing groups team up to trap Jesus. The Herodians maintained their power by aligning themselves with the Roman government while the Pharisees were bitter enemies of the Roman occupation forces.
Two groups, usually at odds with each other come together with one purpose, to destroy Jesus credibility with the people. They are hoping to trap Jesus with their no-win question ‘is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?’.
A yes or a no response would alienate the people from Jesus growing popularity and make Jesus appear as someone who has compromised with the Roman officials.
So Jesus responds ‘give me a coin’.
“Tell me, whose image is on it?”
Both groups quickly respond, eagerly awaiting an answer.
“The emperor’s”.
Then comes one of Jesus most recognizable sayings in the Bible “render onto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. For this phrase I still like the King James translation of the Bible. More on that later.
This well known response stumps both groups. Neither the Pharisees nor the Herodians know how to respond. So the incident ends with “when they heard this, they were amazed and they left him and went away”.
Personally I wish they had stayed and asked Jesus to clarify exactly what he meant. Generations of scholars have debated what point was Jesus actually trying to get across.
We could explain it away by saying ‘give to the government what belongs to the government and give to God what belongs to God’
But then we have to sort through the details-what exactly does belong to the government and what exactly does belong to God?
Pastor Mike Rayner writes ‘it’s a difficult saying for various reasons and it seems to have more than one meaning-a bit like a parable. The saying seems to deal with the issue of the relationship between religious and political beliefs.
That is the direction many preachers are drawn to Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, especially in our radically politically polarized country.
Last week The pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas Texas, supporter of Texas Governor Ricky Perry for president, said Mitt Romney belonged to a cult as a Mormon.
That war of words continues but both candidates claim to make a clear separation of church and state. Much like rendering onto Caesar and rendering onto God as Jesus appears to be saying in the gospel lesson.
But as tempting as it is to go in that direction I believe that would be a huge misinterpretation of Jesus words.
Jesus was not answering a political party question. If he was dealing with a political issue Jesus would have answered either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I believe Jesus was telling both groups they were asking the wrong question.
The real question has to do with the word ‘image’. Whose image is this on the coin? The emperor’s image. So Jesus solves their dilemma. They should give the piece of metal to Caesar because it bears his image.
In the same manner they should give to God what bears the divine image, namely themselves.
‘but the image stamped on you from the beginning of time is the image of God’ Genesis 1:26.
The image of God is stamped on every human being so we can conclude that we ultimately belong to God.
What does it mean to have the image of God? Having that image imprinted on each one of us means a number of different things.
1) Russell Rathbun writes that rabbis starting around 100 AD taught that Human beings were created to show the greatness of the Blessed Holy One.
For if a human ruler like Caesar mints many coins from one mold then they all carry the same image, they all look the same.
But the rabbis believed the Blessed Holy One shaped all humans in the Divine image, yet the miracle of being made human is not one of us is created the same. Each of us bears a unique identity.
What does it mean to have this image of God? It means that each one of us created in that image is at the very same time totally unique meaning there will only be one of you in all creation.
The second part of that uniqueness is that God deeply loves each one of us completely and totally.
You are unique and you are deeply loved by God.
2) What does it mean to live out the image of God?
It means to render onto God the things that are God’s.
Earlier I said I still prefer the word “render”
“render”=apodidomi which is Greek meaning “to give back”
We have the likeness of God imprinted on our spirits but God has given us the choice of whether or not we will do the rendering or the giving back.
What does that mean?
It means our faith shapes our daily decision making particularly our economic decisions.
How much do we spend on ourselves? On our loved ones? How much do we render or give back?
That image of God in our spirits gives us the freedom to make economic decisions dealing with buying, selling, saving, giving and all of the rest.
Here is a question not asked very often in church during worship.
What one question about the relationship between faith and money should we be asking of ourselves?
That is a tough issue-why?
What is one of the first words after mama or dada does a child first learn? “MINE”
That attitude of mine-ness continues for most of our lives.
Our culture for the most part continues to become more and more materialistic. It is hard to keep making payments on more and more stuff.
Of all of the playthings we must have, not need but must have we have a great deal of difficulty trying to give back or render to God what is actually his because at the end of the day there isn’t much left.
But that attitude of mine-ness is at the opposite end of the spectrum from being made in the image of God.
Being in that image we are continually challenged by God to be renderers, giving back to God what God first gave to us.
3) Sometimes we seriously try to live out the image into which we were created and give back to God what is rightfully God’s.
But then we become weighed down by our schedules, our jobs, by trying to maintain what we have.
Many of you have told me you are thankful you still have a job but that your work schedule has become a greater burden. In our economy people are having to work longer and longer hours to just economically stay the same.
People begin to feel overwhelmed, that their job actually owns them, or having to do so much maintenance on all of their stuff they have no time for themselves much less for God.
When was the last time you heard someone say “no we can’t go to the picnic because we will be at church”. We feel we need more hours than just 168 hours we are allotted each week.
Thomas Kelly is a Quaker missionary who wrote a book entitled A Testament of Devotion:
In it he articulately describes the American lifestyle.
We are trying to be several selves at once without all of ourselves being organized by a single life force. His great comment rings true for many of us when he says “each of us tends to be not a single self but a whole committee of selves with each self not cooperating with the other members of the committee but shouting out for itself when the voting time comes” Thomas Kelly
He continues by saying ‘life is meant to be lived from a Center, a Divine Center’. I believe that Divine Center is the image by which God created us.
4) What does it look like to live a life in God’s image?
Four steps are needed to live the Good News of this demanding saying.
give God our worship,
give God our prayers,
give others our love,
give God our weekly offerings
a) give to God our worship on a weekly basis, making that a priority in our homes. On Wednesday during chapel our litany has the pastor say “come let us worship and bow down” with the children responding “let us kneel before the Lord our maker” Psalm 95:6 The image in which we are created finds fulfillment in worshipping our Creator.
b) give God our daily prayer conversations. God wants to hear from us because God loves us deeply. Anyone you love you communicate with frequently, keep God in your personal loop of lovers.
c) loving others as you love yourself. Jesus says ‘love one another just as I have loved you’. Treating people in a loving way means to respect them, be kind to them, accept them as they are.
d) render, there is that word again, to God what is God’s in the first place, we have a wonderful opportunity each week to give back to God during our offering. (SCREEN our giving during the offering is an ‘outward sign of our inward condition’).
Four simple yet demanding steps. Following them leads to a life of delight, surprise, and a deep inner joy. Amen.
