Pentecost 18

Pentecost 18 (Matthew 22:15-22)
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”
Fear limits choice.
Fear narrows and restricts choice to one of three emotional reactions: aggression, submission or withdrawal.
Faith transforms fear into love. That love is infinite and eternal. That love expands choice. That love is Jesus Christ.
The Pharisees feared Jesus. They feared him because they could not understand him. And, they feared him because they would not understand him. They refused to ask open and honest questions that might lead to understanding because they were convinced they had the right knowledge that would produce the right actions that would gain them divine approval and avoid divine wrath.
They lived and moved and expressed their being from within a well developed religious system that gave them what they valued most: power, pride, position, prestige and pleasure. They had invested their time and energy to defend that religious system against all other sects within Judaism and all other religious systems in the wider world.
Jesus never challenged their religion. He did challenge the assumptions and the values that supported their religion.
The Pharisees feared Jesus because they recognized he was speaking to a problem they refused to believe existed. The Pharisees identified the problem in terms of knowledge and power. They narrowed the practice of religion to those categories and produced extensive lists of belief and behavior by which they could justify themselves and condemn everyone else.
The Pharisees knew they were right and everyone else was wrong. They did not need to question their assumptions. They refused to consider any fact that might contradict their ideology.
Jesus spoke and acted from the place of divine love and compassion. That place is the place of personal relationship with the infinite and eternal. That relationship is active, dynamic, expansive and creative.
Strangely enough, the relationship Jesus offers works well within the broad outlines of the religion the various sects of the day claimed to follow. Jesus spent every Sabbath in the synagogue to hear the reading of the Bible. Jesus observed the liturgical form of worship in the Temple in fulfillment of the Law of Moses.
The challenge the Pharisees brought to Jesus reveals the nature of their fear.
First: they did not approach Jesus in person. They sent their disciples, their students. They probably reasoned that the students would appear to be less threatening to Jesus and Jesus would let down his guard. It was what we might call today a passive aggressive attack.
The Pharisees thought in terms of power and dominance. They assumed everyone else, including Jesus thought in the same terms.
In addition to their religious students, the Pharisees sent the Herodians. The Herodians were a political party who favored collaboration with Rome. Normally, the Pharisees would not associate with the Herodians. But, for their plan to trap Jesus to work they had to set aside their contempt for the Herodians and make a temporary alliance. The alliance was based in a very old principle that says: the enemy of my enemy is my friend…for now.
They approach Jesus with a false reverence that uses flattery to set the stage for the trap. They build up his reputation in order to spring the trap.
The trap in the question relies on a very narrow vision of life. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, to Caesar?
The Pharisees could only see two possible answers to that question: yes or no. If Jesus said yes then the vast majority of people who resented the tax would be angry with Jesus and accuse him of being in collusion with the Herodians. If Jesus said no then the Herodians would report him to the Romans as a revolutionary and Jesus would be arrested for sedition.
It seemed like the perfect trap. It probably would have worked had not Jesus been who he was.
Jesus is the master of the third alternative.
Jesus is very aware of the hypocrisy inherent in law based religion. We miss the more profound religious significance of the question and of Jesus’ answer because we live in a secular culture that prides itself on separation from a religious world view.
The key to understanding this event lies within the first four of the Ten Commandments God revealed to Moses and Moses carved into the stone tablets. There is only one God. Humans are forbidden to make and worship statues that purport to solidify God. Humans are forbidden to blaspheme the Name of God. God has appointed every seventh day to meet us in worship.
Jesus asked to see the coin by which people would pay the tax. Then Jesus asked a question: whose head is imprinted on the coin? Whose title is inscribed on the coin?
The religious leaders of Jerusalem made life difficult for the Romans by their strict allegiance to the first four commandments. Roman soldiers stationed in Judea could not display the symbols of their faith, the images of their guardian deities. The soldiers had to cover up the symbol of the empire, the eagle, on their standards. And, the Romans would not enforce the law that required all citizens and subjects to make a yearly offering of incense to the divinity of the Emperor.
Despite all of these scruples, the Pharisees used the Roman money on which the image of the emperor was imprinted and the divinity of the emperor affirmed. There were some religious sects within Judea that refused to use the Roman coins. They lived in separate isolated communities and did not participate in the economy.
The hypocrisy of the question was in the willingness of the Pharisees to break their own rules concerning idolatry, blasphemy and worship when it came to money. They used Roman money in order to participate in the Roman economy and acquire wealth. They paid their taxes lest the Romans arrest them for tax evasion and treason.
Jesus’ answer to the question redirects the students and the Herodians to consider their values and priorities. For the Pharisees, this question was a trap. For Jesus, this trap was a teaching moment. It was in fact a moment of grace by which Jesus could encourage the listeners to ask a more profound question.
It is obvious the Roman coin belongs to the Emperor of Rome. He issued it and it bears his image and title. What then are the things of God. What bears God’s image and title?
The students were amazed at Jesus’ response but unwilling to enter into their moment of grace. They react to Jesus by withdrawing from him. They asked their question from the place of pride and aggression grounded in fear. And it was from the place of fear that they reacted to Jesus’ answer. They were so close. In fact, they were too close. They did not want to understand Jesus from the place of grace.
They withdrew in order to defend their pride and self-will from the potential for seeing life, other people, Jesus and God from a new perspective. They chose not to consider who Jesus was and what he had to offer.
They knew the first part of Jesus’ teaching: “render unto Caesar” because that is where they had made the necessary compromises of their religious scruples. They refused to consider the second part of Jesus’ teaching: “give to God the things that are God’s.”
What are the things that are God’s? The answer to that question lies in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus not only teaches but lives the reality God revealed to Moses. God created human beings in his image and likeness.
As the Roman coin bears the image of the Roman emperor so the human being bears the image of God. Even more specifically, God the Father imprinted the image of God the Son in our souls. By the power of God the Holy Spirit, the Father imprints the pattern, plan and purpose of the Son in each of us.
That pattern, plan and purpose is steadfast holy unconditional love. That love manifests in three fundamental ways: worship, service to others, personal transformation in grace.
Jesus is the personal incarnation of Divine Love inviting us back into the relationship we as a species rejected.
What does God want us to offer him? Jesus embodies the answer: reunification and transformation.
The religious leaders had just enough understanding of Moses and the Prophets to realize Jesus was inviting them into a new life and a new way of living. He was asking them to examine their priorities. He was asking them to change the way they lived their lives and practiced their religion. He was asking them to move beyond a closed system of laws into an expansive dynamic and creative relationship.
That choice can be frightening. Change is never easy. Changing religions is far easier that entering into the new relationship Jesus offers.
The new relationship is the new reality Jesus offers each of us as we hear his words: give to God the things that are God’s.