Matthew 22:15-22
“What Is God’s?”
Preached Sunday, October 22, 2023
It’s a trap!!
So says General Ackbar in “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.” It’s one of the most iconic movie lines of all time. At least to a certain generation of nerds. They thought they were ambushing the Death Star but found a fleet of enemy ships waiting for them. General Ackbar, a fish-like alien, cries out “It’s a trap!” The phrase has been turned into a meme and plastered over every corner of the internet.
And it would certainly be appropriate to shout out “It’s a trap!” in response to this morning’s Gospel lesson. The Pharisees and the Herodians, sects that normally wouldn’t have collaborated - think of it as “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” - come together to set a trap for Jesus.
And it’s a pretty good trap, an ensnaring one. And before unleashing it, they come with false praise. Actually, every pastor knows to be wary of those who come on strong with over-flattering praise right away. “You’re laying it on too thick - what’s your hidden agenda?” And so after praising Jesus, they ask him, “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
It’s a trap!
Now, taxes weren’t 100% thought of the same way they are today. They funded the Roman government, yes. They were also a form of subjugation and oppression. Of course, some would say they are exactly like that today. But they truly were used for the emperor to keep a thumb on top of the masses. When you can barely survive, when you aren’t guaranteed your daily bread, you have little time and energy left to plan and stage an uprising. Taxes were, with Jesus’s followers, massively unpopular and fairly universally seen as a tool of oppression.
If Jesus answers “No, it is not lawful to pay taxes to the emperor,” - He is defying the Roman Emperor and putting himself and his follower’s in danger, even at risk for their lives. Remember, it was at the hand of the Roman Empire at which Jesus was killed, the claim against him that he called himself, and his followers called him, a King - a direct threat to Caesar, the only one who could hold that title.
If Jesus answers, “Yes, it is lawful,” - he will alienate so many of his followers who are being oppressed and resisting the empire. Remember, there was a reason tax collectors got such a bad rap in the Gospels. Between the tax of the empire and the skimming of the collectors, people were regularly taken advantage of and left with very little to live on.
A trap has been laid for Jesus. It is a legal question and it is a moral question and there is no answer that will keep him out of hot water - not that Jesus was afraid to get into hot water but he knew how to recognize a trap and he wasn’t about to walk straight into it. Was it legal to pay taxes to Caesar? Yes. Was it moral? Ehh.
But Jesus, in true Jesus fashion, skirts the question and avoids the trap. He asks to see a coin, a denarius, equal to about a day’s wage, and asks them, “Who’s face is on this coin?” Well, the emperor’s. So Jesus says, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
The question is now back in the laps of those who asked this ensnaring question - and back in our laps too. And while it may not seem like such a trap to us as it was for Jesus, it can still feel like this question puts us between a rock and a hard place. For when Jesus says, “Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and give to God what is God’s” the natural next questions are: What is the emperor’s? What is God’s? And, is there anything that isn’t God’s? It causes us to examine where our allegiances lie. With the Empire? Now, not the Roman Empire but when I say Empire here I am talking about the many powers in our world that ask for our allegiance. And there are many: political parties, governments, forces of market and economy, prestige and social status, and many more. People and groups that have power and ask for our time, energy, coin, devotion. So does our allegiance lie with the Empire, the powers that be, or does it lie with God’s Kingdom?
Which of course, we here today, us listening to this sermon, who call ourselves Christian, we want to say, it lies with God and God’s Kingdom! Of course! …But we know our lived realities are more complicated than that. We’ll return to this idea in a moment.
So Jesus takes the question he is handed, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” and with his response, he basically leaves the Pharisees and the Herodians with the questions: What is the emperor’s? What is God’s? And, is there anything that is not God’s?
Our Call to Worship this morning harkened back to the creation story - I was inspired by the first chapter of Genesis as I wrote it because the answer for me, and for much of the Biblical text is no, there is nothing that is not God’s. God who created all, all belongs to our Creator God.
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it” - The 24th Psalm
“…heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,” - Deuteronomy 14
“for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him.” - Colossians 1
And many more Scripture references. And it all boils down to this: the earth and ALL that is in it, is God’s. Everything is God’s. And this is an awesome, amazing, great thing! And when taken in this light, this can be a comforting passage of Scripture. And if this were the entirety of my sermon, it would be a completely feel-good heart-warming sermon. Yes, all is God’s! The Earth and all this is in it is God’s! Let us live, giving everything we have and all there is over to God.
And…this is not a comforting passage of Scripture. It starts with a trap being laid for Jesus and ends with the ball being expertly punted back to the would-be ensnarers. And, to us, as the readers. And that challenging question Jesus was asked that was about money and taxes in a specific time period and situation, yes it was about all that, but it was also so much about allegiances and were ours lie and how we live out our allegiance to God’s Kingdom in the reality of our worldly kingdoms. It is a challenging and provoking passage much more than it is comforting. It forces us to ask: if we are to give to God what is God’s. And give to the emperor what is the emperor’s. The question this begs is, what is left to give to the emperor when everything has been given to God? Nothing. At least, ideally. It is easier said than done in our world.
When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we say “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That is, we pray for the kingdoms of our world, the reality of our world, to look like the kingdom of God. It would be great if, when we prayed this, God would snap God’s giant divine fingers and just like that - poof - our world looked more like God intended. But that’s not how God works. When we pray “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” - we often fail to realize that the onus is on us. If we pray for our world to look like God’s intended world, we are really praying to be equipped, strengthened, and emboldened to make our world more like God’s world. “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is, in essence, a “help me” - “Help me Lord, help me to build, create, and strengthen your loving Kingdom here on Earth. That all that is done in the here and now, would, bit by bit, become pleasing to you.”
It is a challenge, it is hard. Because we look around us and our reality is so far away from God’s Kingdom, so far away from giving all that is to the God who is Love, so far away from the redemption of all things. The challenge is figuring out what it can concretely look like in each of our lives, to divest from things that are not of God, so that we can give all that we have and all that we are over to God. To rend to God what is God’s. The challenge is figuring out what it concretely looks like to love God and love neighbor as self.
And I am not going to answer that today. In part because it's complicated and individualized and it’s something we need to figure out for each of ourselves. Jesus gave the question back to us, put it back in our laps. It is ours to wrestle with, to struggle with, ours to consider. And no, it’s not a trap - it’s the challenge of being a disciple of Jesus in the midst of the realities of our world.
As we conclude today I would ask us all to wrestle with these questions:
What in my life have I rendered to someone or something that should belong to God?
How do I divest from that to allow myself to more fully give to God?
How do I give to God what is God’s?
What is within my power to do and say that would make our world more like the loving Kingdom of God?
And in considering these questions, know you are not alone. That is the joy of being the follower of Christ. At times it can be a challenge - but God is always with us AND we have each other to walk this discipleship journey with. Let us walk it together, challenging each other and ourselves, until our world truly reflects the Kingdom of God.
Amen.
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