Matthew 22:15-22
Proper 24
Good morning everyone,
It’s always nice to see you all!
When I was in college the university had a program called “Lancer Cash”
This is where you use real money, to purchase “cash” that can be spent on campus. And that cash is all that certain places on campus would take.
Which is fine in itself, until you realize that for every dollar you put into the system you get 85 cents back, and that the places on campus had a big beautiful upcharge on all the products.
Being taxed is no one's favorite.
And the Pharisees with the Herodians are bringing this question to Jesus because it has been a big debate among the people living in Jerusalem at the time.
the Pharisees are frustrated with their taxes! Anyone? Anyone??????
They’re particularly frustrated because they’re paying their taxes to Rome, who is an occupying force in Jerusalem.
Rome is the oppressor and they are paying taxes to maintain the system that is oppressing them!
Must be impossibly frustrating to have to pay the people who’re actively harming you.
Who are actively harming your neighbor and your community.
After hearing the teachings from Jesus in the temple, the parables that we’ve heard over the past few weeks…
The Pharisees and Herodians begin seeing the truth in the teachings of Christ,
And in their frustration with the truth that they’re hearing and the reality of their situation, they decide to lay a trap for Jesus.
“If he has all the answers, let's see what he can do with this one.”
“Oh Jesus, you’re so smart and wise. Is it lawful to pay tax to the emperor or not?”
They present to Jesus an “either / or” question that creates an environment where someone is going to be left un happy.
The Pharisees are tired of having to pay the tax to the imperial system that oppresses them and the Herodians are the elites. They have found a way to benefit off the system, and thus are supporting Herod. Remember the guy trying to take out Jesus in the Christmas story? That guy.
These two rival factions join forces and present a question to Jesus that they think they’re able to back him into a corner with.
When presented with a one or the other decision, Jesus does what is precisely in God’s nature,
Jesus makes another way.
Yes, give to the emperor what is the emperors.
But Give to God that which belongs to God.
And while what belongs to the emperor has his face stamped on it.
And that of the predecessors…
What belongs to God has the image of God imprinted upon it.
You. your being.
This is a foundational truth in the first chapter of Genesis. God makes man in the image of God, the imago dei.
What’s above all things, is that fundamental truth that we belong to God.
You belong to the one whose image you have been made in.
The one whose covenant you and I have been baptized into.
Who will never forsake you, who wont leave you high and dry like earthly powers are prone to do.
So yes, give to the emperor what is asked… because at the end of the day it’s just a piece of paper or a coin with a dead persons face on it.
but never, never forget where the allegiance of your heart and soul truly lie.
Never forget that we belong to the one who is truly eternal.
To the one who Isaiah reminds us calls us by name. Whose image we have been made in.
And whose image your neighbor has been made in.
Because the Kingdom of God does not run on taxes. It runs on love.
and
If the world economy is run on coins and paper with peoples faces on it, then the economy of the Kingdom of God runs on the expression of faith by the hands and hearts of those that the image of God has been stamped onto.
And the economy of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, grows stronger when we invest in loving our family, our neighbors and loving God.
And it is in loving that which belongs to God and that which God loves, that we participate in the economy of God, and in the eternal life that we have been invited into.
Which is why the truly wealthiest people among us are those who have a loving family surrounding them.
Friends who show up when it’s tough.
Who stick out their hand to a stranger to help them up
That’s what it means to be rich in God's economy.
And it’s a kind of wealth and riches that can never be taken away from you because the world has no claim over God’s economy.
Friends, God made us to be rich in a way that they could never take from you.
Rich in love. Rich in a full life.
Be rich in love because they’re coming for the dead men in your pockets anyway.
They cannot take away the love that you have for others,
Each of us, every day, decides whether we will share that love, or give up on it.
Which is why this proclamation of truth from Jesus has nothing to do with allowing the state to run free and do whatever it pleases.
I am not advocating for a stick your head in the clouds theology or practice of faith.
when your heart breaks at the way that your neighbor is being treated, then we respond with love.
And when we feel like we’re backed into a corner, we go to the one who makes another way. Jesus of Nazareth.
We look to the good news of the gospel and we look to those who’ve walked in faith before us.
We look to the ways they walked in peace and proclaimed love with their lives in order to attain freedom, rather than taking up arms and harming others.
MLK, Dorothy Day, St. Oscar Romero.
All three of whom did not stand by while atrocities were carried out, but participated actively in peaceful protest to give voice to those who otherwise had none.
And when we hold this gospel reading up as we look back at the prophets before us is not an affirmation of creating a distinction between our faith and our politics.
We cannot help but be born into a system that requires a tax.
What we see is that it is in living out of our faith that we show those who are in positions of power, who would do harm to others with my taxes, that our allegiance truly lies with our God. not to a nation.
That we show up as representatives of the true, living God.
not a temporary state or political party.
That before we are representatives of a business, a political party, or a country, we show up as the physical representation of the hands and feet of Christ in the world.
This is a radically different way of viewing the world.
Viewing the economy, ourselves and our neighbor.
A radically different way of understanding what is valuable in this life.
This is not an easy perspective to implement into our lives, especially as we are inundated with messages on who we ought to support and where our allegiances should lie. Where you can get a 24 hour update on the markets and the news.
It’s not easy.
This is why Paul is giving such high praise to the church in Thessalonica in his letter to the Thessalonians
“I’ve heard about how you’ve turned from idols, to serve a true and living God.” And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers
The people of one of the very first Christ centered communities have gone from serving that which would never serve them, to serving the One who would never forsake them.
The example has been set for us.
In Christ.
In the prophets.
In the average, every day, follower of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.
The task is on us to have the courage to invest in love, and to never give up on it.
Amen.