Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost Matthew 22:15-22

Oct. 22, 2023  Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church, Pastor Jonathan Linman 

In today’s gospel reading, we heard one of the most classic and well-known quotes attributed to Jesus: “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” 

That was Jesus’ response to the religious leaders who, seeking to entrap Jesus, asked him whether or not it was lawful for Jewish people to pay taxes to the Roman Empire. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” calls for a yes or no answer.

But if Jesus answered yes, that it was lawful to pay the tax, he risked offending those Hebrew people for whom Roman occupation and oppression was a reality to be resisted, and then those people might have turned against Jesus. If Jesus said that, no, it was not lawful to pay the tax, then he risked being arrested by the Roman authorities for insubordination. So, a yes or no answer to the question would have been damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So, Jesus refused to fall into the religious leaders’ trap.

Despite their flattering statements to Jesus, the religious leaders were not interested in a thoughtful dialogue. Again, they were seeking a way at this point to get Jesus arrested and put to death. So, Jesus gave an indirect answer that was not yes or no. Good for Jesus.

But Jesus’ answer to the question of paying taxes has been misunderstood and used and abused throughout the centuries. “Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” This has, for example, become the proof text to support the separation of church and state in our country, which in many ways is a laudable thing in a pluralistic society. 

But the bigger problem revealed by the exchange between Jesus and the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians is the binary, either/or thinking that’s behind the story, and then also behind popular interpretations of Jesus’ reply about rendering the things that belong to Caesar to Caesar and the things that belong to God to God. 

Again, the religious leaders wanted a yes or no answer. And we humans tend to want that too. Keep it simple. Give it to me straight. Is it good or bad? Is it true or false? Is it this way or that way? In terms of transgender realities that are commanding attention in the public sphere, some want to know are you male or female? Well, human realities don’t always submit to the binary of either this or that. 

Jesus knew that human and sacred realities don’t conform to such simplistic categories of yes or no. That’s why he evaded the trap with an approach that was more both/and than either/or. 

Binary either/or thinking gets humans in trouble all the time. “Either you’re with us or against us” thinking has led to societal divisions and wars that have resulted in untold suffering and death – as we’re seeing unfold horrifically in Israel and Gaza even today. And we’re seeing it with the paralysis in Congress right now. I could go on and on with examples from history. But you get the point. 

And there are special problems when it comes to the relationship between things of God and human things. We ask if things are heavenly or earthly? Is it sacred or profane? Is it from God or from human origin? Is the bible inspired by God or is it of human origin?

Well, the answer to all of these queries is “yes”! It’s both/and. Things human and things divine blend. The earthly and the heavenly, the sacred and profane, are all mixed up in the messiness of our reality. This mixing of human and divine, earthly and heavenly, is central to the Christian message, for we confess that Christ is fully divine and fully human at the same time.

And we experience this blended, messy, complicated reality in our telling of the Christian story. The holy and profane come crashing together on the cross, a brutal form of execution becomes the means to our salvation. There’s no greater mixing of the sacred with the profane than that, and it’s a foundation on which our whole Christian tradition stands. Then, too, the natural and supernatural, the earthly and heavenly, mix in the empty tomb when God confounded natural ways by supernaturally raising Jesus from the dead.  

In our life together here in church, things heavenly and things earthly blend together as the divine Word mixes with earthly water to make us children of God in baptism. And the holy word blends with earthly bread and wine in the power of the Spirit to convey to us the real both/and presence of Christ in Holy Communion. Is it bread and wine? Yes. Is it also the body and blood of Christ? Yes! Both/and.

And in Christian community we know the reality that we are simultaneously saints and sinners. Again, a messy both/and reality, but one which speaks the truth of our human condition which God makes holy. 

This uniting of earthly and heavenly things conveys to us the good news, the gospel, that we are redeemed in the messiness of our conflicted lives giving us freedom to relax and accept our condition, knowing that God in Christ does not abandon us in our complicated circumstances. 

God is in the mess and ambiguity of both/and. The gospel is a both/and reality which frees us from the sinful ravages of the either/or. Thanks be to God!

When it comes to faithful and healthy understandings of the mixing of the sacred and the secular, the big thing is to keep things in perspective. And that’s the other wisdom behind Jesus’ statement about giving to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s – because when it’s all said and done, everything comes from God and everything returns to God. 

Thus, there’s some irony to what Jesus is saying – ultimately everything belongs to God, and the Caesars of the world, that is, human authority and power, are subordinate to divine sovereignty and power. What belongs to Caesar really belongs to God when it’s all said and done. What belongs to any of us belongs to God.

The prophet Isaiah makes this truth abundantly clear in today’s first reading when addressing Cyrus, a profane king who was not a Hebrew, but who was nonetheless used by God to advance the cause of the people of Israel. Listen again: 

“For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you [Cyrus] by your name; I give you a title, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; beside me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make weal and create woe; I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:4-7) Here, God sets the record straight: God is in charge. 

The problem is when human powers want to invoke divine authority to advance their less than sacred causes – it’s the problem of the tail wagging the dog, of trying to make the sacred subservient to the secular. Theocracies, trying to make nations literally into the kingdom of God, are idolatrous, and fail and cause untold harm. History is filled with such tragic stories…. 

When it’s all said and done, our allegiance is to God in Christ and not to any current-day Caesar, even if our secular leaders happen to serve God’s ends. 

Thus, we pray that in our life and witness, in our words and deeds, as a congregation and as participants in the worldwide Lutheran communion, that we keep things in perspective – Jesus is Lord! And not anybody else. 

And we pray that it may be said of us as Paul said of the Thessalonian believers, remarking with admiration how they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for God’s Son from heaven, whom God raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10)

May it be so among us. God help us. Christ, rescue us from these wrathful times. Holy Spirit, reign in our hearts and minds, in our words and deeds, for the healing of the nations so bitterly divided. Amen.