Sermon Rev. B.Hartsough
October 18, 2020
Proper 24 Exodus 33:112-23, Matthew 22:15-22
“Give therefore to the emperor, the things that are emperors and to God the things that are God’s.” Or as we know the phrase, “Give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar, give to God what belongs to God.” Jesus is in a debate with the Herodians and the pharisees. They were trying to trap him and to find a reason to arrest him. The Herodians supported Herod Antipas who was named King of the Jews by Rome. They supported paying taxes to Rome. The pharisees who were committed to the Jewish law, opposed paying taxes to Rome. So, if Jesus said explicitly pay taxes to cesar he would be going against the pharisees and Jewish law. If he said don’t pay taxes to cesar he would have been guilty of breaking the Roman law that required all subjects under Rome to pay a census tax.
Jesus uses a denarius to make a point. A denarius is a coin used in the Roman Empire in 1st century Palestine to pay taxes to Rome. You had to use a denarius to pay the tax.
A few years ago, I bought my son a denarius from about 100 AD. My son Luke studied Greek and Roman history. The denarius was a birthday present. It was silver and found as part of a group of coins discovered in a shipwreck. The image of cesar on the coin isn’t just an image, it is a beautiful piece of art. The details on the denarius are beautiful and make it clear whose image is on the coin.
The images and inscriptions on coins tell us what our civil government values and believes. The United States’ coins say, “Liberty, The United States, E Pluribus Unum, (Out of many, one) and In God We Trust.” Interestingly, our United States coins must have all four of these sayings on every coin. Our coins tell us that we value personal freedoms and that we are united in our diversity. Our national motto is that we trust in God. The denarius that Jesus was talking about would have had an image of cesar, and words in Latin that said something like son of…, high priest, ruler of the world.” An inscription that made cesar into a god. An inscription that would have been offensive to Jews who believed that Yahweh was the one and only God.
When Jesus answers the pharisees and the Herodians, his answer astounds them. His answer puts the responsibility of making the decision of what belongs to cesar and what belongs to God on each individual listener.
Jesus’s answer is complicated. There is this tension. Live under man made governments and abide by the law-the coins you hold- AND remember in whose image you are made. All of us bear the image of God. It is imprinted on us. Our lives are intertwined. We are citizens of the United States or Mexico or Honduras and we are children of God.
We know what it means to be a citizen of a country. You abide by the law. You support the government by paying taxes. You vote.
Bearing God’s image means that we recognize God in all persons by respecting the dignity of all people. There is a group in Rome called Sant Egidio. It is a group founded by young, Italian teenagers in the 1960’s. It has become a worldwide organization. Their motto is friendship, service, and prayer. They saw the needy in Rome were not being treated with respect. They noticed that many elderly were forgotten by their families. Many were lonely and there were limited services to help them. They started to provide not just assistance with meals and going to the doctor, but they built relationships. They believed that all people have dignity and that relationships are the key to helping those in need. They are now a worldwide group of people who have a made a difference in the lives of thousands of people and they have enacted change among conflicting governments.
Seeing God’s image means stripping away all of the things that we think make us human. It means looking at our core. It means seeing God amidst our humanity. Our humanity in which our primary image of God is Jesus. It is the image of one who came not to have his face on a coin. Although that might be interesting. He came to share our life and to show us the image of God. It is the image of one who came giving up human power and control to serve others and to follow God’s will. We see it in our common humanity; in the tears of one suffering; in the cries of a newborn; in the laughter of friends. We see it when we come together to break bread.
Jesus’s words are still with us today. Sometimes living under a secular government conflicts with bearing God’s image. We must constantly discern what belongs to whom and what to do when cesar and God conflict. This is not simply a question of our civic governments verses our beliefs. It means that when it appears that our civil government conflicts with our allegiance to God, we get all the facts and we discern through prayer and listening. We look at all the sides. This has been the history of Christianity from the beginning. It has never been easy. The answers are not always clear. Everyone must use their own conscience and moral compass to decide. The question we all need to ask ourselves is whose image do we bear?