For the last several weeks, what we have read from Matthew's gospel has told of Jesus' putting the Pharisees in their place through the telling of parables. Jesus has criticized their faith and their interpretation of the law. He has questioned their loyalty to the Lord. They have had it with him. So the Pharisees resort to consorting with the enemy. They call on the Herodians, the followers of Herod, to help them.
The Pharisees hate Jesus because He threatens the way they interpret God's laws. The Herodians hate Jesus because He threatens the way they interpret the laws of society. The two groups are not friends. In fact, they are enemies. They merely put up with each other in order to keep some sort of peace in this land that is controlled by the Romans, yet homeland to the Jews.
And so, together, the Pharisees and the Herodians conspire to entrap Jesus. They formulate a question that they feel is unanswerable. If Jesus answers with loyalty to God, He will be in violation of the law of the land, guilty of treason. If He answers in favor of Caesar, He will alienate His own people, the Jews, and be disloyal to Israel. Together, the Herodians and the Pharisees are trying to place Jesus in a no-win situation. They are sure that they have won, that Jesus will be discredited, and that they will be rid of Jesus and His influence once and for all.
We have heard Jesus' answer to this question many times. The passage is a familiar one. "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." The words He speaks to those who seek to destroy Him answers their question cleverly. And once more Jesus has amazed those who have met Him and felt His presence.
Those who have heard Jesus' reply are amazed. Truly amazed. They do not understand His answer. They cannot understand what Jesus means about giving the emperor what belongs to the emperor and what belongs to God to God. It is a puzzle. Just what does Jesus mean?
Part of the answer is to be found in knowing about the coin that was brought to Jesus to examine. A denarius was a day's wage. Also called a tribute coin, it was a poll-tax collected from every citizen of a certain age to show direct loyalty and obligation to Caesar. On one side of the coin was Caesar's image, much like we have Lincoln and Washington on our coins. On the other side was an inscription, saying that the coin was issued by Emperor Tiberius, and proclaiming his divinity. This coin, the tribute coin, made a statement. When you had this coin in your possession, you were acknowledging that you were loyal to the Roman government, that you were loyal to Caesar.
Jesus carried no such coins. He had to ask for a coin in order to answer the question and make His point. He tells His questioners that the coin that belongs to the emperor should be paid back to him, but that we should give back to God the things that belong to God.
If we look carefully at Jesus' reply, His first response is in the form of a question. ñWhose Head is this and whose title?î Other translations read, ñWhose image, or likeness or portrait is this?î The coin looks like Caesar and so it belongs to Caesar. Jesus wants us to think about what on this earth looks like God. If we can figure that out, we will know what it is that we are to give to God. What or who is made in God's image or likeness? Who or what carries GodÍs portrait?
In the first century A.D. the question was answered by the theologian Tertullian when he said that humanity was God's coin. He said that we reflected God's image in our choices each and every day, in every time and place. The way we act in this world, according to Tertullian, shows our commitment to God, shows that we know to whom we belong.
I think that what Jesus is doing here is asking us to think about our loyalties in this life. We worry about obeying the laws of our country, about paying our taxes and about being good citizens. We love our country and we want to give it our best. But what about our ultimate citizenship, our citizenship to God? Do we take our obligations to God as seriously as we take our obligations to this country? What do we owe to our country and what do we owe to God? Jesus wants us to think about this. He wants us to put forth as much effort in our faith lives as we do in our lives as citizens of this country. He wants us to know in whose image we are made and to whom we belong, and He wants it to show in the way we live our lives. So, the question for us is, how do we live our lives as a reflection of God, the one who made us, the one to whom we belong? In this world with so many demands, how do we show each and every day, and in every time and place that our ultimate loyalty lies with our Creator?
Much of the answer lies in the first chapter of Paul's first letter to the church at Thessalonica. Paul writes the letter with two other missionaries who have helped to establish the church in Thessalonica. They wish God's grace and peace to the church, showing the closeness, the intimacy of their relationship. Then they reflect on the health of the church at Thessalonica, not by looking at attendance numbers or the size of their budget, but by looking at the spiritual life of the church, by the way they are living out their faith day to day.
Paul chronicles the faith life of the Thessalonian church in a three-fold formula, thanking God for the new life that can be found there. Paul and the other missionaries remember the works of faith, the labor of love and the steadfastness of hope in Christ displayed by the Thessalonians. The fruits of their faith show that they have been chosen by God and blessed with the power of the Spirit, says Paul. It also shows that they know that they belong to God, that they are God's coin in the world. Their lives reflect their ultimate citizenship.
Paul continues by remembering how the Thessalonians turned from another citizenship, from the worship of idols, to become true citizens of God's Kingdom. In God's realm, the Thessalonians serve the living and true God and they wait for Christ to come again. Once again, a three-fold formula. They turned, they serve and they wait. Marks of true citizenship in GodÍs Kingdom. They are God's creations who are living out the gospel, according to Christ's life, death and resurrection. They wait patiently for Christ to come again.
I don't think that Paul's emphasis on the three-fold nature of the Thessalonians' faith is an accident or coincidence. By putting the life of their church in Trinitarian form, Paul is saying that there is a completeness about their church. It has come full circle, from a group who worshipped idols to a group who carries their citizenship with God. They are the bearers of faith, love and hope, the greatest gifts of God, and they are putting those gifts to work.
When we look at today's passage from Matthew, it might be easy to assume that Jesus is speaking to individuals, trying to motivate the Jews, the disciples, the Pharisees and even the Herodians to contemplate their true citizenship as individuals, asking where their true loyalty lies. But I believe that this passage is all about how we live as community, as a people of God.
Individually we can know who we are, but as a community of Christ, bound together by covenant, we are better able to know that we are God's people, that we belong to God. Together, we are able to see each other as God would see us. Together, we are better able to keep our citizenship to God foremost in our minds and our hearts. Together, we are better able to live lives both inside and outside these walls that reflect out Creator.
As a church, a community centered on Christ, we begin to know the vastness and scope of who God is and what it is we are to reflect. We learn to love as God would have us love. And, as we begin to embody our identity as the people that God has created us to be, the faith God has given to us reaches out to others, just as Paul, Sylvanus and Timothy reached out to the people of Thessalonica, and then they as a church reached out to those in Macedonia and Achaia.
The way we live our lives reaches others. When we live as a reflection of God, filled with faith, love and hope in Christ, waiting for His return, GodÍs glory shines through us. It is a mere glimpse of the Heavenly realm that is to come. Amen.
Peace,
Rev. Cynthia Bacon
Minister
You may email at:
cbacon@heritagemadison.org
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