"Who is your emperor?" (Matthew 22:15-22)

"Who is your emperor?"
Matthew 22:15-22

Delivered 10/22/17 by Sam Locke at First Presbyterian Church (Connersville, Indiana)

Worship Bulletin

The Question about Paying Taxes

15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

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It is always nice to be home and it’s such an honor to fill your pulpit this morning. When I began the Presbyterian ordination process a little over a year ago, I was surprised by a few Connersville connections. Two of the many people involved in the process include my former principal at Maplewood Elementary who is now a Ruling Elder at my home church in Indianapolis and, your own Carla Beard, one of my English teachers at CHS. It’s a good reminder of the “never burn your bridges” cliche but, I think too, it’s symbolic of how important this community was in the formation of my faith and values. The values of hard-work, hospitality and resilience that I learned here have served me well every day.

Looking at today’s Gospel text from the lectionary, we find one of those stories virtually everyone has heard in some form or fashion. At its best, it has been used to undergird the American philosophy of separation between church and state, keeps us wary of blindly supporting imperialism, and serves as a reminder that, when we question God, the answer usually shows God already steps ahead of us. At its worse, this passage has been used to justify Christian silence while governments do unGodly things. Today, we take a closer look.

Matthew 22, beginning at verse 15: ”Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?“ 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.” It’s the word of God, for the people of God.

So, what’s going on? Two groups, the Pharisees and Herodians, begin to question Jesus on a number of matters.  We should be suspect from the get-go because these are two groups who aren’t exactly friends. The Pharisees representing the Jewish upper-crust of the day and the Herodians serving as a more secular puppet government for the Roman Empire.  Politics really does make strange bedfellows.  If not suspicious enough, we are overcome with the flattery they are directing to Jesus…”We know you are sincere, that you teach the truth, that you are impartial.” I might be tempted to bask in the compliments for a spell but, thankfully, it’s Jesus and not me at the center of this story. He senses the insincerity of the Pharisee’s compliments and knows he is about to get a  doozy of a question. Jesus is asked whether it is okay to pay taxes to the Roman government and senses right away he is in for a set up - a question he can’t possibly answer correctly.  If he answers no, he’s a rebel against the Romans and setup for certain punishment. If he answers yes, he let’s down the crowds hungry for revolution. So hungry, in fact, that a few days later they scream for the pardon of a revolutionary resistance hero over that of Jesus.  Like many politicians, Jesus utilizes his tried and true strategy of answering a question with another question, examining the coin and asking who it pays tribute to.  We know how the story ends and we know Jesus’ admonition - give the Emperor what is the emperor’s and God what is God’s

The story draws to a close but  we have yet to address the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Herodians asking the question. The Pharisees, like Jesus, were leaders in the Jewish community under Roman oppression, asking whether they should pay Roman taxes.  The rule of the time was the tax had to be paid with Roman coinage. So, if the Pharisees had a problem with it, why did they have a coin to present to Jesus as a visual aid in the first place? And not just any coin - this isn’t today’s seemingly worthless penny, it’s a denarius - the ancient moniker for an entire day’s wage.  This setup is the equivalent - sort of - of me with my kids on the way home from Hoosier Hysteria last night. “It’s 8 o’clock, no you can’t have candy,” while I was wrist-deep into a bag of M&Ms.  The Pharisees know the tax system is corrupt, they know it runs against God’s rules, but they are all too happy to earn, possess and spend the money. Glenn Monson, a Lutheran pastor, wrote this week: “As always we must identify with the ones whom the Word addresses.  This means that here we must identify with these self-serving hypocrites.  This is a tough place to put ourselves, but this text challenges us to ask, "How have I been phony, two-faced, and hypocritical?  How have I declared a self-righteousness which is at odds with how I actually live?  How have I tried to play the polite questioner of God, when in my heart of hearts I am dismissive of all God stands for?”

Wow, this seemingly simple story just got heavy. Because of this discomfort, I’ve got to tell you, I had a hard time writing this sermon for today.  It’s not a particularly complex text in the grand scheme of the things presented to us in Bible - the setup is clear, the dialogue flows well, the themes jump out at us and Jesus leaves us awestruck, as he often seems to. Perhaps it was hard because of the self-applied pressure of being ‘home,” maybe because it was a tumultuous week in my own life or maybe everything I was writing about the passage seemed tired and cliche, or even that it was just too hard to take a look at where I might be behaving in the same ways the Pharisees were.  Whatever the case, I had writer’s block and I expressed that frustration to a seminary professor during a class this past Tuesday evening.  He asked me a simple question about the passage - a question nearly identical to the one the Pharisees and Herodians posed to Jesus in the text.  He asked simply, “Who’s on the coin?” A bit indignantly, I responded with the correct answer that I knew wasn’t good to be correct enough, “The emperor.”  As I suspected, he wasn’t satisfied, which was confirmed by the word ‘and’ used by itself in the form of a question, delivered in a way only a teacher can. More annoyed, and having read the footnote in my study bible, I said - again, correctly, I might add, “Tiberius, the Roman Emperor.”  Still not satisfied and resigned to the fact that I wasn’t going to give the answer he was looking for, he exclaimed, “Yes, he is those things, but isn’t he also a human being, just like us, made in the image of God?” Ugh. So basic and so profound.  How does looking at the emperor as a human being, just like us, change our perspective on the story?

What face is on the coins in our pocket?  What empires are we paying tribute to instead of God? And, no, I’m not talking about dead American presidents. Can these empires and people live up to the pedestal we have placed them on? What happens to us when they don’t? All too often we choose or face a life built on survival, of oppression - sometimes forced and sometimes self-imposed.

Do we worship our achievements while forgetting about those without the same abilities? Do we buy into the belief that we can only do so much to help our community, when we know have the means to do more? Do we say we believe that addiction is a disease and not a personality trait and then put barriers in the way to treatment. Do we idolize celebrities in one breath and say they should keep quiet in another? We do these things and more and, so far, I’m just talking about myself. We choose to live in the empire’s realm of scarcity and fear instead of God’s realm of abundance and hope.

Before I realized Carla Beard would be involved in my ordination process I was reminded of her in my first introductory seminary class.  One of the books mentioned was Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, of which I could brag I read way back when in my high school literature class.  The book is about a protagonist that strives to break the chain of hurt within his own circumstances but who ultimately succumbs to fear and doubt.  The author says of the character, “Perhaps down in his heart he was not a cruel man. But his whole life was dominated by fear, the fear of failure and of weakness.  It was deeper and more intimate that the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic [empires], the fear of the forest, and of the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. His fear was greater than these. It was not external but lay deep within himself.”

There is a way to avoid these dilemmas.  We pay tribute only to God.  You see, with God’s help the empires of our life are falling apart even as they rule.  We may use those coins today, but we are assured of a life when they are no longer needed. Sure, we respect the rules of secular authorities, we do the best we can in the troublesome situations we are sure to find ourselves in, but we do so knowing that it’s the kingdom of God we are ultimately striving for. We give God what is God’s. And, as my professor would say, how do we do that?  We focus on community. Achebe says, “A man who calls his kinsmen to a feast does not do so to save them from starving. They all have food in their own homes. When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so.”  We come together because in doing so we are able to offer the love God asks of us. We love our neighbors, all of them. Just like our passage today, the answer is straightforward. We love our neighbors, no matter what. Different gender, race, sexuality? Yes, no matter what. In the throngs of addiction? Yes, no matter what. The most successful person you’ve ever met? Yes, no matter what.  The hungry person begging on the street? Yes, no matter what. The person you’ve already tried to help a dozen times? Yes, no matter what.  Ourselves, despite our faults? That one may be the hardest but, yes, no matter what.  We love our neighbors, no matter what. We recognize that on the front of all these coins are human beings, made in God’s image, just like us. Sometimes we get it right, a lot of times we don’t, but so long as we recognize we are all just struggling to do the best we can with the hands we’ve been dealt, we are giving God what is God’s - our unending gratitude.

As Presbyterians, we have a special burden to bear in making this vision a reality. We believe our invitation to the kingdom is through God’s grace alone, not because of anything we have earned or are entitled to. That’s reason to celebrate and we can do so by modeling that amazing grace to each other and within our communities every day.  We’ll need help from God and each other to make it happen. As our opening hymn requested, “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of these days, serving you whom we adore.” Amen.