Loving God, you give to us all that is needed, and more, and call us to use all things for your glory.  Grant to us today the eyes to see and the ears to hear, that we, too, might live to the praise of your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    The Pharisees, and apparently the Herodians, too, thought they had come up with the perfect question.  They’ll ask Jesus about paying taxes to the emperor – and not just any tax, but the one that is most hated by the Jewish people.  For us, looking back on this little scene from today, it’s helpful to know a couple of things.  First of all, even the coins that were used were considered to be blasphemous by the Jewish people, because they had a graven image on them.  No graven images was a very important commandment to them!  Secondly, this was a flat rate “head” tax paid by every man and woman to a foreign, occupying power – in this case, the Romans.  In a sense, it was a tax placed upon people’s very existence as people.

    And so the religious leaders decide that they’ll ask Jesus about this tax – should the people pay it, or not?  Is it lawful, or not?  If Jesus says “yes,” he’s likely to have a crowd of his own people ready to stone him to death.  However, if Jesus says “no,” he will be guilty of treason, and they will be able to hand him over to the Romans to put him to death.  Jesus - as so often happens - doesn’t answer as they might have expected.  Instead, he asks to see one of the coins used for the tax.  You can just imagine Jesus pointing to the image on the coin and asking, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” (Mt. 22:20)  Of course they can tell that it is the emperor.

    Well, then comes the clincher.  “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt. 22:21).  Uh oh.  What on earth are they supposed to do with this answer?  What is Jesus saying, anyway?  Does that mean all the money belongs to the emperor?  Don’t all things belong to God, too?  How can you give it all to the emperor and to God?  Jesus has just managed to diffuse the situation with his answer and to give them a major stewardship challenge, all at the same time!  And of course, as always, the question is, what does this mean for us?

    Before addressing this question directly, it may be helpful to back up for a moment and remind ourselves of the parables that Jesus was telling just before this question came up.  The reason for doing so is that it is one story after another implying that people are not giving to God the things that are God’s.  First of all there were the two sons who were told to go work in the vineyard.  One gave outright disrespect to his father by refusing to go.  The other gave only lip service and didn’t follow through on what he said he was going to do.

    Then there were the tenants in the vineyard, who had been given everything that they needed in order to produce the proper fruit.  However, when the harvest time came they wanted to keep it all for themselves, and even put to death those who came to collect on behalf of the owner.

    Then last week we heard about the wedding banquet, where the people showed some of the greatest disrespect imaginable in those days by refusing the king’s invitation to come and celebrate the marriage of his son.  They didn’t even bother to go just to get a good meal, and showed by their actions that they just didn’t care.  The one who came later without proper wedding clothes showed just as much disrespect by not bothering to borrow or to put on a proper wedding garment.  It would be kind of like somebody coming to worship and then sitting there listening to something else on headphones the whole time – being present in body, but definitely not in spirit.

    Jesus has been telling all of these parables, and the Pharisees, at least at one point (Mt. 21:45), realize that Jesus might be talking about them.  And so when Jesus mentions giving to God the things that are God’s, at least part of what is implied is the opposite of what was going on in these parables.  When we are giving to God the things that are God’s, we say “yes” to the call to go and work in the vineyard, and we follow through on what we say!  In other words, we use the gifts that we have been given in order to further the work of God’s kingdom, whether that means financial contributions, or giving of our time, or using our God-given talents in the service of God and of the people around us.

    When we are giving to God the things that are God’s, we gladly give the harvest to God, for we know that all that we have used to produce the harvest came from God in the first place.  In other words, we don’t live only for ourselves, keeping as much for ourselves as possible and maybe giving something to God if there’s anything left over.  Instead, we give to God the first and the best of what we have, knowing that when we are generous, God is even more generous to us.

    Finally, when we are giving to God the things that are God’s, we honour the invitation to come to the feast and celebrate the marriage of God’s Son.  It is an image that is perhaps difficult at times for us to get our minds around, but one that is used often in the Scriptures and reflected in some of our hymns.  The Revelation to John uses the image of “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” imagining the feast that celebrates Christ’s marriage to the church (Rev. 19:7-9; cf. Eph. 5:25-33).  The hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation,” starts out like this:

    The Church’s one foundation Is Jesus Christ, her Lord;
    She is his new creation By water and the Word.
    From heav’n he came and sought her To be his holy bride;
    With his own blood he bought her, And for her life he died. (EvLW #654)

    The church, of which we are a part through baptism, is pictured as the bride of Christ, purchased at the price of his own blood.  The marriage supper will be celebrated in all its splendor in the new heavens and the new earth, at the end of all things.  However, it is a foretaste of this feast every time we gather at the Lord’s Table and Jesus gives himself to us – his bride – his church.  We are giving to God the things that are God’s when we accept his invitation to come and receive forgiveness and new life in the bread and the wine.

    However, just as in the parables, showing up with a bad attitude and with disrespect is unacceptable.  Instead, we are to clothe ourselves with the righteousness of Christ and with a life that imitates his life of loving service to God and to others.  We are to place ourselves under God’s authority, and humbly seek to walk in the ways of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    Thus, we can talk about the earthly outcome of a heavenly meal – people who have been strengthened for life in God’s service and who have been given the power of the Holy Spirit in order that our lives might look more and more like the life of Jesus.  This is the real and the life-changing power of the body and blood of Christ – given as a gift of grace as God continues to work within us and through us for the sake of all people.

    To return for a moment to what Jesus had to say about giving to the emperor and to God, it continues to raise some interesting questions for us.  The $20 bill that I have in my wallet says on it “Bank of Canada.”  Does this mean that it belongs to that bank?  Every coin has a picture of Queen Elizabeth II on it.  Does this mean that they belong to her?  On the other hand, every material used and every bit of skill and ingenuity used to produce these bills and these coins have come from God.  Does this mean that it all belongs to God?

    And what about ourselves?  Are we not made “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:27)?  If God has put his image upon us, isn’t that kind of like the emperor putting his image on his coins?  Do we not also belong to God – all that we have and all that we are?  And – if we are actually giving back what belongs to somebody else, is it really that difficult to do?

    Jesus concluded: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mt. 22:21).  I’d say that covers pretty much everything.  Amen.

Lectionary 29 (A)                                Matthew 22:15-22
October 16, 2011
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2011 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved