ear Friends,

Good Morning!  We have a famous quote in the center of our brief reading today:

13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? 15Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." 16They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. 17Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.

What’s so wonderful about this set-up is that men dispatched to trip up Jesus were members of two groups utterly opposed to each other, who had spent years despising one another.  “Pharisees” means “separatists.”  Their position was a deeply felt conviction that Rome -- and especially Rome’s puppet king, Herod -- were illegitimate intruders into Israel and should be resisted whenever possible.  “Herodians” means “followers of Herod.”  This political party of Israelites believed that Rome should be obeyed and that King Herod was an God’s choice for ruler during their lives and must therefore be obeyed.  The Pharisees therefore  taught an approach to taxes to Herod and Rome which was essentially – “These authorities are evil, and their tax gatherers are traitors.  Don’t pay taxes.”  The Herodians taught that Caesar’s government, coming from God, had to be supported by taxes by all who loved God.

First of all, you notice that these two groups can overcome their mutual hatred enough to cooperate in the effort to harm Jesus, whom each of them hates even more.  You can see why Jesus terms these beauties, “a generation of vipers.” But second, you can see the cleverness and malice of the chief priests who have sent these two groups together to Jesus to ask this question.  If He says “pay the taxes,” the Pharisees will know He is wrong and will report Him to the people as no Messiah.  If He says, “don’t pay the taxes,” the Herodians will know He is guilty of  a crime and will report Him to the government.

Jesus will indeed surrender both to an outraged mob and to the power of Herod, but not now and not on their terms.

So He asks for the coin, looks at Caesar’s face, and, by asking his question, gets to take the initiative of the conversation away from these men and to make the statement that confounded them and has haunted all of us ever since –“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

It’s no good claiming that the government provides no services or has no right in our lives.  That is the Pharisee’s position, and it is as selfish and self-righteous now as it was back then.   Nor can we claim that the current governing forces of our lives are some foreign imposition on us – we chose them all.  What is Caesar’s?  What do we owe Caesar?  First of all we owe them our participation in choosing them – all complaining about the government by non voters is a racket. Then we owe obedience to the laws or the willingness to endure the consequence of not obeying if that is the only way we can get laws changed.  And then we owe taxes.  Pay the money.  It is hideous not to ask a single dollar from people as though they have nothing to contribute.  It is even worse for people and businesses of means to weasel out of paying any taxes.  It was the common good, paid for out of everyone else’s taxes, that made their acquisition of wealth possible in the first place.  Give to the government what is the government’s.

What is God’s?  What do we owe God that we do not owe Caesar?  Worship.  Utter trust in His goodness.  Direct obedience to His great commandments above any other law.  Gratitude for the day we have been given.  A passionate love relationship with the Savior who comes for us. 

It is foolish in the extreme to give any of these things to whatever government is here today and will be gone tomorrow, for these things we have to give  -- the worship and the utter obedience, the radical hope and the passionate love and the constant gratitude for what we must have and cannot produce – these things are at the core of our lives.  When I hear the talking heads ranting about how the government isn’t perfect, I think to myself, “Get a faith!”  If we worship government, particularly in a democracy,  we are actually worshipping ourselves.  We’re not good at being gods.  The frustration we encounter when government doesn’t deliver us is what causes all that ranting. 

It’s better therefore to pray to God and for those who are struggling in the difficult, messy business of governing us. He has a route to justice that will utterly amaze you.  By Friday of the week we are reading about, government and church will have combined to do their worst.  They produce a travesty of an arrest and trial and execution.  But the justice – indeed the perfect justice – of God will have been working itself out.  And when it is over, a whole new day dawns.  Wait till you see . . .

Love

Jeff