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Wednesday, October 22, 2008
All Due Respect
Psalm 99; Matthew 22:15-22
Through no strategy of my own, this week's sermon fit right in with the heightened political pulse of the day -- which was Day 16 in our national countdown to Election Day. It was really a divine coincidence that the assigned Gospel story was about politics in general and taxes in particular.
Two Jewish parties with no love lost between them, Pharisees and Herodians, came together to ask Jesus a trick question -- one that would get him in trouble no matter how he answered it. "Does God's Law allow us to pay the taxes required by Rome's laws?"
And they had the gall to preface it all with some weaselly words of flattery. "We know," they said, "that you are absolutely sincere, honest, and evenhanded in the ways you teach and treat your disciples." Yadda yadda yadda. "With all due respect." And blech.
Jesus called them out on their hypocrisy and refused to give a yes or no answer to their oily question. Instead, he got them to produce one of the Roman-minted tax coins and asked a question of his own.
Ace teacher that he was, he moved the question away from abstract ideas into a tangible object lesson. "Look, touch," he said. "Hold this coin. Feel the metal, study the picture, read the label."
Then he asked, "Whose face is that? Who is that man?"
"Caesar," they said. And "Caesar" once again.
Bingo! And so it's Caesar's coin, no?
Well, yes.
"So," said Jesus, "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And never forget to give to God what belongs to God." In other words, always give to God the due respect that God deserves.
And his inquisitors walked away without another word. Weaselly or otherwise.
But, you may ask, what does belong to God? Maybe everything? Then isn't Caesar's coin also really God's property?
Hmmm. Suddenly what looks like one simple little stumper unfolds to reveal a host of other, more complicated, questions. What's a thoughtful person to do?
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:52 PM
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