Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, October 22, 2017
This morning, our Gospel brings up the subject of politics and religion. The Pharisees are the religious authority. The Herodians are the Jewish political authority. Well, kind of. Since Rome had conquered, occupied, and subdued Israel, Israel’s religious and political authority was more or less tolerated and kept on a short leash. The Emperor not only had ultimate authority, he declared himself god in the flesh. Roman money had the image of the emperor and something on the coin to declare his status as a deity. One of the main way his subjects throughout the world paid tribute to him was to pay a tax. How do you feel about paying taxes?
The people of Israel not only resented this tribute but saw it as idolatry. “You shall have no other gods. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.” And here you have a coin with a false god and a depiction of him minted on a coin. That is the trap of mixing religion and politics. The religious and political authority ask him if it is right to pay this tribute and tax to Rome. If Jesus says yes, he is saying it is okay to practice idolatry. If he says no, he is committing treason against Rome. And Rome would easily put someone to death who taught that publicly. Jesus does not take the bait. He does not walk into their trap. They walk into Jesus’ trap. “Show me the coin used for the tax,” he says. Understand that none of them should have that coin. It is a false idol. And yet, they bring it to him probably with faces as red as Caesar’s face was polished silver.
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| Coin minted by Augustus (c. 19–18 BC) |
“Whose head is this?” he asks. “The emperor’s,” they respond. Most likely the image was of a previous emperor—a dead emperor. This makes it all the more hilarious. This is the real “gotcha” moment. Jesus says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Does the emperor want his coin back? Let him have it. Go ahead and pour the coins into his coffin or into his coffers. His reward is paid in full. Give him the coin like you would take something to lost and found. Don’t feed the lie that he is a god but do what is necessary to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness. “Give to God the things that are God’s.” And just what do we have that is God’s? Everything. I love how the psalmist says it in Psalm 50 (v.10): “Every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.” Everything in the world—whether wild or tame—is the Lord’s! Psalm 24 (v.1) says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” The gold and silver extracted from the earth is the Lord’s. You and I are the Lord’s.
And here is the amazing thing. We bear the image of God. We are minted out of the dust of the earth. “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created [us], male and female he created [us]” (Genesis 1:27). God has invested in the world with our lives. He has put his likeness on us so that we will be stewards and servants to God and one another—so that we would love him with our whole being and one another as he has loved us. Over and over again, God says to his people that he does not want our gold, silver, temple sacrifices, or any material thing. What he wants our steadfast love. He wants our faithfulness. He wants us to be a godly presence to one another and bear his image faithfully to the world (Isaiah 1:11; Hosea 6:6). “He has told you,” Scripture says, “what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). We are to be God’s ambassadors. We are God’s tribute to the world. But we have failed to live up to this high calling to bear the image of God to the world. Like the Pharisees and Herodians, we have false gods hiding in our pockets. We have not fully invested our lives as a tribute to God. We have not loved one another as God has loved us in tribute and thanksgiving to the true and living God.
And so, God sent the world another coin with his image—not minted out of gold or silver—not out of the dust of the earth—but out of his own eternal and divine nature. He has no beginning and no end. He came from heaven to earth and was born of the virgin Mary—minted with perfect humanity in time and space. He is God’s perfect tribute to the world—a life of perfect obedience. Scripture in Hebrews chapter 1 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”
God raised him up on the Cross—him who bears his image perfectly—to pay the penalty for all of our sin—“not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18,19). Then God raised him up from the empty tomb as a tribute to his victory over death, the devil, our sin, and the grave. And so God purchased a place for us in his heavenly Kingdom. And so we raise him up with our voices and our lives. Whose likeness and whose title is this? He is eternal God made flesh. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is our Redeemer who paid the penalty for our sin and a place in heaven.
Holy God, we praise Thy name;
Lord of all, we bow before Thee.
All on earth Thy scepter claim,
All in heav’n adore thee.
Infinite Thy vast domain.
Everlasting is Thy reign.
("Holy God, We Praise Thy Name," LSB 940, v. 1)
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