Jesus Doesn't Play Gotcha
Pentecost + 18, October 16, 2011
If ever there was a “gotcha”
question, the one we hear in the gospel this morning is it! “Gotcha”
questions, of course, are designed to show someone up in front of an
audience, asked to catch them off guard and trap them with their own
words, and certainly, that is what the disciples of the Pharisees who
come with the Herodians to Jesus, who's still in the temple, are
trying to do. If you've been here in the past month or so, you might
remember that Jesus has been having a big ol' showdown with the
Pharisees, and now it seems, halftime had come – the Pharisees went
back into the locker room and came up with a new game plan. This
time, they'll send their followers back to Jesus with this very
tricky question. And they send them with the Herodians – a very
interesting pairing, since the Pharisees were opposed to Roman rule,
and the Herodians had a big stake in keeping Herod and his clan in
power, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, as they say, and both
groups were about done with Jesus and the way he was stirring up the
crowds. So they come back to Jesus in the temple, determined to trip
him up.
They begin with flattering words,
“Teacher, we know that you are sincere and teach the way of God in
accordance with truth...” and then comes the punchline - “tell
us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor
or not?” It's a trick question of course. If he says it is, the
crowds may turn away from following him; if he says it isn't, then he
risks arrest by the Roman authorities.
But Jesus won't get sucked into their
gotcha scenario. He asks to see the coin, asks whose head and title
are on it, and hearing their reply that it is the emperor's, he comes
back with this classic reply, “Give therefore to the emperor the
things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.”
Now on one level, this seems simple
enough. It sounds as though Jesus is dividing the world up between
church and state, as though they were two different realms; that the
political and secular does not have anything to do with the
spiritual; as though Caesar and God are 2 equal beings. But Jesus'
answer goes deeper than that – because on the heels of his answer,
you can hear the implied follow-up question. “What, then, belongs
to God?”
And we know the answer to that
question. The Pharisees certainly would have known. If the coin
with Caesar's image on it belonged to Caesar, then it would stand to
reason that whatever has God's image belongs to God. And in case you
haven't looked at the book of Genesis lately, it says there, that way
back, in the very beginning, when God was busy creating everything
and calling it good, God created humankind in God's own image, male
and female God created them. You and I – we were created in God's
image. That means we belong to God. That's the plain and simple,
black and white answer to the question, “What belongs to God?”.
Everything we have, everything we are – it's all God's. So when
Jesus says, “Give to God the things that are God's,” what he's
really saying, is give yourself to God.
But just because that's the plain and
simple answer doesn't mean that our questions are done. It just
brings more questions – like how we go about living this way. It's
one thing to say that everything belongs to God; I think that most of
us can agree with that in our heads. But how do we really live it
out? It's not just about our money, although that's certainly a big
part of it. It seems to be the part that most of us struggle with
most of all when it comes to our relationship with God and trusting
God. We in the church talk about tithing – that's giving 10% of
what we earn back to God – as the biblical model for stewardship,
and yet the average Lutheran gives slightly less than 2% of their
income. But no matter what we give, sometimes we act as though the
part we keep is ours to do with whatever we want. And yet, since
everything belongs to God, that means God cares what we do with
everything we have. Does the love and Lordship of God show in the
decisions we make about where we live and what kind of food we eat
and where we shop and what kind of car we drive? Do those decisions
reveal who and what we believe in? Do they show us growing into the
kind of people Jesus calls us to be – people who love God with all
their heart and mind and soul and strength and our neighbors as
ourselves? Do we consider the impact our decisions make, not just in
our lives, but in the lives of the people around the world? Are we
growing in humility and service to others because of our relationship
with Jesus? Or are we as selfish and self-seeking as the rest of the
world?
Now these aren't “gotcha”
questions. I'm not trying to trip anyone up or trap anyone – just
to help us take an honest look at whether or not we're giving to God
the things that are God's through the everyday ways we live our
lives. And the good news is, no matter where you're starting from
today, Jesus isn't playing “gotcha” either. We could spend way
more than 10 or 15 minutes talking about what this story means for
our lives, exploring how Jesus wants us to live out this instruction
to give to God what belongs to God, but it's not a test. It's not a
trap. It's an invitation by Jesus into a deeper relationship, into
living more fully the life God created us to live. It's a call to
consider what it means that you were made in the image of God and to
discover, with Jesus, what it looks like to live as people who bear
the image of God in the world. It's a reminder that we were intended
to live our lives in deep, unbroken connection to God, sustained,
supported, upheld by the One who made us and loves us, an offer to
grow into lives of honor and honesty and generosity, not always
trying to figure out what we owe and who owes us, but rejoicing in
the love of the One who gives everything save us, and sharing that
love with everyone we meet. It's all of these things and more –
and trusting that we do belong to God, and that in giving everything
to God, Jesus gave himself to us, opening the doors of mercy and
grace and second chances, inviting us to follow, to walk in his
footsteps, to learn to live in his way. That's how we give to God
what belongs to God.
Thanks be to God who walks with us
along that way!
Amen.
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