You may not know that I have always been good at finding loopholes; much to my mother’s dismay! She used to always joke that I should be a lawyer because I really liked both arguing and loopholes. In a similar vain today, the religious leaders are trying to trap Jesus in his own words. It almost feels like the questioning of a lawyer, as they are trying to get Jesus to confess to something that is worthy of their planned punishment. They are trying to add fuel to their fire against Jesus. So they ask him, “Give us your opinion, then, in this case. Is it lawful to pay a tax to the Roman emperor or not?… “Jesus said to them, ‘then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but give to God what is God’s.’” (Matthew 22: 17, 21b). What is Jesus even doing here? He even managed to surprise the religious leaders who were trying to trap him, as we hear: “When they heard this, they were astonished and went away” (Matthew 22: 22). This is where our story ends today. Jesus doesn’t give a further explanation, our story just ends and moves right into the next one in verse 23. So again, we are left wondering, what is Jesus even doing here?
From what we know about Jesus, it seems pretty likely that his words are intentional. He wasn’t just trying to find the loophole to their question, but was sincere in his answer. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s” (Matthew 22: 21b). I think this can go a lot of different ways, but the two that have been sticking out to me this week fall along the lines of idolatry and also what it means to still live as a part of the world, in the already and not yet of God’s kindom.
Like I mentioned last week, we’ve been beginning our conversations about the Commandments in Confirmation. I personally love talking about the commandments and what they mean for us, including how this changes over time as society changes. Today’s lesson is a good example. The early Israelites who received the commandments in the wilderness did not have to deal with paying taxes to Caesar, but their wrestling with idolatry still holds true for the disciples of Jesus’ time. Jesus isn’t discouraging these leaders from paying their taxes to Caesar, but within his words is also reminding them that Caesar is not God, is not the ultimate ruler over them. They can live as a part of Caesar’s system, but they have to also remember from whom they came. Just because they owed to Caesar the coins that were Caesar’s did not mean that they were required to idolize and praise him; instead, those were things that belonged to God.
Additionally, this idolatry question gets into a larger question of what it means to live as a part of the world, while at the same time remembering that all the ways of the world are not God’s ways. Unfortunately, like most big questions in faith, I don’t know if I have a solid answer to this. It’s what Paul and Luther were wrestling with in their days too, as they kept writing about remembering the teachings of Christ and following in his ways. This has been a question that has plagued us throughout the centuries. But, I do think that it has to do with the ways that we still show up for the world around us, whether that is picking up garbage, sitting with a friend or neighbor who is ill, calling our elected officials, stocking items in the food pantry, or writing cards to brighten peoples’ days. It is a reminder that we are to care about this life here and now, not just focus on the life of the world to come.
Especially right now, it can be so easy to get weighed down by the weight of the world and fall into a state of feeling helpless to change anything. And, while I’m reminded quite regularly that I cannot bring world peace with a snap of my fingers, I think that we are still called to live into God’s vision of what the world can be. A world where people genuinely care about one another. A world where people stop thinking of themselves as the most important all the time, consumed with vanity and corporate greed. A world where we people don’t have to worry about where they are going to sleep, or what they are going to eat, or even worse, if they will even live to see tomorrow.
It was always interesting to me in college and Seminary when we talked about vocation because so many people associated it only with the field of their paid work. But, in reality, Martin Luther talked about vocation as being so much broader, including our lives in relation to our work, our families, our worshiping communities, and yes even our civic life as citizens of a country. These aspects were all important to Luther, and it seems in the past few decades we have become wary of talking about our civic life in the church because it’s deemed too political. Yet, when our Greek professors described the origins of the word politics to us, it means something along the lines of “amongst the people.” Then of course this would be something that would be talked about in churches and would inform our lives of faith, in fact, it is something that we talk about regularly when we talk about what it means to be disciples of Christ. This form of politics is different from what we would classify as bi-partisan politics in our country today. It’s not about one side versus the other, or who is right and who is wrong; it’s certainly not advocating for one politician over another either. Jesus was simply concerned about taking care of the people. Making sure they were healed and that their needs were met. This ultimately is the heart of the gospel, that God alone is the giver of life, faith, wholeness, forgiveness, and grace. And, this ultimately is part of the call of the church; to live this out in word and deed.
So today, when it seems like Jesus might be finding a loophole to answer the religious leaders questions, I think he was actually really intentional about what he said. We are a part of the world and we have to live as such. And we also live as God’s created, called to live lives that are so much deeper and more full of abundant life compared to the ways that break us down and tell us we won’t be whole or worthy if we don’t buy this, that, or the other thing. We are called to live as a part of a community and to share the Gospel through word and deed; at the heart of which is caring for people. Jesus is reminding the religious leaders and us that being a follower of Christ doesn’t mean that we see ourselves as better than the rest of the world, but that we walk as a part of the world, lifting up others and caring for God’s creation, as our response to the gifts that God has first given us. In Jesus’ short reply, he doesn’t say that it will be easy, but he does give a pretty clear directive about what people are supposed to do. “Give to the world what is the world’s and give to God what is God’s.” I can’t answer what this means exactly for your lives, but as we head into this next week, I do invite you to begin thinking about it for yourselves. What does it mean to live as a part of God’s kindom, the one that is already and not yet?