- Psalmody: Psalm 18:48; 1-2a; Psalm 43:1b, d, 3a; Psalm 138:1; Psalm 59:1; Psalm 119:121, 128
- Lection: Proverbs 8:11–22; Philippians 3:17–21; Matthew 22:15–21
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
It’s hard to track down how many, but there is likely a number of our government rulers, in federal, state, and local levels, who hold citizenship both in the United States and in a foreign country simultaneously. Whether you agree with the possible ramifications of this fact or not, and the dilemma of loyalty, the condition exists and must be considered and adapted to, for we all have but this one world to live in. In the grand sense, we are all earthly citizens, bound to life where God has placed us as citizens in different nations, under earthly rulers, many of which have been, are, and will be quite full of themselves demanding to share glory meant for God alone. This will remain true for the entirety of this age of sin, where the heart of man remains corrupt, fallen, and self-absorbed. Yet, in the midst of such turmoil and chaos, God is the One Who still brings order. He establishes governments, kings, presidents, rulers, yes, even the bad ones. No campaign, coronation, election, abdication, or coup will ever dupe the Almighty. Wicked rulers don’t have God all fooled, head in hand, in deep hissy fit and despair, slumped down in His cloudy chair. He controls all things by His mighty right hand and for this we shall thank and praise, serve and obey Him in accordance with the reality over which He rules forever and ever.
In this reality, the Pharisees sent some of their disciples to try to entangle Jesus with a worldly dilemma. They sent them with Herodians, people who bore the name and hope of an earthly ruler in whom they trusted: Herod, already showing the folly in man’s trust in princes. Their plot was to publicly present Jesus with a dilemma in which, they hoped, He would answer either one way and have the crowds that rightfully hung on His words turn against Him, or the other way and incur the wrath of Caesar. They asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Though they had just given lip-service to God and truth, their question considered not His ways, but ours; our wisdom, our desires, our standards, our judgements, our malice. The question used God as a weapon and utterly failed to acknowledge Who is in control of all things, including all caesars, kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers, congresses; none of them have authority of their own. No, not one. Ever. Take comfort in that and praise your King of Glory!
So, the pharisaical disciples and accompanying Herodians thought that Jesus would have to answer “yes” it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, thus by His own mouth making Himself an enemy of the people of Judea, for any support of that guy, that ruler, that that policy, that politician obviously equates to being an enemy. It’s what sells news channels: outrage and sensationalism. Or He would answer, “no,” and set Himself up for being handled by Caesar’s cronies for seditious talk, for Caesar rightly exacted taxes from subjects under his rule. He employed tax collectors from among the people in regions of his rule and allowed them to add personal collection fees on top of what his cut was. An honest living could be understood in the arrangement, but give the wicked heart of man opportunity to legally exploit others for financial gain, and there aren’t too many of us who wouldn’t work it in some degree to our greedy advantage. Thus, the reason common folk detested fellow Jews who collected taxes for Caesar, and, subsequently, Caesar himself for even demanding a tax in the first place. Man’s sin often causes within us a distortion of what God wills, yes, even in the paying of taxes.
We may dislike paying taxes, believe and see how the process could be done better, and pray that tax collection doesn’t grow corrupt (-er) in our nation, yet we cannot demonize those who collect from us. These operations, governments, revenue services, again, aren’t pulling fast ones on God and somehow getting away with practices that He certainly would not allow, if He were truly omnipotent. Yet, He is omnipotent. Nothing is beyond His control and will. He is omniscient. Nothing in the deceitful plots of man is beyond His knowledge. Thus, St. Paul writes in Romans 13, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God… For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers … Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”
St. Paul’s elaborative words on those of Jesus about rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s is for us to understand and trust that ultimately God is in control no matter what. Therefore, if Caesar is no god himself, but only a minister of the one true God of heaven and earth, then rendering unto Caesar the things that are his is an act that honors God through subjection to the governing authority that God has put in place. In a good and true sense, giving a portion (in taxes) to the governing authority is an act of rendering to God the things that are God’s, for the authorities that exist are appointed by God. There is no dilemma in the ill-intended question posed to Jesus and His answer points to the truth yet undiscovered, or at least unbelieved, by them: even wicked, pagan rulers exercise authority on loan from God. They would not have it if He did not will it.
But let not this truth rest solely on the ears of the Pharisees’ disciples and Herodians, for we all are to consider what we render. Only by God’s doing are any of us rulers of our own little domains; ones given charge over time, talent, and treasures, and good stewardship of them. How do you steward your time? Do you view it as all your own, to do with as you please, to decree how it is spent, just as Caesar saw himself as god and ruler of all? You must forget not that the Lord is the Maker and Creator of all things, including our 24-hour days and our 7-day weeks. Time and eternity are in His hand. In this life, He gives us all the exact same share of time in those proportions, Himself laying out the rhythm of work and rest. In six days, He created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day, He rested, giving to all who believe and follow Him the pattern of a good, weekly life. If you trust that four, five, or six days of labor are necessary to support this earthly life and rarely miss a day of work lest you lose your job, your business, your income, your provision for bodily life, how much more necessary is that one day of rest every week where you render yourself to the Lord likewise by rarely treating it with less consideration than the other six allotted to you? It is a day of rest that is defined not by laziness, recreation, entertainment, sleeping in, or satisfaction of fleshly pleasure, but by spiritual rest that sustains you in the other six; rest found only in Christ, in His Word, in His forgiveness, in His instruction, in His Divine Service to you. Your Sunday routines must have at least the same dedication and priority within your hearts as our weekdays, whether they be full of labor, retirement, or learning, lest you fall victim of sowing only to the flesh while setting yourselves up to reap little of the Spirit.
Render your talents, also, unto the Lord, steward them faithfully, understanding that God gives good gifts to men for the benefit of serving in the Church from whence such good things come to us. The talents, desires, skills that you possess are for good works so that others may see them and give glory to your Father in heaven, understanding that from Him good things come here and yonder. Do not hold back. Seek how you may invest abilities that God has given you for the building up of His Church, your church.
Render to God your time, your talent, and also your treasure, not begrudgingly as a dragon upon a horde of gold, as if by your might you have filled your barns, that by your control of all things around you, you have prospered yourself in the land. God has overseen all that and is good to us and has blessed us with much of what is His to tend, oh so graciously to our needs, and to be able, in redeemed desire and joy, to faithfully steward, to return to Him a portion of what is but His own. Many acts of faith are laborious in the mind and will as we struggle with how to apply our faith to this situation over here or that decision over there. The tithe is a cut-and-dry, clear expression of faith to which you can commit saying the Lord has graciously given me this much, the ability to gain this much, so with a thankful heart I shall respond with good cheer and glorify His holy Name by giving to His Church a tithe, a tenth of what He has put into my charge. By such acts of faith, the Lord of hosts promises to open the windows of heaven in blessing.
To Him, all that we are belongs. So, as citizens of the United States in this present world, we consider the higher citizenship that shall never end; that of heaven, and its implications for life here. Many things are opposed to that eternal kingdom, yet many things are ordained by the One Who rules over it, and those things are always good. Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (things that are still ultimately God’s), and to God the things that are God’s. Consider what God truly seeks to have you render unto Him. Unlike Caesar, He cares for the renderer, not just for what is rendered; not just the time, the talent, the treasures. His desire is you, for see what Jesus does with the tax money. It was a coin about which He asked, “Whose image and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Behold the parallels in how God desires you, yourself, your whole person; your time, talent, treasures, for sure, but not just that. All of you. Every scratch, every smudge, every grimy groove, every shiny worth. All that is rendered unto the Lord is purified, refined. The coin had Caesar’s image and inscription on it, therefore it was rightly rendered to him. You are no cold, hard, lifeless coin, but a beloved creation made not in the image of a finite earthly authority who shall soon pass away, but in the image of God. You were cast into the fiery furnace of sin, yet God entered in, endured all flame of guilt on your behalf, and brought you out by Holy Baptism, now robed in glorious apparel that has no smoky stench of condemnation. Your time, talent, and treasures have been redeemed in Him. In doing this, He has upon you, as sign upon your forehead, inscribed the Holy Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You are His. Render to this great God and Savior the things that are God’s.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.