On Rendering

24 Pentecost A | Matthew 22:15-22
October 16, 2005

Probably nine years ago, I heard this line in a sermon by Paul Palumbo: "Having been rendered to Caesar, Jesus renders us into the very heart of God." I wrote it down on the back of a bulletin. This week I finally had an opportunity to use it. That sermon, preached in the Luther Seminary chapel, follows.

Chapel sermons are strange for several reasons (the congregation members are all connected to a theological seminary; one is preaching before one's students, teachers and colleagues; the sermon is supposed to be about 8 minutes long!). I thought I had to throw out a few good things this time so here are some notes that wouldn't work in the sermon I preached but might work somewhere else.

1. Is it lawful? This question is posed to Jesus here but other occurrences of the question/issue are really interesting. Among the places it shows up in Matthew are (a) when Jesus' disciples are plucking grain on the Sabbath, and (b) when Jesus is about to heal someone on the Sabbath, and (c) when Judas throws the money back at the temple authorities after he repents of betraying Jesus. That last discussion of whether something is "lawful" struck me as a great tie between this text and the cross, but I couldn't get it to fit in my sermon.
2. Where do we fit in the story? In the sermon, I put the congregation in the position of Jesus, asking them to answer the question, "Is it lawful to pay taxes…?" from the perspective of a teacher, student or staff member at the seminary. It would be a different sermon if the congregation were asked to identify with, say, the questioners. Is there a way that we fuss about theological questions precisely so we do not have to face the real question about who Jesus is and how he challenges Caesar's authority?

One more comment about my experience of this text. I am just about the farthest thing imaginable from a prophetic preacher. I am a great fan of direct deposit and tenure. I like the prayer in Compline that says, "The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night, and peace at the last." Mostly I like paying my taxes and being left alone. I don't naturally take to agitating or being agitated. Yet it seems to me that the powers and principalities really do make a play for all of us, and I wanted to announce to my hearers, "You do not belong to them." After I did that, I got a lot of feedback about how the sermon was courageous. Is it an "edgy" thing to call American an empire? I didn't think so, but I heard enough of those sorts of comments that I'm curious how a parallel between America and Rome might play in the preaching contexts of my readers.

Here's the sermon.

Faculty members: I know that you are sincere and teach the way of God in accordance with truth and maintain a prophetic voice even when being interviewed by reporters. Students: I know that you are earnest and devoted to Jesus and not afraid of all the hoops you have to jump through or the people you have to please on your way to the church's stamp of approval. Members of the staff: I know that you have figured out how to love God and read a spreadsheet at the same time and that you combine faithfulness and worldly wisdom on a daily basis.

What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? How should we be related to the principalities and powers? What does it mean to say, "Jesus is Lord," when casual sex and even more casual violence dominate our music, our games, our television and movies? How should we speak to the reality of an economy that serves most of us fairly well and is at the same time creating an ever-widening gap between the poor and everyone else? What should American Christians say and do about the war America is fighting?

Christians: I know that you confess the one who preached, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," and that you would not compromise your convictions just to keep the peace. What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? What do you think? Regardless of how successfully you have committed to memory your 3" x 5" card on the doctrine of two kingdoms, no matter how eloquently you are able to speak about the importance of a Christian's vocation as citizen of his or her government, at what point does your association with Caesar become collusion with him, and at what point does your collusion with Caesar give the lie to your confession that Jesus is Lord?

This is the point at which the preacher is supposed to let the congregation off the hook by saying, "You know, though, the opponents of Jesus did not really care about the question they were asking." So I'll say that. It is true of course. Matthew tells us—and everyone else seems to know right away too—that the questioners do not really care about the law, the tax or the emperor. It is not an answer they are after with their question. It is Jesus they want. They are hoping to stage an embarrassing moment for the teacher. If they are lucky, it could turn into a dangerous moment for him too. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? Should those whose king is the Lord render tribute to any earthly king? If Jesus says, "Yes, it is lawful," wouldn't he be collaborating with the oppressors of God's people, the very people to whom he has been preaching freedom? And if he says "No," then isn't he clearly an enemy of the Roman order and a danger that Rome will simply eliminate?

Homiletics professor and Matthew commentator Tom Long rephrases the question to Jesus like this. "In effect," he writes, the opponents of Jesus ask, "Are you a foolish, uncompromising revolutionary whose allegiance to the kingdom of heaven is actually a political revolution in disguise, or are you a smooth-talking street preacher who stirs up people with glib talk of God's majesty but who underneath advocates a get-along-go-along policy with the Roman, Gentile pigs?" (Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion [Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997] 251).

Jesus answers the question with a coin. Apparently he does not actually have a coin on him when the question about taxes is asked, but the disciples of the Pharisees rustle up a coin, and the Teacher starts teaching: "Whose head is this, and whose title?" As it turns out, Tiberius marked his coins pretty much the way Laverne, of Laverne and Shirley, marked her sweaters. (All of Laverne's sweaters had an L embroidered on them.) Wouldn't you know it, when you own the mint, you can put your own picture on the coins. "Well then," says Jesus, "Give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and to God what belongs to God."

"Give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor." Right. So about the tax: does Caesar want his money back? No kidding? Are you surprised at this? If you think there is not a price to be paid for the privilege of hearing Caesar's coins jingle in your pocket, you are naïve, and Caesar will educate you on this point soon enough. It is foolish for American Christians to think we could opt out of collaboration with the emperor. (It would be like trying to opt out of collaboration with the atmosphere.) Most of us are fully enfranchised citizens of the empire. It would be foolish to think we could opt out of collaboration with it. But it is equally foolish for us to think that such collaboration does not expose us to great danger and compromise our witness to any king but Caesar. The emperor wants more than just the coins in your pocket. Where your jingle is, there will your heart be also.

In the face of the emperor's appetite for his money and your life, Jesus says, "Give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and to God what belongs to God." The people who reject Jesus and arrange his death get both halves of this directive wrong. They look at Jesus, the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), and they render him to Caesar. This is the bottom of the slippery slope of making your compromises with the emperor. The emperor gets more and more, and before you know it, you are saying things like, "We have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God" (John 19:7); before you know it, you are washing your hands in public and announcing, "I am innocent of this man's blood" (27:25).

Finally, Jesus is the only one who rightly divides what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God, and his refusal to give anything of God's to Caesar results in his death. Caesar does not like to be reminded of limits to his authority.

So what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? And what exactly are we supposed to give to God? Caesar's image is on the coin. It goes to Caesar.

In whose image were you created? Jesus knew the answer to this question. Jesus knew that line in Genesis about human beings having been created in the image of God. He relentlessly kept connecting people to their Creator even when his methods troubled the best of Caesar's friends. He did this all the way to his death, so that finally, having been rendered to Caesar and the full force of Caesar's capacity to kill, Jesus renders you and me into the very heart of God.

"You are not your own," Paul said to the Corinthians. Even Caesar would agree on that point. You are not your own, but there is more: you do not belong to Caesar either. Paul goes on, "You have been bought with a price." You belong to God. That news does not answer easily all the questions about how exactly we live in the empire, but we cannot begin to answer them without knowing that much, and it gives us a place to start and return to as we work on them. You belong to God. So does your neighbor. "Give to the emperor what belongs to the emperor, and to God what belongs to God."

Comments

[Paige]

It's great to be able to read your chapel sermon. Thank you for posting it.

Your reference to Colossians 1:15 and your reflection on thinking of America as an "empire" reminded me of the book "Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire" by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. They look at the world today through the lens of empire and while the format of their book seems a bit odd at times (imaginary dialogues with postmodern young people, etc.) it's an interesting read.

Thanks for keeping company with preachers!

[Matt]

What a gift to be able to read your fantastic sermons online! This offers such a critical set of questions for Christians to wrestle with, and I particularly like the fact that there aren't easy answers (complete assimilation isn't a possibility, but neither is complete withdrawal from the empire.) Thanks for this challenging word!

pax
Matt

[Chad K]

Mary, I appreciated you directness in this sermon when I watched it. There is something about being claimed and named that never wears out. As you posted extra comments, I also thought your second to be provoking. You said, "Is there a way that we fuss about theological questions precisely so we do not have to face the real question about who Jesus is and how he challenges Caesar's authority?" I think you may brush up against one of the pitfalls of biblical criticism that I fall into sometimes. You can sign things away, or tear apart miniscule greek phrases, BUT what do you do when you get to a phrase like, "follow me." So yes, we argue about deep questions and let that bog us down as we think less about what it means to be a follower.