Sunday Sermon - Matthew 22:15-22

Matthew 22:15-22 15Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17“Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19“Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Show of hands…. How many of you like to pay taxes? Anyone? What if I was to tell you that the state has a divine right to assess taxes and that you have a divine obligation to pay them?

Show of hands again? Inauguration Day is this Tuesday, how many of you are happy with our next President? What if I told you that you have a divine obligation to give this man respect? What if I told you that you had a divine obligation to pray for him?

Before we talk more about “divine obligations”, let’s talk about the situation described in Matthew. The Pharisees have had it with Jesus. They have lost every debate with Him, they have lost credibility with the crowd and most importantly their position with God has been questioned. They have no other desire now but to see this carpenter from Nazareth dead.

Verse 15 says that they plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk, they devised a question that they already knew the answer to and they plotted with their own enemies, the Herodians, to get Jesus to answer they wanted to hear. Not much is know about the Herodians but we can derive much from their name. They must have been tied to Herod. Why is that important? Herod was pro-Roman. Why is that important? The Jewish-Herodians from today’s verse would run back to Rome with any statement against the government.

In the scripture for today Jesus gives us an unexpected answer to a loaded question. The loaded question is in verse 17, Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?. The answer that Jesus is expected to give is “Yes”. They could then bring Jesus to Rome with charges of insurrection which would then result in his death. Their problem becomes Rome’s problem and they would be more than pleased with Rome’s solution.

Look at how Jesus is approached in verse 16, talk about laying it on thick. They approach Jesus and call him “Teacher”, they then talk about how He “does not regard the person of man” but only is concerned with “teaching the way of God in truth”. These statements are all true but what if Jesus is just a normal man? Wouldn’t it be easy to fall into a trap with this kind of setup? After all, these men only want to know what He thinks about a question. Why wouldn’t Jesus answer them in the way that they want to hear?

From the Greek word used for “taxes” in our scripture we learn that Jesus was not asked about taxation in general but is asked about a very specific tax, the “Poll Tax” or “Head Tax”. This was an “uncomfortable” tax for the people of Israel to pay. It was not uncomfortable because of the amount (a denarius was one day’s worth of pay for a laborer) but because it was a tax that said “You belong to Rome”. The Israelites believed that they belonged to God. It was also uncomfortable because of the coin that had to be used to pay it. A “denarius” was a silver coin with the emperor’s head on one side and an inscription on the other that either referred to the deity of the emperor or the emperor’s position as high priest. This coin itself was an offense to God from the Israelites point of view because it was a graven image. For both of these reasons most Jews felt this tax offensive. Jesus was supposed to answer, “No it is not righteous because this man has taken the place of God and has claimed God’s people for his own”. It is the answer that the common man would give around the dinner table and it is the answer that any truth speaking rabbi would give to friendly ears. He speaks out against Rome, the Herodians rat him out to the government and Jesus is put to death for insurrection. Easy-peasie-chuckie-cheesie, or so they thought.

Look at how Jesus responds in verse 18 - Hypocrites. He isn’t falling for the flattery one bit, after all He is God and knows the hearts of men. He knows that they are not honestly seeking an answer, they simply are looking for an opportunity to trap Him.

Look at his answer in verse 19. He asks for a denarius and asks “Who’s image and inscription is this” to which the crowd replies “Caesar’s” to which He replies “Render therefore to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” God Himself declares that we are to pay our taxes.

Let’s think for a second what it was like to live under Roman rule. They brought peace to an area of the world that was use to being overrun and conquered by whoever wanted to pass through. They brought roads and made it safe to travel from place to place. They brought aqueducts which made it easier for populations to have access to life sustaining water. All of these programs cost money and the money had to come from somewhere.

Government and the support of it is ordained by God. Let’s look at some scripture. First from 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. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

How about a section from 1 Timothy 2:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

And finally from 1 Peter 2:

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—

Think of the world that Jesus, Paul, and Peter lived in. Slavery was legal, rights were reserved for Roman-born citizens and not necessarily Roman-conquered, and the government was corrupt and pagan. Yet the command was still to support and honor the government. When Jesus says “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s” He is saying “Everything belongs to Me and I have decreed that a portion of My bounty is to go to the government because they are my ministers for good.”

Fast forward some 2000 years – if these things are true in a pagan society how much more today in a representative form of government? We have been given the privilege in America to voice our opinions, we have been given the privilege of electing officials who are supposed to support our wishes. We have been given stewardship of a wonderful gift in this great land – let us not waste it.

“and to God the things that are God’s” Jesus closes the answer with. Jesus is not telling us to separate the secular from the religious here. Under God’s plan government has a role in social and economic situations. It is the government’s divine duty to provide a safe environment for its citizens. Our founding fathers felt that we also have the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But when government crosses the line and expects to be worshipped they have entered into God’s territory. Worship is reserved for God and God alone – Jesus is saying “You pay Caesar with the coin that he has made because that is good but do not believe for one moment that He is a priest or a God. He is neither – worship Me and Me alone”.

I’m not saying that we are to blindly follow our leaders however, look with me at Acts 5. The apostles had been commanded to stop teaching in Christ’s name. Look at their response:

…“Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

We have a divine obligation to tell people about sin. When our government is heading in an ungodly direction we are to stand in the breach and say “Stop”. We are not to be insurrectionists but we are supposed to stand for truth.

I’m sure more can be said but I’m quickly moving into areas that could take this post in several directions. Suffice it to say that we are commanded by God to support and pray for our government.

Grace and Peace to you all…