Oct 22, 2023 |
The Currency of God’s Kingdom
| The Rev. Brandon Ashcraft
The Currency of God’s Kingdom
When I was in high school, a teacher once accused me of being “obsequious.” Having not yet encountered this word in my SAT prep, I was forced to look it up in the dictionary (which, in the pre-smartphone age, meant I had to find an actual dictionary). You can imagine my indignation upon learning that an “obsequious” person relies on excessive flattery to ingratiate themselves with someone important. In other words, my teacher had used a fancy word to call me a kiss-up! Adding insult to injury, I learned that an “obsequious” person is, by definition, insincere. Disingenuous. Which is to say, it’s a perfect word to describe Jesus’ rivals in the passage we just heard. These obsequious opponents greet Jesus with words of fawning, insincere flattery. “Teacher,” they say to Jesus, “we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth.” But their true intention is to entrap Jesus. Their words are full of praise, but their hearts are full of malice.
In our Gospel passages the last few weeks, this tension between Jesus and his adversaries has been building. Remember, today’s scene takes place only days after the events of Palm Sunday. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and was greeted with cries of “hosanna,” as the crowds proclaimed him the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. From there, Jesus moves to the Temple, where we find him today – at the very center of Jewish religious life and power. Teaching and telling parables, about a kingdom where the last will be first, and the first will be last. Understandably, those in positions of power are starting to feel threatened. So threatened, in fact, that an unlikely alliance has formed between the Pharisees (the religious elite), and the Herodians (friends of the emperor). Opposition to Jesus, it seems, turns enemies into friends. In only a matter of days, they will arrest Jesus and put him to death. But today, they test Jesus with cunning words in the form of this question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
If he answers “yes,” Jesus will appear sympathetic to the Roman Empire. That would alienate his Jewish followers, who are the victims of Roman oppression. If he says “no,” he’ll expose himself to charges of sedition. And that would give the Roman authorities a reason to arrest him. Jesus appears to be trapped. Except, Jesus refuses to play by his questioners’ rules. He declines to answer yes or no, and instead asks them a question: “Whose head and title is found on coin used to pay the tax?” “The emperor’s,” they reply. “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,” Jesus says, “and to God the things that are God’s.”
Jesus successfully evades their trick question. But what does his answer mean for us? For a long time, Jesus’ answer has been used to justify the separation of our lives into two distinct spheres: the civic realm and the spiritual realm. By calling us to “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God,” Jesus clarifies the relationship between obedience to the state and obedience to God. Many argue that his response suggests you and I have a dual allegiance: “to the teaching and commands of God, on the one hand…and to the government…on the other."
But if I’m honest, I find this interpretation deeply unsatisfying. It’s too simple and tidy. And Jesus was neither of these things. If we cling too tightly to a separation between our civic and spiritual lives, we deny God’s claim on the entirety of our lives. It’s true, we live now as citizens of an earthly kingdom governed by earthly laws. But as citizens of God’s kingdom first, our work is to bear the fruit of his kingdom even now, during our sojourn on earth. And this is a timely topic for us today, as we are weeks away from an election. And in that election, I trust that we, as people of faith, will cast our votes in a way that reflects our most authentic understanding of how best to love God and our neighbors, which is our highest spiritual calling.
Our participation in civic systems is not removed from our spiritual lives or divorced from the convictions of our faith. It is a place where we can become instruments of God’s peace, God’s justice, God’s righteousness, and God’s love. We see this clearly in our work with Greater Cleveland Congregations, where we work alongside other communities of faith for positive social change, often through engagement with those in positions of political power.
So, if this passage is not about bifurcating our spiritual and civic lives, what is its message for us today? Well, let’s go back to where we started – with Jesus’ obsequious opponents. Before Jesus even attempts to respond to their question, he calls out their hypocrisy, as he does over and over throughout the gospels, particularly in his ongoing disputes with the Pharisees. Contrary to a common misperception, Jesus is not here or elsewhere criticizing the Pharisees for their religious beliefs. Jesus was a faithful Jew and no doubt had great sympathy for the Pharisee’s devotion to Torah and its teachings. He condemned them not for their beliefs, but for their hypocrisy. For their false righteousness. For their false persona. For coming to him under the false pretense of being concerned about matters of faith when they just wanted to get rid of Jesus and preserve their own power. The intentions of the Pharisee’s hearts did not match the faith they professed.
Jesus calls us to different way of living. He calls us lives of integrity. Lives of authenticity. Lives of wholeness. Jesus denied any claim on that coin because it bore the image of Caeser. Instead, Jesus claims us as the currency of his kingdom because we bear the image of God. We are God’s currency of peace, justice, and love, in a world torn asunder by the evil fruits of war, hatred, and violence. Indeed, we are gathered here today to be nourished by God’s Word and sacrament to cultivate lives of faith that lead to good works. May we leave here today, renewed for the work of building God’s kingdom on earth. Amen.
In our Gospel passages the last few weeks, this tension between Jesus and his adversaries has been building. Remember, today’s scene takes place only days after the events of Palm Sunday. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey and was greeted with cries of “hosanna,” as the crowds proclaimed him the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. From there, Jesus moves to the Temple, where we find him today – at the very center of Jewish religious life and power. Teaching and telling parables, about a kingdom where the last will be first, and the first will be last. Understandably, those in positions of power are starting to feel threatened. So threatened, in fact, that an unlikely alliance has formed between the Pharisees (the religious elite), and the Herodians (friends of the emperor). Opposition to Jesus, it seems, turns enemies into friends. In only a matter of days, they will arrest Jesus and put him to death. But today, they test Jesus with cunning words in the form of this question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
If he answers “yes,” Jesus will appear sympathetic to the Roman Empire. That would alienate his Jewish followers, who are the victims of Roman oppression. If he says “no,” he’ll expose himself to charges of sedition. And that would give the Roman authorities a reason to arrest him. Jesus appears to be trapped. Except, Jesus refuses to play by his questioners’ rules. He declines to answer yes or no, and instead asks them a question: “Whose head and title is found on coin used to pay the tax?” “The emperor’s,” they reply. “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,” Jesus says, “and to God the things that are God’s.”
Jesus successfully evades their trick question. But what does his answer mean for us? For a long time, Jesus’ answer has been used to justify the separation of our lives into two distinct spheres: the civic realm and the spiritual realm. By calling us to “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God,” Jesus clarifies the relationship between obedience to the state and obedience to God. Many argue that his response suggests you and I have a dual allegiance: “to the teaching and commands of God, on the one hand…and to the government…on the other."
But if I’m honest, I find this interpretation deeply unsatisfying. It’s too simple and tidy. And Jesus was neither of these things. If we cling too tightly to a separation between our civic and spiritual lives, we deny God’s claim on the entirety of our lives. It’s true, we live now as citizens of an earthly kingdom governed by earthly laws. But as citizens of God’s kingdom first, our work is to bear the fruit of his kingdom even now, during our sojourn on earth. And this is a timely topic for us today, as we are weeks away from an election. And in that election, I trust that we, as people of faith, will cast our votes in a way that reflects our most authentic understanding of how best to love God and our neighbors, which is our highest spiritual calling.
Our participation in civic systems is not removed from our spiritual lives or divorced from the convictions of our faith. It is a place where we can become instruments of God’s peace, God’s justice, God’s righteousness, and God’s love. We see this clearly in our work with Greater Cleveland Congregations, where we work alongside other communities of faith for positive social change, often through engagement with those in positions of political power.
So, if this passage is not about bifurcating our spiritual and civic lives, what is its message for us today? Well, let’s go back to where we started – with Jesus’ obsequious opponents. Before Jesus even attempts to respond to their question, he calls out their hypocrisy, as he does over and over throughout the gospels, particularly in his ongoing disputes with the Pharisees. Contrary to a common misperception, Jesus is not here or elsewhere criticizing the Pharisees for their religious beliefs. Jesus was a faithful Jew and no doubt had great sympathy for the Pharisee’s devotion to Torah and its teachings. He condemned them not for their beliefs, but for their hypocrisy. For their false righteousness. For their false persona. For coming to him under the false pretense of being concerned about matters of faith when they just wanted to get rid of Jesus and preserve their own power. The intentions of the Pharisee’s hearts did not match the faith they professed.
Jesus calls us to different way of living. He calls us lives of integrity. Lives of authenticity. Lives of wholeness. Jesus denied any claim on that coin because it bore the image of Caeser. Instead, Jesus claims us as the currency of his kingdom because we bear the image of God. We are God’s currency of peace, justice, and love, in a world torn asunder by the evil fruits of war, hatred, and violence. Indeed, we are gathered here today to be nourished by God’s Word and sacrament to cultivate lives of faith that lead to good works. May we leave here today, renewed for the work of building God’s kingdom on earth. Amen.
