Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
Matthew 22:15-22
My sermon from the 20th Sunday after Pentecost (October 18, 2020) on Matthew 22:15-22.
So on Friday, as I tried to get my kids out the door and on their way to school, I made the mistake of checking the app their teachers use to communicate with parents. Now I knew I did not have time to do anything special because the rush out the door is always hard enough. But – I looked at my notifications anyway and there, in big letters, was a simple request for money. The school was hosting a fundraiser to support a charity our church knows very well – Josephine’s Garden – which helps children and families who are dealing with cancer. Each child was asked to bring in $2 dollars and I knew this was something my family could and should support. Yet this was a problem because I didn’t have any dollar bills to give because physically carrying cash is something I don’t do very often. One of the changes that’s been sped up in our community by the pandemic has been a decline in the use of physical cash to pay for things. Here at church, half of your financial gifts are received electronically and the rest is given via paper checks. Very few physical bills are left in our offering plate each week. And that reflects my own lifestyle as well. If I had to open my wallet and describe the thing I use to buy goods and services, I would show you a piece of plastic with the words “use of this card is subject to cardmember agreement” written on it. Some of you, if asked to do the same, might even show off a specific app on your phone. Money is important in our society and we make a ton of decisions based solely on how much money we will receive. But money as a tangible object – as something we look at, hold, and feel, is becoming less and less of a thing in our lives. But on Friday, physical money was what I needed. And I had 3 minutes to get 4 $1 dollar bills to my kids before they headed out the door.
Today’s reading from the gospel according to Matthew is about money. Money and wealth was the number two thing Jesus talked about – second only to the kingdom of God. Jesus and his first followers, although rarely described as having money, relied on it – and Matthew tells us they were supported financially by women. Jesus knew that our view of money and how we use it lets others know who we really are. And so Jesus had to talk about money because we let money define not only our humanity but also who we know God to be. This story from Matthew is a continuation of a conversation we’ve been listening to for weeks. It began with Jesus going to the Temple – a physical place where God promised to be. Jesus, as he entered that holy site, got angry and he physically threw tables, while chasing out merchants who were selling the animals necessary for religious rituals and also the moneychangers who exchanged one kind of currency for another. Over the next several days, Jesus returned to the Temple to preach and teach. A small crowd gathered around him and his actions drew the attention of the spiritual and political leaders in Jerusalem. Those leaders came to Jesus and they asked him a question: they wondered by what authority he was doing all the things he did. Jesus, as we heard a few weeks ago, almost immediately responded by asking a question. The leaders heard the question – and they hesitated to answer. That delay sort of became a defining characteristic of the back and forth between Jesus and those leaders. Their hesitation and their unwillingness to answer that question shaped Jesus’ ongoing response to them. He shared with them parables – short stories designed to get them to think and to respond. He told them about two sons who were told to go work in a farmer’s field; and about tenants who tried to steal the land they were working on. Jesus even described a wedding banquet where a king invited random people to celebrate the party with him. During each story, Jesus poked and prodded the political and religious leaders by asking them questions. He wanted to hear what was on the tip of their tongues because he knew that our first answer sometimes reveals the truth about who we actually are. And after every question, the leaders immediately responded – showing that the lives we live don’t always match what we think our lives are actually about.
So when the leaders, once again, tried to get Jesus to say something that would endanger his life or discredit his teachings, Jesus didn’t change how he operated. He asked for a coin and those who he was talking to immediately produced it. The Roman Empire who occupied what was once the kingdom of Israel required everyone to pay taxes. And those taxes needed to be paid in Roman money which was actual physical coin. On each coin was the image of the emperor who made it and it was full of symbols illustrating their power and might. The coin given to Jesus while he was in the Temple might have described the emperor as divine, as a son of the gods, and bore the image of the Emperor, someday, ruling the world. People needed that coin to pay the tax and so when Jesus asked for it, they already had it. The leaders who asked Jesus that question weren’t interested in an answer that might change how they lived their lives. Instead, they were looking for an answer that might have cost Jesus his. So Jesus turned their question around – and he invited them to take a hard look at the lives they were already living.
Jesus’ parables are sometimes weird, absurd, and might be a bit difficult to understand. But they are often a mirror – asking us to take a real good look at who we truly are. And, for me, that’s what today’s parable is all about. Money is always more than just money because how we view, handle, and spend it reflects our values, experiences, and who we know God to be. The coin Jesus physically touched represented everything the Roman Empire stood for. It embodied a sense of entitlement that imagined that the entire world belonged to them. Power, wealth, and even mercy was a tool to be used against others for the attainment of that goal. The life imagined by that coin was a life that didn’t have much room for the kingdom of God. So instead of only looking at the coin he was given, Jesus held up a mirror so that we could take a look at ourselves. Because we too, like that coin, bear an image and the image we carry is the image of God. We were, through God’s handiwork, made to reflect everything that God represents. And as the baptized and faithful members of the body of Christ, we get to bring Jesus into every interaction that we have. You are not only beautifully and wonderfully made just as you are – you are also called to be imitators of the Lord because Jesus has already claimed you as his own. You are priceless in the eyes of God because Christ died for you. And since you are worth everything to God, we get to live our lives in a way that makes God’s love tangible and real.
Now, in the future, I hope Victoria will let me know how this passage sounds when the physical form of money becomes a relic of the past. But even when the tooth fairy starts sending money for loose teeth via Venmo and our teachers make fundraising requests via Apple Pay, the question about how we live our life still remains. Do we choose to live through the lens of dollars and cents or do we trust that we are actually loved and that our world truly belongs to God? Today, through the gift of baptism, Victoria has been gifted a new life that will let her live out her answer to that question because she will not face the trials of this world alone. Instead she, like all of us, has been given a Savior who will show her what God’s kingdom is all about. And when Jesus holds a mirror in front of her, letting her everything that makes her – her – I pray that she’ll also see the eternal promise that was given to her today – because Jesus is already part of her – and through His love, she will always be with God.
Amen.