Give what’s owed!

When you woke up this morning, the sun was shining. You did nothing to make it shine, and you cannot keep it from shining. The same is true for the intact atmosphere, the air you breath, the elliptical rotation of the earth, gravity and many other constants that God maintains for his world and universe. Though we often take for granted God’s wise, loving and powerful ongoing maintenance of his Creation, he provides it for us.

God also works through the government to provide for us. We are blessed to live under a government that maintains law and order. The government is not able to do this by sheer will power or free of charge like God, so we owe the government honor, thanks and taxes for the stability and protections it offers to us. And we are even blessed in this country to live under a government that seeks to abide by those voted into office through popular or electoral college votes.

God and the government provide for us, but there are times when we do not give back what we owe them. In our Gospel reading from Matthew 22, Jesus has been sharing a series of parables with the Jewish leaders on the Temple grounds on Tuesday of Holy Week just days before his crucifixion. Tension could be felt by those listening to Jesus’ teachings and watching the reactions of the Jewish leaders. With hopes of trapping him in his words to discredit him, we hear an unlikely coalition between the Pharisees who hated the Roman Empire and the Herodians who had adapted to the power of Caesar because it kept Herod in power. Jesus filled the Pharisees with jealous rage, while the Herodians had little concern for his teachers but were nervous about his political aspirations if he was the heir to the throne of King David. So, they came up with a trap as recorded in Matthew 22,

16 … “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

Filled with flagrant flattery, they pose the question to Jesus who was more than ready for them as we continue reading,

18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.

Jesus’ answer was not amazing because it boosted him in the polls or discredited anyone. Instead, Jesus’ answer properly balanced the calling that all people have in this world to live under God and a secular government. The corrupt Pharisees and Herodians did not have this balance lacking faith in God and genuine honor for their government officials.

Much like the Pharisees and Herodians, we would rather receive than give. The Pharisees and Herodians were eager to make a public appearance if they were to receive honor, but if they were called to give honor, they might have happened to have forgotten to put it on their calendar to give it to Caesar or to God. We can check our hearts by picturing our response to what Jesus told them. When we are told to pay taxes, our initial reaction is not an eagerness to give to the government in thanksgiving for the stability and many protections it provides our society. Rather, our first thought is, “But it is my money, I earned it!” In our hearts, we replace the faces on the cash and coins with selfies. Or we are perfectly happy with taxes being paid as long as they are paid by someone else, and we can combine as many loopholes as possible to shrink our tax bill. Then, there is the other part of Jesus’ response about what we are to give back to God. And we might offer a little joke about not receiving a tax bill from God, and it is true we do not. Instead, we owe God honor. Instead, he is to be the one who sits on the throne of our hearts, but our sinful nature does not want him there. Our sinful nature sends more political ads through our minds than all the mailings, calls and text messages we have received this election season calling for rebellion against God because he does not give us what we want. And when God does not give us what we want from life, we often turn to the government idolizing politicians, platforms or parties putting our faith in them to give us what we want. Then, we dishonor the government when it does not live up to our expectations. Our idolatrous sinful hearts bring harmful chaos to the world and judgment upon us because we do not give what we owe to the government and God.

Jesus gave what was owed to save us. Jesus remained balanced in his giving to the government and to God what each was owed throughout his life. Jesus kept the First and Fourth Commandments dealing with giving honor to God and those in authority respectfully. In an overarching way, Jesus kept all the Ten Commandments and fulfilled God’s law perfectly. In a narrow sense, Jesus honored God by sacrificing his innocent life for the sins of the world on the cross as was the Father’s will and allowing himself to be falsely accused and conspired against by the Jewish leadership and by the permission of Pontius Pilate be hung on the cross. Jesus’ response to their question about taxes amazed the Pharisees and Herodians, but it was the giving of his life that ought to have amazed them most. By the grace of God, all our sins of idolizing the government, dethroning God in our hearts and dishonoring those in authority over us have been paid for and we are the redeemed people of God as we hear in 1 Peter 1,

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Through Jesus we have been saved, and he sits on the throne of heaven ruling all things for our good.

God has given you what you owe him and the government. With the gift of faith, God has given us new hearts that want to honor him and mature in our understanding of what brings him honor. God accomplishes this through his Word, as we read in Psalm 119,

105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

God guides us with his Word, and to better understand the honor and love we owe him, begin by studying the First Commandment from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, and Matthew 22:37. God’s gift of faith also allows us to understand and mature in our honoring the government, and our New Testament reading from Romans 13, gives us insight into what we owe it as we read,

7 Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

These God given commands are difficult to keep in a sinful world, but the broken world is not an excuse to excuse ourselves from keeping them. And in our Old Testament reading from Daniel 1, we have an example of honoring a broken government. Daniel was taken into captivity as a teenager by the heathen Babylonian Empire which destroyed Judah, Jerusalem and God’s Temple. In exile, God blessed Daniel along with three other young Israelites, and they faithfully and respectfully balanced what they owed God and their new authority as we read in Daniel 1,

8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”

Daniel and the three young men did not look worse eating different food, and the chief official was not beheaded. Instead, Daniel and the others were blessed by God, and protected when persecuted for their faith and resistance to idolatry during their time in Babylon. Like Daniel, we will mature in honoring the government and God by keeping God on the throne of our hearts as we spend time in Scripture.

When you woke up this morning, the sun was shining. You did nothing to make it shine, and you cannot keep it from shining. The same is true for many constants God maintains for his world and universe. We are also blessed to live under a government that maintains law and order and even seeks to abide by those voted into office through popular or electoral college votes. Sinfully, we do not always give what is owed to God and the government, but Jesus gave both what he owed them to save us by giving his life for sin on the cross as was the Father’s will and allowed by Pontius Pilate at the demands of the Jewish leadership. Jesus sits on the throne of heaven, provides government for this world and sits enthroned in our hearts so that to the government and to God, we give what’s owed. Amen.