Matthew 22:15-22 Susan J. Barnes
St. Matthew’s Church, Austin 20 October 2002
As Christians, we proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We say that we
try to follow Jesus. What that means may be clear among Christians. Or
it may not. But what could it mean to the rest of the world--the large
number of people we meet who know nothing about Christianity? How do we
tell them who Jesus is?
If we expect to be responsible ambassadors for Christ, we need to be
able to say to people why we follow Jesus and how we follow Jesus. And
I think that today‚s gospel is a great story for that purpose.
Why do we follow Jesus? Because he was a great person. Today‚s
gospel shows that he was a man who had guts and savy, who knew how to
win an argument, even to mop the floor with his opponents.
Let’s look at the story.
Jesus had guts. He had courage. He didn’t start an argument, but he
wasn’t afraid to stand up to the Pharisees when they did. He did not
dodge facing down anyone, even big wig religious leaders.
Jesus had savy. The Pharisees who opposed Jesus knew that he was on
the side of oppressed people. Roman taxes were unfair, they were
oppressive. If the Pharisees could trap Jesus into denouncing Roman
Imperial taxation with Herod‚s men listening, they could get him
arrested--maybe killed. But Jesus kept his head. He listened carefully
to what they asked. He saw the hidden agenda. He got it and he named
it; he even called them on their hypocrisy. But instead of stopping
there he went ahead and dealt with them. He held his ground. He stood
them down.
Jesus was smart and subversive. Smart because he didn’t just avoid the
trap laid by the Pharisees. Jesus gave them an answer that had a double
meaning. He was subversive because he used it to make his own
point--that the Emperor‚s domain was nothing compared with God‚s
domain. While admitting that the Emperor might have some claim on your
money, Jesus laid God‚s claim beside that. He didn’t say out loud what
belongs to God because the Pharisees didn’t need to be told. They knew,
as we know: everything, everywhere belongs to God. The Emperor himself
and his whole empire. Everything in the empire and everything outside
the empire, everything in heaven and earth. Everything. It all belongs
to God.
Why do we follow Jesus? Because he had guts, savy, and smarts. We
admire the way he did things. We know he was right.
Okay, then, how do we follow Jesus? That might seem tougher to get
from this story. After all, the whole world is different. Everything
has changed in 2,000 years. Jesus lived in a rural, agrarian society.
Our society is urban, post-industrial, technological. He lived in a
subsistence economy and a dictatorship.. The masses were poor. They
made for themselves the little that they had or got it through barter,
work in kind. We live in an affluent, consumer economy and a
democracy. We are overloaded with stuff, which we buy with cash and
credit. Taxes then kept people in misery and they got nothing in
return. We gripe about taxes, but they are low, and we get plenty of
services in return.
So, how do we relate to this story for ourselves and for anyone who
asks?
We relate through the truth of the core values. That’s why we still
read the gospels. They are alive with human wisdom. They have spoken
to people for 2,000 years and will as long as there are people to read
them.
What Jesus did in this encounter speaks powerfully across the ages to
the most vexing issue in our lives: the importance that we give to
money, and the terrible anxiety we have about money in this culture.
I speak as a member of the Baby Boom generation. We grew up in unbroken
prosperity, power, and economic expansion. As a result, we have
unrealistic ideas about money. We have thought that there would always
be enough money for everything we wanted. We based our security on
that. We haven‚t been good stewards because we didn’t have to be. And
we have the debt to show for it. All our forebears went through at least
one major financial depression. That taught them the lesson we all have
to learn and that many of us are learning in the current crisis. The
lesson is that money will fail us. Money has far too great a place in
our self-identity--much more than it deserves or can support.
It’s not that we need to ignore money. On the contrary, we need to
look at it clearly, see it for what it is. Money is a medium of
exchange. It is a resource, like many other things, but it‚s not as
precious as most. Take time, for instance, which money can‚t buy. Or
health of mind, body, spirit. Of life itself. Money comes way down on
the charts when compared with those things, and it falls completely off
the charts when health or life is threatened.
In the story of the Tribute Money, Jesus showed us how to put money in
its proper place. He put it clearly in perspective. Jesus asked to see
the denarius, the Roman coin roughly worth a day’s wages. Can you see
the picture? A Pharisee holding up a small disk of metal with the tiny
image of the emperor’s head stamped on its surface. Nothing, really.
And Jesus saying with irony, "Go ahead, give that to Caesar. But give
to God the things that are God". Give to God the things that are
God’s: everything.
The two thousand years that have passed since then show how right Jesus
was. Many millions of coins have been struck. Thousands of rulers
faces stamped or printed on currencies around the world. They all are
worthless as currency today. Emperors, empires, nations have come and
gone. Currencies have risen and fallen--just like the value of my small
retirement fund. Only God remains. Only God provides the things that
matter in life: inner peace, love of self and others, an unfailing
relationship, a minute-by-minute partnership that carries us through all
of life’s ups and downs.
I love the seasons of the Christian year. They ground and reground us
in different aspects of our relationship with God. Advent will soon
arrive, the season of joyous expectation: the coming of the child Jesus,
the beginning of a new year. The stewardship season comes now to help
us prepare for that new year. It’s the time for us to think about what
is truly most important in our lives and to make commitments to
ourselves and to one another that reflect those values.
Our economy, especially in Austin, is still suffering. It’s a reality
check, a reminder that economies go up and down--always have, always
will. It’s an opportunity, too. It’s a chance to re-think our
priorities and our spending habits. It’s a chance to invite God in to
those daily decisions. Nothing is too small for God. God is waiting to
engage with us as partners in life, to help us, day by day to share in
life’s burdens and to manage our resources. Those resources are all
God’s gifts to us, gifts of which we are stewards. They include our
work and leisure time, our feelings and relationships, our minds, our
souls, our bodies--so many things--including, yes, our money.
Amen.
