Trinity 20

 

Isaiah 45:1-7,  1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 & Matthew 22:15-22

Did you have any coins about your person today? A simple question to which the answer is yes or no.I expect that many people don’t use cash much anymore, preferring to tap or use their mobile devices to make payments.

Much of our Gospel reading is centred around coins and questions today.When you take time to think about it there really are ‘questions’ and then there are ‘questions’.

Simple ones like is there a train service from Sevenoaks to London Bridge? Yes.

There’s questions like, how does the person that drives the snow plough get to the depot in the morning?

Then there’s those annoying sarcastic type questions like ‘Did you mean to cut your hedge all wonky like that’?

I heard of a child who had to move out of their house because it was to be rented to someone else who asked one of those questions that makes adults hearts sink ‘why don’t we all just share’?

But, while we eat our breakfast or drink our morning tea, radio and TV presenters ask all sorts of difficult questions to people in the public glare, sometimes smugly, sometimes because they think they already know the answer or that there simply is no acceptable answer. These are not straightforward questions.

In such situations with whom do you think the balance of power rests? Occasionally it’s surprising to the interviewer when the person being interviewed produces unexpected evidence or a strong argument. And so we edge closer to Jesus’ situation.

Enter the Pharisees and Herodians, opposing groups, but united in their desire to destroy Jesus, give them some credit, they have really thought about the question and feel confident that whichever way Jesus answers he’s going to cause problems for himself.

They start with a bit of empty flattery. Beware of flattery, even though it works a treat on egotistical people.

There are wise words about it throughout the bible but several in the book of Proverbs. Here’s two examples…

‘Whoever flatters a neighbour is spreading a net for the neighbour’s feet’ and ‘Whoever rebukes a person will afterwards find more favour than one who flatters with the tongue.’

So Jesus ain’t falling for that one!

The Pharisees believe that they have put Jesus in a ‘no win’ situation. If he answers that people should pay taxes to the hated Roman occupiers to fund their brutal regime, he will lose all credibility with those who hope he is the true Messiah, radical and liberationist.

If he says that the people should withhold their taxes then he’s going to be in immediate trouble with the Roman authorities and liable to be arrested.

His first response is ‘show me the coin used for the tax’, he probably doesn’t carry them routinely unlike the pharisee who immediately has one to hand.

Next he asks, and here we see the art of the balance of power being turned upside down in the questioning process, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title’? ‘The emperor’s’ they reply.

Those who study Roman coinage will know that all sorts of abbreviations were used to minimise the labour required to communicate the title of the emperor as they needed to fit this on a small coin and the work was done by hand.

Coinage was a way of projecting power. With an Emperors head on coins throughout the region he was hard to avoid and a constant reminder of who was in charge whether the people liked it or not.

Forced into a situation where they must study the coin the Pharisees would have been observing an image likely to be that of Ceasar Augustus Tiberius, a man whose followers regarded him to be a living god, the inscriptions are likely to have referred to him as son of the divine Augustus, reinforcing his ‘godliness’.  Jewish law prohibited any form of idolatry and it must have suddenly dawned upon the Pharisees that they continuously carried a symbol of their complicity with Rome and of blasphemy to their God. Just having this coin in the temple was against their own law, oh dear, they really were finding themselves in a muddle.

By saying ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s’ Jesus makes it clear that earthly and divine rulers are entirely separate and these coins have no value to God.

Despite the fact that Jesus’ message has political implications he has rejected the political ambitions of those who would make him a king in earthly spheres. The changes he wants to see will come from peoples’ hearts and not the change of regime which they think they need.

it can be hard for us to look at the subject of taxes dispassionately. It was Benjamin Franklin who wrote in 1789 ‘in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes’. Whilst taxation in its various forms is currently at an historic high, thankfully, we at least are paying it to our own Government rather than a foreign occupier.

We may not always approve of how our taxes are spent but at least we have hospitals, emergency services, a military, schools, refuse collectors and other valuable public services which are funded by them.

Although there were significant resistance movements against paying tax to Rome even in Jesus time there will have been those who appreciated some of the benefits the occupying Romans brought with them. What have the Romans ever done for us? You probably know that this was a question posed by the fictional Peoples Front of Judea. Apart from medicine, irrigation, education, public health, baths and some other things, absolutely nothing!

Back in the temple those asking Jesus won’t be pleased with the answer they have received but they also know in their hearts that it wasn’t a real question and they only wanted an answer which would cause trouble for Jesus, so their hatred and resentment  of him continues to grow and just few days later Jesus would be arrested and crucified.

The Pharisees make Ceasar the subject of the question whilst Jesus wants to bring these so called religious and pious people back to the subject of God and our duty to him. No wonder he calls them hypocrites as they conveniently fail to acknowledge that God reigns over all in their frenzied enthusiasm to entrap him.

Of course, they should use all their study, their alleged wisdom and their learning from Jesus to recognize him and help others to know him as the Son of God, but this is the one thing they are absolutely determined not to do.

Was it that the Pharisees were scared that God has come this close to them, and they don’t like what they are hearing? Was it that despite all the wacky religious preachers in Jerusalem at the time this one stood out as different and couldn’t just be dismissed.

Contrast what Jesus tells to the Pharisees and Herodians with Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians . When he had visited Thessalonica previously the people he is writing to would have worshipped many cults including the ideals of the Roman empire. The coverts to Paul’s message would have faced persecution and rejection as they made a clear choice to follow Christ and it this message, rooted in God, that he praises and encourages so enthusiastically.

Perhaps the Pharisees thought If only God were like Ceasar they could just pay their taxes and be done with it, but a relationship founded in generous love is so very different.

By Jesus pointing to the emperor’s head, we are encouraged to reflect of the earthly things that distract us from God and all that competes for our obedience and loyalty.

But it’s important that we remind ourselves the image we bear is not that of Ceasar, any political party, nor the ruling monarch but that of God. We are created in his image and called to be his children.

So whilst we may accept that death and taxes are certainties of our lives, as children of God we also have the opportunity to show that the third certainty in life is the love of God for each and every one of us.

Amen

Kevin Bright                                                                                                                   22^nd October 2023