Proper 24: When the Gospel Is Good as Well as Right
Introduction
Good morning dear friends. It is wonderful to be with you this morning. This morning we heard of a conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees in Jerusalem. They try to trap him, but he gives them a masterclass answer which puts him neither in allegiance with them nor in allegiance with a pro-Roman position. Not only does he answer the question well, but he manages to highlight their hypocrisy in asking it.
Over the summer, we were doing story time at the park. It was a fun opportunity to get the kids together, to read and play, and then for the parents to meet neighbors at the playground. The value of it for me is that in an otherwise disjointed season, there was a routine for connection for the kids. I did get into one conversation though that really surprised me. A parent had a hat with some Hebrew on it, and knowing Hebrew I asked him about it. He shared a bit of his story with me and I was grateful to hear about God’s work in his life. He started asking questions about Jesus’ work in my life and I shared. It all felt kind, cordial, and genuine. Then, all of a sudden, something shifted. He asked me a very pointed question about the Sabbath which felt like a bit of a trap, but I answered. Then it was like he went in for the kill. “What about this...what about that” He started quoting all these Bible verses and each time I tried to explain one he’d try to overwhelm me with another handful. Then I let him know I had to go because I had a meeting to get to and he ended with a phrase like “oh it is so good to encourage a fellow brother.” It was quite exhausting and I left feeling quite discouraged and a bit betrayed by the whole experience. When that bait and switch happened it was like I became less human and was now a threat to take down. It is not unlike what Jesus goes through when he is tested by the religious leaders. They will not listen to him because to them he represents a threat and they’ve designed a trap for him to say “Gotcha”.
Our passages this morning from the lectionary remind us how important it is that our argument and persuasion be humanizing and an extension of the grace that we are living into. Let me pray for us, “In the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.”
I. Allegiance to Jesus is means aligning ourselves to His Kingdom (vv 15-17)
In our Gospel reading today, the Pharisees come to Jesus along with the Herodians. The Pharisees are the religious leaders who don’t love the temple system. They are interested in interpreting and applying the law in a decentralized way. The Herodians are a bit of a mystery. They likely want to restore the Herodian dynasty in Jerusalem, which had ended around A.D. 6, and as such they resented the current form of direct Roman rulership over Jerusalem. Whatever their relationship to Rome, they join the Pharisees as those who are uneasy over the poll tax to which this passage is referring.[1]
The poll tax would have been imposed on people and goods after the Herodian dynasty and with direct Roman rulership in the area. To pay this tax to the Romans for men, women, children, and slaves is an unpopular, constant reminder, that their land was not their own. It belonged to a foreign ruler and that things were not fully restored. The other problem in paying the poll tax was the use of Roman coins. These had the picture of Caesar on them along with the inscription on side, “Son of God” and on the other side, “High priest”. As such, to have this coin in Jewish possession is to hold onto a carved image of an idol on one’s person.
This sets up the problem. The Jews had their own coinage they could use in and around Jerusalem to avoid the idolatry. To pay the poll tax means they carry idols and that they fund a foreign oppressor, the oppressor which desecrated their temple. To avoid paying the tax would align Jesus with the Zealots and make him a political enemy of Rome. To carry idols around puts him at odds with the Pharisees.
I like that Jesus’ kingdom doesn’t fit either side well. There is something illustrative in that. Jesus’ kingdom is very political, but it is not partisan. No single faction ever gets things completely right. Because Jesus is our guiding principle, we can find agreement across all kinds of lines because we can listen and bless what is a good and holy desire, even when we don’t like the execution of it in policy. When we can be principled people, we can advocate for what is ultimately good without dehumanizing others in the process. This is a feature, and not a bug, of the Kingdom of which Jesus is king.
II. Hypocrisy cannot produce the fruit of God (vv 18-22)
This passage speaks into the Kingdom of God as being the thing we align to, not something we align to ourselves or a small group of people. It also shows us how hypocrisy cannot produce the fruit of the kingdom. Jesus asks them why they are putting him to the test, then calls them hypocrites. He recognizes that this is not actually a genuine question. They are acting like those who have a genuine religious question, but the question is concealing a dark motivation for coming to Jesus. They want him gone.
Jesus holds up a denarius, asks them whose image is on the coin. His answer to them is this this image belongs to Caesar, so give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Don’t miss the next part where he functionally says, “And while you’re at it, why don’t you also give back to God what belongs to God.” This reminds me very much of our Malachi passage. The whole book is meant to correct the Jewish exiles who have returned to the land after captivity and the ways they keep misaligning themselves with God’s covenant. The question in Malachi 3 from the exiles is “How are we robbing you?” God let’s them know that they have not been paying the full tithe, which was a temple tax. They were taking care of their own individual needs without thought to how they relate to God and one another.
The groups that come to Jesus to entrap him have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep their traditions.[2] Jesus will reveal this in the next chapter. For now, he turns the question on its head and not only tells them to pay their tax, but reminds them to quit playing religious games, put away their pretense and injustice, and live God’s commands faithfully. Pay God also what belongs to God. They had an over-simplistic notion that God’s theocratic rule was in direct opposition to all foreign earthly authority. Jesus teaches that this is not the case. God’s rule and reign are accomplished in the midst of earthly kingdoms and even despite the opposition of earthly kingdoms. To give to Caesar what is Caesar’s while giving your full allegiance to Jesus is to prioritize the kingdom of God as exiles awaiting our eternal home where God makes all things new. God’s kingdom moves forward not through deception, coercion, or control, but through the integrity of a life transformed by God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Our New Testament passage reminds us about what happens when God’s people live with the grace of Gospel integrity. St. Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says, “The word of the Lord sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known...” They had turned from false idols and ideas to the living God. As they did this with gentleness and humility, their stories of communal life change were the very things that was commending God’s grace to others. I would love to be a community where the Gospel isn’t just defended as “right”, but seen as “good”.
This involves us listening to our god-given limits. There are times where I wonder if I should be writing more, doing a podcast, or something else more public facing, but I can’t help but think there’s actually a bit of pride or the need to be seen as important crouching just behind the desire. We don’t need to manufacture a result to compensate for good and authentic work. If we good work with Christ the right way then the results take care of themselves. So each time I think about a podcast, I remember that I have a son that I love to bike with and coach his sports teams, I have a wife that I love to spend time with, I have people in this church and in my neighborhood that I love getting to know and walk with them through hard things pastorally, I have times of prayer and study as well as Sabbath that I need so that my doing comes from who I’m becoming. Where are we each individually tempted to manufacture spiritual or religious results because of our lack of integrity? It is a good question to ask. Suffering and hard times will come that challenge our thinking. Are we cultivating faith in Christ with integrity; the kind of faith we need to walk through the scenarios that put us into places of desolation?
Conclusion:
It is so important that our lives with Jesus are compelling because of our integrity in receiving and sharing God’s grace. Our Gospel reminds us that God’s kingdom is going forth and we can either align ourselves to it or try unsuccessfully to make it into our image or the image of some partisan faction or small sub-community. We are also reminded that half-hearted allegiance, or hypocrisy with power cannot produce the fruit of the kingdom of God. The means to not justify the ends in God’s kingdom. How we walk with Jesus, live into his grace, and follow him into what is difficult is how we discover the kingdom. There are no shortcuts or easy answers. I heard someone say something like “What God is doing in you while you are waiting is more important than whatever you’re waiting for”. That is crucial because it means that learning to follow Jesus in our many seasons of waiting is where we discover the work of the kingdom. This morning, be encouraged that God’s kingdom is growing and coming about and you and I are called to be a part of this work as we live in allegiance with king Jesus, live out his grace, and share it with others in the midst of a very broken world.
Let us pray: Set us free, loving Father, from the bondage of our sins, and in your goodness and mercy give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] NICNT.
[2] Mark 7:9.