19 Pentecost, Cycle A, Proper 24, October 19, 2014
Exodus 33:12-23 Psalm
99
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
We would readily admit that Jesus of Nazareth was very
charismatic. But today we must note that
he was very numismatic. He took a sudden
interest in coins to teach a very important lesson. We all know how to create a public stir. Just bring up the issue of taxes at a party
and the fur will fly. Some of the
religious opponents of Jesus apparently wanted to audit Jesus. They want him to go on the record to oppose
paying taxes to Caesar. If they could
trick Jesus into encouraging the non-payment of taxes then certainly the local
representatives of the Caesar would take notice and take Jesus out of
circulation. And eventually we are told
that Jesus died because he was understood to be a competitor to the Emperor.
Jesus as a wisdom teacher and clever debater, knew how to
argue very contextually but also present profound theological insights. Jesus was not going allow himself to be
painted into the corner by his opponents; he was not going to be forced into a
conclusion based upon the forced logic of his interlocutors.
Jesus was knowledgeable about the numismatic practice of his
time. Historians and archaeologists are
thrilled about the coins of the ancient world because the coin provided a
durable record of the ancient societies.
Lots of things break down with erosion and corrosion but coins have
endured to provide a reliable record.
Coins were stamped with the face of the king or ruler of the time and
place. Sometimes a coin was re-minted
with a succeeding emperor super-imposed upon the image of a previous emperor. Each emperor had an identifiable image on a
coin. The emperor's image on a coin was
proof of the control of the emperor in a certain geographical area but it also
was the evidence that the emperor could collect taxes for his own personal
wealth, for standing armies and for public work projects.
Jesus turned a numismatic question into the most basic
theological question of the book of Genesis, with a question: Show me a coin. Whose image is on this coin? The Caesar's.
Then give to the Caesar the things which bear his image, but give to God
the things which bear the image of God.
And what are we told in the book of Genesis bears the image of God? Yes creation bears the image of God but most specifically, Adam and Eve.
In the image or ikon of God, they were created.
And so Jesus was saying, "Let Caesar have his coins,
but the Caesar really belongs to God because the Caesar is a man who bears the
image of God."
Jesus was saying, You can argue about coin and money; I am
concerned about the very souls of men and women. Men and women belong to God and the entire
point of life is to come to acknowledge the divine ownership of our lives.
We may say about our children, "he favors his daddy or
she has her mom's eyes" and so by looking at biological parents and
children we can do some match making because children bear the images of their
parents. And so someone can look at a
child and say, "he's your child or she's your child."
Jesus was looking at every person, including the emperor and
saying, "You are God's children....now start acting that way." Jesus introduced the Fatherhood of God with
his life and he did not do this to proclaim himself as an exclusive son of God;
he did it so that we might recover the
theology of the Genesis story, namely, we have always already been sons and
daughters of God because we bear upon ourselves the divine image.
This discussion of Jesus regarding coins and taxes can help
us to end all of our discussions about taxes and time, talent, and treasure
which we give to our governments and to our charitable organizations and to our
parish church.
If we are arguing about whether we have to pay taxes or
whether we should give our time, talent and treasure to God or if we are
worrying about how much of our time, talent and treasure then we are missing
the point of Jesus.
The point is that we and all that we have belongs to God and
it is not ours to give. It is only ours
to be stewards of in how we choose to honor God and help the fellowship of the
people of our community.
Jesus is saying point blank: Don't argue the ownership
issue. Even as great as the emperor is,
he does not own his own life even though he may act as though he does. Apparent ownership can only be faked for the
number of days which is given for us to live and so it is better to think about
making our lives, our time, our talent, our treasure, objectively immortal by
adding excellence and quality of life to our community while we live and as a
truly enduring legacy after we have left.
Stewardship is the way in which we live the values of our
lives. And the main stewardship question
is: Do we live our lives as though we belong to God?
For Christians, the sign of the cross has become a way of
acknowledging the ownership of God upon our lives. Jesus Christ was the divine presence to us in
human form. Jesus belonged so much to
God his Father, he himself had the image and likeness of God in its clearest
human manifestation. Jesus was given to
us as God's special son, so that we might come to know ourselves as God's sons
and daughters.
And so at baptism we celebrate our membership in God's family. We have the cross branded upon our foreheads using the royal
anointing oil of chrism as we are invested as crown princesses and crown
princes of God. "You are sealed
with the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ's own forever."
How do we live the reality of our ownership by God through
Jesus Christ? We try to make the sign of
the cross over all of the things of our lives as we intentionally recognize the
ownership of all things by God. In our
intentional recognition of the ownership of all things by God, we also accept
all things as wonderful gifts of God for us to use for our necessities,
enjoyment and for the care of as many people as we can.
This wonderful Gospel encounter with the numismatic Jesus is
a reminder to us about the basic stewardship issue of life: To whom do we belong? And if we acknowledge that we belong to God,
what kind of moral and ethical expressions do we perform in how we use our
time, talent and treasure.
May God bring us to insight about the divine image which we
bear on our lives. And may we learn to
please our heavenly parent always and to follow our first brother Jesus in learning
to please God and to practice love and justice with all in our lives. Amen
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