19th Sunday after Pentecost - October 19, 2014

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost Proper 24; October 19, 2014

Those of you who know me understand that I am a believer in reading Sacred Scripture as real history; this means we have to understand the historical context of the reading.  This is especially true of today’s Gospel reading.

We are all familiar with the story of Christ being confronted by the Pharisees and Herodians and Jesus’ classic dictum to them to, “render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”  To really understanding this story we must know a little history of what was transpiring in Palestine in the first century BCE. 

Devout Jews, felt that according the book of Deuteronomy homage to any but JWAY was blasphemy.  The Pharisees were the most conservative sect within the Jewish community and felt they alone could correctly interpret the Torah.  The Herodians on the other hand were followers of Herod Antipas and had allegiance to the devine Caesar and felt him to be a god.   

The Pharisees joining the Herodians in confronting Jesus was most peculiar to say the least.  Jesus must have presented both groups as a particular threat to their belief system.  Just how great a threat was indicated by the Pharisees inviting the heathen Heridians into the temple; a place so holy that only the ritually pure were allowed to enter.  What is even more evidence of the duplicity was the bringing of a denarius into the temple?  The denarius was a coin that had the likeness of Tiberius Caesar stamped on the face of the coin referring to him as august and divine, a deity.  The bringing such a blasphemous icon into the holy of holies was unheard of.          

Yet today’s Gospel tells us that this is what happened.  The reason for this unprecedented behavior lies in the threat to temporal powers that Jesus’ represented.   Christ upset the Pharisees by making the simple but earth shaking revelation that the fulfillment of the law as reveled in the Torah was, to love God with your whole being and love your neighbor as yourself.  The Herodians were threatened by the implication that Jesus was going to upset society by asserting that there was a God who was greater than the emperor.  Both groups saw Jesus as a threat to their belief system. 

Posing the question as to whether it was lawful to obey Roman law and pay taxes to a system that held that the human, Tiberius Caesar, was a living god – which was a clear transgression against the laws as delineated in the Torah Spefically the first and second commandments.  Or conversely was it lawful to disobey Roman law to withhold tax money which was demanded by Rome.  In effect they were putting Jesus in the position of no matter how he answered the question he was committing a crime punishable by death.   Imagine they were congratulating themselves on getting rid of a major social gadfly.

Jesus’ answer to them was a response that avoided the conflicting messages.  “Render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God which is Gods.”  This is a way of saying that his followers, today’s Christians, must have a dual allegiance, to God and Government.  It is only when issues of morality place one in the position of having to make a choice between Gods will and government mandate.  The issue of taxes is in reality mute.  In all historical governments, including today’s, we all pay taxes because we understand it takes public money to pay for public works such as roads, police forces to protect the citizenry, as well as the many services mandated by the citizenry.  We may grumble but we pay the taxes.

The problem comes when we must make a moral judgment regarding the actions of government.  These are personal judgments and Christians will fall an all sides of any civil action that involves morality.  For instance what should the moral stance of our nation be toward the current crises in Iraq and Syria?  Or what should the government’s role be with role be on same sex marriage?  Should marijuana or other drugs be decriminalized?   Christians will differ on appropriate answers to questions such as these.  Jesus is telling us that we should be proactive in our governmental actions and accept the morality of the issues at stake.

Jesus’ instruction to us in his answer to the question posed by the Pharisees and Herodins is to be involved in governmental affairs and act in ways that are appropriate to our sense of morality.  It is important as we approach Election Day that we keep in mind Jesus lesson from today’s Gospel.  We can each in our own way express our understanding of what our government represents with respect to our understanding of the moral issues.

AMEN