Imago Dei

During the week, we get phone calls from anonymous organizations asking to speak to the owner of the business who makes the decisions. I think these ‘businesses’ are used to speaking with a traditional organization that would have a CEO or business owner who can speak to matters of what is purchased or what equipment they need etc, so I don’t think they’re trained to talk to churches, or at least churches that are run like ours. I know when I answer the phone that they want to talk to me because I do make the day to day decisions for the church, I also know that all important business and decisions are taken up by our council and they decide what we should do as a congregation. I know this but they don’t.

So after a few phone calls of this nature I have begun to answer in this way…partly because it’s true, but also partly because I get tired of these calls and want to end them as quickly as possible. I say, “We don’t have an owner.” Their response is always that of utter confusion. I don’t think the script they read from has a line that says, ‘if they answer ‘no owner’ go to line 15 and say this’. So they stumble and ask the same question again only a little differently like, ‘who’s in charge?’ or ‘who does your stocking?’ or things like that. So I then tell them that we have a group of people that makes that decision that meet once a month but we are a church so we don’t have an owner. To that they usually get frustrated and hang up…sometimes they say goodbye.

I think it’s interesting that we are always wanting, as people in general, to talk to the person at the top. “May I speak to your manager? Who’s in charge here? Who runs this place?” We assume, and in certain circumstances are correct, that talking to someone with authority will help us get results. The person with authority has the power to make decisions or make things happen.

Well look at these two stories we have today. We have the question about taxes and the story about the vineyard and what I believe is vitally important for us to understand these stories is to know where we are in the context of Jesus’ ministry. While the Narrative Lectionary does it’s best to go in order, we do jump ahead and will go backwards on Palm Sunday because Jesus has already entered Jerusalem. Not only has Jesus just entered Jerusalem but he has just finished having a conversation with the chief priests, legal experts, and the elders. Guess what they were just talking about? Who’s in charge…or more specifically the authority by which Jesus does all these things he’s doing?

Jesus asks then a question and they don’t answer by saying they don’t know, to which Jesus responds he won’t tell them by what authority he does what he does. And then he tells them this story of the vineyard. And oh my goodness there is so much happening in this vineyard story that we likely have no idea is going on. The owner of the vineyard likely purchased the land from someone and even perhaps these farmers themselves because they didn’t have the money to keep the land with all the taxes from Rome. He then rents it to these tenant farmers and they work the land. When it comes time for rent to be paid, the payment is likely paid out by a portion of the harvest since the tenants likely don’t have cash to pay the rent. The owner sends a collector, in this case servants. Here is where the big question of ownership and authority and who is in charge comes into play.

Does this owner own the land and therefore the harvest? Do the tenants own the land or at least the harvest they have produced? Are they allowed to do with the land and what is produced from it with what they want? Do they decide what happens since they are ‘on’ the land? Clearly we see a power struggle between the owner and the tenants about who is in charge and who has authority over what this land produces. The tenants are convinced that the harvest belongs to them so much so that they are willing to take the lives of others if they feel threatened that someone will take the harvest from them. At the same time the owner is willing to just throw the lives of those under him away until he is able to finally get what he feels he deserves because it’s his because he owns the land. Everyone assumes they are entitled to a portion or all of what is produced.

The question about taxes that they ask Jesus is pulled from the same vein. Even though they simply want to know if they should pay taxes to Caesar they are asking a question about authority. Who’s authority is more important: God’s or Caesars? Many people have rightly pointed out that if he simply answers that people should pay taxes then everyone following him will abandon him because it goes against the law and puts his support in the occupying force, and if he answers they shouldn’t pay taxes he supports God, but by saying that he is inciting rebellion against Rome. What Jesus does is that he admits that Rome is in political control of Judea and the only option is to pay taxes, so they should pay taxes by giving to Caesar what belongs to him. On the other hand then, he says that everything that belongs to God should be given to God.

To put it another way Caesar’s image is on the coin so give it to Caesar, the coin is as much authority as Caesar and Rome have over you. But you, and everything else about you bears the image of God. You were created in the image of God, so while a coin may be a piece of metal with some value associated with it that bears a likeness of Caesar, you are a living embodiment of God’s image. Nothing has authority over your God-given created-ness.

I believe that one possible way, and the way I am experiencing this text today is that these texts about our being the image of God, including Jesus and that God is the one who has ultimate authority over the world. We might want to own the vineyard through a piece of paper called a deed, or by working it with our hands, but ultimately the real authority and power lies in the hands of God. This world and everything in it is a part of the kingdom of God, the kingdom that Jesus has been proclaiming his entire ministry. It’s not ours to do with as we please no matter how much power, sway, or authority we may have among other people. This is God’s creation, God’s kingdom and it’s not up to us to decide the worth of a human life, an image of God like the landowner and the tenants did. It’s not up to us to decide worth of a human life based on the taxes they pay. All life is the image of God and we need to pay attention to how we honor our created-ness both for ourselves and for others.

Jesus is headed to the cross very shortly and he is about to die for the sake of all people who are the bearers of God’s image, and that’s everyone, my friends. Jesus is about to sacrifice his physical self so that we can all know how much God loves us and cares for us. Jesus is willing to die and be thrown out of the vineyard with all our sins to show us just how much we are loved by our creator. So in these stories Jesus is reminding us about how important we are as images of God, and how much weight that should bear when we see each other whether we are a landowner, a tenant farmer, a slave, servant, son or a taxpayer because our authority or lack of it doesn’t matter only God’s does and I’ll say it one last time God uses God’s authority to declare you and all people a bearer of the very image of God. Never forget that. Amen.