Ceasar or Jesus

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Read Mark 12:13-17

Mark 12:13–17 ESV

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.

Sermon

How many of you know what liturgy is?

Liturgy is a word that means work of the people

In high liturgical churches they practice a lot of call and response

They go through the creeds often, the sing the doxology a lot, the sing the gloria patri… that kind of thing

Not just catholic churches but protestant as well

Why do they do this?

They do this because we understand that it’s not just what you hear and believe that shapes you, but what you participate in

By participating in the liturgy, By standing and sitting and singing and repeating

You are being shaped by the things that you are repeating

The practices that we engage in begin to form connections in our brains and connections in our hearts

And we feel and think in ways that are shaped by the things that we do

This isn’t just something that happens in church

Everything you regularly participate in is a form of liturgy

Today there will be a football game and football has a culture that goes along with it

There are routines that you practice that shape how you think about other teams and people that support those teams

Shopping is formative. It’s a lived liturgy

Everything that you do has a way to form you or to deform you.

This is why it is important to be mindful of how you spend your time and what you practice

You will become what you practice. Thats for free

We are all getting an opportunity in this season of life to choose how we are being formed aren’t we?

whether we are going to be marked by the world or by the Lord

We have ample opportunity to participate in lived liturgies that shape us into fearful people, or into faithful people. WE can be shaped by the Word of God or the words of the world

And I know that here in a couple days we are all going to vote for a president

I’m not here to tell you who to vote for. I’m not here to tell you who not to vote for. But what I want you to think about today is what is it that marks your life? What is it that is forming who you are?

let’s go to the text.

Jesus is approached by Sadduccees and Herodians

Sadducees were the priestly class. THey believed that the temple was the center of the Faith and that there was no afterlife but if you lived according to Tanak to the Law of God, then you would experience the best life here on earth while you could

The Herodians were very political Jews. They believed in the system of Herod as king and all that he had done to keep them wealthy. They supported the political agreements that had been made between rome and Israel and felt that this situation was beneficial for the people of God as well as the State of Rome

THen there were the Pharisees

These were those who believed that the Law of God, the prophets and the teaching found in them was the center of the Jewish life. They were from all different tribes but had religious zeal and proper order and ritual down to a tee.

These 3 groups hated each other. THey were 3 different political parties

But you know what brought them together… their hate for Jesus

Each of them at some point in scripture tried to catch Jesus up in some word game so they can throw him to the state or embarrass him in front of the people and watch him loose his support

We enter the scene with exactly that happening

First they start by trying to flatter him

Isn’t that just like a politician?

Just before they rob you they flatter you

Sorry, anyway

They ask about paying taxes to caesar or not

At this time it was Tiberius Ceasar who ruled. Son of Augustus ceasar

He claimed that His father was divine and that he was the Son of God

I know it may seem hard to understand a culture that deifies a person… but if you look at how we live in this culture we practically do the same thing

Meaning in action we glorify and deify people the same way they did… They were just a little more up front about calling it a religion or a cult

The Roman culture had a political cult

They worshipped their ruler

He was their savior. He could do no wrong and speaking against him in any way would illicit pushback and reprocussions… I know we don’t know anything about that in this country right?

This, for obvious reasons was troubling to the Jews who would not worship a false God

AS the worship of any human being today should be troubling for the people of God, amen?

Glorifying any person as a savior apart from Christ, amen?

This question was set to put him at odds with either the people by saying yeah, go ahead and pay taxes

go ahead and agree with the political cult and honor a false God

Or put him against the state by saying don’t pay taxes in which case he could be killed as someone trying to stir up decent

I love how Jesus does some spiritual and verbal Judo here

he asks for a coin

The coin at a picture of ceasar on one side and on the other side it said tiberius son of the divine augustus

What’s funny is that Jesus didn’t even have any of this money in his pocket

He wasn’t carrying around the image of a false God no matter what benefit it did to him

And the ones asking the questions brought it to him

Right it says they brought one… the they is referring to the ones that he was talking with

Then Jesus says to them to give to caesar

The word here could also be translated as give back to caesar

meaning reject his rule as God, return his property

And return to God what is God

return God’s property to him

What is God’s property

Is it not the very image that he created in mankind

Is it not the ones that he formed and created in the wilderness through covenant and promises

The people of God are the sheep of his hand the people of his pasture

Jesus is telling these religious leaders who have bought into the system of the world

Who have been saying that they honor God but have been practicing the liturgy of worldliness

He’s calling them out for not just existing in the system, but identifying with the powers of this world

Making their political identity and affiliation their primary source of identity

The herodians literally called the little herods. They were primarily identified by which political party they sided with

These people were supposed to be different from the world

They were supposed to be the ones marked by the truth of God

Marked by the covenant of the living God

They were supposed to be the ones who rejected the earthly things because they lived by a different politic

Isn’t this who we are supposed to be church?

WE are supposed to be the ones markedly different from the world

We are supposed to not find our primary identity in any political party… and definitely not in any politician

Yes vote… but don’t for one second allow your voting to be the banner over your life

The banner over me isn’t trump, the banner over me isnt biden… the banner over me is LOVE

Its so easy to get caught up in the hype. To get caught up in the fear and forget that this life is not our home

That this system is not ours. We are exiles living in a foreign land

we are the people of God living in Rome

How crazy would it have been if Paul and Silas had been sitting around debating weather they were pro-senate or pro-ceasar?

Like in our minds that doesn’t even make sense

Why would they be wasting their time and energy trying to form people in the ways of the liturgy of the world?

We are not those who live for a party or for a president

You are supposed to be different

The things of this world are not supposed to be what we allow to form us and to be our living liturgy

We are a holiness people, the people of the lIving God

Our lives are supposed to be the Lords

Are you giving to ceasar what is the Lords?

Are you putting your identity and your loyalty into the hands of worldly systems and powers?

Are you fearful of the other?

Do you reject other Christians because they may differ from you in opinion?

Is your heart broken for the things that broke Jesus’ heart?

The sick, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the lost, the broken?

Or are they the ones that are going to take the resources you need?

Isaiah really likes getting those souvenir pennies from different places we go

Usually at zoos but there’s the penny that costs 50cents to make

You put the penny in and you turn the gears and what happens

It presses the penny and flattens it and imprints the image fo the zoo on there

Now that penny is the same substance. It is still made of zinc and copper and nickel depending on when it was made

But the image on it is no longer any good for the use of currency

Which you would think makes it less valuable to the owner, but in fact makes it more valuable

Because the owner of that penny chooses what image to imprint on it

This is us Christian

God has imprinted his image on you and you are ruined for the things of this world, but that makes you so much more valuable to the kingdom of heaven

Don’t try to mark yourself up like counterfeit money. Trying to belong to the world and operate in the world when you are marked for greater things!