Whose Image?

Matthew 22:15-22

Put yourself in the sandals of those who had been following Jesus and learning from him. Three years ago you had a proper job. Who were you back then? Were you an outdoors type, maybe a fisherman? Were you more of an office worker, with pens, paper and calculations everywhere? Were you a widow, catching up with friends for a natter and sitting in the sun, looking after the grandchildren?

Whoever you used to be, you're someone different now. Spending three years with Jesus changes you. There was something about him that you'd found irresistible, and you'd left everything to follow him. You'd travelled round the country as he'd taught and done things that had left you breathless, confused and sometimes scared witless.

Now there's a funny feeling in the air. Recently Jesus has started going on about his having to die and some really far out stuff about coming back to life again. We've all come to Jerusalem for the passover festival but things are definitely a bit odd. A few days ago Jesus sent a couple of the lads to fetch a donkey which he'd ridden into the city. The crowds gathering for the festival had gone nuts, cutting branches off the trees, throwing clothes on the path, shouting out songs of the Messiah, of God's rescuer. The powers that be hadn't liked that one little bit.

Today he's been sitting in the Temple courts telling stories. But they're not your nice bedtime stories. We are not talking Thomas the Tank Engine here. It's almost as if he is deliberately setting out to wind up as many people as possible. He's basically accused the religious leaders of being murderous, lying, out to line their own pockets, and said that they are less acceptable to God than foreigners, beggars, and prostitutes. This is not how to win friends and influence people.

Now they want their own back. They are looking to trap him, to make him look foolish, or unpatriotic, or treasonous. Here they come, all smug and smarmy, all false smiles and flattery. We know you tell it like it is, straight down the line, no messing. You're so brave.

What a question though, Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?. What an absolute pig of a question. There's no safe answer. How's Jesus going to get out of this one?

I don't know how you've been doing in your imagination of sitting in the sun in the temple court two thousand years ago, but I guess that it might be time to hit the pause button and to fill in some back ground information that might help us to get a handle on why this is such a difficult question.

Why is it such a brilliant question? Why does there seem to be no safe answer?

There are three things that we need to know.

The first is that the tax that is being referred to is a poll tax that had to be paid by everyone who lived in the Roman empire, but wasn't Roman. It was basically a tax you paid to pay for the people who were occupying your country to be there. There was enough trouble in this country over paying Poll tax to a government of our people we had elected, imagine the outcry if we had to pay a poll tax to a foreign government that was occupying Britain.

The other two things are to do with the coin itself. As we heard, Jesus asked whose image and inscription were on the coin. These are important because they both caused a difficulty for the faithful Jew. Images are forbidden under Jewish law. The people of God had been in endless trouble over the centuries for making images and statues and worshipping them. Worshipping created things instead of the Creator of all is completely unacceptable to God. So, images are not allowed.

The inscription was also a problem as it described the emperor as son of a God. In that culture that phrasing was equivalent to saying that Caesar was God. So these coins had a forbidden image on them and writing saying that the Roman emperor was God. They were completely obscene to the Jewish people. So much so that for normal market place use, they didn't use them. They had special coins without either the image or the writing for their everyday buying and selling. But, when it came to the poll tax, it was a Roman tax that had to be paid with Roman coin.

So, if Jesus said to pay the tax, he was saying that it was OK for God's people to have forbidden images, with writing that said Caesar was God and to fund the occupying forces. He would have been a traitor to his people, to his God and to the laws of God.

On the other hand, if Jesus said not to pay the tax, that would be evidence that could be used against him in the Roman courts where he could be accused of trying to incite rebellion and terrorism.

Jesus is between a rock and a hard place.

But he doesn't seem to see it like that. He asks his questioners to bring him a coin. (not that they should have been able to, if they were really that fussed about the image and writing they wouldn't have had one)

He asks about the image and the writing and then tells them to give back to Caesar what is Caesar's and to give to God what is God's.

Now, it seems fairly obvious that the coin is Caesar's, and so should be given back to him, but why didn't Jesus stop there. Why didn't he just say, give back to Caesar what is Caesar's. That would have answered their question, and would have avoided the trap that they were laying for him. Why does Jesus tack on this bit about and to God what is God's? Is it just a nice bit of rabbi type poetry to balance out the answer?

We know what to give to Caesar, the coin, and it is to be given if we live in Caesar's kingdom. But what are we meant to give to God? And why do we give it?

Well, we know that the coin is Caesar's because it bears his image. So maybe we ought to look for something that bears God's image.

In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, in the accounts of the creation, it says ,God created people in God's image.This means that everybody here, everybody listening to Jesus in the Temple court, in fact, every single person that has ever been born is created bearing the image of God. We don't have time this morning to go into all that this means, you might want to reflect a bit on it through the week, but Jesus meant one thing very clearly.

He was saying, You know that the coin bears Caesar's image and so you should give it back to him. You also know that every single one of you bears God's image, so you should give yourself to God.

But what about the writing? The writing on the coin is an offence to the true God because it says that someone else, a human, is God. We've already worked out that all people owe their lives to God. But, what is written on our hearts and minds? In the book of one of God's messengers, the prophet Jeremiah, he talks about the time that is coming when the relationship between God and God's people will be restored. He writes this, God declares, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Jesus is saying, you know that the coin is offensive because of what is written on it. What is written on you? When people look at you and your life, do they see a message that shows that you follow God and live for God, or do they see a message that says that you have put something else in God's rightful place.

So we know what is to be given to God, our very selves, with God's rule written on our hearts and minds. But why is this to be given? Why should we give anything to God? Why can't we just go on our own merry way.

Well, why was the coin to be given? If you were living in Caesar's empire then you owed the coin.

So why do we give ourselves? If we live in God's Kingdom then we owe our King everything.

We know that we can't buy our way into God's kingdom. The wrong things that we have done and thought have spoiled the image of God that we bear, our coin is no good any more. But, Jesus, who bore the perfect image of God, gave himself in death on the cross so that we could become part of the Kingdom and family of God. If we choose to believe this and to be part of God's Kingdom then we spend ourselves for our King.

It is the second half of the answer that completely stumps those questioning Jesus. The first half would have done to get out of the trap but Jesus doesn't leave it there. He turns the tables on his questioners and on us, demanding a response.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. You live in the world and in particular communities. You have obligations and responsibilities in those communities. In the country, in the city, in the family, in the workplace, in the college, in the school. You should fulfil them. But these are not your primary loyalties.

Your primary loyalty is to the one who created you, God. So, give to God what is God's. That means the whole of your life, a life that gives out the message that God is worth worshipping, if you choose to be one of God's people and live in God's Kingdom.

In the sun, in that temple court, those who had come were amazed and left Jesus, they went away.

What are we going to do today in response to Jesus? Are we going to be amazed but leave Jesus here in church as we go out into the week? Or, are we going to ask the Holy Spirit to make God's image in us clearer every day? Make us more loving, gentle, humble, patient, kind, faithful, loyal, hopeful, joyful. Are we willing to look at our lives and ask God to show us where they fail to give out the right message about who is in charge of our lives? Have we given to God our money, our families, our relationships, our jobs, our studies, our time, our everything? Do we want to be the faithful people of God?