Isaiah 45:1-7 Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13) 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 Matthew 22:15-22

Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his Name;
bring offerings and come into his courts.  Psalm 96:8

Our Gospel lesson continues with another of Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees and Roman sympathizers in the Temple in Jerusalem during the last week of his life. The tension continues to build toward what we know will culminate in Jesus’ Crucifixion.   Time and again, the Jewish leaders will try to entrap Jesus.  Or, as the King James Version says, “entangle him in his talk” – to find something in his words that would lead to a legitimate charge to justify removing Jesus from their midst.

Aligned with the Roman followers of King Herod, the Pharisees’ scheme in our lesson this morning is a crafty one.  “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”  In other words, “Is it in accordance with the Jewish law of Moses to pay tax to the pagan oppressors of the Jews?  It is a loaded question… Obviously, a Jew in Roman-controlled Palestine who advocated non-payment of taxes to the government would be subject to charges of inciting a rebellion.  Yet, this tax on the harvest and personal property of the oppressed Jewish population was a great burden to these impoverished Jews living in Palestine.  The monies collected supported the army and the government of the pagan Roman oppressors that occupied their homeland.  It was a tax levied by the Romans but administered by the Jewish authorities.

A “No” to the question of paying the Roman tax would bring the rightful charge of sedition; a “Yes” would alienate the desperately oppressed Jews looking to Jesus to be their advocate for their relief from suffering.

What would Jesus do?

Jesus requests to see the coin necessary for paying the tax.  The coin bears the image of Tiberius Caesar; a pagan icon – its very existence violated the Commandment against graven images; being in the possession of such a coin in the Temple was a serious breach of Jewish Law.  Yet, from one of these conspirators, the coin was produced.  Jesus, taking in hand the coin and looking at it closely, noted the image of Tiberius Caesar and the inscription proclaiming Caesar as the divine high priest.

Jesus presses his audience to distinguish for themselves the obligation due to Caesar and the obligation due to God.  “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” A more accurate translation of the original Greek is “give back” – “Give back to Caesar those things that are Caesar’s.  Give back to God those things that are God’s.”  More specifically, “Give back to Caesar those things bearing the image of Caesar; give back to God those things bearing the image of God.”

 “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.”

As we have become accustomed, Jesus turns the tables on his questioners, and puts the ball back in the court of his adversaries.

It is true always of God’s nature of redemption to take what is Evil in the world and weave it into His plan for Good.  In our account this morning, Jesus takes the evil of the cruel and malicious actions of the Pharisees and Herodians and weaves them into an important message for God’s people:  All things come from God.

Similarly, in our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, God converts the Persian King Cyrus into a vessel of freedom from bondage for the people of Israel.  The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord has grasped the right hand of Cyrus, that doors would be opened, gates never closed; that King Cyrus would know that there is no other God.  After defeating the Babylonians who had so long held the Israelites in exile, the Persian Cyrus would honor God over any earthly authority and listen to God’s call to “give back” the people of Israel – freeing them to return to their lives as faithful people created in the image of God.

In our culture of separation of Church and State, we tend to understand relatively well, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”  Figuratively and ideally, those things that bear the image of earthly civil government should be justly and proportionately returned to the government for, we assume, the good of all.  Jesus does not discount the requirement of paying the Roman tax within justifiable limits, but he essentially dismisses its importance in comparison to the infinite that we owe to God.

Jesus’ words are not for the simple purpose of justifying taxation by our civil governments.  More toward his primary point, Jesus’ purpose is to draw our attention to that that bears the image of God?  The key word is image.  Should not that that bears the image of God be returned to God?

So, how do we define the image of God?  What of that that bears the image of God?  That which bears the image of God remains ambiguous and infinite.

Unlike the Roman coinage bearing Tiberius Caesar’s image, we are created in the image of God.  And, by virtue of our baptism we are marked as Christ’s own forever.   Thus, we are rendered to God who is both our source and our destination.

Imago Dei, the image of God, we are created in the image of God.  It is through us that God accomplishes his plans and purposes.   In contrast to the coin bearing the image of Tiberius Caesar, perhaps this other coin would be a shiny disc in which we see our own image reflected, a reflection of the image of God.  Perhaps when others look at us, they see the image of God.

We are created in the image of God.  All that we have – all that we are is from God.  God accomplishes his plans and purposes through us as we take God into our hearts and live fully into that image.

We are of God; we are called to give back to God the things that are God’s.