What Belongs to Caesar? What Belongs to God?
November 15th, 2020
A Sermon Preached at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Roswell, New Mexico
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I.
The Pharisees’ disciples along with some Herodians came to interrogate Jesus as he taught in the temple. They wanted to catch Jesus in his words so that either the mob or the romans might turn against him violently. Why? Caiaphas, the High Priest, had convinced he fellow members of the Sanhedrin, “It is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11:50). The crowds who followed Jesus might cause the Romans to take away the Jews’ place and nation. Therefore, Jesus, who healed the sick, who forgave sins, who had raised the dead, had to die. The question set before Jesus, therefore, was nothing less than a prelude to murder.
When a purpose is this evil and dark, it’s always cloaked with lies.
“Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” They thought nothing of the sort or else they would have been among the crowds listening at Jesus’ feet. What they thought they could do is loosen Jesus up, get him to feel safe enough to admit to his true feelings. “Tell us then,” they continued, “what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
Do you see the trap? If Jesus says yes, then he shows himself an enemy of God and his chosen people, the same people who at that moment were hanging onto his every word in the temple. They would be incited to anger and cast him from the holy courts, and if the Sanhedrin were lucky, kill him. But if Jesus says no, then the Roman authorities could be notified that a teacher in the temple was preaching against Caesar. They would have to come and arrest, judge, and condemn him to death for fostering sedition and rebellion among the people. Jesus is trapped if he says yes, and he’s trapped if he says no.
It’s a familiar trap, isn’t it? If we say yes and go along with the governor’s orders, then we’re nothing but spineless sheep who eagerly trade our Christian liberties for tyranny. If we say no and ignore the governor’s orders, then we’re disobeying God’s chosen authority and putting the whole community at risk through our risky behavior. When our human minds weigh the options, when our hearts weigh the moral hazards, we tend to think in terms of all or nothing.
‘Pastor,’ I’ve been told, ‘you’ve told us the fourth commandment tells us to obey the worldly authorities so that’s what we’ve got to do. Or else are you telling us that we get to pick and choose which laws we must obey? What if someone finds out about our disobedience? What if someone turns us in? What will you say for yourself?’ I’ve also been told, ‘Pastor, you’ve told us to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. So why would you betray our church by telling us to obey the governor’s orders? Aren’t we fearing her rather than God?’
From your perspective the church is either hypocritically inconsistent or downright cowardly. It looks like we’re trapped either way. But this way of thinking is impoverished in its assessment of God’s Word and how teaches us to live in this world. There is no trap but the one we’ve set for ourselves through our ignorance.
Jesus unmasks the questioners’ evil purpose. “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
The trouble about the trap that we’ve set for ourselves is that it comes from ignorance as to what belongs to whom. What is Caesar’s? What is God’s?
II.
St. Paul tells us to “be subject to the governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” Therefore, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”
These are heavy words of law for myself more than for anyone else. By God’s mercy I’ve avoided watching Braveheart and the Patriot, so I haven’t abandoned my preaching post to lead an armed band of freedom fighters in the hills, but don’t think it hasn’t crossed my mind. I have been dishonorable toward our governing authorities in Santa Fe in opinions and words shared among friends that come from frustration rather than wisdom. I know I’m not the only one. There’s been talk, whispered among disgruntled patriots, about arming ourselves, resisting, and the inevitability of civil war on the horizon.
We shouldn’t speak so seditiously. Our first thoughts should be to honor the governor and her God given authority. Though I don’t like paying taxes, that shouldn’t stop me from paying them. Though I don’t like honoring a woman whose policies I disagree with, I shouldn’t encourage my neighbors in disparaging her or dishonoring her. She deserves our respect, and we, as Christians, should gladly give it. Instead of complaining loudly about her latest speech, we should remind one another to remember her in our family and personal prayers. We should remind one another to thank God that he has placed authorities over us which is far less destructive than lawlessness and chaos. It may be that in the future our national and state leaders will decide to start taxing our churches like any other business. They may insist they have the right to seize our property and assets. Rather than resisting with our own power and might, we should obey and render to Caesar money, life and limb, the things of this earth which God has given him.
Simply put, the Lord in his wisdom has set authorities, yes even sinful authorities, over us in this world. They have charge over their domains whether we like it or not. Their sins against families and the church don’t justify our anger, but rather give us reason to pray. If Caesar demands treasure and honor, at this church and among our members, we’ll gladly given them. For as Christ said to Pilate, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).
Christians more than anyone else in the world should be blameless in the sight of our rulers. We preached divinely ordained authority, not rebellion. We preach love, not selfishness. We preach mercy, not hatred.
But here’s the catch. We render all this from freedom, not because we owe Caesar anything. We’re free from the law. We’re free from its judgments and condemnations. We don’t obey because we’re scared of being punished. We obey because its in keeping with the love God himself has taught us in his commandments and because it has been poured out graciously on us by God’s Son who suffered to set us free from the law’s accusation and condemnation.
“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Honor the emperor” (1 Pet. 2:15-17).
Gladly, we’ll continue to preach and teach these things, even when our governing authorities act outside the bounds of what’s been given to them, even when they call Christians the worst and most deplorable citizens in the land.
Let’s face it, the governing authorities have again and again set themselves against the good ordering of love as it’s been clearly laid out in the ten commandments and imprinted on our hearts through conscience. The murder of the unborn has been legal in this country for more than a generation now. Because they call it legal, does that make it good or necessitate our participation in its works? In public schools and increasingly through our land’s laws, it’s becoming harder and harder to confess the truth of ordered love in the family between one man and one woman united together till death parts them. Just speaking of how this is God’s design and better than the sinful alternatives is making the authorities displeased with us. Recently in Norway such language was labeled hate speech and made subject to legal punishments.
III.
Our obedience to Caesar is not absolute, because Caesar is neither infallible nor our god. The ruling authorities can and do sin against the office God has given them. This doesn’t justify rebellion. But it does justify clear words and actions that show that “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Instead of resisting when the governing authorities decide our words and actions are worthy of punishment, we suffer their displeasure, paying what fines and punishments they find necessary.
This is what we owe God that cannot be given to men. Our fear, love, and trust. Our faith. Our undivided loyalty. Keep this straight in your minds and hearts, you love your governor’s person and the office into which your Lord has placed her. You do not love her word over the Lord’s Word. You’re obedient to those laws and orders that are consistent with God’s law. When the governing authorities tell you to sin, you must disobey. This isn’t rebellion. This is the hard fact of life in this world as a Christian, a life that stirs up the world’s strife and anger because we don’t go along just to get along.
How does God’s Word take such priority in our lives? How can it be that God has given us such a terrifying responsibility to make judgements over what the governor says?
God’s Word has set us free dear saints from the constraints of the Law’s threats of violence and force. We needed it once when we were lost and confounded by sin, but no longer. “For freedom Christ has set us free,” St. Paul says. Jesus himself assures us that we are not slaves of this earth and law, but sons of heaven and grace. Slaves to sin need the law and its punishments. Slaves need tyrants and to be told how to live every moment of life. But we abide in the Son’s Word by which we’ve been set free from both the accusation of sin and the law’s threats. They don’t matter to us who have learned to love freely from Christ’s free and boundless sacrifice to set us free from God’s displeasure and wrath. Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” not just from God’s condemnation, but from this earth’s confused attempts at governance and law. If they rule against us for what we believe, teach, and confess, why should that trouble our consciences? Don’t we have God’s Word from which all their authority derives? Isn’t it our office as Christians to speak kindly toward them and remind them of the true paths of righteousness from which they’ve departed? Of course! That’s my duty as pastor in preaching as much as its your duty as citizen when it comes to the voting box.
Right now, the governor is once again tightening her authoritative grip on every aspect of life from how families celebrate thanksgiving to which businesses can operate to how and when congregations can worship. The advent of the virus emergency that brought these newfound powers to the governor’s office isn’t going away, so we should get used to sorting these things out in our minds and hearts. What do we owe the governor? What do we owe God?
We owe the governor our prayers, honor, and obedience, of course. In so far as we are able, as the Bible puts it, that is, conditionally, we should go along with her orders. But don’t for a second think that we do so because we’re enslaved to her demands. In freedom we obey, setting aside what belongs to us, so we can act in suffering love toward her and our neighbors. If she thinks it best that we restrict our gathering sizes in Roswell, we should try to obey.
But remember what belongs to God and what we owe him. This church and its worship are not the governor’s. She might think she has the authority to dictate how and when to worship. She might think that she has authority to restrict our voices in song and how we distribute the sacrament of Jesus’ body and blood. But she’s mistaken. Here, we’ll give to God what is God’s, our whole hearts and obedience through faith that trusts in God’s mercy that’s greater than viruses and health orders, that’s greater than election results and corruption.
Things may change next week. We might have two services rather than one. But don’t think we’re doing it because Christians are obligated to do whatever the Governor says. We’re doing it with love, from freedom, and with the knowledge that if it serves God better to meet together at the same time, we will exercise our freedom to do so. But for the time being, while we can obey the governor with a clean conscience while retaining God’s Word and Sacrament, let us do so.