10:30 Family Service for The Twentieth Sunday After Trinity
“ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”
Summary
There is a sense in which Jesus is being just a bit too clever in today’s gospel reading, Matthew 22:15-22. He avoids giving a straight answer to the question he is asked, instead he raises yet more questions. What does belong to the emperor? And what does belong to God? Which leads to yet more questions, not about our relationship to authority and the state but questions about our relationship to God, to ourselves and to others. When Jesus shows them the coin, he notes that it bears the emperor’s image. What then bears God’s image? The obvious answer is us, humanity, made in the image of God. The pharisees have noticed that Jesus “does not regard people with partiality”. All bear the image of God, therefore no one is more or less valuable than anyone else. If we to give to God the things that are God’s then we are to be given to God; our lives are not our own, they are a gift to be used to grow more and more into the likeness of Christ.
READING
Matthew 22:15-22
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
