This is the sermon that I will preach this morning. Special thanks to Willimon for getting me started and Hauerwas for his commentary on Matthew. I hope that the Duke influence isn’t too evident! 

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.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. 

I wish that Jesus had had a coin on him that day, when they asked the question about paying taxes to Caesar. But His pockets were empty. The things of Caesar were apparently not a concern to Jesus. Our pockets, however, are not empty. 

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?” Jesus asks. “George Washington’s,” we reply.“Let him have it then,” Jesus tells us. “If he likes it so much that he is going to stamp his picture on it and inscribe it in honor of himself, then give it all to him. But you had better be careful. Do not give to him that which belongs to God.” Now are we really brave enough to ask “What belongs to God?” To even ask the question would indicate either ignorance or dishonesty when it comes to the things of God. 

The Pharisees and Herodians in the Gospel lesson were ignorant. They weren’t stupid, but their religious and political commitments effectively blinded them when it came to Jesus of Nazareth. And to be blind when it comes to Jesus means to be ignorant about God. Of course, such blindness results from the destructive force of sin on the image of God, although they would have been ignorant about such things as well. Their failure to recognize Jesus as the Messiah leads them to the conviction that Jesus is the enemy. Jesus is an irritant to both the Pharisees, a religious party of the Jews who desired the overthrow of Herod, and the Herodians, a largely political party of Jews who supported the Roman government. The only thing these people had in common was their dislike of Jesus. So they concoct a plan to trap Jesus in His words, to humiliate Him.   

Even in their ignorance, however, they speak truth about Jesus. “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. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Well, it is true that Jesus is the Teacher. It is true that Jesus is the Truth. It is true that Jesus teaches the Way of God truthfully. And it is true that Jesus was not concerned with His image at the expense of truth. Yet their ignorance about Jesus does not allow them to understand the truth of their statement. The sad irony is that they speak the truth, but they do not believe it. Instead their hearts are full of evil and malice. They are only trying to destroy Jesus’ public image. And if Jesus supports the tax to Caesar, then He will alienate the people. Or if Jesus denies the tax to Caesar, then He will be open to the charge of treason. The Pharisees and Herodians may have been ignorant about Jesus, but they certainly were not stupid. They have set a pretty good trap. 

Jesus knew the evil intent in their hearts, and called them on it. They were thinking one thing and saying another. And Jesus, being more concerned with truth than public image, calls them on their hypocrisy, “You hypocrites!” Jesus asks them to show Him the coin. Jesus does not have a denarius, but the Pharisees and Herodians are able to provide one. Jesus then asks an easy question, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” His opponents give the easy answer, “Caesar’s.” Now this image of Caesar on the coin would have been no small issue for pious Jews. In fact, the etched image on the coin would have been quite offensive to their sensibilities. The coin bore an image of the emperor’s head with the inscription, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus” on one side, and “pontifex maximus” or “high priest” on the other side. The coin itself made a theological claim that Caesar was a son of the divine and a high priest. So Jesus tells them to give the coins to Caesar. The coins are idolatrous. If Caesar loves himself so much as to imprint his image on a coin and inscribe it with his names and false claims, then give them to him. More important, however, is the need to give God what belongs to Him. Give the emperor what is the emperor’s. But give to God what is God’s. Render to God what is God’s. There is the rub. They were good at rendering to Caesar and carrying his image, but they failed to render to God and bear His image. How could they render to God when they rejected His Son? How could they render to God when they were so concerned with their own public image? They only could pretend to be religious while their pockets were full of what belonged to Caesar. Hypocrites. The crowd is amazed and stunned. They do not know how to respond to Jesus. So they marvel and go on their own way, which demonstrates their persistent ignorance when it comes to Jesus.

However we are not ignorant when it comes to Jesus. Our confession of faith is all about Jesus. We make no room for the false claims of Caesar or Washington or anyone else. We gather to confess that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, the Word become flesh, eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We confess that Jesus fulfilled the Law and, on the cross, was the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world. We confess that Jesus rose from the grave and then ascended into heaven. Thus, unlike Caesar, Jesus is the true High Priest, who now “has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens”. Jesus, our High Priest, now freely mediates His grace and forgiveness to us. At the font, Jesus etched the sign of the cross on our foreheads and on our hearts, marking us as His redeemed children. In the life-giving waters of our Baptism, Jesus inscribed His name on us. And we now bear the image of Christ. The image of God that was lost in Adam through sin and death is now being restored by the grace of Jesus Christ. St. Augustine likened us to the coin of Christ. He wrote, “Christ’s coin is man. In him is Christ’s image, in him Christ’s Name, Christ’s gifts, Christ’s rules of duty.” The image and inscription of Christ has been imprinted on us. 

So give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Or give to Washington what is Washington’s. But give to God what is God’s. Render to Christ what is Christ’s. In other words, you belong to Jesus and your responsibility is to render to Him what properly belongs to Him. Do you know now what belongs to Him? Indeed, you belong to Him. You are Christ’s coin. Therefore, give back to Him all that belongs to Him. Give all that you are and all that you have back to Christ.  Now don’t you too wish that Jesus had a denarius on Him that day? 

You see, if Jesus had had a denarius, then it would have allowed us to safely accommodate ourselves to the concerns of the world. Look, even Jesus carries the image of Caesar in his purse! Perhaps Jesus is showing us how to live with divided loyalties in this world? After all, there are the concerns of this world and then there are the concerns of heaven. But Jesus did not have a denarius. And Jesus does not allow divided loyalties. “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” In His redemptive work, our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased us not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death that we may serve Him. We entirely and completely belong to Him. You are Christ’s coin. So give yourself back to Him. 

This is where we become dishonest. We are not ignorant about Jesus and His salvation, but we are often dishonest about how much we should render to God. We like to work in percentages or on a continuum of what belongs to God. In this way we can feel good about ourselves while we continue to set our minds on earthly things. It is good enough to render 15 or 20 Sundays a year to the Lord, as long as the service isn’t too long. And we fail to factor in percentages of our day to the study of His Word and prayer. We are too busy with the things of Caesar during the week. If we are pious, then we render a couple hours a week to the Lord. Or we think 3 or 5% of our income is good enough for the Lord. It keeps up appearances. After all, we have to think about retirement, leisure, and vacations. The Lord has provided, but not as much as we would like. We might even believe that in public we can think or act contrary to Christian faith, pretending that we can actually sequester our faith into the private realm so not as to offend anyone or hurt our image. It is easy to render to Caesar or George Washington because they demand very little. Our Lord, however, has purchased us and we belong entirely and completely to Him. We are dishonest if we think a little bit of ourselves is good enough. 

 If we truly grasp the totality of Jesus’ teaching, then we will not marvel and leave Jesus like the crowd in the Gospel. Rather, we will tremble and cling to Jesus. We will tremble because we are sinners. If we are honest before the Lord, then we will have to confess that we struggle and are weak when it comes to giving ourselves to Him. An honest appraisal of our commitments will reveal that we do not render to God the things that are God’s. But while we do not render to Jesus what belongs to Him, our Lord renders all of Himself to us for our salvation. So we must cling to Jesus. Remember, He rendered Himself to the cross for your sake. And today He renders to you the salvation He purchased for you, His forgiveness of sins in His gifts—His Holy Absolution; His Holy Body and Blood. Jesus gives all of Himself to you for your salvation. Jesus gives all of Himself to you for your eternity. Jesus gives His grace to you in order to further transform you into His image, that you may bear His image in this life. Cling to Jesus in His gifts. Cling to Jesus in His gifts so that He can work His grace in you. And at the end of the age, our Lord will transform you fully into His image, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. You are His coin and He possesses you, now and in eternity. XINJX