The two kingdoms - Matthew 22:15-22
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father
and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Do you remember the Frank Sinatra song: ‘Strangers in the night’.
I can’t remember how the words go,
but it is about two people who pass each other and no longer relate to each other.
Christians are a bit like ‘strangers in the night’ with people around us;
in fact, we should be ‘strangers in the day’ also;
because on the basis of Jesus’ teaching about the coin,
while we are in the world, we are not of it;
physically we are here, but spiritually we belong somewhere else.
This is why we find so many things around us hard to put up with,
and why some people who know us, find US hard to put up with.
To put it bluntly, we are children of the Light,
and those who are not Christians are children of Darkness.
It is not me who is saying this, but Jesus in John’s Gospel chapter 3
and St Paul in Romans chapter 2 said the same.
This might sound arrogant,
but we are only in ‘the Light’ because we have accepted God’s invitation to come into it,
while those who are ‘in Darkness’ have decided that that is where they want to be.
The Gospel lesson is about the Pharisees plotting to entrap Jesus.
There was nothing new in this.
In Matthew’s Gospel we can see that there has been an ongoing battle
between the religious leaders of Israel and Jesus,
for example concerning Jesus’ authority
versus that of the appointed leaders of the Temple.
The Pharisees were really worried about the number of people who were following Jesus, and so they wanted to discredit Him before the people
in order to maintain their own status and power.
What is strange about this particular text,
is the fact that the Pharisees, who were supposed to be deeply pious and religious purists, were willing to team up with the Herodians,
who were partisans of the ruling Roman family.
They were a group of Jews who had compromised their faith and piety,
in order to win favours from the governing forces.
The Pharisees and the Herodians made strange partners
in their attempt to discredit Jesus, because they really despised each other,
but there is an unwritten law ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’
which means the enemies of Jesus were willing to work together
to put Jesus down.
They tried to trick Jesus through some sweet talking flattery,
then asked the question. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
This was a Catch 22 way of trying to get Jesus to say something that would incriminate himself.
If Jesus answered “No,” the Herodians, who enjoyed the benefits of Roman rule,
would report him to the authorities as a traitor or seditionist.
If Jesus answered “Yes,” the Pharisees would be able to discredit him among the people as a Roman sympathizer, a person unfaithful to the faith of Israel.
Jesus wasn’t daft, and this is why Jesus, as these two conflicting groups approached him,
referred to them as hypocrites.
Jesus knew that there had to be some devious intent
behind their teaming up to confront him.
But Jesus filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit,
didn’t succumb to their ploy, their desire to entrap him.
Instead, Jesus asked to see the coin everyone had to use to pay their taxes.
It was a coin that bore the image of the Roman emperor,
and so Jesus asked, “Whose image is on the coin?”
Both groups answered, “The emperor.”
Jesus then replied, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s
and to God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew tells us that when they heard this, they were amazed,
and they left Jesus and went away; basically defeated.
Jesus’ answer enabled him to escape the trap
that the two extreme but opposing groups were trying to set for him.
It acknowledged to the Herodians that we do have obligations
to uphold to our worldly governments,
and it expressed to the Pharisees that we also have obligations
to uphold as citizens of God’s kingdom.
But more deeply than this, Jesus gave a teaching that left them with a challenge
that rings down through the centuries,
and affects us and our relationships with everyone we come across
in the course of our everyday lives, including family members, neighbours,
and people we work with.
Jesus is basically saying that Christians are citizens of two kingdoms.
The first part of his answer acknowledges the fact that we have a responsibility to uphold as citizens of the world,
and to the governing authorities of our Nation, our County and our local community.
Jesus is saying that we have an obligation to pay taxes to the government,
to pay for hospitals, schools, the police, fire service, social workers, etc,
all the various services and benefits that result from living under its ruling authority.
This is what he meant by “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s.”
We have to keep the law unless in some way it goes categorically against the Bible.
Those who first heard Jesus’ response, and those who hear it today,
recognize that earthly governments ask their citizens for more than money.
Governments also ask for allegiance, loyalty, obedience.
Governments have the right to establish laws and have the authority to enforce them,
which is why we have police, courts and prisons.
And in times of war, governments ask for military service,
which may require the taking of other people’s lives or the sacrificing of one’s own.
Luther certainly believed and taught that Jesus upheld the authority of earthly government.
If God’s kingdom was the kingdom of the Right hand,
then earthly kingdoms formed the kingdom of the Left hand
and their laws should be kept by Christians
providing, of course, that they did not conflict with God’s.
The apostle Paul, asserted repeatedly in his writings to the early Christian churches,
that believers had to respect governmental authority.
In the Book of the prophet Isaiah we learn how even the heathen ruler Cyrus
could be an instrument of God’s purpose.
If Jesus’ response had ended with
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s,”
we would have been left with a mandate, a command to live our lives
in total obedience to the authority of our earthly rulers.
But Jesus didn’t end there!
He also added, “give to God the things that are God’s.”
By this Jesus meant that God also deserves our allegiance, our loyalty and our obedience
because we are spiritually citizens of His kingdom.
Clearly God deserves our tithes and offerings, our worship and thanksgiving,
for His gift of redeeming grace, forgiveness, and the assurance of eternal life
which we possess as members of his church here on earth.
The Roman coin that Jesus held bore the image of the emperor,
therefore it belonged to the emperor.
But what bears the image and name of God? The answer is ‘us’, we do, or we should do!
In the very first chapter of Genesis, we are told that God said,
“Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness.”
And the author of the first book of the Bible concluded,
“So God created us in God’s image…” We are the coins of God’s realm, of his kingdom.
If we are to “give to God the things that are God’s,”
then we must conclude from our Lord’s teaching
that there is no limit to what we owe God.
We owe God our whole being, our very life, all that is ours.
No part of our life is excluded from our fundamental covenant
with the one who is our Creator, and who has redeemed us from sin and death
to make us citizens of his kingdom.
Every day, we live as citizens of two kingdoms,
an earthly kingdom, to which we owe certain allegiances,
and a heavenly kingdom to which we owe everything.
Jesus invites us to acknowledge that our government
has a right to expect a certain allegiance from us,
but the allegiance we owe our earthly kingdoms is limited,
and one day it will end, either when we die or when Jesus returns.
What we owe to God is not limited to taxes and will never end.
Having and living by faith in Jesus Christ
means we are not just members of a religious club or society
but that we are citizens of two kingdoms, which are sometimes in conflict.
Where the demands and expectations of the two do come into conflict,
as Christians God expects that our greatest allegiance should be to Him.
Jesus gave to the emperor what belonged to him, and never challenged the right of Rome to charge taxes and maintain law and order,
but Jesus always gave to God what belonged to Him.
Jesus acknowledged the right of Pilate to take his life,
even though he could have avoided death,
but he gave his life, his all, back to his heavenly Father on our behalf,
for our redemption, because this was God’s will.
I am sure that if you have been a Christian for even a short length of time
you will be aware that we are always being pulled in two directions,
the one of the present world, which is not always right, but not always bad,
and the one of God, who is always holy and always right.
May we never compromise our place in heaven by putting the world before God,
but also let us not be too heavenly minded that we are too earthly use,
which is the criticism Martin Luther made of the monks and nuns of his time.
We must ask for the help of God’s Spirit,
to identify and give to God the things that are God’s,
and not fail to give to the government and our local authorities,
that which belongs to them.
We live in the world.
We pay Income Tax and local Council Tax.
We use pounds, or Euros, or dollars.
We wear clothes made in factories, eat food grown on farms,
and use up electricity, gas and petrol.
Even monks in monasteries and nuns in convents have to eat and drink,
so there is no escape from the world, the flesh and the devil,
but even though we have to live here
it does not mean that we have to belong here;
our real home is in heaven.
It is only natural that we should feel uncomfortable with what we read in our newspapers,
what we see on TV, and what we hear with our ears, especially when there are young people and drinkers around.
It is good that we feel uncomfortable, because that means the Holy Spirit is working in us.
If we ever feel totally comfortable and at ease in this sinful world,
then there is something wrong.
As Jesus put it when talking about whose face was on the coin,
there are two kingdoms, the values of which are in complete opposition in many ways.
We might have Passports or Driving Licences
that say we are citizens of the UK or the EU,
but the most important thing is that we belong primarily to the Kingdom of God.
Let us pray:
Dear Heavenly Father, through your grace
and Christ’s death and resurrection,
You have claimed us as Your redeemed people,
and have made us children of Your heavenly kingdom.
Yet you have placed us in this world, as citizens of fallen world,
with obligations to our nation and allegiances to our family
and other organizations to which we belong.
Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to prioritize our various commitments,
that we might serve You above all else,
as we live peaceful lives here in the local community
in which we are to be your ambassadors.
This we ask, in Christ’s holy name.
Amen, and may the peace ......................................................
