Sunday Sermon 18th Oct 2020

 OCT 18 MATT 22:15-33 CCM

The Pharisees don’t have a very good reputation as far as most of us are concerned. They always seem to be either in conflict with Jesus or trying to catch him out in some way. But they opposed the Roman occupation of Israel, unlike the sadducees. These groups were actually bitter enemies, but they were united in their opposition to Jesus.

They had a foolproof plan: ask Jesus what he thinks about paying taxes to the Roman authorities. If Jesus said pay the taxes, the Pharisees would say that he was opposed to the God of Israel, the only King they recognised.

If Jesus said that taxes should not be paid, then he could be handed over to the Romans on a charge of rebellion. The plan could not fail, could it?

Jesus is not fooled by their flattery, but he does agree to answer the question. But first, he reframes the issue subtly by asking to see the coin used to pay the tax. The tax the Israelites were forced to pay actually funded their occupation by the Romans.

This is a clever move because it allows all onlookers to see for themselves what Jesus already knows: Jesus is the one being put on the spot, his pockets are empty, but his opponents have no trouble supplying a denarius on demand.

When they produce the coin of the realm, Jesus asks them the question: “‘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’”.

A wonderful answer but what does it mean? By highlighting the physical features of the denarius used to pay the tax, Jesus gives us a number of things to think about.

In the first place, the image of the emperor stamped into the coin’s surface, along with the blasphemous inscription with its claim to divinity 2 , call to mind the prohibition against images in the Decalogue. God has forbidden graven images. 

And yet his accusers have brought this coin in the Temple grounds. The issue becomes not about tax, but about idolatry.at stake here is nothing less than idolatry. Jesus asks them what their priorities really are – are they really concerned about paying tax or does their question go deeper.

Our citizenship of Australia requires that we pay taxes to fund government services, but our citizenship of the kingdom of God requires that we live according to Jesus teachings, as well as Australian law.

Then we have a group of sadducees who want to trap Jesus with a question about life after death. They didn’t believe in the resurrection, unlike the Pharisees, but they decided to trap Jesus, so they come up with a ludicrous situation about a woman who marries many brothers.

The question is based on the teachings of Moses, who said that if a man died without children, his own brother should they marry his widow and produce children on his behalf. And so the question becomes that if this happens 7 times, whose wife will the woman be in heaven?

A strange question from people who did not even believe in the resurrection! Why should they care whose wife she would be?

Jesus does not shy from the question for even the least moment. He calmly and firmly affirms that they presume to be educated but in fact they have no idea what they are talking about because they do not know the Bible or God.

In heaven, things will be different, and relationships will be different. We are given only the vaguest ideas of what heaven will be like but none of us will know until we get there!

We will be, as Jesus says here, like the Angels. He does not say we will be Angels, but like Angels. We will still be people, but changed people who are equal with Angels in spiritual nature, equal with them in being deathless, glorified, and eternal.

Our response to God’s love is not to make up our own ideas of eternity and heaven in human terms. Rather our response should be to focus more on what our relationship with God is like now, and how we can continue to grow in that relationship.

As we read in the Gospel of John chapter 14, Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my father’s home and I am going to prepare a place for you. I will come and get you so that you will always be with me where I am.”

For those who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, heaven is a wonderful promise. 

AMEN