“Render Unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar, and unto God The things that are God’s”

A sermon preached in St. Columba’s on Sunday 8th Novemeber 2010 at Evening prayer.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father - May my words, and our thoughts be always be guided by your Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.

The Scene from tonight’s Gospel Reading is one of conflict, of Jesus’ opponents trying to catch him out. Someone once said ... If your enemies are being nice to you - you have got to worry!

Two Groups the Pharisees and the Herodians came to Jesus 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.

What are they looking? - Jesus did indeed know what they were up to. When they asked the question - which was indeed a common discussion point in 1st Century Palestine.
The Jews looked upon the Romans as the occupying force, they were waiting for someone who would come and overthrow Rome so that they might live ruled by their own king. At this point they only saw a Yes or No solution to the question

Should Jews pay taxes? ... a straight forward question

If Jesus said yes - well then, he would loose face, he couldn’t be the great revolutionary, the messiah - the expected one

If Jesus said no - then the Romans could get him for tax evasion!

Jesus asks for someone to get him a roman coin (as an aside - it is interesting to note that Jesus gets one of his opponent to show that they do carry these roman coins

On the coin, there was, historians tell us, the inscription - Caesar is Lord - Jesus asks them

Questions about the coin and then makes one of his great statements which amazed his opponents

Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ 21They 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.’ 22
That incident left them confused
did he really tell them to pay taxes?
did he not?

As in so many of Jesus’ dialogues - he made people think!

In this passage we are reminded that we have to give to God the things that are God’s, and to the emperor the things that are his.

Yes the romans were the temporal power of the day but Jesus was reminding those listening that everything ultimately belonged to God. All power, all authority, all of creation.

What about us today? Well our coins here remind us about who is really in charge - Take any uk coin - each of these you will see

the letters D G REG F D:
Deo Gratia Regina Fidei Defensor – 
By the grace of God Queen Defender of the faith.

The Roman Coins had Caesar is Lord, our coins point to the Christian faith, they point to the head of state not as Lord but rather as defender of our faith.

We are called to pray for, called to submit our selves to authority. Render to our rulers respect and submission but render everything to God that is God’s and that is the challenge.

What do we fail to give to the rulers, to the tax man, to government? One just has to look at the amount of money not passed to the HMRC in the news today!

And what do we fail to give to God?

Money after all is how we limit scarce resources of the earth, all things come from God - all resources, all time, all good things we enjoy. How can we use these more effectively?

It is a serious challenge as to what we do with the resources we have today especially in these difficult economic times - are we living as people of God? are we ready to give account for our use of time talents and money?

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are his!


Let us pray