Christ Episcopal Church
October 16, 2011
24 Proper A
Several years ago, Don and I went to Chicago over Don’s fall break to visit our old stomping ground from the days when I was in seminary. We also wanted to visit my aunt and uncle who we had not seen since I graduated. The path from our hotel to their house is pretty direct as the crow flies, but fairly tricky given Chicago construction and traffic, even on a Sunday evening. When we arrived at their house and my uncle came to the door, I was stunned for a moment to be looking at the clear image of my grandfather, his father. My grandfather had died some 15 years earlier, so clearly I was actually looking at my uncle. But Uncle George bore an uncanny and unsettling resemblance to his father that I had not seen when Uncle George was a younger man.
In my family, and perhaps in yours, we take great interest in discovering family traits in each other, whether they are personality traits, like intelligence, or a sense of humor, or physical traits, like a big nose or small ears. Growing up, we often heard about how much someone resembled Aunt Emily or Uncle George, or about how our mannerisms were those of our grandparents or great grandparents. My young nephew looks just like my brother and my father and he acts just like my sister. It seems important that we know who we look like, that we understand whose image we carry. That image gives us a sense of our identity and of our place in the family. That image also connects us to our story, a story we often don’t know until someone tells us.
Jesus is talking about these kinds of images in this morning’s gospel lesson. The Herodians and the Pharisees are once again trying to trap Jesus. So, they ask Jesus whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor. Surely this time, they have trapped Jesus. If Jesus says "no, it is not lawful," then the Romans can try him on charges of treason. If Jesus says "yes, it is lawful," he will have betrayed the Jews, his own people, because the Jews believed that paying taxes to Rome was to endorse the foreign occupation of Israel. Jesus is once again in what seems to be a no-win situation.
But Jesus cannot be tricked by the Herodians and the Pharisees. Jesus asks for a coin and asks whose image appears on that coin. The answer, of course, is that the emperor’s image is on the coin. So Jesus says "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s." When the people heard this, they were amazed, and they left him and went away.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if I had been there that day, I might have left amazed, but I would also have left confused. The issue is far from settled by Jesus’ answer. How do we know exactly which things belong to the emperor and exactly which things belong to God? What is it, exactly, that we are to give to each? Rather than providing us the direct and clear answer we want, Jesus leaves us with more questions than we started with.
Whose image is on the coin? The image of the emperor is on the coin, so the coin belongs to the realm of the state and can be used for the purposes of the state. Simple enough. But what about the things that are God’s? How do we know what they are?
As the Pharisees and Herodians well knew, in the first chapter of the book of Genesis, we are told exactly in whose image we are made... whose image and likeness we bear. "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Gen. 1:27) What belongs to God, what bears the image of God, is nothing other than humankind. We are made in the image of God and we have the image of God woven into every fiber of our being. While we may have great Aunt Martha’s smile, or Uncle Henry’s big nose, it is the image of God that is imprinted on our souls.
Jesus is not giving out tax advice this morning when he tells the Pharisees and Herodians to give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and to give to God what is God’s, . When it comes to the issue of what we are to do with our money, Jesus is calling us to remember in whose image we are made and to whom we belong. Then Jesus calls us to remember in whose image every human being is made and to treat every human being with the dignity and concern due a person whose soul is imprinted with the image of God. In a few weeks, on Christ the King Sunday, our own feast day at Christ Church, we will hear Jesus say "When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me. When I was naked, you gave me clothing, When I was sick, you took care of me. When I was in prison, you visited me." Jesus, the Son of God, reminds us that when we care for another human being, we care for the image of God that dwells within that person, and when we turn our back on that person, we turn our back on God. Jesus’ primary concern is not about the lawfulness of paying taxes, but with how we use who we are and what we have to care for the image of God that wells in all people.
In the reading from Exodus this morning, Moses needs reassurance from God that God is with him in the journey through the wilderness and to the Promised Land. Moses asks God for three things: for God to show Moses God’s ways, for God’s presence to go with the people, and for God to show Moses God’s glory. God agrees to all of those requests, but then God says, "you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live." Through out the Hebrew scriptures, the presence of God is known, the glory of God is revealed, and God is gracious and merciful. But the tradition of the Hebrew scriptures is the face of God cannot be seen. Perhaps we are not to look at the face of God directly because the place where human beings are to find the face of God is on each other.
Amen.
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