Render Unto Caesar - Year A Proper 24 Exodus 3:12-23 Matthew 22:15-22

Moses said [to God], "Show me your glory, I pray."

From the foot of the mountain, where last week we watched the Children of Israel dance and feast as they worshiped an idol, a golden calf, this week we find ourselves at the heights. We are on top of the mountain with Moses as he speaks to God. The description of what is occurring in that place is terrifying, and yet, Moses, standing amid the thunder, the lightning, the wind and fire, wants to see God. What can he be thinking?

It would seem that Moses is motivated by normal human curiosity, by the need to know, but in truth he is driven by a deeper and holier purpose. He has realized that the wind and lightning, all the fire and fury, is just a floor show. Terrifying though the special effects may be, they aren’t God, and Moses wants God. He wants to get past all the external, fearful displays and into a deeper relationship with his Creator. Because Moses is motivated by more than human curiosity, because of his deep desire to be closer to the Lord, God will grant Moses’ request.

The Lord said to Moses, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the Name … but you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live."

But at the same time God will protect Moses from the death that would await him if he were to behold the face of the Almighty.

And the LORD continued, "See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

There is a great sense of tenderness and caring here. God is telling Moses that because he seeks with love, God will respond will love. What at first sounds like a human being asking for the thrill of seeing the unknown, has turned out to be the initiation of an intimate, and loving relationship between a human being and his Creator.

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what He said.

In our Gospel today, two groups are out to get Jesus. First, we have the Pharisees, devout Jews who are scrupulous in their observance of God’s Law as they understand it. Interestingly, this is probably the religious movement with which Jesus felt the greatest connection. He may have been viewed, at least initially, as a Pharisee, although an eccentric one. So, there is special irony in certain other Pharisees plotting to entrap Him.

The other group is the Herodians, Jews who support the local puppet ruler, Herod Antipas, or the entire family to which he belongs. Little is known about the Herodians as a group, except that Herod and his family were unpopular with the people, and so their supporters must have been unpopular as well, chiefly because the supporters were seen as Roman collaborators.

On the other hand, the Pharisees were a grassroots movement generally respected by the people. Pharisees and Herodians differed on several issues, such as whether or not the Jews should pay taxes to the occupying power.

It is remarkable, therefore, to see representatives of these opposite social forces working together, but there is a reason for this. Evidently both groups felt threatened, and they are willing to unite over their mutual concern - how to discredit this Jesus of Nazareth.

Together the two groups send representatives to ask Jesus, "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. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"

It is, of course, a trick question. If Jesus says it is unlawful to pay taxes to the emperor, He can be arrested by the Romans. On the other hand, if He says it is lawful, then He loses credibility with the Jews. His response is telling; Show me the coin used for the tax.

Immediately we realize something interesting, Jesus doesn’t carry Roman money. In His time, there were different forms of coinage, among them Roman money, and Jewish money. That’s why there were money changers in the temple courtyard, those with whom Jesus became angry and whose tables He overturned. You couldn’t make a temple offering using Roman money. You had to change it for Jewish currency. Jesus has to ask to see a Roman coin before He responds to His inquisitors.

In response to His request, He is handed a denarius, a small, silver coin about the size of a dime. In the King James Bible, it is called a “penny”. On it would have been the face of the emperor. The emperor was, of course, considered to be almost a divine being. Caesar Augustus claimed to be the “son of God” because of his legal adoption by Julius Caesar, who after his death had been made a Roman god. Thus, such coins were, in a way, small idols to the emperor, bearing his image and his motto. Jesus would never have carried such a coin, an idol of the emperor, on His person.

Jesus accepts the coin and asks, "Whose image is this, and whose title?" They answered, "The emperor's."

And then Jesus utters the words that are so familiar to us today. He said to them, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God's."

Why do we this morning hear about Moses’ request to see God, and Jesus’ request to see the face on a Roman coin? What do the two stories have in common. What are we meant to learn?

Had Moses asked to see God purely out of curiosity or a sense of thrill-seeking, God would have refused. We know all about the curiosity and thrill-seeking aspect of things. There are an endless number of TV shows today that explore the paranormal and the unexplained, and their number seems to always be increasing. Humans love ghost stories and mysteries, the excitement and chills they create. But God has nothing to do with such motivations. Seeking and finding God relies on something else, something much deeper. Moses sought God through love.

Jesus holds a small Roman coin in His hand and responds to the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the listening crowed. What He says is deep and profound. He does not make a simple statement about money, rather, He instructs His listeners then, and us today, in the way of love, in the way in which we are called to live in this world and yet be not of it. It is lawful, Jesus tells us, to give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; thus should be our obligation to earthly realms. But we are to give back to God without limit what bears God’s divine image, and that is all that we are, for we are created in God’s image.

There is nothing wrong with having a superficial relationship with the world. We do, after all, have to give to Caesar what is his. But we need to be very clear. Jesus is limiting to Caesar the payment of coin, while telling His listeners and us that our response to God should be, must be, limitless – that our first and basic loyalties are to God.

How do we do this? The commandments Moses received on Mt. Sinai were restated for us by Jesus, so we could live them in our daily lives.

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Let us pray:

God, our Father, may we love You in all things and above all things. Nothing is good that is against Your Will, and all that is good comes from Your Hand. Place in our hearts a desire to please You and fill our minds with thoughts of Your Love, so that we may grow in Your Wisdom, enjoy Your Peace, and spread Your love throughout the world. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.