“Just put a
cross on it. It’ll sell.” Thus speak the marketing departments of any number of
religious supply houses and Christian gift stores. Put a cross on it. It has a
bit of a “snake oil” sound to it, doesn’t it?
But to Christians,
at least those to whom their faith is more than a “Sunday faith,” putting a
cross on something doesn’t make it easy. In fact, it might make it more
difficult because we’d have to think about what it means each time we saw that
cross. We’d have to think who Jesus is, what Jesus means to us, and how we
live.
This
morning’s Gospel is an uncomfortable reminder that it’s not always easy to find
Jesus’ message is in our tax-paying, multi-allegiance world. What is pretty clear
in today’s Gospel, however, is life for a believer cannot be cleanly and
equally divided: this part for taxes; this part for God; this part for Caesar,
this part for God. It gets increasingly difficult to compartmentalize ourselves
into one part: the secular, every-day, tax-paying part. The other part: the church
going, pie-in-the-sky, heaven-looking “Jesusy” part.
In these
two groups in Matthew’s gospel who want to trap Jesus, it works something like
this. First, they try to flatter him. Here’s the snake oil “Teacher, we know
that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth…” They
use the phrase, “in accordance with truth.” “In accordance with truth” meant as
found in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Further, the
Pharisees and Herodians ask, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or
not?” The phrase, “Is it lawful?” is another way of saying, “Does Torah permit
this?” And having buttered up Jesus, they ask their questions, and then move in
for the sell, oops, I mean the kill.
I picture everyone
crowded around, rubbing their hands and thinking, “Let’s see him get out of this
one!” Some people were probably thinking, “If he says pay the emperor, people will be mad at him for telling them to pay the
taxes that oppress us.” Other people were probably thinking, “If he says don’t pay the emperor, he’ll be arrested
for sure.”
Jesus says,
“Show me the coin used for the tax.” That might seem like a little thing to us,
but to people in Jesus’ time, it was a big deal. Here is Jesus, in the temple,
asking for a coin. And what do they bring him? In hardly any time, they bring
him a Roman coin
What’s
wrong with this picture? Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 4, where we find the Ten
Commandments prohibit graven images and idols. And, God also says, “You shall
have no other Gods before me.” Yet here in the temple itself, the holy place, Commandments
1 and 2 get broken in one quick sweep.
How? It’s
obviously no problem to get a coin with a graven image, an idol on it. The
Pharisees and Herodians violate the Torah by producing a coin with a graven
image in a holy place.
Having been handed the coin, Jesus
then asks the questions – to which they all know the answers. “Whose head is
this? Whose title is this?” The answer, in both cases, is the emperor. And, worse
yet, the coin also has engraved on it words that give both Caesar’s name and
title him a god.
Remember: “You shall have no other
Gods before me,” and "You shall not make for yourself any idol.” These are
the first two of the Ten Commandments.
What happens next is startling
because instead of becoming trapped in the question, Jesus points beyond the
question to God. Jesus points beyond the emperor’s rule to God’s rule.
Jesus
demonstrates with his words and action that we are whole beings, not separated
ones. We are the same being whether we use a coin to pay taxes or we toss it in
the offering plate. We need to ask ourselves whichever action we take: What
idols are we making? What other gods do we have before God?
So I wonder
what would happen if we did “put a cross on it.” If we forgot the snake oil and
took this seriously. Remember how easy it was for the people in the temple to
find that coin with the emperor’s face on it? Think for a moment how easy it is
for most of us to find money for the things we want, but not so easy to find
money for the things God might have in mind. So let’s “put a cross on it.”
I invite us
all to “put a cross on it.” To try this because it may help us to remember we
shall not make idols and there is one God to whom we belong. When you get home
today, take out your favorite credit or debit card, the one you use the most, and
mark it with a cross. “Put a cross on it.” Or, if you write checks, put a cross
on your checkbook.
I believe
you may find, as have I, each time we use that card or write a check, we will
think about what we do with what God has given us. It will provide new insights
into the idols we make of things other than God. It will provide us with new
insights into the one God to whom we belong and from whom all blessings flow. AMEN.
The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017
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