Lord of the Streets
October 22, 2023
Proper 24, Year A
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
Matthew 22:15-22
Give to God the Things that Are God’s: Our Hurt, Pain, Anger, and Fear
So, the Pharisees had a neat little trick they were trying to pull on Jesus. See, Israel was under Roman occupation. The power-hungry and blood-thirsty empire had taken over Israel, like so many other places, because they believed they were the only truly good civilization, and all other places in the known world needed to be ruled by them. They’d all be so much better off if they all just followed and did whatever Rome forced them to do.
Rome still allowed Israel to worship God, follow their own religion, and Rome also had soldiers in Israel, keeping the peace, meaning oppressing those whom Rome felt got out of line. Rome also made Israel pay them taxes so that Rome could afford their occupation and oppression of Israel. Rome’s message was, “We’re going to take over your country and oppress your people, and you’re going to pay us for it.”
So, taxes to Rome were not exactly popular. When the Pharisees, therefore, asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to Rome, they were trying either to get him arrested by Rome for saying, “No” or to be hated by the people for saying “Yes.”
So, Jesus stymied them in their efforts. “Hmmm, the coin had Caesar’s image on it, so it’s meant to be given to him.” So, yes, paying taxes to Rome was legit under Roman occupations. If Caesar wants to rule over you and control your life, fine. Pay him what is due. That way he doesn’t just come and burn your home and take the taxes anyway. Yes, give Caesar his damn tax money…
…but don’t play his game. Dominance over others, proving loyalty. Outward sign after outward sign that you are one of us, that you belong, that you aren’t going against the powers that are. That’s the game the Pharisees were playing. That’s the game Rome played.
Jesus wasn’t interested in playing those domination games, proving loyalty, proving somehow that you really are a part of the acceptable group of people. Jesus wasn’t interested in dominating or coercing his followers or anyone else. That’s the way of Rome, the way of Empire, the way of signs and assurances that you are still part of the in-group and don’t need to be punished or banished.
The coin had an image of Caesar on it, an obvious sign of whose it was. You carried the coin; in his mind, your life was his.
Notice, however, that the things that were God’s, that Jesus said to give to God, had no image associated with them. There was no visual to put on display to show you were giving to God the things that were God’s. Jesus offered no proof of loyalty, no faithfulness test, no signs given to assure you weren’t backsliding.
That’s because none of those things exist. Jesus’ message was never, “believe or else,” and yet, we’ve taken the Gospel and turned it into a “get out of Hell free card,” written by God saying, “Believe in Jesus, and I won’t torture you forever. P.S. I love you.”
That was never the Gospel, and all of our various churches’ fearful methods of controlling people’s lives in order to “get them saved” are taking God’s Gospel of love and healing for humanity and turning it into a gospel of fear and coercion.
What does that fearful, controlling gospel tell so many people? That they’re destined for Hell unless they happen to believe in Jesus. What, then is the god of that gospel saying to humanity? That god is saying “I love you, and I really want you to love me back, and if you don’t, I’m going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt you and torture you forever. Oh! You love me too? Well, that’s great! Now, we can be besties!”
That’s not love or healing. That’s coercion and abuse. “Believe in me or else” was never the Gospel Jesus taught. There are passages which, when misunderstood and read out of context, seem to say that, but “Believe in Jesus, and I won’t torture you forever. P.S. I love you,” is not the Gospel.
Jesus didn’t give a test to the religious leaders like they gave to him to “prove their faithfulness and good religious behavior.” In fact, Jesus made a habit of breaking the faithfulness to rules test, constantly pissing off the religious leaders.
Rather than threats and coercion, Jesus’ religion was fairly simple. Know you are beloved, and love others. That was the religion of Jesus.
See, unlike the false god, the emperor Caesar, God does not sit up on high demanding we constantly give him his due while doing his work and kissing up to him. Unlike the emperor Caesar, God doesn’t give edicts from on high demanding that we kill others in order to make the world how he wants it. That is not the god of Jesus.
Instead, God teaches us to love and care for one another. God gives us healing in those teachings. God teaches us to love, care, and pray even for our enemies, and God gives us healing in those teachings. Then, rather than give harsh edicts from up on high, God becomes one with us and shares with us all the joy and all the suffering of human life. Rather than coercing and abusing us from some throne up on high, God joins us at the cross on Calvary. God joins in all of our hurt, all of our pain, all of our anger, and all of our fear.
“Give to God the things that are God’s,” Jesus said. We might start with our hurt, our pain, our anger, and our fear.
We find that we are giving to God the things that are God’s when we do as he did and join with one another in our sorrow and suffering. We give to God the things that are God’s when we offer to God all of our hurt, all of our pain, all of our anger and fear. We give to God the things that are God’s when we pray for our enemies rather than kill our enemies.
Then, we also give to God the things that are God’s when we find we’ve done everything wrong. When we’ve acted like Caesar, killed our enemies, ignored and caused the suffering of others, we give to God the things that are God’s. We give to God all of the hurt and the pain we have caused as well as the hurt and pain we have suffered. Then, we give to God the things that are God’s when we accept God’s forgiveness, when we accept our belovedness, when we accept the belovedness even of our enemies and oppressors, and we are healed.
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