Matthew 22:15-22
Does anyone flip a coin anymore?
- Let’s flip for it.
- The problem is we don’t carry change and a lot of stores don’t want to deal with it.
- Storekeepers leave out a cup filled with pennies…so things come out even.
- “See a penny…pick it up…and all day you’ll have good luck” don’t make much sense anymore because you can’t buy anything for a penny.
- But there was a time…when coins were made of precious metals.
- And scammers would shave slivers off the metal and then spend the underweight coins as if they were worth full value.
- Or they would cut out a circle of metal in the middle…and replace it with a plug of metal of lesser value.
- “Not worth a plugged nickel” comes from that practice.
Just about the only time a coin is flipped nowadays for something of real value is at a football game.
- The question of who gets the ball first in overtime at the Super Bowl could change the outcome and even lives.
- But one coin that has changed more lives than any football game is featured in today’s Gospel.
- It was held not by Jesus…but by someone who came to test him.
Coins played an interesting role during the ministry of Jesus.
- He told a parable about a woman who lost a coin…and when…after turning her house upside down she found it…she invited all her friends over to celebrate with her.
- Another time Jesus saw some who threw large coins into the offering trumpet at the temple so that others would be impressed by the thunderous noise it made.
- And then Jesus pointed to a woman whose two lepton…the lightest of coins imaginable…barely whispered when they were thrown in…and said her coins were worth far more
- Today’s scripture passage involves a coin…but it is not the loss or the weight of the coin…but the face and inscription on the coin that matters.
Though the passage is not about a coin flip…the religious authorities who come to trap Jesus intend to do so with a classic “Heads I win…tails you lose” kind of bet.
- And Jesus flipped the situation as easily as we could flip a coin.
- By answering a question with a question.
- It is not that Jesus did not have an answer.
- It is that he did not want his options to be limited to two bad choices.
Matthew tells us that “… the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said.”
- Most Pharisees probably didn’t feel threatened by Jesus.
- But this group in Jerusalem allied themselves with a group called the Herodians.
- These were the people who sought to preserve the political power of the descendants of Herod the Great.
- Pharisees and Herodians made odd bedfellows.
- But both felt threatened by the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
- Because of the praise accorded to him by the people and the attention he drew in Jerusalem at the start of the week before Passover.
- A time when the population of Jerusalem quadrupled with all the pilgrims who came for the event.
They began with flattery putting Jesus on his guard.
- He was not fooled by their words when they said to him:
- “You teach the way of God in accordance with truth…”
- Before springing their trap: “Tell us…then…what you think.
- Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor…or not?”
A dangerous question. The poll tax was unpopular because it was used to pay for the occupation of the oppressive Roman legionnaires.
- Their presence was a constant reminder that God’s promise of a descendant of King David on the throne would remain unfulfilled.
- In Jesus’ day…there was no Jewish throne and no Davidic descendant to sit on it.
But there were those who had hopeful ideas about an Anointed One…a Messiah…
- Who would somehow drive the Roman government into the sea and institute a kingdom fulfilling God’s promise and the nation’s glorious destiny.
- Which is why the question asked after the bit of flattery was brilliant.
- Because either answer would discredit Jesus.
- If he advocated paying the tax the people might turn on him for good.
- And if he spoke out against the tax…he could end up dead.
- So…Jesus says: “You got a coin on you?
Of course…they do.
- Money is power and these are powerful people.
- Their coins featured the face of the emperor.
- Well…Jesus says: Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s…and to God the things that are God’s.”
What do we learn from this?
- That we do not need to let the world…or the Bible trolls…control the conversation.
- Jesus is changing the world through the Sermon on the Mount.
- His parables and the victory from the cross to the empty tomb.
- And we are asked to be a part of it.
- It is not a “Heads I win…tails you lose” deal.
- It is not an either-or-world.
- We live in a both-and-world.
- We are both saints and sinners.
We are not being asked here to simply give the emperor what belongs to the emperor.
- We are being asked…as well…to give to:
- Family…friends…strangers…co-workers…employees…and all who make a claim on our love and generosity.
- We are charged here with the creative and challenging task of transforming our diverse and divided loyalties…
- Into a unified life governed and directed by God alone.
And so…when we give ourselves wholly to God…
- Then amazingly…we are free to give to others in ways that are gracious and life-giving.
- Rather than distorted and destructive.
- No longer are our loyalties divided.
- Instead…we recognize how…deep down…they are in harmony.
- For each is an invitation from God.