[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints of God, let’s talk about politics.
I know, I didn’t bring it up, the Pharisees did.
They came to trap Jesus. It’s Holy Tuesday, remember, the last
public day of Jesus’ teaching, and they thought they had him. They thought they
had him trapped. They had this whole big plot to
get him to become an enemy of the state. Remember that
the Romans had occupied Jerusalem since probably the year 63 A.D., so it had been 90 years
or so, that the Romans had been operating Palestine as a vassal state. And this was
an insult to the Jews, especially the Pharisees, who thought that the kingdom of God should
be its own kingdom and that the Messiah would come to overthrow the Romans. Remember how
the disciples kept asking Jesus, are you going to at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
You know, the expectation of the Messiah was that He was going to come and overthrow the
Romans.
That’s what the Pharisees thought, but they hadn’t acted on it.
There were some radicals, some of the Essenes and some of the others who had left or who
were fighting against it.
In fact, there was kind of usurpations and political uprisings happening all the time,
but the Pharisees had kind of gone along with the program unwillingly, sort of bitterly.
But there were those who loved the Roman occupation. They were called the Herodians because Herod
the Great was the guy that the Romans sent to rule over the land, and so the Herodians
were the political party that were all for the Romans. And so you’ll notice that when
the Pharisees come to ask Jesus their well-planned question, they bring some Herodians with them.
That’s like a group of Republicans grabbing a bunch of Democrats and coming along and
asking, how are you going to vote? No matter how you answer, it’s going to offend someone.
No matter what you say, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. And so it was, at least
they thought with Jesus. The Pharisees were against paying taxes to Caesar. After all,
Caesar’s an illegitimate ruler. The Herodians were all for paying taxes to Caesar. He was
God’s hand to take care of us, and so they bring the Herodians and the Pharisees there,
and they come up to Jesus and they say, they butter him up, remember? This long thing. We
We know that you never tell lies.
You always tell the truth.
You don’t care about what people think about you.
You always say it plain.
You say it how it is.
You always give a straight answer.
So answer us this question, should we pay taxes?
Yes or no?
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
If Jesus says, no, no, we shouldn’t pay taxes.
After all, we’re Israel.
We should be our own nation.
We should be free.
Don’t pay taxes.
Then the Herodians would run off to the palace, and Jesus would be arrested and charged with
rebellion.
If, on the other hand, Jesus says, no, don’t pay taxes. Wait a minute. Did I get that wrong?
If Jesus says don’t pay taxes, they’ll run off and accuse Him of being a rebel. If He
says yes, you should pay taxes, then the Pharisees will say, what kind of Messiah is this? That
we’re going to be here under the Roman rule? That we’re going to be a vassal kingdom? That
Messiah is supposed to come and set us free, and Jesus obviously isn’t a vassal or isn’t
a right Messiah if He’s going to let these vassal rules stand in place. So they think
they have Him. They think they’ve got Him trapped. One way or another, Jesus is going
to be an illegitimate figure once He answers their question.
But not only does Jesus in His answer masterfully avoid the trap, I mean it’s beautiful. He
takes the occasion to give to them and to us wisdom that still applies today. Jesus
says, do you have a tax coin? And they, the Pharisees who always had money in their pockets
pull a coin out.
Now, this is actually a curious point that I wonder about, and if any of you know something
about this, I’d love to figure it out. Because one of the things that the Pharisees and especially
the Sadducees had set up in the temple was the idea that you could not bring pagan money
into the temple. That’s why they had the money changers outside the temple, so you
could go and give them your Caesar denarius, and they would give you their temple coins.
And they could inflate the exchange rate to be whatever they wanted. It’s like, it’s
like buying McDonald’s in the airport, you know. I mean they⦠once you were in the
temple, they had you, you know. You can’t go anywhere. And so they were extorting the
people by the money changers. It’s because they couldn’t bring the Caesar, the image
of Caesar into the temple. But here they are in the temple with the image⦠Now, I don’t
I wonder if that’s because Jesus had overturned the money changers the day before.
So they weren’t able to get the right money to come into the temple that day.
Or maybe they just didn’t care.
Anyway, they pull out a denarius, a day’s wage, a silver coin.
And Jesus says, whose picture is that?
Whose likeness is that?
Whose image in theâ¦
The Greek is icon.
Whose icon is that?
They say, oh, that’s Caesar.
And Jesus says, well, give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs
to God.
How wonderful.
Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and give to God the things that are God.
Now we want to especially remember, because when you look for the image of God, where
do you find it?
but you want to especially remember that God has created us in His own image and likeness.
Where do you find the image of God? You find the image of God in your neighbor. We find
the image of God in ourselves. Now, it’s true that the image of God was lost in the
fall, that we no longer possess the original holiness and righteousness that Adam and Eve
had before the fall, but the Lord still wants us, He still treats us, and He still wants
us to treat each other as if we continue to bear His image.
The chief text for this, this is an important text, is after the flood when the Lord is
making a new covenant with Noah, and the Lord says, if someone kills someone else, then they
are to be put to death because we were created in the image of God. So the image of God has
durative effect. It’s one of our⦠it’s one of the ways we even think about politics
and the law and good works with each other, that we still possess the image of God, that
every human person from the moment of conception until natural death possesses the image of
God. And so when Jesus says, give to⦠give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, fine to
pay him taxes and give him your money, but give to God what is God’s, it means we give
our whole selves to the Lord, that we essentially belong to God.
But here’s the point that Jesus is making, and it’s important for us and it’s really
quite wonderful, and it is this, that it is possible to be faithful Christians and good
citizens at the same time. The state and the church are not in conflict with one another,
at least according to God’s arrangement of things. That we can be good, faithful, God-fearing
Christians and we can also be faithful citizens of whatever nation we find ourselves. And
Christians have found themselves as citizens of some really terrible nations, and yet the
Christian church continues.
Now how are we to be faithful citizens?
I want to take this topic up for a little bit, especially in light of the fact that
we have an election coming up, and this election provides itself with some good opportunities
but also with some dangers.
Elections are good for one thing.
elections are good because they help us clarify positions in regards to political thought.
Elections force debate, or they’re supposed to. They force the great ideas to come and
face off against each other, and there are a lot of debates, a lot of important debates
that are happening in our own culture. There’s important debates about economics, Seventh
commandment debates about money and things. There’s a debate⦠there’s a lot of debates
about the environment. That’s important. There’s a lot of debates nowadays about
medicine. I mean this has been true for a while, but especially in this go-around, medicine
and health care and pandemic stuff.
Now in my⦠in my read of things, I think the big⦠the big conflict, the big debate
that is⦠perhaps has the most consequence for the church is that we are seeing a conflict
between sexual liberty and religious liberty. And we’ve been⦠I mean this has been happening
since the 60s, since the 40s, but it continues. This debate, the fight, the argument, the
battle I suppose continues to⦠continues to heat up, and this is especially where we
see the church and the state coming into most conflict with one another when it comes to
this debate about, again, sexual liberty versus freedom of religion. And in this debate,
we see a conflict of worldviews. That’s good for us to have that clarity. I mean,
it’s one of the great things about election is it forces those decisions and those clarifications.
The other thing that’s good about elections is that they actually matter.
I don’t think I need to tell you guys this, but it matters, who is elected matters,
who’s the president matters, who’s serving in Congress, who’s the governor and the mayor
and the state and local officials, all of this matters.
It matters for ourselves and for our families and for the future of our nation.
It matters for the way things go in the world and so we have an opportunity to do a good
work when we vote.
But we want to remember that it probably does not matter as much as the people who are running
for office want us to think it matters.
It matters who’s at the top.
It matters who’s in the different offices.
But that’s not the only thing that matters.
It makes a difference who’s elected, but that’s not the only thing that makes a difference.
And this means that there’s a couple of dangers when it comes to election time.
Here’s one.
We are tempted to think that our enemy is our opponent.
This is⦠this is forbidden by the Scriptures.
St. Paul tells us this.
He says that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
God. That means that the Christian is not authorized to consider any other person their
enemy. Other people might call us their enemies, but we are not authorized by the Lord to declare
war on any other person. When we’re fighting, even if we’re fighting against someone, we
are fighting for them. We’re fighting for their good. Jesus tells us if you have enemies,
you know what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to love them. People who persecute you, you
you know what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to do good to them. People who spitefully
use you, you have to pray for them. People who abuse you, you have to bless them. That’s
what Jesus says. So we are not authorized to consider another human being to be our
enemy. Our fight is against the devil and the demons. That’s why Jesus has us here,
so that we fight against the principalities and powers of the air, the cosmic powers of
this present dark age. That’s where the real fight is. And when we realize that, we
also realize that the thing about elections is not necessarily the vote, but the⦠but
the thought behind the vote.
I mean, one of the things that we have to⦠that we’re always concerned about, and especially
in the church concerned about, is this business of abortion, that there’s legalized murdering
of children in the womb, so kind of a horrible thing. I think if the Lord preserves it doesn’t
come back soon that, I mean, our age will be rightly identified as one of the darkest
in human history because of this thing. But we realize that the danger is not just the
fact that this is legal, but the fact that it’s desired, that there are people who want
abortion to be legal.
law. And you see, this is just to illustrate the point, is that the danger is not that
things are legal and allowed by the law or if things are illegal and forbidden by the
law, but the very desires of the heart that ask for those sorts of things. The point
then is not the election, but the thinking and the desires that go behind the election,
the casting of the vote, and so forth. And that’s really where the real battle is, in
the conversation, in the ongoing conversation with friends and family about those things
that really matter. That’s where the difference is made. It’s important for us to realize
that Election Day is important, but that every day as we have conversation with one another,
we have conversations with the people at work and the people in our neighborhood that these
are the things that really matter as hearts and minds are either drawn towards the things
that are good and true and right or drawn away from those things that are good and true
and right.
It’s also important to remember that the church exists not as a political entity but
to give life, life eternal, the promise of the forgiveness of sins. I keep⦠I don’t
know exactly⦠there’s a troublesome thing here for me and I wish I had a better way
of talking about it because, you know, in this distinction of law and gospel, the Lord
wants the church to be the place where the gospel sounds forth, not where the law. I
mean it’s true the law has to be preached in its full severity so that we, each one
of us, recognize that we’re sinners deserving of God’s wrath, but mostly the law is to
be wielded by the state. The great no about what is right and wrong is to be spoken by
by the state and the church is to be the place of rescue. I fear sometimes, and this might
be my own fear, you guys can tell me if this is right or wrong, but especially when we
start to talk about politics, the church is the place where⦠it’s like the only place
where the no is sounded. The only place where the no sounds forth. So that we say that marriage
belongs to a man and a woman, and that family is to be built around children, and all this
is that sexual chastity is to be the way that it goes before marriage and so forth and so
forth. And that’s all that’s heard is the no, whereas Jesus has appointed His church
so that those who are hurt and wounded by the various difficulties of this life, those
who have been⦠who are both guilty of committing sin and also victims of being sinned against
have a place to come to hear that the Lord has accepted us, has died for us, that He
has given us shed His blood so that we might be redeemed and forgiven, so that no matter
what our sin, no matter what darkness that dwells in our own hearts, no matter what we’ve
done wrong or no matter what wrong has been done to us, we have a place of refuge to come
and hear that the Lord Jesus loves us. So there’s a danger that we confuse law and gospel
in the whole thing. And there’s a danger also that we lose our perspective. I suppose
this is just the plain old danger of idolatry. That we put our trust in princes. That we
think that everything that happens in the election is what matters most of all in life.
That we, remember the first commandment, we should have no other gods, means we should
fear, love, and trust in God above all things, this means that we are not authorized to fear
or to love or to trust those who are elected. We’re not allowed to be afraid or anxious
about what will happen. We should know that no matter what happens in November, and in
the weeks leading up to the election, and in the weeks following the election, no matter
what happens, that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father,
and that He rules and reigns all things for the sake of His church, for the benefit of
His church, for your good.
St. Paul says in Romans 8 that all things work together for those who love God and are
called according to His purpose.
That means that no matter what happens on November the 3rd, or whenever we find out
the results next year, or whatever, no matter what, all these things are worked together
by Jesus for our good.
In fact, I think the church⦠the church does best when it’s getting a little bit
of grief from the state.
The church, it seemed, Tertullian, the old church father, said it like this. He said
that the seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs. And we see that in times of persecution
the Lord Jesus continues to be with us, to support us, and give us all that we need.
I mean, remember, remember that it was a political statement that got the martyred, the Christian
martyrs murdered. They said, Jesus is Lord. Say Lord Caesar. This is what all the Romans
officials would say. You have to say Lord Caesar and you have to offer this pinch of
incense. And the Christians refused. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is King. And we worship and
we serve him alone. Still. Jesus is still Lord. Jesus is still King. Jesus is still
the one who is crucified, raised, and ascended for us. And he’s with us no matter what,
and he brings us through all the troubles of this life into the joys of the life to
come, when we will see Him seated on the throne,
ruling and reigning all things.
So may God grant us His Holy Spirit,
so that we might give to Caesar what is Caesar’s,
and give to God what is God’s.
All the glory do His name, for His gifts
of life and salvation.
May God grant it for Christ’s sake, amen.
Amen.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Amen.
