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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Gospel reading. You may be seated.
Now rightly so, can we fault these goofy Herodians and faithless Pharisees in what they were trying to do with Jesus and twist His words and dishonor Him with their words? But, fault them though we may, we cannot deny that what they did say about Jesus is absolutely true. They didn’t believe any of it and they were basically pouring a lot of fertilizer on Jesus. But what they said was true.
The first thing they said is, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully.” That’s a true statement. Now they didn’t believe that or otherwise why would they be trying to tangle Jesus in their words? Nevertheless, you and I believe it.
The second thing that they said is, “You do not care about anyone’s opinion.” We know that they didn’t believe that because they were trying to force their opinion on Jesus. But you and I believe that about Jesus.
It’s the final thing that these Herodians and Pharisees said to Jesus about Him that we are going to focus on this morning, and that is where they said, “You are not swayed by appearances, because you and I are swayed by appearances.” We define what we see and what we make sense out of, and we let that be truth to us in even opposition to what God has already revealed to us in Scripture.
So think about this. By nature, what do you attribute confidence for your standing in life? To what? By nature. By nature, you attribute your confidence by things going well for you, by things not getting mucked up in work or with your family. Let things get bound up, tied up, and then all of a sudden, because we judge things by appearances, we become anxious inside, worried, and unconfident. So that’s obvious. We judge by appearances, by nature.
So when Jesus holds up a denarius and asks them to judge this thing by appearances, is he off his rocker? Because he says, “Whose inscription and likeness is on this coin?” And the answer was obviously Caesar. But here is where he is heading with appearances.
Because Jesus… It’s not focusing in this text about you rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. You don’t struggle with that. There is not a human being in this world who does struggle with rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. By that, I mean what? By that, I mean we as a culture know it’s the law. And in fact, we judge ourselves as good citizens because we pay our taxes. Right? And anyone who does not pay their taxes, we as a culture define them as not being a good citizen. So that’s not what Jesus is talking about in this text.
It’s the second half of this statement that you and I really struggle with. And only you and I can struggle with it. Because only you and I are believers. That is rendering to God the things that are God’s. To render to God the things that are God’s, you first have to believe in God. To render to God the things that are God’s means that you have had to have revealed to you by God what those things are. Or otherwise, you’ve created your own religion. Sounds like every other religion in this world took that and ran with it. Christianity did not because this revelation did not come from within here or from within here. It came from above in God’s holy word that he gave to us.
Back to appearances. If the coin bears the image and likeness of man, Caesar, this world, and Jesus says, “Render to man or Caesar,” meaning the government in this world, “the things that are of this world,” whose likeness is Are we supposed to render unto God the things that are God’s? When you look at the man or the woman sitting next to you in this pew, whose likeness do they bear? The image of their Creator. And more than that, they look like the image of their Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
And if we are all about rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, what about us rendering to God the things that are God by loving and serving the human being in your pew or in your family who was created in God’s image and redeemed by the one who looked like you, Jesus? That lies the meaning of render unto God the things that are God’s.
But because you and I do judge by appearances, we are very selective in whom we choose to serve. Though does not every human being bear the image of God, the Creator? Though has not every human being who looks like the Redeemer who died for them, did He not die for all humanity? So then if we are selective, then we are not rendering unto God the things that are God’s. That’s why Jesus said what He said.
It’s not as easy as just thinking, well, I just have to fulfill my requirement of paying taxes, and then I’m a good Joe. Because out of God’s great love for you, does He place in your life people who are a joy to love and serve? And God also places in your life people who challenge you to love and to serve.
God has placed in your life people in your family that bring great joy and great satisfaction to love and serve. And God also places in your family people who challenge you to love and to serve. And in this church, there are people who is a joy to love and to serve. And there are people in this church that you interact with, or better to say you don’t interact with, because it’s not a joy to serve and to love them. Is that rendering unto God the things that are God’s?
So what does it look like? I’m only scratching the surface when I give you these three examples. It’s a very deep thing. It starts with just inviting people. Rendering to God the things that are God is to bring that person and invite them to God’s house. Let them hear what God has done for them.
The other part of inviting them is not just to have God interact with them in this house, but have God interact with them with other believers in a Bible class. That’s rendering to God the things that are God’s. It’s also encouraging people. Encouraging people to serve with you, to be with you. Are you going to get rejected by these people at times? Absolutely. Absolutely. God did not say, render to me the things that are mine when it’s convenient or when it works, but render to me the things that are mine at all times.
What about how we choose to be kind and grace-filled to these people, but for some reason we do not give these people the same amount of grace? Or encouragement. We’re harsher in our criticism of them and hold them to a different standard than we hold these people. That’s not rendering to God the things that are God’s.
And something that every little baby boy and baby girl in this church can do and have been doing is pray. Do you pray for these people? Do you pray for them to love and serve God with you? Or do you write them off? Do you pray for them as much as you pray for others to receive God’s forgiveness like you want to receive God’s forgiveness, and do you pray for them to give God’s forgiveness as you pray for yourself to give God’s forgiveness? That’s rendering to God the things that are God’s.
What does it look like? I’ve given you some examples, but I’ll show you. It looks like that bronze statue. That’s what it looks like when the only God-man rendered to God everything that is God’s, when He rendered Himself for you. That’s what it looks like.
And He judges you as one who bears His image as His Creator, as your Creator and as your Redeemer. And it looks like this, that He loves and serves you as His own. As he did to those sassy Pharisees and those ornery Herodians in this morning’s text. Because when Jesus rendered to God the things that are God’s, He rendered it for every human being regardless of how we judge them by appearances.
And more importantly, regardless of how anybody else judges you by appearances. Because whose verdict matters to you? Your own verdict of yourself, someone else’s verdict of you, or God’s verdict of you? Because Jesus makes it very clear in the prophet Isaiah that He does not judge you by appearances. He judges you with His righteousness. He judges you with equity, not with what He sees. Because He’s rendered to God the things of God.
So do you trust in His judgment of you or someone else’s? Whose likeness do you bear? You bear your Creator’s, who came into this world and looked like you and rendered to God the things of God for you. Then you bear that same image.
Jesus, His only Son. If you bear His image, then render to God the things that are God’s. Receive His forgiveness. Give His forgiveness.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
