10/20/19 Matthew 22:15-22 “A Sack of Corn or a Sack of Gold!”

18 Oct 10/20/19 Matthew 22:15-22 “A Sack of Corn or a Sack of Gold!”

10/20/19     Matthew 22:15-22        “A Sack of Corn or a Sack of Gold!”

Photos are a rather recent phenomenon being invented about 200 years ago.  At first there were many superstitions associated with having your photo taken.  This led to many people who hated having it done because they were afraid that they might lose something.  This continues today as some people never feel that they look good enough for a picture.  Just as a reminder, you always look the way you do and we love how you look.  We see you at your best and sometimes at your worst.  But no matter what, you look great!   Anyway, I have noticed and I will continue to notice how we generally like to get a little dressed up for photo portraits.  We do this because we want to look our best as we have our image put down on photographic paper or in cyberspace.  This will be something that we can look back on and others can too, years later.  Today’s Scripture fits right in with this concept as we will be look at the image of Caesar on a coin.  Jesus is telling a group of enemies something that stops them in their tracks.  And centuries later it is still stopping us in our tracks.  Let’s break down this short passage and see if it makes you stop or if it makes you want to celebrate.

Gene Appel gives this wonderful illustration.  What do you think would happen if you were leaving on vacation for two weeks and you went to flip the breaker on the hot water heater so you could save a little money by not heating the water while you were gone and you instead accidentally flipped the breaker for the refrigerator?  Then you leave for a couple of weeks and come back and open the door on the refrigerator and the smell of all that rotting and decaying food greets you.  You would probably have a moving experience as you move to the bathroom rather quickly.  So you decide to fix the problem.  You grab the bottle of 409 and clean and polish the outside of the refrigerator real nice.  If the outside of the refrigerator is clean, then the inside must be clean also, right.  Not so, oh soapy hands!  So then you figure that the refrigerator needs to feel good about itself in our new age philosophy and needs to get happy so you throw it a party.  All the appliances are invited.  The toaster is burning up the dance floor.  Everyone is laughing at the range because the refrigerator from next door is giving him the cold shoulder.  And everyone loves the blender because he is mixing so well with the crowd.  This should do the trick, right.  Wrong, again, oh party planner.  You see that no matter what you think, the reality is you will have to clean the inside of the refrigerator.  In this today’s Scripture Jesus is talking to some people that really need a cleaning on the inside.

I find it amazing how these early writers could pack so much information into so few words.  This is taking place sometime during what we call Holy Week.  Jesus is in Jerusalem and teaching at the Temple.  So far he has only infuriated the Pharisees and they are plotting for his death.  In today’s reading Jesus will push them ever farther as Jesus is giving them a glimpse of who they really are.  They/we often don’t like others pointing this out.

We begin with the Pharisees planning to trap Jesus.  It would be much easier to catch flying bat with you bare hands in the dark than to trap Jesus.  And notice that the Pharisees themselves do not go.  Instead they send their disciples, their flunkies.  They probably do this so that they don’t have to be embarrassed.  After all, Jesus has already told them many things that they didn’t want to hear.

They also team up with the Herodians.  The Pharisees and the Herodians are enemies.  I may have mentioned this before. This would be like an alliance with the New York Yankee fans teaming up with the Boston Red Sox fans, or the Muslims teaming up with the infidels, or the Democrats teaming up with the Republicans.  The Herodians were a group of Jews who were not that spiritual, they loved the Roman rule, were pro Herod, and they were pro tax.  The Pharisees, on the other hand were deeply religious, loved God, were anti-government, anti-Herod, and they hated the tax.  However, these two groups together both hated Jesus.  This is an alliance built on hate.  I am going to go out on a limb here but these kinds of things built on hate didn’t work in Biblical times so they probably don’t work today.  So as long as the Democrats and Republicans continue to hate each other, we will continue to have very ineffective government.

Now that we kind of know who the players are in this incident, we need to know a little about the taxes in those days.  They had an income tax of 1%.  They had a ground tax of 10% for grain, 20% for oil and wine and a business tax on goods transported.  Finally, they had a poll tax of 1 days wage or a denarius levied on each person.  So in our modern terms, they really were not taxed very heavily.  We are taxed in the neighborhood of 30-40% .

The tax that the Jews hated was the poll tax and this is the tax that they are making reference to today.  This tax could only be paid with the special coin, the silver denarius while other taxes could be paid with any coinage.  This coin had the graven image of Caesar stamped on it.  And Caesar was said to be of the lineage of one of the Roman gods.  Therefore the Jews felt they were being violated because of the graven image of a god, which not their/our God, was on the coin.  They also hated having to bow down to the Romans.

So now we know a little about the strange alliance of the Herodians and the Pharisees and the tax structure, let’s look at what takes place.  This alliance figures that they will have Jesus trapped when they ask Him, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  If He answers this question yes, then the Pharisees will win as it will look like Jesus is in support of the Romans and they can then turn the huge crowds that are supporting Jesus into His enemies.  It will look like Jesus is a Roman.  If Jesus answers no, then the Herodians can have him arrested because he is being a traitor against Rome.  They can’t lose!  Right?  Wrong again!

So they think they have Jesus trapped.  Let me stop here for a minute and ask you, “How many times have you tried to trap or even trick Jesus?”  I don’t know about you folks, but I know that I try to do this all the time.  I will try to promise Jesus that I won’t sin again and sure enough, I go and sin.  I will promise to go out and do all the work I can for Him and then I will stop short.  I will promise that I will pray more to him and I fall short.  I promise that I will make Jesus #1 in my life, and then I go and worship money and power.

If we think about it, we all try to trick Jesus in one way or another.  Please remember, Jesus is God.  He knows everything.  He knows your every thought.  He knows your action before you act.  You cannot fool Jesus.  You can never trick Jesus so don’t try.  Just turn your life over to Him and I guarantee great results!

Back to our story, Jesus is not fooled either.  He knows their evil intent.  First he calls them hypocrites.  This is because they profess allegiance to God yet they break His commandments, especially the one about graven images.  I would like to add another short comment here.

I would guess that most of us here today are also hypocrites.  We are all either looking for God or we love God already.  Either way, we sin as sin gets in our way, and we fall short.  This is one of the reasons that Jesus came and died for our sins.  We all fall short and we need Him every day.  We need to take our sins to Him continually and seriously.  If you don’t already know Jesus on a personal level, then ask Him into your heart today.  Confess your sins to Jesus and ask Him to guide your life.  And if you already know Jesus, then keep on confessing your sins.  This is something that you are to do on a daily basis in your daily prayer life.

Then they give Jesus a denarius and Jesus asks, “Whose portrait is this?”  They reply, “Caesar’s.” Then Jesus replies in one of the best known sayings in the Bible, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.  How many times have you heard this?  We live in an economy where we have to pay way more in taxes than they did in the time of Jesus.  The Bible tells us in many places that we are to be obedient to our governments as long as they are not breaking the law of God.  Taxes have been around for a long time, so I guess that we are supposed to pay them.  Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.  I’m not going to spend much time on this because we have all heard and said this so many times.

But the second part of this, we seem to want to skip over a bit.  “Give to God what is God’s.”  Now before everyone tunes me out completely, I would like to say that this is not a sermon on giving or tithing 10% of your income.  The Bible tells us to give in many places and I’m going to leave it to you to dig it out.  I will only say this.  It is not between you and me as to what you give, it is not between you and the church what you give, but rather it is between you and God what you give.  If you can stand up today and tell God face to face that you are giving what is right, then you are ok.  Otherwise, you should really reconsider what you are giving and obey God.

I am going to leave that and move on to find out what it is to give to God what is God’s.  This is really something that we should jump up and get excited about.  God owns everything.  God owns your clothes, your car, your home, your money, this (your) church, the community, the country, the world and everything in it.  We should shout for joy because without God there would be nothing.

It is like the old story of the scientist that I always like to tell who thought that he could make life in a test tube and challenged God to a contest as to who could make a better living being.  God agreed to this contest and the scientist went to gather his dirt and ingredients.  God said, “Wait a minute.  Get your own dirt.”  God has already done everything and all we have to do is live here in a way that is pleasing to our Creator.

The best news in all of this is that every man, woman and child here today belongs to God.  Whether we like it or not, we belong to God.  Whether we know it or not, we belong to God.  And here Jesus is saying to give to God what is God’s.  If we belong to God then we are to give ourselves to God.  We are to give ourselves to God at the rate of 100%.  We are to give a tithe or 10% of what we own to God but we are to give God all of ourselves.

So when we leave today, God would really like it if you thanked him for the coffee and treats(for your computer).  Thank God for this wonderful day, your vehicle, your home, for the clean air you breathe.  Thank God for the food you will eat today, the job you have even if it is not your dream job, the clothes you wear and the bed where you sleep.  Thank God for everything you have.

Now you may say, “But Pastor John, what about the things that we have that are man-made?”  Well, just remember, God works through the people that made those things.  God works through our doctors who help to heal us.  God will work through people whether they know Him or not.  In the Old Testament we see where God works through King Cyrus who did not know Him.  These are just some more things to be thankful to God.  Thank you God for working through all the people who don’t know you and help us to help them so they may get to know you and the wonderful life you offer!

I hope that you are getting the picture a little.  This week as you go about your business, I would like you to be aware of all the things that you take for granted.  Notice the coffee cup in your hand, the leaves that are on the ground, shoes on your feet and even the snow when it snows.  Thank God for them.  Try to start to get yourself into the habit of thanking or praising God for everything.  If you start to do this on a regular basis, I guarantee that God will begin to bless you even more.

Kory Wilcoxson tells the story of a farmer on his way to the market to sell a sack full of corn.  This is how I explain the title.  On the way he met the King and said to him, “Oh gracious King, I am so thankful for all that you do for me and that you are so kind.  If there is anything that you want from me just ask and I will give it to you.”  The King didn’t hesitate and said, “Then give me all the corn in your sack.”

The farmer replied, “I can’t do that because it is all that I have.  But I will give you five kernels.”  The King took the 5 kernels and rode off.  The farmer got to the market and opened his sack.  There he found that 5 of the kernels had been exchanged for 5 pieces of gold.  The farmer sat and wept because of the blessings he could have had, he now can’t have.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t shortchange God.  God wants to give each person here today a full sack of gold.  God wants to give you all that he has to offer and He will offer you all He has.  All you have to do is accept it.  All you have to do is to give to God what is God’s, and that would be yourself.  Make God your #1 priority in your life.  When you do, you will see some great things happen in your life.  I thank Jesus for all the things that I am not and I praise Him for all the things that I am.  You can too.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.