To Whom Are We Responsible? (Matthew 22:15-21)

October 21, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

So, what is my responsibility in all this?  How often doesn’t this question or one like it, pop up in your favorite TV shows?  How often doesn’t this question, or one like it, pop up in the work place as employees seek to learn exactly what their responsibilities are in their position?  How often doesn’t the idea of responsibility weigh heavily on the minds of employers, employees, families friends, relatives, parents, and children.  Though one could argue that responsibility is not all that it was once cracked up to be, as it seems that more and more people in our world today are seeking to dodge responsibility in one way or another, the truth is, responsibility is something that is constantly demanded of us in one way or another in just about every facet of our lives.  As children, we are to be responsible to our parents.  As citizens we are responsible to our nation.  As Christians, not only are we responsible to the Lord, but we are responsible to each other as well as all those who do not yet know Jesus.  As Christians, responsibility is both a great weight that weighs on us and a joy that leads us to serve the Lord.  That is why, as we study the lesson before us, we will seek to answer the question, “To whom am I responsible?”

To find the answer to our question, we want to turn to Matthew 22:15-21 where the Pharisees are laying down a question of responsibility in order to trap Jesus with his own words.  “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”" (Matthew 22:15–21, NIV84)

On the surface, the Pharisee’s plan must have seemed like a good plan.  Rather than go to Jesus themselves they would send in some of their own disciples whom Jesus would not know.  These disciples would come to Jesus and flatter him, hoping that their flattery would cause him to drop his guard.  Then, when he had dropped his guard they would ask his opinion on paying taxes to Caesar.  By doing this, they were sure that they would be able to express the opinion that paying taxes to a pagan government was completely wrong, which was an opinion held by quite a few of the Jews of the day.  This was why the Pharisees sent the Herodians along with their disciples that day.  They sent the Herodians because the Herodians were a political party of the Jews who favored the Roman government.  Thus, if Jesus answered as they expected, the Herodians would be there and would instantly be able to accuse Jesus of conspiring against the government and the Pharisees would finally be able to get rid of Jesus, once and for all.

However, things didn’t go as planned that day, for as Matthew tells us, “But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” 21 “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”" (Matthew 22:18–21, NIV84)

In such a simple way, Jesus easily avoided the trap the Pharisees had intended for him and in doing so he also reminded them of their responsibility to the government that he, their Lord and Savior, had placed over them.  This is the very thing our Savior is reminding us of today.  For with these words Jesus himself is teaching us that we, as Christians, have the same responsibilities to the government, which the Lord has placed over us.  Be that government city, county, state, or federal, we are responsible to it as the Pharisees and all Israel was responsible to Rome.  Even though we may not always agree with our government’s decisions, as Christians our responsibility is to submit to the laws of the land, unless those laws would force us to do something that is contrary to the Word of our God.  Though we may be frustrated by the seemingly never ending increase in taxes, as Christians tax monies are simply what we owe to Caesar, as Jesus said.  Though we may not always like some of our elected officials or even respect the lives they choose to live, as Christians, it is our responsibility to recognize that the Lord has placed them over us as his representatives who deserve the respect their offices hold. Yet, while all this is true, as Americans we have also been given the responsibility to take part in the election of those representatives. We are allowed to choose which candidates we feel would best serve our cities, our counties, our sates and our nation.  We are even allowed to express our political views and campaign for our chosen candidates in whatever ways we see fit.  But if it should happen that the particular candidate that we wanted was not elected to a particular position, we as Christians are still responsible to them, because they are the servants of the government that the Lord, our God, has placed over us.

These are but a few examples of our responsibility, as Christians, to the government that the Lord has placed over us, and I’m sure that you could think of many, many more.  For the truth is, as Christians, when we recognize our responsibility to our government and live responsible lives under that government, not only are we being responsible to our leaders; we are also being responsible to the Lord himself.  This is why Jesus so clearly tells us in verse 21, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Matthew 22:21, NIV84)

 

For the Pharisees, this was something that they knew.  Yet, it was something that they seldom carried out.  Even though they thought that they were giving God what he deserved by their zeal to keep God’s law perfectly, they were actually failing to put him first.  For rather than striving to keep God’s law out of love for the Lord, they got so wrapped up in trying to keep it, that they actually added law upon law that not even they were able to keep.  Though they went above and beyond what the Lord required of them in fasting, praying and even tithing, sadly their attitude again was not love for the Lord, but a desire to demonstrate to others how righteous they were because they were working harder than anyone at keeping God’s law.  This is why those disciples were so amazed by Jesus answer when they asked his opinion on paying taxes.  When Jesus told them so simply, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” they could do nothing more than walk away.  In that simple sentence, the Lord Jesus had not only answered the question perfectly, but he made them recognize that they had failed to give to the Lord all he deserved.

Jesus is teaching us the same thing today.  For with those simple words, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” he is causing us to realize that the Lord our God must be our first and foremost responsibility.  Yet, how often don’t we shortchange the Lord our God?  How often doesn’t the Lord simply get the scraps of our worship rather than the full meal that it should be!  How often don’t we feel that family time, hunting, fishing, or sports in general are more important than gathering for worship?  How often don’t we feel that 10:00 is just too early or too late for worship and we don’t come?  How often doesn’t it happen that parents make sure to get their children to Sunday School, but don’t bother to bring their children into church for worship after it is all done? 

Though we as Christians know that the Lord should be the first priority in our lives, how often doesn’t it happen that the Lord is the last priority in our financial lives?  Though it is the Lord who has given us all that we have, how often don’t we feel that we deserve more?  How often don’t we find ourselves pulling out the one credit card that isn’t maxed out so that we can purchase that trinket that we feel we cannot live without?  Or how often doesn’t it happen that we are robbing Peter to pay Paul, or in other cases, robbing the Lord to pay our bills?

Sadly, these are but a couple of the ways that we as Christians fail to live up to our responsibility to the Lord.  Yet even though we do not deserve it, it is the Lord who has forgiven us!  It is the Lord who sent his one and only Son to the earth so that he might die in our place.  The Lord our God willingly gave his one and only Son to death so that we might live.  Not only did he do that, but he also turned his back on his dying Son, causing him to suffer all the pain and torment of hell and damnation so that we would never have to.  This is how much the Lord our God loves us!  He forgave our sins through the death of his Son Jesus Christ.  He called us to faith through the working of the Holy Spirit.  He assures us that just like Jesus rose from the dead we too will rise, and he has promised us that through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior we have eternal life to look forward to. 

Now refreshed by that knowledge, go out and be responsible to the Lord in all that you do.  Go home today and take time to think about all the blessings he has given you and then close your eyes speak a prayer of thanks to him.  Schedule even just five minutes each day so that you can read even just a chapter from the Bible for the strengthening of your faith.  Take time to walk through your houses this week and take note of all the appliances you’ve acquired.  Look in your closets and count how many pairs of shoes you have.  Look in your dresser drawers and see if you don’t have enough socks and underwear to get you through at least a week without having to wash.  Take time to walk through your garages and see how many tools you have in your toolbox or hanging on your workbench.  Count the number of cars and trucks and other vehicles you have there and parked in your yards.  Then when you have done all this take time to evaluate how often you make the effort to be at church to worship the Lord and the amount you are currently giving to the Lord out of thanks for all that he has given for you.

When you do this, you will be showing that the Lord truly is your first and foremost responsibility.  When you do this you will be letting your love and thankfulness for the Lord be your motivation for worshiping the Lord and giving to him of the first fruits of your income.  For when you sit down and realize just how greatly the Lord has blessed you, your love for the Lord will long to give back to him.  In fact, if each and every one of us went home today, contemplating how the Lord has blessed us, and then decided in our hearts to give first to the Lord and then to everything else, I guarantee you that our congregation and our childcare would never want for money again.  If each and every one of us acted on our decision to give first to the Lord and then pay our bills, I guarantee you that you would suddenly have more than you needed to pay your bills and you would even have plenty to save up for a rainy day.  I guarantee you this, because the Lord has promised us that when we are responsible to him, he blesses us beyond our wildest expectations.  Though we may never get rich by putting the Lord first, we know we will have everything that we could ever need.

These are but a few of the blessings that come to us as Christians when we recognize to whom we are responsible.  For just like the world, we also long to know what our responsibilities are.  Today we have answered that question.  For today we have once again been reminded that as Christians, we are truly responsible to our government, but we are responsible first and foremost to the Lord our God.  Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

How Great Is the Love the Father Has Lavished Upon Us! (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)

Text: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 March 14, 2010
Theme: How great is the Love the Father Lavished upon us!

Dear friends in Christ.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity. He was writing to assure Christians who were suffering under false teachers who were constantly claiming that Jesus wasn’t really the Christ, the Son of God, or the Savior of the Word. He was writing to Christians to assure them of the love that their heavenly Father had poured out on them by sending Jesus to be the Savior of the Word and give his life so that by his death and resurrection, all our sins, be they open and rebellious or hidden and even self-righteous sins, be forgiven. Though these words, which the Apostle John wrote at the turn of the first century are not the words of our text today, they do serve as a wonderful theme for the message of our Father’s love that Jesus conveys in his parable today! As Luke tells us, “Now the tax collectors and “sinners” were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1–3, NIV)

Now, when all this took place, Jesus was the East side of the Jordan River, a good day’s journey away from Jerusalem. He was teaching the people in the area known as Perea, which was where the tribes of Gad and Ruben had staked their claim to their inheritance. He was teaching the people who had gathered there all about the love that their heavenly Father had lavished upon them by sending him as the Messiah, the Savior, who would shortly give his life as a ransom for all people, when the Pharisees and teachers of the law once again reared their ugly head. They were the ones who didn’t believe that Jesus could possibly be the Messiah because he wasn’t righteous enough. They were the ones who believed that when the Messiah came he would be a righteous judge who would punish and destroy all the open sinners while he hung around with them and praised them for their righteousness. But Jesus did none of these things so they did what any jealous and disgruntled person would do. They complained about him and his association with the riff-raff and in doing so, they sought to shake the faith of those whom they saw as tax collectors and open sinners.

But Jesus knew exactly what they were up to so he began to tell them this parable: “Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.” (Luke 15:11–24, NIV)

With these beautiful words, Jesus spoke directly to the heart of those whom the Pharisees called the tax collectors and sinners as he revealed to them the lavish love that their heavenly Father had bestowed upon them by forgiving all their open and rebellious sins. For even though they were like the son who had gathered up all he had and left their Father’s house to go out and squander all his blessings in open and rebellious sins, these were the very people whom the Lord Jesus, their Savior, who had called them to faith, and assured them of their forgiveness through their faith in him. These were the very people whom the Father waited for as he stood at the end of his drive way looking longingly down the road for the day when they would return to him. These were the people for whom the Angels in heaven rejoiced because they had come to faith and repented of their sins and through that faith had received the full measure of the Father’s love, because they had trusted in Jesus as their Lord, Savior, and Messiah.

Well, these same people whom Jesus spoke to with his parable are no different than you or me! For the truth is how many of us haven’t done the very same thing? How many of us haven’t taken our share of the inheritance and then wandered away from the Word of God? How many of us haven’t faced difficult and troubling times, like the young man in the parable did, and we came back to ourselves, repented of our sins and then returned to our Father’s home where we might grow in faith through the means of grace, which is the gospel in the word and in the sacraments? In fact, just think about it, how many times haven’t you wandered away from the Lord and watched your spiritual life fall apart as you kept yourself separated from him? How many times hasn’t it happened that you continued on in your sinful ways until finally you hit rock bottom, finally coming to your senses, and returning to the Lord for his forgiveness? How many times hasn’t it happened that even as you repented of your sins your heavenly Father ran to you, threw his arms around you, kissed you and welcomed you back as a son or daughter of his family? How many times hasn’t your heavenly father lavished his love upon you as, through faith in Jesus, he forgave each and every one of your open and rebellious sins against him? How many times haven’t you been the one for whom the angels in heaven rejoiced because you repented and returned to the Lord?

That was the very message of the Father’s love that Jesus proclaimed to the tax collectors and sinners who were gathered around him as he told them how the Lord God their heavenly father had forgiven each and every one of their sins. Yet the Lord Jesus did not stop his lesson of the Father’s great love there, rather, as he continued the lesson he began to speak of the great love the Father longed to lavish upon even the self-righteous Pharisees and teachers of the Law, if only they would throw off their self-righteous ideas and turn to him, their Savior, in sorrow and repentance. As Jesus continued in his parable, he said: “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV)

With such a simple transition, Jesus begins to speak to the Pharisees about the very love that the Father longs to lavish upon them, if only they would turn from their hidden and self-righteous sins! For with these words, it is very clear that Jesus is speaking to the very people who had been with him and had lived in his house. They were the Son who had stayed at home and served their Father, but sadly, as the years went by they began to rely more on what they were doing for their Father rather than what he would do for them. They began to put their faith and their trust in their own actions and their own righteousness and they no longer saw their own need for a Savior! Thus, when they saw the Love that their Father was lavishing on these tax collectors and sinners, they as angry as the brother in the parable, because their Father did not punish or even annihilate these sinners, nor did he recognize their great efforts to be holy and righteous in the Father’s eyes by their own works. They felt that they deserved so much more because they had been so faithful as they slaved away for their Father and refused the temptations to go off and indulge in open sin, while all the time they continued to condemn others for the very sins that were hidden in their hearts, as they sought to live an outwardly righteous life!

But before we speak too harshly against the Pharisees and teaches of the Law, perhaps we should take a look at our own lives and ask ourselves the question, “How often haven’t we acted exactly like they did?” How often haven’t we been upset when someone who has been away from worship for months or even years, suddenly begins to come back and is welcomed home without any questions asked? How often haven’t we felt that we were so much better than they, because while they were out indulging in whatever sins they were, we were safely at home serving our Father in his home and living under his roof? Or how often haven’t we acted so offended when we heard about the sins that so and so has been engaging in and then hurried to self-righteously pass on this juicy piece of gossip to the next person on the grape vine? Or how often haven’t we spoken extra harshly about this sin or that sin so that no one suspects that it is the very sin which we have hidden away in our own hearts? How often haven’t we acted just like the older son in the parable and just like the Pharisees who spoke against Jesus?

That is why Jesus ends his parable with an open question for both the Pharisees to contemplate as well as you and me, for as he says, “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:25–32, NIV) What he is asking is simply this; “Will you rejoice with the angels in heaven, with my Father and even with me over those who repent? Will you turn away from your own hidden sins and self-righteous behavior, repent of your sins, and live? Will you place your faith in me as your Savior and through that faith receive the great love your Father wishes to lavish upon you as he forgives even your hidden sins and self-righteous behavior?”

As I look at you today, I know that this is the very thing you have already done! As I look at you today, I see a congregation of Christians who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have been lavished with the Father’s love and been washed clean of every spot and satin of sin. As I look at you today, I see a group of people who have given their lives to the Lord and through faith in Jesus and through that faith are striving to remain in that love on a daily basis as you continually go to the Lord in repentance and receive the assurance of his love in the forgiveness of all of your sins.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1, NIV) When the Apostle John first wrote these words toward the end of the First Century, he was writing to remind Christians of the core of their Christianity, and we are using them today to remind us of the great forgiveness our heavenly Father has poured out upon us! For through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we have the great assurance that each and every one of our sins has been washed away. Through faith in Jesus Christ, our Savior, we know that our heavenly Father has lavished his great love upon us. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we know that we have been forgiven of our open and rebellious sins as well as our hidden and self-righteous sins. Through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior, we now strive to live in that love as we live our lives in service to the Savior. May the Lord God, your heavenly Father, continue to assure you of his love as you daily grow in your faith and your trust of Jesus Christ your Savior.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN