Sermon - Trinity XXIII 2020 - Matthew 22:15-22

 Jesus said: ““Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.”” 

The same point can be made today just by looking at some cash in your wallet. There’s a face on that money, and it’s not yours. In big capital letters your money says UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and it’s got various names and signatures written on it, and none of those names are your name. Thus, when the government demands you to give them money, the money that has their name on it, you hand it over. 

I don’t believe this is terribly controversial among us. We should pay our taxes. But that’s not really the point of what Jesus is getting at. Rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s isn’t too complicated. Thus, the greater thing Jesus commands, is that we render “to God the things that are God’s.”

But what exactly is His? What precisely are we supposed to render to God? Just as Christ concludes from the image on the coin that it belongs to Caesar, so likewise, the “coin” that bears God’s image belongs to Him. In the beginning “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” We are the “coin”, imprinted with the image of Christ, and we are thus to render ourselves to Him. 

The problem here though is that Christ’s image in man has nearly been lost because of sin! “When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.” But, “When Adam lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image.” Once sin entered into the world, no longer was man made in God’s image, but in sinful man’s image. For you see, the image of God isn’t just about our outward appearances. The image of God refers to the state of our souls. Thus, to be made in God’s image, is to be righteous, good, holy, and a lover of godly things. 

When sin entered into us, no longer were we righteous but unrighteous, no longer good but filled with evil, not holy but profane, not loving  godly things but human things. We see this in our own flesh today, the things we delight in, the feelings and passions that fill our minds. For example, it’s challenging to want to go to church or sit down at home and read the bible or sing hymns for half an hour, but it’s so easy to turn on the tv and veg out for a few hours, read the news, play games or sit on Facebook. We can see it in our own flesh that we frequently desire the things which aren’t good for us, and seldom desire the things which are good.

Like the parable of the lost coin, the image of God in us has nearly been lost to sin. But like the woman, Christ searches diligently in order to restore the coin, to restore His image in us! “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” Like Christ upon the throne says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” God is working diligently to restore His image in us!

But just like a coin, before it’s reminted, it has to have the old image removed, which for a coin typically means melting it down and starting over. Thus, God puts us through the forge of repentance. Through confession and absolution, let us put off the image of our old Adam so that God may imprint His own image upon us. 

In order to give God what is God’s, we have to give God our fear, love, and trust rather than giving those things to others. Instead of fearing the Corona virus and death, tyrannical rulers and election procedures, more forced and widespread shutdowns, we must fear God alone. Man and Satan may have the power to kill us or arrest us, but God has the power to save us or damn us! Save us He has! Not only from Caesar, viruses, and death, but He’s saved us from our own selves and our sin by sacrificing Himself for us. Truly He is God and to be feared.

Indeed we should love our parents, spouses, children, and neighbors, but before them we must love God. Instead of loving ourselves, our treasures, and our country, instead of loving the created, we must love the Creator. Because as much as we may love the created things which we surround ourselves with, they will never truly love us in return. Instead, all created things eventually decay. Sometimes before decaying they turn against us, they’re like Judas, or the Pharisaical and Herodian spies, who pretended to be righteous friends of Christ, but in reality were filled with malice towards Him. Only God perfectly loves us, and He makes His love for us known through His death. He doesn’t decay, not even in death, but He endures while all others fail. He doesn’t betray us, but He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

Rather than trusting in doctors and scientists to cure a virus or cancer, instead of trusting in law enforcement and soldiers to protect us against our enemies, rather than trusting in insurance and savings during emergencies, instead of trusting in ourselves, let us trust in the Lord always with all our heart, and not lean on our own understanding. Man’s heart is fickle and weak, quick to be crushed under heavy burdens; man’s institutions are soon overwhelmed like the New Oreleans’ Levees. But there is One who has power over our enemies, sickness, death, and tragedies, and has trampled over those things by the power of His death: Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him you can trust without doubting; He remains faithful, even when we are faithless.

By fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things, God clears out the baggage from your heart, He scrapes off the old image of sin from us, He casts us into the furnace to be melted down and reborn in Him. The day you were baptized the Holy Spirit began that work in you and He’s continued His work daily. In baptism you were drowned, the image of the old man was washed away, and God imprinted the image of the cross upon your forehead. As the water washed over you, you were renamed when God wrote His name upon your heart. Your name was then written in the book of life for all eternity. You are inscribed with God’s name and imprinted with His image, a newly minted coin belonging in God’s treasury of heaven.

Such a newly minted soul has peace. For a soul imprinted with the image of man, who fears, loves, and trusts in this world above all things, a sorry soul indeed, is always without lasting peace. When your heart is attached to worldly affairs and objects, you will inevitably wind up disappointed and distraught when those worldly things change and decay, as they’ve done this past year.

But a soul imprinted with the image of God, who fears, loves, and trusts in Him above all things, a blessed soul, is never without peace because the One we cling to neither changes nor decays. Though all the world is quaking and storming, burning and devouring itself, the Christian lives in peace. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We are God’s precious coin, reflecting His image and bearing His name, so like Augustine famously said, “Lord, You have created us for Yourself; and our hearts have no peace until they rest in you.”

To conclude our sermon today, I’d like to sing a prayer, hymn 422, On My Heart Imprint Your Image:

On my heart imprint Your image,

Blessed Jesus, King of grace,

That life's riches, cares, and pleasures

Never may Your work erase;

Let the clear inscription be:

Jesus, crucified for me,

Is my Life, my hope's foundation,

And my glory and salvation!