It Is Not A Forced-Choice Test

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today's Gospel, the Pharisees want to talk about taxes. Well, what they really want to talk about is how to trap Jesus in His words, which is ridiculous, because you cannot trap God. Nevertheless, they come to our Lord and ask Him about whether Jews ought to pay taxes. Should the faithful people of God do such a thing? Should we obey pagan leaders when they exercise their authority over us?

Often, in Christian circles, this exchange is portrayed as something of a forced-choice test, a broken dichotomy between God and Caesar. In other words, you must give to God His due, and to Caesar his due, and ne'er the twain shall meet. It is as though God inhabits certain corners of your life, and Caesar inhabits other corners, and you can put yourself into various boxes or pigeon-holes, depending on the moment.

But this is not a forced choice. You must not choose either God or Caesar. There is no choice there – you must serve both God and Caesar in their respective realms. It is not as though the realm of God is a separate and distinct realm from that of Caesar. Think of the two more like a circle within a circle. Caesar's whole domain is entirely within the dominion of God. While you are in this body and life, God exercises His dominion over you not apart from, but in and through the government of our society and nation. Secular government is not something repugnant and sinful, as some Christian sects would have you believe.

Far from separating and repudiating the civil government and legal system, our Lord has ordained and established both Church and State, and here He builds a wall around the State, as it were, to protect it from religious fanaticism. He commands that you give what is due to the State, as to Himself. Pay your taxes, obey the laws, exercise your right to vote and your privilege of civil discourse. Honor, respect, and pray for your leaders, even if – perhaps especially if – you do not like or disagree with them. Tiberius Caesar was no Christian, but Jesus did not seek to overthrow or subvert his government. Our Lord willingly and respectfully submitted even to the unjust judgment of Pontius Pilate. If our Lord showed due honor and respect for the governing authorities who held His very life in hand, do you think that you need not to likewise toward those who hold much less power over you?

Rather, this word, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's,” Christians gladly accept, and yield unto him what is his without complaint. You are taught by the Word of God to think thusly about the political state. Scripture commends the State as the instrument of God for the benefit of His people. The government of this world exercises a mediated authority received from God for the benefit of the just and the restraint and punishment of the wicked.

This is, for example, why we do not object to swearing the Pledge of Allegiance. You are free – one might even say encouraged – to “pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands.” You are welcome to swear allegiance and obedience to this nation, because God has established the nations of this earth for His good pleasure and purposes, and He uses them to rule and govern His people.

You heard how the Lord uses the rulers of the nations to do His will from the Old Testament lesson, where our Lord speaks to Cyrus, king of Persia, to tell him that the Lord would bless his conquest of the nations, and use him to restore Israel.

The restless rabble of this world do not see things this way. Although they have been told and instructed, they do not believe that the secular State and civil government are instituted by God for their benefit. They do not believe that God's Word rightly teaches that the state is an ordinance of God. Such people look upon civil government as an adversary, an affliction, a yoke around their necks. The ungodly set no stock in God's institution and ordaining of the government, nor His command to obey our authorities and leaders. They think only of themselves and their pocketbooks, regardless of how the State is ordered and governed, whether in peacetime or conflict.

You forget that what you have and hold, you have pledged in service to your neighbor and your country, as to God. You hold your property and possessions as a trust from God, to be exercised for the good of your neighbor, and in accordance with the laws of our land. You exercise your rights and privileges because they are bestowed upon you by God and upheld by your government. You forget that our Lord commands you to honor and respect your leaders and authorities. You forget that He commands you to offer prayers and supplications for the executives, legislators, jurists, and law enforcers of our nation. You forget that what you have is Caesar's to command because God has given you into his hand.

Do not be influenced by the thinking of the godless world around you. You know that God has instituted good government for your good. You know that you ought to offer your honor and respect to your leaders, your obedience to your laws, and your service to your country wherever and however you can. You know that God does not need this service, but He commands it because your neighbor does. So far as it is up to you, live peaceably with all. That is, live, work, and serve in obedience to civil authorities, for they are God's instruments for your benefit. Render unto God what is God's and render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.

But all this talk neglects the greatest gift that your Lord and King has given to you. He has not only given you all the gifts of this creation, but He has given you the thing most precious to Him: His only-begotten Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. He has given you the royal Son, the heir to the Kingdom, the Great High Priest and unblemished Paschal Victim. He has given you the Key of David to open the door of Paradise.

So, then, you render unto God what is God's. That is, you offer up before Him what He has first given to you. To put it clearly, you hold up Christ before the Father. This is what He has given to you, and this is what you have to offer Him, for bad or for good.

You offer Christ back to the Father for bad when you throw Him back, like a bad fish caught in your net. You throw the Son's sacrifice back in the Father's face when you make Him to be of no account, of no importance to your life. You do this in hundreds of different ways every single day.

You set great store on your own work and efforts, as though you could make the world go round by your own work and willpower. You buy into the American Dream and think that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, push off any yoke, and do anything you set your hand to. You think that your flaws and faults can either be excused or offset by a little more hard work. You think that Christ has set you on the right track, and now it is up to you to do the right thing, live the right life, and work your tail off for God.

On the other hand, you throw Christ back at the Father when you live as though God did not matter, and as if you mattered most. You crucify Christ again and again through your sin and your contempt for His work and His Word of grace. You think nothing of His grace, presuming upon God's continued good favor, as though it were something due to you because you deserve it or have somehow merited it. God's grace will not always be here. Seek while it may be found.

However, you – the faithful of God – offer our Lord Christ back to the Father for your great good. You receive with joy the promised inheritance given to you from before the foundation of the world, and you hold fast to the forgiveness of sins and the blessed assurance of eternal life won for you by that same Jesus upon the cross and proclaimed by His glorious resurrection. You receive this gift and sign, and you cling to it in repentance and faith.

You cast aside all the rubbish and rags that your sinful nature would have you embrace, and with repentant hearts you hold up to the Father not your own works, but Christ. You hold up not your own cold, dead heart of stone, but the Body and Blood of Christ which have been sacrificed for you and which you joyfully eat and drink, that you may receive the very life of Christ in your own body and soul.

You despair of your works, knowing that your evil deeds leave you without excuse or defense before the righteous almighty Judge. Instead, you hold up Christ before the Father. His righteous is all-availing, all-sufficient. His perfect sacrifice washes away your sin and obliterates the record of wrong set against you. His blood covers you like a royal robe, washing you and making you clean, clothing you in perfect, spotless glory, making you presentable before the Father of all mercy and God of all grace.

You can render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, because your heavenly Father has already given them to you. Gladly serve your civil government, engage in the political process. Vote, hold office, debate, write and call your legislators. Do all the honest and upright things that your citizenship in this world entitles you to do. These things are of no avail with regard to your salvation and eternal life, but they are of great importance to your neighbor and to the life we live in common, enjoying the commonwealth we have all been given. Serving God and serving man is not a forced-choice test; it is a both/and.

Receive the blessed fruits of the all-availing sacrifice of Christ for your great and abundant blessing. Receive the things which are God's, so that what is God's becomes yours. Receive Christ, that you may hold Him up before the Father as your righteousness, your life, and your salvation. Receive the blessings of being buried with Christ into His death, so that you may forever live His eternal life. Receive the bountiful goodness of your heavenly Father, who provides all that you are and all that you have, in such abundance that you always have something good to share with another. Receive, and share, just as it has been given to you.

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate'er the gift may be;
All that we have is Thine alone,
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

And we believe Thy Word,
Though dim our faith may be:
Whate'er for Thine we do, O Lord,
We do it unto Thee (LSB 780.1, 6)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.