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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The coronavirus, months of civil unrest, and the November 3 national election, for which early voting began in Texas this past Tuesday, all can prompt questions about our obligations, as Christians, to both God and government. In the Gospel Reading appointed for today, the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost, the disciples of the Pharisees, ardent nationalists, and the Herodians, supporters of the Herod family, which depended on Roman rule, admittedly did not ask Jesus for His opinion about the lawfulness of paying a specific tax to the Roman government because they wanted to know His answer in order to do what He said. Rather, the Pharisees wanted to entangle Jesus in His words, apparently thinking that either Jesus’s “yes” or His “no” would get Him in trouble. Nevertheless, arguably as early as St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome (Romans 13:1-7), if not earlier, the Christian Church found, in Jesus’s answer to the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians, teaching of the Lord about Christians’ obligations to both God and government. This morning, as we consider the Gospel Reading for today, we direct our thoughts to the theme “God and Government”.
The conversation that the Gospel Reading records apparently took place on the Tuesday of Holy Week, as Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, when and where some Jewish leaders challenged Him about His authority, and He responded with the three parables that we have heard the past three Sundays (Matthew 21:23-32, 33-46; 22:1-14). Although we will not hear them all in future Divine Services, today’s Gospel Reading gives us the first of three questions from Jewish leaders intended to trap or otherwise test Jesus, before Jesus asked them a question that they were not able to answer, and so they no longer dared to ask Him any more questions (confer Matthew 22:23‑33, 34-46).
In today’s Gospel Reading, the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians flatter Jesus, perhaps to ingratiate themselves with Him, to embolden Him to answer, to leave Him no choice but to answer, or some combination of those purposes. But, as I mentioned earlier, the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians did not want to know Jesus’s answer in order to do what He said, neither in regards to their God, nor in regards to their government. And, perhaps neither do we want to know what Jesus wants us to do, neither in regards to our God, nor in regards to our government. For example, we may use the coronavirus, civil unrest, and the national election as opportunities to do what we want to do, maybe even under the guise of religious or other civil rights. We do not always want to give to the government the things that are its, and so we also do not always want to give to God the things that are His. Too often we forget that God has instituted the governing authorities, and so that to resist them is to resist what God has appointed, and that to resist is to incur judgment (Romans 13:1-2), the just sentence of temporal and eternal death.
Jesus was aware of the disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians’ malice, their depravity, iniquity, and wickedness, and Jesus is aware of our malice, depravity, iniquity, and wickedness, too. In the preceding parables and in today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus called them to repent, and Jesus likewise calls us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sin in regards to the government He has given, and God forgives all our other sin, whatever our sin might be. God forgives our sin for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the Gospel Reading, the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians perhaps said it falsely, but Jesus truly is true, teaches the way of God truthfully, and does not care about anyone’s opinion because He is not swayed by appearances. Jesus truly is all of that and more: Jesus is the Son of God in human flesh, sent by the Father’s great love in order to save us from our sin. Using and showing His divine attributes through His human nature, Jesus confronted the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians’ testing of Him and their hypocrisy. Jesus spoke, of rendering both to government and to God, as God (Goff, CPR 30:4, p.33), Who surprises and drives away His opposition as He wills. On His timetable, Jesus perfectly gave Himself to the government, permitting even false testimony about His statement about paying taxes (Luke 23:2), and so also Jesus perfectly gave Himself to God (John 19:10-11; confer Grobien, as cited by Schielke, p.9), for us. On the cross, Jesus died the death that we deserve, in our place, so that we do not have to die eternally. When we individually trust that Jesus died for us, then God forgives our sins.
God forgives our sins through His Means of Grace: His Gospel in all of its forms. In today’s Epistle Reading (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10), the Divinely-inspired St. Paul described that Gospel as coming not only in “word” but also in “power” (confer Romans 1:16), in the Holy Spirit, and with full conviction. Although humankind lost at least some of the image of God in its fall into sin, in Holy Baptism, the Gospel combined with water, that image of God is renewed in us (Colossians 3:10) and His Name and His seal are inscribed upon us. In individual Holy Absolution, the sins that particularly trouble us are forgiven by those sent from the Lord to forgive our sins (John 20:21-23). And, in Holy Communion, we eat bread that is the Body of Christ given for us, and we drink wine that is Blood of Christ shed for us, and so we receive the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. We are strengthened and nourished in body and soul to life everlasting.
So renewed, forgiven, strengthened, and nourished by the powerful Gospel of God in all of its forms, we are transformed, as we heard in the Epistle Reading that the Thessalonians were transformed, turning from their sin to serve God. We recognize that, as the Old Testament Reading described God’s doing with Cyrus (Isaiah 45:1-7), God uses even unbelieving rulers for His good purposes. We pray for all who are in high positions, that we may lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way (1 Timothy 2:2). And, we obey those who govern us, unless they either command something that God prohibits or prohibit something that God commands (Acts 4:19; 5:29). Then we may have to suffer unjustly, but like the Thessalonians, we still have the joy of the Holy Spirit and can be an example to all those who believe around us. So we render to the government, and so we also render to God. We render to all what is owed to them: taxes, revenue, respect, and honor (Romans 13:7). And, when we fail so to render, as we will fail, with daily contrition and repentance, we live both in the forgiveness of sins that we receive from God for our sins against Him and in the forgiveness of sins that we in turn extend to one another for our sins against one another.
In due time, the national election will be over, and so will current and any subsequent civil unrest, and even, in one way or another, will the coronavirus come to an end in due time. Even if the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians’ question was not seriously about it, we know what Jesus wants us to do in regards to “God and Government”. Though we fail to do so and sin in other ways, when we repent, then God forgives us, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Jesus rules over all for the benefit of His Church (Ephesians 1:22), so, now and forever, we praise His Holy Name!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +