Language matters, always.

We should take care of words. Language matters, always.

We know that what we say informs what we think and what we say informs what we do. How we speak and how we are spoken to has a deeper influence on our lives than we probably realize.

With this in mind, we should be on guard when our Christian vocabulary is used out of context. Not because the persons using it are out to get us; but because they probably aren’t and, as a result, we can be lulled into thinking that what they say doesn’t affect the way we think and live.

Let me read two brief passages from recent speeches given by John Kelly and George W. Bush. The first quote is Kelly, the white house chief of staff, defending President Trump’s recent phone conversation with the widow of a deceased American serviceman. Pay attention to the adjective that is repeated three times.

It stuns me that a member of Congress would have listened in on that conversation. Absolutely stuns me. And I thought at least that was sacred. You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor.

The second is from a speech given by Bush last week. Note the religiosity in this one sentence.

Bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.

I’m not condemning either of these two speakers. I don’t impugn their motives. But I want us to think about how the language of religion is used. Specifically, I want us to consider how religious language is used to demand allegiance. Or, shall we call it “brand loyalty”? Either way, I think the use of language like this can cause Christians to take the world’s account of reality more serious than God’s.

Of course, language is not limited to words and letters. It is not just what we say or hear. What we see is a language too; a language more powerful than the spoken word. We live in an image-laden, brand-oriented age. This use of imagery has an impact on how we are spiritually formed—something our Orthodox and Catholic brethren have always understood.

In Matthew 22:15-21, Jesus responds to a question about images, icons, and branding. It is a loaded question, meant to trip him up and discredit him.

And so we read in Matthew 22:15-22:

¹⁵ Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. ¹⁶ So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality.

(Hauerwas notes: Liars can speak the truth, but when they do so, those determined to live by the truth must be on their guard.)

 ¹⁷ Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” ¹⁸ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹ Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰ Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” ²¹ They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

I think it is fair to say that this passage has nothing to do with paying taxes then or now. The Pharisees and Herodians are not concerned about the tax. They are concerned about Jesus’ influence over the people.

The Pharisees and Herodians are normally at odds with one another.

But, they are both at odds with Jesus’ mission.

The Herodians were collaborators with Rome. They were sucking up to Caesar. Herod the Great ingratiated himself to Rome and as a result, Rome allowed some freedoms in Judea that were not allowed throughout the Empire. The Herodians sought to maintain that stability so they “worked” with the Roman authorities. They had one foot in Rome and one in Jerusalem.

We are more familiar with the second group. The Pharisees were Jewish nationalists. They were ritually pure and devoted students of the Torah. They sought to preserve Jewish faith and culture and they despised Roman occupation. They resented the Herodians for their collusion with Rome. But, in this encounter with Jesus, the Pharisees themselves collude with the Herodians to trap Jesus.

If Jesus said “yes”, we should pay our taxes, then his followers would be greatly disappointed in him, thinking that his teaching was not as radical as they had hoped. Jesus was no better than the Herodians or the Sadducees.

But, if Jesus were to say, “no”, don’t pay the tax, the Herodians and their Roman counterparts could arrest Jesus for sedition. Of course, the real danger is that by answering their question at all Jesus could easily undermine his own message.

But, of course, in true Jesus fashion, he refuses to answer the question in the manner in which it is asked. He does not answer yes or no. He knows it’s a trap. He uses their setup, to make one of the more profound statements about the Kingdom of God.

What is Jesus trying to say?

When Jesus speaks about money he’s usually not talking about money. He is talking about the Kingdom of God. This holds true in this passage. When Jesus says,

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, . . .”

He is not advocating that they pay the tax. He’s not really talking about the tax.

Jesus asking for the coin demonstrates that he probably did not carry it. Perhaps he didn’t carry it because he agreed with many of his fellow Jews that to do so was to commit idolatry. So, Jesus seems to say here, give back to the Emperor those items that entice us to worship him.

Take note that the coin does not only bear the image of Caesar but his title too. “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” (Or, “son of a god”)

Always pushing deeper, Jesus moves quickly past what to do with the coin to make his stronger point,

“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, … and to God the things that are God’s.” 

I can’t prove that what I’m going to describe next really happened. I like to think that it did. I think it could have. But, I know that what I’m going to describe is consistent with the message of Jesus and the Roman coin.

Jesus asks whose eikon is on the coin, whose image? Jesus says “give to Caesar what bears Caesar’s image”. Now, imagine with me, that after saying those words, Jesus looked into his questioner’s eyes, pointed at their faces, and said, “give to God what belongs to God.”

Jesus points to their image-bearing mugs and reminds them that they belong to God.

That which bears God’s eikon belongs to God. Therefore, give to God oneself, one’s family, one’s neighbor, even one’s enemy . . . whoever bears the image belongs to God. Whoever is an eikon of God belongs to God, and to God alone.

“When they heard this, they were amazed”

. . . this little phrase suggests that Jesus said more with his actions than the mere words on the page. Jesus is not telling his listeners to pay their taxes, he is telling them to whom they belong, the God of Jesus Christ, and that no mediating ruler, power, or program should be allowed to get in the way of that allegiance.

Money and possessions may belong to Caesar, or the state, or whoever is in authority; but the image of God belongs only to God. The human person is God’s eikon and that image bearer belongs to no one but God. Therefore, our ultimate allegiance, in this life and the next, is not to Caesar, to the Emperor, or even a Christian King. Our allegiance belongs not to a flag, or a political party, a country or any other group, but to God alone.

In a world that feels like it is coming apart at the seams, it is good to know whose side we are on. Let us always begin by staying on Jesus’ side, reminding ourselves that all image bearers belong to God . . . and all image bearers are to be in the business of holding all other image bearers up to God. (Aquiano . . . )

This affects everything. Our politics, our philosophy, our emotional reactions and our reflexive behavior must all be shaped by our ultimate allegiance to God.

In his commentary on the book of Acts, Willie Jennings tells us:

. . . while some work for the welfare of the empire, we work in empires for the welfare of God’s creation. Christians can easily get this confused by forgetting that the ends of an empire are not our ends, its dream not our dream, and its circle of concerns always smaller than our concerns. Our citizenship should be characterized by an urgency not born of the needs of the nation, but the witness of God’s redeeming love. [Jennings, Acts, p. 226-227].

For those of us who claim American citizenship, it’s not “America First.” It’s the realm of God, the Kingdom of God first, and if we pursue that end, then love rather than the need for power will be our guide. (Bob Cornwall)

Who gets to narrate the world?

When Jesus looks at the coin and asks the question, “whose head is this and whose title?” he is refusing to answer the question on their terms; instead he is asking a different question, a subversive question. He’s asking, who gets to tell the story of the world?

When he replies, “give to the Emperor what is the Emperor’s” he is saying, Caesar may have a chapter in the story of the world, or perhaps just a footnote, but he does not get to tell the whole story.

“Give to God what is God’s” is Jesus’ answer to that question. It is his way of quietly, subversively laying claim to all of human history. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. And, if Jesus really is Lord, he is Lord then – and now – and forever.

So what do we do when our language and our images are co-opted for sub-Christian purposes?

Stanley Hauerwas, commenting on Mt. 22 says:

Christians are told that they should never let their loyalty to the state qualify their loyalty to God, but they never seem clear when and if such a conflict might actually happen. Christians are usually Herodians but lack the means to recognize themselves as such.

We must discern what is being said so that we can discern what is being demanded of us. Hauerwas continues,

Jesus is not recommending in his response that the Pharisees learn to live with divided loyalties, but rather he is saying that all the idolatrous coins should be sent back to Caesar, where they belong. Just as Jesus knows no distinction between politics and religion, neither does he know any distinction between politics, economics, and the worship of God.

The Roman denarius was a symbol of the Jews continued exile. They were under a nationwide house arrest. It reminded them that they were not their own. The land they lived on belonged to Caesar, not to themselves.

The Herodians coped with this captivity by making friends with their captors. The Pharisees coped with their captivity by diving deeper into religiosity and ethnic purity. Each lived with divided loyalties.

Each group had difficulty taking God’s account of reality more serious than Caesar’s.

In our culture of overwhelming images and unending words, we do well to remember that it is God’s account of reality that matters. Not the media, whoever they are, and not our leaders, regardless of the Christian language that they use.

We can take God’s account of reality more seriously than Caesar’s by paying attention to what is being said and to what is being demanded of us.

So I advocate “awareness”, that most 21^st Century thing to say.

Language matters, whether it is word or symbol.

Language matters, always.

Lord of all, make us aware of those things to which we have wrongly, and unknowingly, pledged our allegiance; and give us the wherewithal to reject that which diminishes our loyalty to you. May we render to God that which is God’s, specifically all those who bear Your image. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Preached Oct 21, 2017, at the Wheatland Mission.