Entering the Weekend with Christ

Hi everyone, When we read the Gospel this Sunday, it can read more like a civics lesson on "paying your taxes", rather than the Good News of Jesus Christ, that we belong to God! Pastor Tim "God has led you to the desert, and spoken to your Heart." Mount of Olives Lutheran Church 3546 E. Thomas Rd Phoenix, AZ 85018 602-956-1620 office Chosen, Beloved, and Bearing the Image of God Almost every day, the world tries to slap its barcode or QR code on your forehead. From the political factions demanding total ideological loyalty, to employers tracking every minute of our productivity, to the constant barrage of advertisements telling us what we lack—our culture is locked in an unrelenting tug-of-war to claim who and what we belong to. We are tagged, stamped, categorized, and evaluated by what we produce, what we possess, and whose political or social camp we pitch our tent in. When we live under that kind of relentless pressure, it is easy to think of ourselves primarily as taxpayers, employees, partisan voters, or consumers who must constantly calculate our loyalties to survive. Yet this Sunday, across the sweeping narrative of Scripture, God shatters those petty claims of ownership. From the geopolitical maneuvers of ancient Persia to a young, persecuted church in Greece, to a tense showdown in the courtyards of Jerusalem, the Word of God reminds us of an unshakeable truth: earthly empires may mint coins and claim territory, but you have been chosen, you are deeply beloved, and your very soul bears the indelible image of the Living God. The Sovereign God Behind the Scenes (Isaiah 45:1–7) We hear the magnificent scale of God’s sovereignty in Isaiah 45. The people of Israel were languishing in exile in Babylon, feeling forgotten, defeated, and abandoned by their God. They assumed their story had been written off by the imperial powers of the age. Then God speaks through the prophet Isaiah and says something that must have left everyone in the ancient world speechless: "Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes..." Cyrus was not a prophet, an Israelite priest, or a worshipper of Yahweh. He was the pagan king of Persia. Yet God calls him his anointed—his mashiach—a title reserved for Davidic kings! Four times in this brief passage, God reminds Cyrus: "I arm you, though you do not know me." God orchestrates the rise and fall of world powers, opening double doors and leveling mountains, not because Cyrus is righteous, but for a specific purpose: "I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I arm you, though you do not know me, so that they may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me." Do not miss the profound comfort in this: earthly rulers and human institutions may strut across the stage of history believing they hold ultimate control, but they are merely instruments in the hands of the Almighty. The God who loves you is the Lord of history. No geopolitical crisis, no corporate restructuring, and no worldly power can derail His protective love for His chosen people. Chosen, Beloved, and Put to Work (1 Thessalonians 1:1–10) How does this sovereign reality take root in the life of a real community? The Apostle Paul answers with joy in his first letter to the Thessalonians. The church in Thessalonica was small, vulnerable, and facing fierce cultural opposition and persecution and he starts with a song of pure gratitude: "We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you." Notice the glorious identity Paul assigns to them before he asks them to do anything: beloved by God, and chosen. Your identity does not begin with your performance; it begins with God’s unconditional election. You were chosen in love before you ever took a single step of obedience. When you know you are chosen and beloved, you stop bowing to the tiny, anxiety-inducing idols of worldly approval. You become a living beacon of hope that rings out through the entire community. The Inscription on the Coin and the Image on the Soul (Matthew 22:15–22) This brings us directly into the Gospel story of Matthew. The religious and political elites—the Pharisees and the Herodians—form an unholy alliance. Usually, they hated each other: the Pharisees opposed Roman occupation, while the Herodians collaborated with Rome to stay in power. But their shared hatred of Jesus brings them together to lay a lethal trap. They approach Jesus with fake flattery: "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of good in accordance with truth..." Then they spring the question: "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" It is a masterful dilemma: • If Jesus says "Yes," the Jewish crowds will view Him as a Roman collaborator, a traitor to the covenant, and a blasphemer. • If Jesus says "No," the Herodians will report Him immediately to Pontius Pilate for sedition and treason against the Roman Empire. Jesus sees right through their hypocrisy. He calls them what they are: hypocrites. Then He says: "Show me the coin used for the tax." They hand Him a Roman denarius. In the ancient world, that coin carried the sculpted bust of Emperor Tiberius Caesar, accompanied by the inscription: “Tiberius Caesar, August Son of the Divine Augustus.” To a devout Jew, carrying that coin inside the temple precincts was a walking idolatry violation—it claimed Caesar was a god. Jesus holds the silver coin up in the sunlight and asks a brilliantly simple question: "Whose head is this, and whose title?" They answer plainly: "The emperor's." Then Jesus delivers the line that has echoed down through the centuries, dismantling their trap and resetting the terms of human existence: "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s." For two thousand years, people have tried to use this passage as a neat, bureaucratic formula for separating church and state—a little slice of life for Caesar, a little slice of life for God. But look closer at the logic of Jesus' argument. Why did the coin belong to Caesar? Because Caesar's image was stamped upon it. It bore his face, his likeness, and his name. It was minted in his foundries, and therefore it could be returned to his treasury. Let Caesar have his stamped metal. Now, ask the inevitable second question: What has God’s image stamped upon it? You do! In Genesis 1, God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness." Every single fiber of your being, your intellect, your heart, your breath, your relationships, and your eternal destiny bear the divine watermark of the Living God. Caesar may claim your sales tax. The government may claim your civic duty. Your employer may claim your scheduled hours. But none of them can claim your soul. None of them own your conscience. None of them have the right to define your worth. You do not belong to the state. You do not belong to a political party. You do not belong to the market economy. You belong to God. Earthly coins eventually tarnish. The faces of emperors crumble into dust. The empires of Cyrus and Tiberius are long-buried museum relics. But the image of God stamped upon your life will endure forever.