18TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST    MATTHEW 22:15-22

 

You can say it with flowers, you can say it with a smile.   You can say it with chocolates or cards.  And you can say it with coins.  Larry Gasper of Redding, California, decided on the last of these.  Larry had got a bit behind in paying his property taxes.  In fact he owed the Shasta County tax collector $12,658.  So, just as the authority was planning to auction off his house, Larry made a trip to the tax collector’s office and paid his bill.  In coins.  In a wheelbarrow and two large buckets.  “It took four of my staff a little over two hours just to count all the cash,” says Mary Axelson, chief deputy tax collector; “and then it took probably another hour to get it bagged up to go to the bank.”  The loss of 12 staff-hours, however, was better than the alternative, thinks Mary.  She says, “I could have turned him away. There is a taxation code section that says we do not have to take payment in coin.  But he came in looking for some confrontation and I just wasn’t going to give it to him.”  So, if you can say it with coins, I’ll leave you to judge what it was Larry was wanting to say to the tax collector.

 

You can say it with an angry letter, you can say it with crude hand gesture, but Larry said it with coins.  You can say it with a hostile look, you can say it with a fist, but the Pharisees also said it with a coin.  You can say it through scripture, you can say it through acts of compassion, you can say it by challenging the corrupt leaders of your religion, but Jesus said it with a coin.

 

 

Saying it with a coin.  For the Pharisees, this coin was a spokesperson for their jealousy and their insecurity.  It was the means by which they could trap Jesus in a catch-22 dilemma.  This Jesus who was more popular than them and seemed to have more divine authority than they did.  So they asked him, “Should the people pay taxes to the occupying forces of Rome or not?”  It seemed like the perfect gotcha question.  After all, this tax paid the salary of the Roman soldier who stood on the street corner sneering at God’s people and humiliating them.  What’s more, it was a flat tax – the sum was exactly the same for everyone, regardless of their wealth or poverty.  So there were very good reasons to hate this tax.  But there was yet another reason why this tax was controversial.  That coin at the center of this argument was riddled with blasphemy.  On one side it bore the image of the Emperor Tiberius with the inscription “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus”.  And on the other side was engraved an image of the “high priest” Livia.  So for the Jewish people this was appalling – the coin itself was so unclean as to almost be untouchable, and what it stood for was the violation of God’s people.  So, if Jesus says pay the tax the people will be shocked and appalled.  If he says don’t pay the tax, the Romans can have him for insurrection.  Heads you lose, tails you lose. 

Read the full Sermon here: http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3198657/Matt_22v15_2014.docx