I pay attention mostly when I think I need to. It was freshman orientation that caught my ear, "you're here for a reason." That was the first thing Doc told them; there was more I could hear in his voice. "You have shown yourself to be the best of the best."
For three years I did not pay attention except curtain time. Up stage or down stage I would be there
Doc had them play the other side of the coin and they nailed it.
You can tell the great from the chaos that follows after; in the theater you can be the bad guy in a good way. Marko has now ended up changing his major his senior year. The long time department head lost his long health battle. Sometimes not quantity but quality is what is most important. Most of the last years were compromised by the pandemic. The black box theater mostly dark.
There was a few windows that opened. The production they did they each took different parts. I wasn't sure what to think about Doc performing at the time. Today I know I will never forget what was his last performance. There are parts no one wants to play. Someone has to. The other side.
Thoughts of theater have been coming to me lately. I worked recently in a performing arts school teaching third grade. I told them there is a reason there are not that many performing arts schools: it is very hard. Performance is such a big part of our lives we struggle so to teach it.
Jesus as a great teacher is a great performer. Here in this scripture we have today Jesus gives one of his more memorable performances for his most difficult audience. Our scripture today comes from. Matthew 22:15-22 which I will read from the Amplified Bible:
15 Then the Pharisees went and conspired together plotting how to trap Him by [distorting] what He said. 16 They sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are sincere and that You teach the way of God truthfully, without concerning Yourself about [what] anyone [thinks or says of Your teachings]; for You are impartial and do not seek anyone’s favor [and You treat all people alike, regardless of status]. 17 Tell us then, what do You think? Is it permissible [according to Jewish law and tradition] to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?”
The Pharisees along with the Herodians. This was not a mob that would approach anyone else. We hear often of the Pharisees, but we might be forgiven for missing the Herodians. These were the people who supported Roman rule. The two groups were equally convinced the other was completely wrong, but both were afraid of Jesus.
The Herodians remind me of the scene in the Life of Brian. While they meet to discuss revolution they come up with actually a very long list of good things the Romans had done. Aqueducts and such. It was Herod who did the last major construction of the Temple so it is easy to understand there were some who supported him, the Herodians. This is not strange.
What is strange is these two groups confronting Jesus. According to Josephus, the Pharisees appeared before Pompey asking him to interfere and restore the old priesthood while abolishing the royalty of the Hasmoneans altogether, descendants of the Maccabee family. Pharisees also opened Jerusalem's gates to the Romans, and actively supported them against the Sadducean faction. When the Romans finally broke the entrance to the Jerusalem's Temple, they killed the priests who were officiating the Temple services on Saturday. They regarded Pompey's defilement of the Temple in Jerusalem as a divine punishment of Sadducean misrule.
According to Josephus, the Pharisees ultimately opposed him and thus fell victims (4 BCE) to his bloodthirstiness. The family of Boethus, whom Herod had raised to the high-priesthood, revived the spirit of the Sadducees, and thenceforth the Pharisees again had them as antagonists.
The Herodians still supported Roman Rule. The Pharisees did not. When they formulated this question both sides probably thought they knew what Jesus would say. Or maybe they thought there was nothing he could say. He had frustratingly refused to take sides in their conflict. This is actually what brought them there together.
They figured he would have to take sides as we often feel. We take sides.
18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, asked, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?
They had no business together there asking this of Jesus, but he decides to take their test. The Pharisees, who strongly opposed Herod and Roman rule, and the Herodians, who were strong allies of Herod and Rome, set aside their political differences in order to conspire together against Jesus.
It didn't matter if you supported Rome or not if you supported God. It doesn't matter who you support or not if you support God.
19 "Show me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius [a day’s wage]. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “The Emperor Tiberius Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” 22 When they heard this, they were caught off guard, and they left Him and went away.
The Pharisees, who strongly opposed Herod and Roman rule, and the Herodians, who were strong allies of Herod and Rome, set aside their political differences in order to conspire together against Jesus. Every Jew was required to pay the poll-tax. It was considered a sign of subservience to Rome.
They wanted to know who's side he was on. It was important to them. It is almost comical. They were so sure of their positions that they were sure Jesus would have to pick sides. The Pharisees planned to trap Jesus with his words. They sent their disciples and the Herodians to him. The Pharisees wanted Jesus to make an unpopular statement or open himself to arrest for rebellion against the Roman Empire.
It is interesting to note in Luke 20:20 again from the Amplified Bible says:
20 So they watched [for a chance to trap] Him. They sent spies who pretended to be upright and sincere, in order that they might catch Him in some statement [that they could distort and use against Him], so that they could turn Him over to the control and authority of [Pilate] the governor.
Luke was not as interested in the political factions of the time. He continues in Luke30:26: They were not able to seize on anything He said in the presence of the people; and being unnerved at His reply, they were silent.
Unnerved: deprived of courage, strength, and steadiness. It must have felt so unnatural for them to be working together.
The issues raised by this scripture are ones of allegiance. The lesson Jesus gives is as valid today as it was 2,000 years ago: Repay to Cesar what belongs to Cesar, and to God what belongs to God. Some say that this passage shows that Jesus taught that Christians should support the government no matter what. Others say that Jesus doesn't care about mundane things like what you do with your money.
There are things we do not have a consensus on. We often find ourselves picking sides. Thirty-seven percent of people in Ohio who call themselves evangelical also support the reproductive rights amendment on the ballot. I'm not here to tell you what to vote for or against, but to highlight our lack of consensus.
We often do not know the difference between the freedom fighter and the terrorist. We have trouble telling between a despot and a tool of the almighty..
Isaiah 45:1-7 in the Amplified Bible says:
This is what the Lord says to His anointed, to Cyrus [king of Persia],
Whose right hand I have held
To subdue nations before him,
And I will ungird the loins of kings [disarming them];
To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
2
“I will go before you and level the mountains;
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
3
“I will give you the treasures of darkness [the hoarded treasures]
And the hidden riches of secret places,
So that you may know that it is I,
The Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you (Cyrus the Great) by your name.
4
“For the sake of Jacob My servant,
And of Israel My chosen,
I have also called you by your name;
I have given you an honorable name
Though you have not known Me.
5
“I am the Lord, and there is no one else;
There is no God except Me.
I will embrace and arm you, though you have not known Me,
6
That people may know from the rising to the setting of the sun [the world over]
That there is no one except Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other,
7
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing peace and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.
This passage can lead us in many directions. We may think there is no point to choosing sides because God is in charge. Doesn't sound wrong, but there is something here we must render to God. We must pick sides.
The protest we make could be the wrong one it seems to me. But I think we must take a side. When you look at the ballot it is easy to see that these are things of Caesar.
In the theater you can inhabit any side. You can play one character one day and the complete opposite the next day. Acting closer to who you are I imagine is easier, but acting further from yourself is really where the craft exists. Up stage or down stage I would be there. Doc had them play the other side of the coin and they nailed it. They rendered nothing to Caesar.
Jesus is inviting us to look and make our own decisions where we lack consensus. I don't think that morality can be legislated. I also don't think you can reform the world. I think that it needs saved.
Jesus' response to the question about paying taxes to Caesar is not just about taxes but is a subtle critique of the entanglement of religious and political power. It could be seen as a call to keep them separate and to prioritize spiritual and moral values over worldly concerns. Jesus was advocating a more fundamental separation of church and state, where believers should give their loyalty to God (what is God's) and not allow themselves to be compromised by secular authorities (Caesar).
More traditional interpretations focus on the lesson of fulfilling civic obligations (paying taxes) while also honoring one's spiritual commitments. I do think that everything Jesus does is meant to teach us, but it is just a remarkable response. These two sides that really did not belong together. They were sure he would say something wrong. Each probably thought he was really on their side.
They didn't think that it was possible to be on everybody's side. I sure find difficulty, but I know that Jesus is on every side. What brought them together was fear. We might not agree about everything but we don't have to fear.
There is a reason for everything. With the sheer vastness of space, it seems quite conceivable that there should be more intelligent civilizations out there besides us. The observable universe contains at least 2 trillion galaxies, with each such galaxy having approximately 100 million stars on average but with some like our Milky Way Galaxy estimated as having as many as 200 billion stars and 100 billion planets.
Given the math, it is hard to believe that we are so unique that no other life could have sprouted in the far reaches of the cosmos. This conflict between the possibility of life and the fact that we haven’t seen any aliens around was famously encapsulated in the so-called “Fermi Paradox” by the celebrated physicist Enrico Fermi, who reportedly asked in a 1950 conversation with fellow physicists Edward Teller, Herbert York and Emil Konopinsky something like “But where is everybody?” referring to potential extraterrestrials.
Maybe God needed to make the entire universe just to make you. Maybe life has been started trillions of times. We really don't have a consensus. Neither case would be hard for God. Both can't be true. The Pharisees and the Herodians were behaving in a way that suggests they had higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case. They did not have an answer to their own question.
So, perhaps we should behave in a way that suggests we have lower standards or less noble beliefs than is the case. The opposite. Maybe we could welcome the stranger and not have any questions.
Let Us Pray:
Dear Lord
Let us set the opposite of a trap
Let us be radical in our hospitality
We fail to find consensus in everything we believe
Help us to love anyways
We ask the way home
In the name of your Son Jesus Christ
Amen
Benediction
We may not always have consensus
We always have love
When in doubt love
Go with the grace of our Lord
Nottingham UMC 10-22-2023
