The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
Matthew 22:15-22
LSB Proper [24] A,
16 October 2011
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
The American saying is: “In polite company one shouldn’t
discuss politics or religion.” Why? Discussion of either topic will likely lead
to disagreement. Americans don’t like conflict. Today’s sermon title is “God
and Caesar.” This morning we will discuss both politics and religion on the
basis of a question asked of our Lord Jesus: Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar
or not?
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in
his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians,
saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God
truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed
by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to
Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the
test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a
denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore
render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are
God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
The Pharisees were out to trap Jesus in his words. If His
answer came down on God’s side, they would turn him over to the government. If
Jesus’ answer would have only affirmed the Roman government, the people would
have turned on Him to the delight of the Pharisees. Jesus didn’t give either of
the anticipated answers, A or B. Jesus gave answer C, something unexpected.
“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things
that are God’s.”
At Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, as well as Concordia
Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, theological studies are divided into four
departments. Exegetical theology deals with learning how to read the Old
Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. Systematic theology deals
with the Bible topic by topic. Historical theology shows how the church
preserved the Biblical text and true Biblical theology throughout history. It
also showed how heresy misused, misinterpreted, and twisted the Word of God and
how the Church responded. Practical theology teaches a seminarian how to apply
the other three areas in preaching, teaching, leading worship, and pastoral
care.
This morning’s sermon is both a topical sermon on God and
Caesar, as well as an exercise in historical theology. How have Jesus’ words
from our Gospel reading influenced Western Civilization?
Dr. Alvin Schmidt, in his book The Great Divide, shows the influence of our Gospel text from the
time of the Roman Caesars to the American Founding Fathers:
Does the concept of separation of church and state reflect a
Christian influence? When one listens to the secular media today, especially in
the United States, the impression is given that the separation of church and
state is a phenomenon totally divorced from any Christian influence. This does
not reflect the facts of history. Here the words of Bernard Lewis, an expert in
Islamic studies, are instructive. In speaking about the separation of church
and state vis-à-vis Islam’s concept of the state and religion, he said: “The
notion of the church and state as distinct institutions, each with its laws,
hierarchy, and jurisdiction, is characteristically Christian with its origins
in Christian scripture and history. It is alien to Islam.”
Contrary to the current faulty perception, there is
considerable evidence that the separation of church and state has substantial
Christian roots harking back to the response Jesus gave to the Pharisees. They
tried to entrap him by asking whether it was lawful to give tax money to the
Roman Caesar, whom they despised. Jesus asked them to show a Roman coin. “Whose
likeness and inscription is this?” he asked. “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then
Jesus responded: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are to Caesar’s, and
to God the things that are God’s”.
Three hundred years after Jesus made this statement, Hosius,
bishop of Cordoba, Spain, from 353-356, reprimanded [the Roman emperor]
(Emperor Constantius II for meddling in ecclesiastical [church] matters by
trying to condemn Athanasius for opposing (the Arian) heresy. So Hosius said:
“Intrude not yourself into ecclesiastical affairs … God has put into your hands
the [secular] kingdom; to us [bishops] He has entrusted the affairs of His
Church.” In support of his reprimand, he cited the example set by Jesus that
was discussed above.
During their first 300 years of bloody persecutions, the
early Christians neither sought nor expected the government to support them in
their religious activities. Their religious activities where divorced from any
ties to the government of Rome. They differed remarkably from the pagan Romans
for whom religious activities were linked to a particular city or the state.
The Latin word religare (from which
we get the word religion) meant that there was a bond between the Roman people
and the state. The Christian idea of “an association of people bound together
by a religious allegiance with its own traditions and beliefs, its own history,
and its own way for life independent on a particular city or nation was foreign
to the ancients.”
The fact that Christian religious practices were not linked
to a city or state was one of the things that irritated Celsus, a
second-century pagan critic of Christianity. He saw Christians as separatists
or sectarians. But after Constantine the Great legalized Christianity in 313
and soon involved himself in many of the church’s affairs, the separation of
church and state among Christians slowly began to blur, and for more than a
thousand years after Constantine the church and state were often intertwined.
When Bishop Hosius chided the emperor, it was the government
that was attempting to make ecclesiastical decisions. But by the early Middle
Ages the situation had reversed itself. Now the church increasingly intruded in
the affairs of secular government. This fusion of church and state, for
example, was one of the things that angered Martin Luther in the 16th
century. He especially criticized the pope for involving himself in secular
government, which he saw as a violation of what he called the concept of two
kingdoms (realms). It was the church’s task solely to preach and teach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. This he called the spiritual kingdom or realm. The
government’s task was to keep peace and order in society by restraining and
punishing the unlawful. This he called the worldly kingdom or realm. The
secular government could only compel people to behave outwardly; it could never
make a person’s heart spiritually righteous. Only the preaching of the
Christian gospel (an activity of the spiritual realm) could do that. In the
spiritual realm the Christian operates as a disciple of Christ; in the secular
realm he functions as a citizen of his country. Although the two realms are
separate, the Christian as an individual is active in both because God is
active in both. In the spiritual realm he is active in proclaiming the gospel,
whereas in the secular kingdom he supports government’s use of the law and
sword without injecting elements of the gospel. In order to buttress his concept
of the two realms (kingdoms), Luther cites Jesus’ statement about giving to
Caesar what is his and to God what belongs to him. Briefly put, the two realms
(church and state) have separate functions and are not to be merged or
commingled.
When America’s Founding Fathers in 1791 wrote the First
Amendment to the Constitution—“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”—they not
only intended to provide freedom of religion for the individual, but in effect
also said the two realms or kingdoms, to use Luther’s terminology, were to be
kept separate even though the words “separation of church and state” are not in
the First Amendment.
The words “separation of church and state” (which in many years
have become a national preoccupation with many secular Americans) are the
result of an inference made from a letter Thomas Jefferson sent to the Danbury
Connecticut Baptist Association on January 1, 1802. In that letter he used the
phrase “building a wall of separation between church and state.” When he used
these words, he had no intention of curtailing religious practices. Neither he
nor the drafters of the First Amendment had even the remotest thought of
outlawing governmental support for religion. He, like Luther, merely wanted to
keep the government from making religious decisions or the church from making
governmental decisions. This is evident from some of the acts he performed when
he was president of the United States. For instance, he used federal money to
build churches and establish missions for the purpose of bringing the gospel to
American Indians. In short, “What the federal government was prohibited from
doing, in Jefferson’s view, was prescribing a particular set of religious rites
or promoting a particular sect [denomination] at the expense of the others.” Jefferson
also sent a treaty to the Congress that provided a “Catholic church building”
for the Kaskaskia Indians in 1803. Not that this was after his “wall of
separation” letter in Connecticut.
America’s Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, wanted the
nation to have freedom of religion,
not freedom from religion. The latter
is currently being promoted by groups such as the American Civil Liberties
Union and its anti-Christian allies. In order to achieve freedom from religion,
secularists have been using the state, with the help of the United States
Supreme Court, to “free” the people from
religion. Outlawing (Christmas crèches) [nativity scenes], banning prayers in
public schools, and removing the Ten Commandments from tax-supported buildings
are three present-day American examples. When Jesus spoke to the Pharisees he
only indicated that the two realms were separate, not that Caesar (the
government) and religion were in conflict or that religion or God had to be
jettisoned from public life.
So, returning to the question asked earlier, does the
doctrine of separation of church and state reflect the influence of
Christianity? The answer is a definite yes, especially in light of the American
experience. The American Founding Fathers—all well-read individuals—were
familiar with the teachings of Jesus Christ. They knew about Jesus’ statement
about Caesar and God, about the church-state conflicts in history, and about
the monopoly state churches had in Europe. Moreover, as is well known, they
were also conversant with John Locke’s writings, which reflected much Christian
thinking. In light of Locke’s scholarly bent, it is quite likely that he also was
familiar with Luther’s doctrine of the two realms [kingdoms]. This latter point
is not mere speculation, for in A Letter
Concerning Toleration, Locke wrote: “All power of civil government relates
only to men’s civil interests, is confined to the care of things of this world,
and hath nothing to do with the world to come.” These words sound remarkably
similar to Luther’s two-realms doctrine. So it is quite plausible that the
Founding Fathers, via this Luther-like statement by Locke, together with
Christ’s Caesar-and-God teaching, imported this Christian understanding of the
separation of church and state as they hammered out the First Amendment’s
freedom-of-religion clause. (202-207)
“…Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar,
or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test,
you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.
And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said,
“Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they
marveled. And they left him and went away.
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Most of us
would rather not. J Still, we comply, both because of Jesus’ teaching
and the threat of punishment. No one wants to be audited by the IRS or hauled
away by the FBI. J
It is said that it is impolite to speak about politics or
religion. That is tragic. If by politics you mean looking out for the common
good and caring for your fellow man here in time, why wouldn’t we want to
discuss that? And if we feel pressured to keep silent about the most important
message in all of eternity—the good news of the complete forgiveness of sins in
Jesus alone—then that is even more heartbreaking. Are we really that afraid? Is
it rude to speak about politics when abuse and poverty and human suffering are then
allowed to go on? Would we rather be polite and not speak about Jesus’
forgiveness, while so many are going straight to hell?
We should not miss the point of Jesus’ words. The question
was asked of Him in order to silence Him one way or another. Christians around
the world face a similar threat. The voice of the Church and of individual
Christians deserves to be heard in the public square, as Christians serve as public
officials, and as Christians live God’s Word at the ballot box.
At the same time, we cannot forget to give to God what
belongs to Him. We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We
should call upon Him in any trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. We should
hold His Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it. We should honor our parents
and other authorities, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. We should
help and support our neighbor in every physical need. We should lead a sexually
pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife should love
and honor each other. We should help our neighbor to improve and protect his
possessions and income. We should defend our neighbor, speak well of him and
explain everything in the kindest way. We should help and be of service to our neighbor
in keeping his inheritance and house and urge our neighbor’s spouse, workers,
and animals to stay and do their duty.
Most importantly we are to believe in the One God has sent,
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords who sits at
the right hand of God and will come on the Last Day to judge the living and the
dead. We are given to render unto Caesar as Jesus said in our text and as St.
Paul affirms in Romans 13, yet we are to obey God rather than men when the two
come in conflict, as Acts 5 teaches.
Christians live under God as He rules both kingdoms, secular
government and the Church. Government gives us security from external threats
and also roads, mail, and other infrastructure so that we as Christians can
live peaceable lives where we can be gathered by the Lord to receive His gifts
and tell others the Good News about Jesus without interference. Your loving
Lord cares for you as a dear father when the civil government properly serves
in an extension of the fourth commandment’s work of father and mother. And, the
same Lord makes you citizens of heaven by Baptism, forgiveness, and Holy
Communion, the meal that is a foretaste of the feast to come in the kingdom of
Christ which has no end. Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
