In today’s Gospel Jesus’opponents seek to trick him with the question ‘”Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”‘ (Matthew 22:17). As the emperor was a deity,paying the tax amounted to worship of another god (even though it seems they all did anyway). So if Jesus answered yes, he was in effect endorsing idolatry. If no, he was endorsing civil disobedience. Do you ever seek to wedge God? Maybe not as brazenly as that, but with subtle thoughts such as: “I can’t be generous here because I don’t have enough there.” When by God’s grace we remember ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1), and ‘What do you have that you did not receive?’ (1 Cor 4:7a), we start to live out of the reality that is God’s gifting. Repent and ask God to bring you into his view – for it is the reality in which you already live sustained by his creation!
October 19, 2017
Pastor Matt Bishop