Serving God and Country

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we serve in His Church and in our country.

There’s a contemporary Christian music group called For King and Country. Anybody heard of them?

Years ago when my daughters were younger we went to a Timberwolves game, and For King and Country gave a brief concert after the game.

The group is actually from Australia. And the king they’re speaking of is Christ.

We’re going to talk about serving King and Country, or God and Country, how we can honor God as we serve both.

Our Gospel today took place during holy week. The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus to say something that would incriminate him. 

How he would answer would be extremely important. In fact, the world’s redemption would depend upon how Jesus would handle this situation. That’s how crucial it was.

If Jesus would have said something against Rome, then he would have been guilty before the law, and would have been rightly imprisoned and punished, and possibly executed. Then he would have had to die for his own crime and wouldn’t have been able to die for our sins.

But if he would answer in a way that would keep his innocence, then he would have no crime of His own to die for, and he could suffer and die for our sins.     

Many times the Pharisees had tried to get Jesus to say something wrong, but they always failed. This time they went all in. They enlisted help from an unlikely source, the hated Herodians.

The Herodians were a Jewish political group who supported the Herodian dynasty and Roman rule and taxation. 

The Pharisees, on the other hand, were ardent nationalists. They despised the Herodians, but they despised Jesus more. 

So they compromised their beliefs and conspired with their enemies to hatch a plan to bring Jesus down.  

First they tried to flatter him to mask their ill intent, hoping to catch him off guard: “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion.”. 

You’re a straight shooter. We know you’ll tell the truth.

They were insincerely praising his integrity. But they had another motive for saying this, to make sure that Jesus couldn’t wiggle his way out of whatever his reply would be. 

They were saying, “We know that whatever so say, however you answer, will be what you truly believe.” They were making sure that if they brought Jesus up on charges for what he was about to say, there would be no way for him to deny it. 

As it turned out, Jesus didn’t need to deny it or wiggle his way out of it, because once again, he outmaneuvered them. 

It was their best trap ever, genius, they thought, and Jesus easily bested them. 

They said to Jesus, “Tell us, is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not.”

Rome had zero tolerance for not paying your taxes, or doing anything to discourage it. If Jesus would answer, “Don’t pay your taxes”, they could bring him up on charges, using his own words against him, and in front of many witnesses. 

Jesus would certainly be punished by the Roman authorities, flogged and maybe even executed. And then, as we said, he wouldn’t have been able to innocently die in our place, for our sin; he would have to die for his own crime. 

God’s Son would have failed, and we wouldn’t have been redeemed. 

On the other hand, if Jesus would answer. “Pay your taxes”, then he would alienate many of his followers, who were looking to him as a political Messiah, to free them from Roman rule. 

And, although the Pharisees didn’t support Jesus, they generally thought that he was trying to set himself up as a political Messiah. 

They thought, “If he answers one way, he goes to prison, maybe even execution. If he answers the other way, the people will turn on him, and he’ll fall into obscurity.” They thought they had him this time. 

But once against they failed. Jesus answered in a way that avoided both traps. He maintained his legal innocence, and he elevated His claim as the Messiah. 

Jesus used an object lesson, as he often did. He said to them, “Show me the coin you use to pay your taxes.”

It was a denarius, and on the coin was an image of Caesar, which was considered idolatry, a graven image. On the other side of the coin were the words: Tiberius Caesar, son the Divine Augustus. 

The coin proclaimed Caesar to be divine, a god. Jesus would be careful to make clear that he didn’t believe or condone that. 

He said, “Whose likeness is this?” They answered, “Caesar’s.” So?

Jesus said, then give it to him. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s.”  This dishonors God; give it to Caesar. 

Jesus held up God, and what is truly godly, and the Messiah would surely do, but without breaking the law. He kept His innocence, and as so was able to carry out His Messianic mission to save the world.

Do we have an amazing Savior or what? He didn’t allow this or any other trap keep him from dying and rising to save us. That’s the main thing Jesus was doing here, and it’s the main reason this story is included in Scripture. 

But this also gives us instruction about how to be faithful to God while respecting the government, especially when those two may clash.

Living in this fallen world, no government, and no nation is perfect. Some nations have more freedom and are more just than others, and for those nations we give thanks. But some are blatantly unjust and opposed to God, rather than respecting God and serving the people as God calls and expects them to do.

No government is perfect and no citizen is perfect. But living in God’s grace, we  can be better, more godly citizens, obeying the just laws of the land, and protesting the unjust laws; such as, for example, laws that fail to respect and protect an unborn child’s right to live, the most basic right there is; or laws that are designed to keep people down, or laws that favor some and oppress others. 

Such laws don’t honor God. Using our freedom, we can be a voice to call to account ungodly laws, and to hold up just laws that honor God, and help people.

The best way for us to serve our country is to strive to be godly citizens, who embrace and obey just and godly laws, and support good and godly leaders; and to denounce unjust, ungodly laws, and hold to account, unjust or corrupt leaders.    

While God calls us to honor both Him and country, He is still above all. There would be no country and no world and no freedom without Him. The best way to serve our country is to live in a way that honors God, that’s the best way to help.

God is honored when the people of a nation, and of the world, are treated justly, with respect; when they are free to worship and serve Him, free to lovingly and respectfully, share the message of His saving grace; free to openly serve God in His Kingdom of Grace, the Church; and free to serve and honor Him in their daily lives in the secular realm as well, in the community, and state, and country, and beyond.

May God bless His people everywhere to serve and honor Him in both Kingdoms.  

And as we do, His peace, which passes understanding, will guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our Lord and King. Amen.