Trinity 23/ Reformation
Dear friends in Christ. Today’s Gospel brings us to Tuesday of Holy Week and on that day we find many of Jesus’ enemies among the religious leaders coming to Him to try to trip Him up, to try to show the crowds in Jerusalem that He really wasn’t the long promised Messiah. In the account of today’s Gospel, the religious leaders, the Pharisees, who opposed Roman rule, join together with those who are normally their enemies, the Herodians, supporters of Roman rule. These usual opponents join forces against their common enemy—Jesus—to try to trap Him and make Him an enemy of either the pro-Roman or anti-Roman group. They ask Him, “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.” Here the point is correctly made—that distinction between church and state but that both God and Caesar, that is, the government are to be given their right and proper honor.
Especially now with the election fast approaching we are very much aware of the duty and honor we owe Caesar, the government, as God’s representative. It is very easy to focus on the render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s part. But we dare never forget the second part of Jesus’ words: “Therefore render…to God the things that are God’s.” It is this part that distinguishes us as Christian citizens. Anyone can be a good citizen and render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; one need not be a Christian to do that; the greatest heathen can certainly do that outwardly. But to render…to God the things that are God’s, that’s only something a Christian can truly do. To help us reflect on Jesus’ words to render…to God the things that are God’s, our OT reading is especially helpful. As we examine our text we will see first of all what we owe God and then we will see results of our render[ing]/giving…to God the things that are God’s.
1. If we as Christians are to render…to God the things that are God’s, that raises the obvious question: what do we owe God? The Lord Himself tells us through St. Isaiah in our text who is quoting Him: But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. The first thing we owe the Lord is to honor [Him] as holy. That’s what we pray for in the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed be Thy name. God is holy in and of Himself; we don’t make Him holy. Our prayer, though, is that we honor [Him] as holy, in our thoughts, words and deeds. We hallow God, we sanctify Him, we honor Him as holy when we live lives according to His word, according to His holy commandments and will. Again, we don’t make God more or less holy by whether we sin more or less—He is holy; however, as we render to God what is rightly His we are simply acknowledging the fact of His holiness and who He is. We are simply giving Him the honor and glory that is rightly His as a holy God. And so our prayer as Christians is that we may render…to God the things that [rightly belong to Him], that is, that we honor the Lord in all that we say and do.
And it goes even deeper than that outward honoring; it goes to the very heart of the matter, namely faith. We honor the LORD of hosts, as holy when we trust and rely and expect every good from Him—first and foremost, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. To render…to God the things that are God’s, to honor [Him] as holy, faith says “amen!” to all His word and promises to us. Faith gives Him the honor as holy by saying that the Lord, the holy Triune God, is trustworthy and truth and therefore faith relies on His word and promise to us in Jesus. Faith sets the Lord apart in the heart and praises Him for who He is—the holy, almighty God and my Savior, who has freed and rescued me from sin, death, and devil. And so faith looks for and yearns to be holy, to live a holy life, to live a life more and more free of sin, to be like the Lord. And where we sin faith, receives forgiveness and that perfect righteousness of Jesus. Think how amazing this is—faith is the highest/ greatest worship because it receives God’s word and promise of forgiveness of sin and life; it considers God truthful and trustworthy and so honor[s] [Him] as holy by saying “yea and amen” to Him. What makes all this so amazing is that we by faith, which itself is a gift of God, honor [Him] as holy and as a result we, through that same faith, receive God’s gifts and blessings. God is holy in Himself; that we honor[s] [Him] as holy adds nothing to His holiness but in honor[ing] [Him] as holy we get the blessing/ benefit. What a gracious and wonderful God we have!
Our text continues: Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. Isn’t that rather ominous sounding? Isn’t that fear and dread rather like cold water thrown into the face after what we had just heard about the Lord so richly blessing us? Absolutely not! This fear and dread is the result of faith, of honor[ing] [the Lord] as holy, sanctifying, setting Him apart in our heart. By faith we come to know the Lord rightly. We rightly know Him as our gracious and merciful God and Savior and as a holy and righteous God who must punish sin. What does this mean? That we fear to act contrary to His will. Just because we are forgiven our sins does not mean that we no longer care about sinning; it doesn’t mean we can live any way we want. In fact, being forgiven our sin makes us all the more aware of our sin.
In faith, as we honor [the Lord] as holy in our heart, we hate our sin all the more as we realize what an affront and offense it is to God. Our Christian faith does not give us license to sin with impunity. Instead, the life of a Christian is a life of constant repentance. Today is Reformation Sunday. The Reformation was set off by Luther nailing the 95 statements he wanted to debate. And the first of the 95 was: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ [Mt. 4.17], He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Repentance marks the life of a Christian precisely because as we honor [the Lord] as holy in our heart, not only do we, in love of Him for His mercy toward us, not want to displease Him but we also know Him rightly as a holy and just God who must punish sin. That’s why He is our fear and dread. Forgiven our sin, God does not become some sort of milquetoast to us—weak and unwilling or unable to do anything about our sin. Instead, Jesus Himself tells us [Mt 10.28]: Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
We, dear Christian, always want to be found in the faith that honor[s] [the Lord] as holy in our hearts by receiving His mercy, forgiveness and righteousness. If we honor [the Lord] as holy in our hearts, then we trust Him and do not want to sin against Him by unbelief: by not believing, unbelief calls God who promises forgiveness of sin, righteousness, life a liar; and unbelief can’t receive God’s gifts.
2. The Lord describes the results of unbelief this way in our text: He, the gracious, almighty God becomes a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken. We see an example of this in today’s Gospel when the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle [Jesus] in his words. Jesus had become a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling, a trap and a snare. Where He is not honor[ed] as holy in the heart, Jesus and His word and work are rejected. He not only becomes that stone of offense that is in the path that people stumble over but also a rock of stumbling, which is a bigger rock that people, if you will, run against trying to push out of the way.
Whoever does not honor the Lord as holy in the heart, runs against the Lord and His word and becomes angry; their hatred of the Lord becomes deeper and hardened. This isn’t the Lord’s fault but their own sinful self’s.
Today’s Gospel account of the Pharisees [going] and [plotting] how to entangle [Jesus] in his words, was not a one-time event but one of a long series of attempts to discredit Jesus. Each account we read in Scripture of the religious leaders coming to Jesus to trip Him up, ends up with Jesus calling them to repentance by showing them their sin and hypocrisy. But like fools running against a cliff to try to topple it over, so did Jesus’ enemies continue to run against Him to discredit Him, to prove He wasn’t the Savior. The more Jesus called for repentance and faith, called for the LORD of hosts, [He himself, to be honored] as holy, all the more did they become hardened in their unbelief and continued on in their enmity toward Him. Where there is no repentance, where Jesus and His word are rejected and regarded as foolishness they stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken, dashed to pieces and unable to be glued together. By unbelief and not honoring the LORD of hosts as holy, God’s grace in Christ is cast away; unbelievers cast away Jesus and His salvation, and so they shall be snared and taken in/ by their own unbelief and error so that they cannot be rescued but must remain in everlasting captivity--damnation in hell.
But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And now the blessed promise: And he will become a sanctuary. For us, dear Christian, the Lord has become a sanctuary, that is, a place of refuge, a place of safety from our spiritual enemies. Here we can think of our beautiful Reformation hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, and that He fought, still fights and protects us. We can go to Him for protection and receive His gracious help. The image that the Lord gives us in our text is not just a sanctuary as a safe place but of a sanctuary as a holy place. And here we can think of the temple/ the Church.
What a glorious promise: But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary. Those who honor the Lord as holy, those He surrounds like the thick solid walls of the temple in Jerusalem the people in St. Isaiah’s day were used to seeing. With the Lord protecting us, as we are within the walls of the Church, what is happening? Outside, death, oppression, and all our spiritual enemies are raging. The devil is leading and keeping people in spiritual death and slavery—all leading to an eternity in hell. But inside the Church, where the Lord has brought us to Himself and into Himself in holy Baptism, He Himself is the sanctuary surrounding and protecting us, He is comforting us with His holy word and the absolution, assuring us of the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. He is stilling the conscience troubled over sin. He is feeding us with Himself—His holy body and blood in the Blessed Sacrament for the forgiveness of sin; as He comes to us and unites with us. Here we are certain of our forgiveness and eternal life.
The Lord has become a sanctuary for us—a place of safety but also a holy place. The Lord himself is our holiness and righteousness. Jesus gives us His very holiness and righteousness. God has declared us holy/ and righteous. And as we are in the Church, as we sanctify/ honor [the LORD of hosts] as holy, He is also leading us and strengthening us in our faith so that we live a holy life—a life of faith and good works; so that we are and remain a holy people. And as we remain a holy people, honor[ing the LORD of hosts] as holy, having Him as our fear and dread, we are rendering to God the things that are His—all by His grace and gracious working in us. INJ