Matthew 22:15-22
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
October 18, 2026
Those of us with strong political convictions would like to find confirmation of them in Jesus’ words, but we won’t. And those of us who’d like to find simple answers to complex controversies won’t either. Jesus’ message here is too deep, radical and challenging to serve any such agendas.
In today’s scripture Jesus is decidedly authoritative; but He is also deliberately ambiguous. He does not even clarify His distinction between “the things that are the emperor’s” and “the things that are God’s”. I suspect He refrains from just dropping wisdom into our laps because He wants to drive us into ongoing, honest, probing dialogue with Himself and with our neighbors.
It’s in the middle of Holy Week, and two groups, the Herodians and the Pharisees, who are united solely by a shared animosity toward Jesus, are collaborating in an attempt to trap Him in a conversational ambush in which He can’t avoid angering some segment of society whose alienation will diminish His prospects for success.
The Herodians are a mostly secular political party who support the continued rule, under Rome’s authority, of the descendants of Herod the Great who, thirty years before, had killed many baby boys in hopes of killing Jesus. The Pharisees are an apolitical party who, while they resent the Roman occupation of their nation, accept it as a necessary evil and urge putting up with it as long as it does not interfere with the practice of their religion.
These two groups have come together to put Jesus on the spot. They pose this question to Him: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” – in other words, is it right to give money to an evil government, especially an illegitimate occupying power such as Rome? They hope that, if He says it’s right, He’ll lose supporters who despise Rome’s cruel, unjust taxes; and that, if He says it’s wrong, He’ll be seen by Rome as a seditious rebel and be targeted for arrest and perhaps execution.
Sensing it as a set-up motivated by “malice”, Jesus refuses to dignify their question with a direct answer. Instead, He asks for a Roman coin used in paying taxes which on one side displayed the image of the emperor and on the other called him a god. Jesus takes the coin and announces, “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
We may know this saying, in one variation or another, but do we know what to make of it?
Its first half implies we owe something to a government that builds our roads, protects us from criminals and sets up courts to adjudicate disputes. That may be in part why Paul in Romans 12 tells Christians to “be subject to the governing authorities” and to “pay…taxes to whom taxes are due” and why Jesus, in Matthew 17, miraculously puts coins in the mouth of a fish His disciples had caught to enable them to pay taxes to Israel’s governing authorities.
Yet, the second half implies that we owe the God who has a higher claim on us at least as much. That’s why, for example, Peter and John in Acts 4 & 5 engaged in civil disobedience when governing authorities commanded them to quit preaching about Jesus.
That God should have ultimate priority for our loyalty makes sense when we remember that, while the coin’s bearing the image of the emperor indicates that in some way it belongs to him, our bearing the image of God, as Genesis 1:27 says we do, indicates we belong to God. While we are citizens of some country or another, we are first and foremost – wherever we live – God’s own in all we are and in all we have.
Now, does that then suggest that, if we give to God what is God’s, there’d be nothing left to give to the emperor or anyone else? Well, it does and it does not. It does, because we’re recognizing God owns everything and thus has the right to command us to use anything He wants to use as He wants to use it. But it does not mean there’s nothing left to give to the emperor or others, because the God who owns everything and everyone (including the emperor) wants us for our Maker to pass on some of what we’ve got to bless other folks and things. God loves His people’s sharing what He’s first given them and demonstrating thereby His compassion, justice and desire for a friendship with everyone. That means we can, for example, give to God what is God’s by giving the emperor what is his.
Jesus’ teaching here is revolutionary in that it commands us to recognize that we own nothing – neither our own person nor our own possessions – and that we honor God by sharing with others what God still owns but has entrusted to our responsibility.
Understanding this impels us to do the hard work of discerning what we, in the specific context of our unique circumstances, are to give to the emperor, other folks, the church or any other institution. While Jesus gives us the general direction for our life in His call to be people of love, equity and witness to Him, it by itself doesn’t settle what exactly we are to do. We still have to think hard, pray carefully and consult with others to know how we’re to best serve God’s concerns in our particular situation.
This ambiguity and uncertainty about how to use our life, resources and opportunities for God and His good purposes is a blessing in disguise because it pushes us into heart-to-heart and mind-to-mind conversations with God and His people. Because the right way to proceed is often unique to each unique set of circumstances, we are forced to listen to the Holy Spirit, our conscience and the sage counsel of those who understand God and His ways. That demanding work is a gift of His grace.
Consider, for example, the question of how much we give to the church: a decision many of us will be making four weeks from now when Covenant receives financial pledges for 2027. The basic biblical standard is a tithe or a tenth of our income. But the Bible itself indicates that sometimes that is too much and that sometimes that is too little. Jesus’ word about giving to God the things that are God’s does not make it obvious how much, say, Adele and I should give to Covenant in support of its mission; it just makes it obvious how we are to go about discerning how much we should give. We work on our own and listen to trusted people to determine the amount.
None of us is our own, and who we are and what we have belongs to God. Therefore, as followers of Jesus, our prime concern is to give God His due and to surrender to Him our all!
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