This is a special musical presentation of a Flute solo of Great is the Lord by Gwynne Kadrofske at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

For those of you familiar with William Shakespeare’s work, you will remember that one line from his play The Tempest is “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”  Over time, that line has morphed into the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.”  Now, quite honestly, politics making strange bedfellows is by no means a recent development.  This has probably happened throughout the history of humanity.  And, we find that is exactly what is happening in today’s gospel reading as the Pharisees and Herodians team up to trick and trap Jesus.

For the past few weeks, we have been journeying with Jesus through the last week of his life, a week that has been intense to say the least.  Just a few days before today’s confrontation, Jesus had entered Jerusalem where he was greeted by throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Then there was that incident where he overthrew the tables of the Temple moneychangers.  Jesus has spent the week challenging both the political and religious powers that be.  He has been doggedly confronted by the religious leaders who are questioning the authority behind his actions.  And, he has called into question the religious leaders’ authority by telling illuminating, confrontational parables.  So, today, we discover the Herodians and the Pharisees team up to trap the itinerant, rabblerousing, peasant rabbi known as Jesus. 

To better understand what is happening in this story, we need a little bit of background information.  Jews in first century Palestine paid a lot of taxes. There was a temple tax; there were also land taxes, customs taxes, and trade taxes to name just a few more. The tax mentioned in today’s reading was yet an additional tax, one particularly despised by the Jews - it was called the Imperial Tax.  This tax was required as a tribute to Rome to support the Roman Empire's occupation of Israel. Think of that for a moment - first century Jews were required to pay their oppressors a yearly tax to support their own oppression! 

It is also helpful to better understand these two groups of people – the Herodians and the Pharisees.  The Herodians, on the one hand, saw themselves as having power derived from Rome.  As their name suggests, they were a family political party related to and allied with Herod Antipas, the local puppet ruler supported by the Romans. They were local sympathizers with the Roman rulers and, not surprisingly, the Herodians supported paying tax to Caesar because they benefited from it.  The Pharisees, on the other hand, were also a political party, as well as religious scholars.  They were committed to every detail of Jewish law.  They aligned themselves more closely with the occupied and oppressed and, for religious reasons, they opposed paying tax to Caesar.  Their opposition to paying the Imperial Tax was based less on the fact of occupation and more on the special coin that had to be used to pay this particular tax. You see, this coin – a denarius, worth a day’s wage – carried the inscription or likeness of Tiberius Caesar.  And, the Romans considered Caesar the divine son of Augustus.  This inscription or likeness was overtly offensive to the religious leaders, and within Jesus’ community the inscription spoke both of oppression and of blasphemy.  Thus, in Jesus' time, any conversation about the Imperial Tax was very divisive and immediately revealed where one stood in relation to Rome and faith.

Anyway, these two oppositional groups of people, the Herodians and the Pharisees, invoke a temporary truce as they try to trick Jesus, believing they finally have him cornered.  They present Jesus with a question that poses a political conundrum, and they await a political response.  They ask Jesus, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”  By asking this question, they know that if Jesus declares it lawful, he might acquit himself with the Roman authorities, but the crowd of followers would turn against him because it would scandalize the religious establishment.  And, if he rules against it, he positions himself against Rome, a position nobody in their right mind would willingly seek.  Brilliantly, Jesus responds by widening the question so that it has little to do with politics.  He says, “Show me the coin used for the tax.”  They quickly bring him a denarius.  Then, Jesus asks, “Whose head is this on the coin and whose title?” Thinking they finally have Jesus ensnared, they respond by saying, “The Emperor’s.”  

Now, everyone in attendance knew the commandments and they knew that Jesus had just trapped the trappers in their own blasphemy according to Jewish law.  To understand what Jesus has just done, listen to the way David Lose describes what just happened. He writes: 

There’s more going on here than meets the eye, [because] along with that image is an engraved confession of Caesar’s divinity, which means that any Jew [even] holding the coin is breaking the first two of the commandments.  All of which leads to Jesus’ closing line, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.”  And with this one sentence, Jesus does not simply evade their trap or confound their plans, he also issues a challenge to his hearers that reverberates through the ages into our sanctuaries.

Now, to even more clearly understand this, if we look at verse 20, a better translation of Jesus’ question would be, “Whose likeness is this, and what title?”  And, when the good Jewish religious leaders hear these words, their minds will automatically think back to their Jewish scriptures and the book of Genesis.  They will automatically reference God’s pronouncement and promise in Genesis, chapter one, where we read:

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;”

Jesus’ words are powerful words for the Herodians, the Pharisees and for us.  His response calls the Pharisees, the Herodians, and us to think about the way in which we are called to live.  The key question here is not whose image is on the coin but rather whose image is on us! Whose image is on our hearts? Jesus is calling us to remember our identity. You see, what Jesus is really reminding us of is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are not gods, but we bear God’s likeness and we are to act as God acts regarding the way we live in relationship to all others and the way we live as good stewards of all we have been given.  We are to bear the same characteristics God shows to us as we live in relationship to God, to all other people and to creation itself.  Jesus is saying that we are called to serve as God’s agents and God’s co-workers, not as an act of power but rather as an act of stewardship, as we work to extend the abundant life God wishes for all people and even all of creation.

As we go through our daily lives, making decisions and interacting with all kinds of people, it is often easy to forget in whose likeness we and they are made.  God is always calling us back, to turn again to him and remember that our primary identity is to live as God’s children, live as God’s good stewards of all that we have been given, and act like the God we see in Jesus!  And, while Caesar or Empire will get many of our coins, each of our lives is marked with God’s likeness, an icon of the One who is its source and destination, as we embody the kingdom of God.  While our currency bears the image of Empire, baptism is the watermark of our true currency, the inspiration for all that we do, the choices we make, and for the many ways in which we live as God’s stewards of all that we have been given. 

The point of this Jesus story is that we are called to live remembering that each one of us has been made in the likeness of God. God loves you. God loves you so much that God keeps your picture in the divine wallet and on the heavenly refrigerator. Jesus did not care about the tax – his real concern is that you live into the image and likeness of the God who lovingly created you.  And, that means living in such a way that you love God with all your heart and that you truly love your neighbor, and that means all others, as you love yourself and as God loves you!  This is the best word we can receive, and it is the best word you can share with others.

This is a special musical presentation of Standing on the Promised sung by Bob Nelson at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan. 

I am really exhausted by the chaos, the perpetual lies, the brokenness, the dysfunction, the hatred, the stoking of racism and white supremacy, the despair, the gaslighting, the lack of care for neighbor, the abuse perpetrated on the American people, the grief, the sorrow, and the increasing number of deaths from this virus, all of which seem endless as they impact our lives on a daily basis.  So, I found the readings we are given on this day to be medicine for my soul as God again breaks into our present reality with a message that can only come from God.

In our first reading from Isaiah, the prophet shares this vision of another reality, the final future, God’s final future.  Isaiah was writing to people who were suffering and experiencing despair.  Writing after or close to the end of Israel’s tragic exile to Babylon, he presents this apocalyptic vision of hope to weary people. Isaiah describes a future messianic banquet that is all about God and God’s love for all people. 

I think mealtime is always an important event, and meals are a vital component of celebrations. Meals are integral elements of milestones such as weddings and funerals, which involve life’s larger story, changing life’s direction and meaning not only for those most intimately involved but also for the wider community.  Thus, mealtime is so much more than just food.  And, throughout scripture, the table, the meal, the banquet, and the party repeatedly serve as metaphors for God’s activity in the world.

Isaiah shares this marvelous vision of God’s final future and does so by describing a feast.  He describes this universal banquet that will take place on God’s holy mountain. This extravagant feast is for all peoples. All nations will gather together as one for this magnificent celebration.  And, what a feast it is! It features the very best foods and wines. In my mind, I envision steak and lobster, a good glass of cabernet, and all sorts of gourmet, delectable dishes!  It is the ultimate food and wine festival!  God serves as the extravagant host of this party and God spares nothing to make this a lavish, luxurious banquet for all peoples. But Isaiah’s vision does not end there.  You see, God’s plans extend even further because even death itself will be sent away and defeated, and all who mourn will be comforted. This is such good news today! The shroud of death that is cast over all people will be gone because God will swallow up death forever.  There can be no grander promise than this, and the promise could not be more universal. God will destroy death and wipe away all tears!  Such words of promise and hope are lifegiving, so needed in this present time.  With so much death presently permeating our lives, I long for that day when death is swallowed up forever. 

Today, Jesus also tells a story about a great banquet.  And, quite honestly, this is a bizarre story!  In fact, Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, calls this the “worst parable ever!” I tend to agree with her.  Nadia also talks about how you often need to turn your head a thousand different ways to make sense of Jesus’ parables because Jesus does not define the characters for us.  We are not told “this person is God,” or “this person is Jesus,” or “this person is you.” Quite honestly, Christian literature includes many different people throughout history taking a hack at Jesus’ parables and coming up with any number of possibilities that help reveal deeper truths. And, truthfully, we need to see the characters interpreted in a variety of ways so we can grow in understanding.

Anyway, Jesus has already told a few stories after entering the temple and being questioned by the religious leaders about his authority. His first two parables were intense, but this third one is downright extreme. Jesus also ups the ante by beginning with the lead in or teaser, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…”  Well, with these words he gets the attention of the religious leaders!  Anyway, Jesus begins by saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son.” Now, the immediate kicker is that no one who is invited to the party comes. Huh? The king, a person to whom nobody ever says, “no,” suddenly is not even getting RSVPs!  People simply are not showing up.  And this is only the beginning of the absurdity.

So, the king sends out his slaves with a message of good food, good smells, and good company with the king.  Some of the people laugh and walk away, while other people kill the king’s messengers.  Then, the king throws a king-sized hissy fit – kills the people who were invited but did not show up, and he burns down their city.  After this horrific behavior, he sends his slaves out to invite everyone, good and bad, so he can fill the wedding hall with guests.  Finally, when one man comes and is not wearing a wedding robe, he has him bound hand and foot and thrown in the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!

Frankly, one horrifying aspect of this parable is indeed the king and his actions.  It is really hard to make sense of this parable and there have been multiple interpretations where, astoundingly, the king is God.  That is even more troubling.  So, for these reasons, I am going to share Nadia’s telling of this story.  She writes:

Our parable for today is a real doozy.  Here’s how I heard it: A king throws a wedding banquet and invites the other rich, slave-owning powerful people. Seemingly unimpressed by the promised veal cutlet at the wedding feast, the elite invitees laugh at the invitation and proceed to abuse and then kill the slaves of the king.  Well, then the king kills them back.  But he doesn’t stop there, not to be outdone, he burns down the city… and it is there amidst the burning carnage of the newly destroyed city that he sends more slaves to go find whoever they can to fill the seats. After all…the food is ready and he has all these fancy robes for the guests. All he cares about is having every seat filled at his big party. But who is left?  He burned the city. The rich and powerful have been murdered so it’s the regular folks wandering the streets looking for their dead, picking apart the charred debris of their burned city who are then told that they have no choice but to go to the party of the guy responsible — and it’s already been established that he doesn’t respond well if you turn him down.  So, the terrified masses show up and pretend that this capricious tyrant didn’t just lay waste to their city.  Out of fear they all dutifully put on their wedding robes given them at the door and they pretend. Slipping on a gorgeous garment was what you did for a king’s wedding feast. And the guests got to keep the outfits, just a little souvenir of the king’s generosity – and a reminder to keep in line. You don’t get anything from the empire without it costing you a bit of your life. 

Well, our story ends with these well-dressed survivors looking on as the King spots the one guy at the banquet who isn’t wearing a wedding robe.  And when the innocent man has nothing to say for himself the king has this scapegoat hogtied and thrown into the outer darkness. “Many are called but few are chosen” he says.

Wow!!  Nadia’s interpretation of this story blows my mind, but I like where she is going in her interpretation. First, we must remember that Jesus’ audience lived during a lot of upheaval and turmoil.  They lived under the thumb of the Roman empire. They were no strangers to moody tyrants burning cities. That was the kind of thing they feared.  And, at the time when Matthew wrote his gospel, Christians were being persecuted and Jerusalem had already been destroyed.  Furthermore, as we look at the king in this story, we must remember that the God we worship in Jesus Christ is not a powerful king, but a servant. Jesus does not kill his enemies and burn their cities. He is the one killed by his powerful enemies for refusing to go along with them.  So, Nadia concludes by saying:

…the kingdom of heaven is like: a first century Jewish peasant who laughed at the powerful, kissed lepers, befriended prostitutes and ate with all the wrong people and whom the authorities and the powerful elite had to hog tie and throw into the outer darkness.  …the kingdom of heaven is like Jesus.  And what if it is from this place of outer darkness that everything is changed?  It is in the outer darkness of Calvary where death is swallowed up forever. 

Friends, the tomb of Christ has already swallowed up death forever. Jesus, in his life, ministry, death and resurrection defied the usual world order and empire, and Christ’s defiance of the usual world order sets us free!  We live into the reality that Christ has already swallowed death.  Even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the risen, universal Christ draws us into life right now!  Because of Christ we can defiantly sing our “alleluias.” And, as St. Paul says, we can rejoice in the Lord always because the Lord is truly near, even in the depth of our present experience.  And, the peace of God, which truly surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. 

Yes, the tomb of Christ has already swallowed up death, and we have been set free to rise up and defiantly live into God’s new reality!  So, rise up and live!

Friends, this past week has been one for the record books.  I don’t care which side of the political spectrum you happen to support, what we saw on Tuesday night can only be described as bullying, mean, cruel, and abusive. Such behavior is not ok!  It is not ok in public life, it is not ok in private life, it is not ok in civilized society, it is not ok if you have any care for the common good, it is not ok as we live in relationship to others, and it is the antithesis of how we are called to live as people of faith.  As I continue to ponder the events of the past week, let alone the events of 2020, I have truly been feeling a deep sense of lament and enormous grief about what is happening in this country.  I have also been thinking about today’s readings and, oh my, do they ever speak to us today. 

In our first reading, the prophet Isaiah begins by singing a love-song concerning his beloved’s vineyard.  When looking at Isaiah’s words, I think he gains the attention of his listening audience when he begins to sing what sounds like a beautiful love-song.  And, like us, the people who listened to Isaiah’s song likely expected to hear a ballad with a happy ending.  Isaiah sings of how God, his beloved, did everything possible to set up a healthy, thriving vineyard. He tells of how God spared no effort to create an environment conducive to success.  The soil was fertile and cultivated; the stones were removed; only the finest quality vines were planted; a watchtower was built in the middle of the vineyard; and a wine vat was built in preparation for the harvesting and processing of the grapes. The love-song is most pleasant to the ears, and listeners’ heartstrings are touched by the nurturing care of the beloved. Yes, the prophet Isaiah is serenading us with such a beautiful love song.

         But wait, before you are lulled to sleep with these tender words, listen to what follows. As the iconic Gomer Pyle would say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Isaiah’s love-song is transformed into a song of hard-hitting judgement and lament.  Out of the blue and very unexpectedly, this gentle love song is suddenly transformed into a condemning, raunchy, deafening heavy-metal rock-and-roll song.

         In any case, the irony of the song comes to the forefront when Isaiah, speaking for God, asks the people of Jerusalem and Judah to “judge between me and my vineyard.”  In other words, the people are asked to judge between God on the one side, and Jerusalem and Judah on the other.  In an agonizing song of judgement and lament, God tells the people that there is nothing more God can do to guarantee the success of God’s own vineyard.  God had done everything that could possibly be done. And, quite honestly, implied here in the song is the human freedom that God gives us. In the song, God the beloved expects the best from God’s people: “God expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.” And, by the way, a more literal translation of “wild grapes” would be “stinking things.”  So, the consequences of freedom being misused or abused is that a well-cared for vineyard becomes neglected and turns into a dried-out wasteland of briers and thorns and stinking things!

         The concluding verse of the song makes it abundantly clear that the vineyard represents God’s chosen people. God expected and hoped the people would ensure that there was justice for everyone in the nation. Instead of justice, the wealthy class of politicians and businesspeople were killing society’s weakest and most vulnerable citizens. Blood was on the hands of the rich and powerful members of society because their wealth was gained by cheating and robbing society’s poorest class. God expected and hoped for righteousness from God’s very own people. Instead, God heard a cry from the poor and oppressed. God expected God’s own people to look after the poor and oppressed; after all, those who were now blessed with wealth and the good life – had they and their ancestors not cried out to the LORD when they were poor and oppressed slaves in Egypt?  Had God not heard their cries and delivered them from Egyptian slavery? Why now had they abused their freedom and become selfish and greedy? They, with their blood money and ill-gotten riches were no better than their former enemy oppressors – the Egyptians.

         In our day and age, has anything really changed?  Don’t we hear stories of injustice and ill-gotten gain today? Our planet is moaning and groaning due to the selfishness and greed of a minority of the world’s population. 820 million people in this world experience hunger every day.  Increasingly, hateful, venomous words are spoken to others as words become weapons. Empathy for others and care for the common good seem to have become arcane, and a malignant focus on individual freedom is spreading like cancer.  We are living through a pandemic in which over 210,000 people in our own country have already died and it did not have to be this way. The plague of racism permeates every aspect of our culture and racism and white supremacy are even stoked by our country’s top leaders.  Countless numbers of people are hurting following recent hurricanes and fires. Do we hear the cries of suffering and how do we respond?  Are we really a caring society?  Quite honestly, it seems there are presently a plethora of wild grapes and stinking things in our vineyard.

          God’s love, care, and protection come with an expectation:  justice and righteousness.  These are the fruits God longs to see flourish in us.  The blessings and nurture we receive are meant to result in right social relationships.  Justice and righteousness are not things we practice for extra credit; they are the main point.  God is not content until the blessings we receive are shared fairly with all people.  If this fruit is not produced, the consequences may be that God allows us to have our own way and leaves us to our own devices.

          In today’s gospel reading, Jesus borrows Isaiah’s words when he tells the allegorical parable of the Wicked Tenants.  God, the landowner, has called us to work in the vineyard of the world.  But, we decide we want the fruits of the land for ourselves and we refuse to give back to God that which is rightfully God’s.  And we beat and mistreat and murder those who would call us to be responsible.  And what does God the landowner do in response?  God just keeps sending servants, until finally God sends God’s own Son, who also is mistreated and ultimately killed.  However, my friends, the good news of this story is that God goes to such great lengths for us because God never gives up on us!  This is the amazing part of Jesus’ story, and the part that is too often missed.  Like the crazy landowner in this parable, God is constantly working to establish a relationship with us, and God never gives up, no matter how many servants are treated badly.  It really does not seem sensible.  And, that’s the thing about God’s grace – it isn’t sensible, it isn’t logical – it just abundantly is!

          This parable Jesus tells is about the extravagant grace that God has for us and for all people!  Jesus is illustrating how God goes to extravagant, excessive, even illogical and crazy extents to shower this love and grace upon us.  And no matter how many times we reject God, God keeps at it.  God keeps working on establishing a relationship with us!

          So, as I continue to reflect upon the events of this past week, the burning west coast, damages from hurricanes and storms, chaos and hatred that daily spew forth from our country’s leadership, the lack of compassion and love as people interact with others, today’s readings not only call all of us to repentance, they also remind us of a God who never gives up on us.  God’s Son is continually redeeming creation, and this God never lets us forget that we are the characters in God’s divine love song. God is always showering us with immeasurable grace and love.  And, as a tenant in the vineyard, I can only respond by working to bear good fruit.  As people of faith, we respond to God’s immeasurable grace by bearing the sweet grapes of love, care and forgiveness, and letting God use us as we work for peace, righteousness, loving kindness, mercy and God’s restorative justice for all people.