Pentecost 15

Matthew 22.15-22

Hymns: 620, 617, 618, 619

The setting of our sermon text is this: The Pharisees were trying to get Jesus to say something to use against him to find him guilty of an offense that could be punishable by death. They took some "Herodians" with them when they asked Jesus whe-ther he thought it was right to pay taxes to the Roman govern-ment or not. They wanted a simple "yes" or "no" answer. If Jesus had said, "Yes, it’s right to pay taxes to the Roman government," the Pharisees would have accused him of being an unpatriotic Jew and they would have played that for all it’s worth to turn the Jews against him.

On the other hand, if Jesus had said, "No, it’s not right to pay taxes to the government," the Herodians, Jews who were loyal to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem, would have accused Jesus of treason against the state, a crime punishable by death. So whether Jesus had answered ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ the Pharisees thought they would trap him with his own words.

Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, could not be trapped. With his answer he established the principle of separation of church and government. He asked for a coin. One of the Pharisees took one out of his own pocket. He asked them whose pic-ture was stamped on that coin. "Ceasar’s," someone said. "So," Jesus might have said, "you use this coin to buy groceries and pay debts and even covert into temple money when you bring offerings? By using this coin you place yourself under the Ro-man government in your day-to-day life. Obviously you don’t have a problem with that. And you enjoy the safety that the Roman army provides, highway maintenance and repair, water supply from the aqueduct. You have no problem using the things your tax money provides for you. So, keep using Rome’s money to pay your taxes and buy your groceries. But using Rome’s money does not mean you are worshiping Ceasar who thinks he’s a god. He’s not. Give to God what is God’s...faith, love and trust and worship him. There’s no conflict here." With his answer, JESUS ESTABLISHED THE DOCTRINE OF THE TWO KINGDOMS: CHURCH AND STATE.

The expression, "Separation of church and state," is not found in Scripture. It was, in fact, used by Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to the Danbury, CT Baptists in 1802 in response to a letter he had received from them. The Danbury Baptists wanted assurance from Pres. Jefferson that religious freedom would not be denied them. And in his letter, Jefferson quoted the First Ammendment to the Constitution which says that the govern-ment would "make no law respecting an establishment of reli-gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Thus the principle of the separation of church and state is expressed, not only by Jesus but also in the Constitution of our country.

Two things we need to understand: God established both the church and the state for our well-being. Each has its own unique purpose and each uses its own tools to carry out that purpose. Paul writes (Eph 1.22,23). Christ is the head of the church; he is the spiritual head of the body of believers. As the body of Christ we carry out the purpose of the church which Jesus, our head, has set out for us. And the purpose of the church, or Kingdom of Grace, is this: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations (Mt 28.19). The church, the Kingdom of Grace, exists for the express purpose of spreading the good news that our sins do not condemn us, though they should, because Jesus, the Son of God and Savior of the world has him-self paid the debt of sin by living a perfect life here on earth, dy-ing a death on the cross to satisfy the debt-payment of sin, and rose again from the grave which in evidence that he is God and Savior of all.

The Kingdom of Grace, the church, clearly needs to spread the message that God tells us in his Word that the sinful nature we inherit from our parents makes it impossible to earn our own way to heaven and that all people need to believe that so they turn to God in repentance and forgiveness. And those who be-lieve that forgiveness is not something we can earn for our-selves but which God freely offers to all who believe in Jesus, are saved for all eternity. This is the purpose of the Kingdom of Grace, the church. There is no other.

On the other hand, the Kingdom of Power, the state, was also established by God. Paul writes (Rom 13.1). People need to be governed in some way. We’ll never know if Adam and Eve would not have needed some form of government if they had not sinned. But that is a moot point. We are sinful people; we need to live with some form of governance, not all of which are desirable. We are governed in the U.S. by a constitution and laws. Others are governed by a monarchy, some with a dictatorship, yet others under Islamic rule. We like our way of dem-ocracy where we get to elect those who govern and choose not to voter for those whom we don’t want to govern us.

The purpose of the kingdom of power, the state, is to protect the lives of the people, to defend our country with a standing military, to provide for the well-being of citizens with such things as parks and police and fire protection. The state uses human reason and not Scripture as its guide, which means that some things that human reason allows, like abortion and same-sex marriage, will violate what God’s Word requires. In those cases we "ought to obey God rather than man." We will not do what civil law allows if it violates the will of God.

There is not enough time to examine instances where the separation of church and state is violated or, at least, blurred. I will cite two practical examples: teaching or promoting religion in the public schools and promoting a specific political candidate in the church. In the September 6, 2009 Dallas News there is a report that the state of Texas is telling schools to teach literature using the Bible as its text. Since the government uses human reason and not faith in God’s Word as its tool, we are not sur-prised that one teacher plans to compare the story of Snow White’s fall from grace by eating an apple with Adam and Eve’s falling from grace when they took a bite into an "apple." First, we don’t know what fruit Adam and Eve took a bite into. And second what Adam and Eve had implications that involve both our sinful nature and how God promised to fix the problem of sin by sending Jesus to save the world...something the public school cannot get into.

Nor can the church involve itself in politics in any shape or form. We will speak out on moral issues like abortion and homosexuality because they violate the will of God. But the purpose of the church is the salvation of souls by changing un-believing hearts to faith in Jesus by using the power of the gospel of Jesus and not the reformation of society by telling politicians how to govern. In his book, Civil Government: God’s Other Kingdom, Prof Daniel Deutschlander writes, "The church does not tell the plumber how to do plumbing. She does not tell the carpenter how to build a house. That’s not the mission of the church. She does not tell the ruler how to rule either. That’s also not her mission. She proclaims the law and the gos-pel, nothing more and nothing less" (p.195f).

If the state gets involved in the work of the church it will turn Christianity into a godless religion. If the church gets involved in the work of the state, it will turn religion into a moralizing, Christless enforcer of laws. In either case what is lost is Jesus as Savior and God’s only plan of salvation through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. There is much in society that is godless and needs to be changed. Change the hearts of people through the gospel of Jesus and society will change as people are prepared for eternity through the love and life of Christ.