“Caught in a Trap”

Matthew 22: 15-22

October 22, 23 - Pentecost 21

Pastor Deb - BRCC

Do you remember Elvis Presley? One of his songs has been running through my head all week…and the lyrics go like this:

We’re Caught in a trap. I can’t walk out, because I love you too much baby. Why can’t you see what you’re doing to me, when you don’t believe a thing I say?

We can’t go on together with suspicious minds. And we can’t build our dreams on suspicious minds. We’re caught in a trap…

Isn’t amazing how the human condition goes around and around with the same temptations, misguided intentions and suspicious minds? Is there any place, any nation, any people that are NOT caught in a trap of their own making? And yet, we come here because we are so in need of hope and promise, don’t we. Well, Jesus always meets us in our need.

Matthew’s gospel is relentless in uncovering the suspicious minds and sick need to trap Jesus. Today’s gospel lesson shows us just how far they will go to entrap and ultimately destroy Jesus as a threat to their need to control and be god over their system of power and authority. Let’s unpack all the nuances in this story:

Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus. This is not a reactive encounter, it was planned behind doors with carefully crafted statements using Jesus’ own words to undermine his authority and truth. Why? Because Jesus had moved into THEIR neighborhood, He wasn’t just out in the countryside drawing the peasants, but he DARED to enter their temple teaching as if he were above them in his knowledge and authority to interpret scripture. This had to be stopped! Do you notice who the religious leaders brought with them? THEIR disciples (in other words, their political base) and the Herodians (that is, the Roman political base whose loyalty is to the Emperor of Rome… whom they considered god.

Now how does this carefully crafted plot unfold? With flattery of course. TEACHER (they acknowledge his impact as a teacher) we KNOW you are SINCERE (really? They know sincerity?) and that you teach the WAY of God with TRUTH…(Wow, they are laying it on pretty thick…but here comes the real zinger)…AND YOU DO NOT REGARD PEOPLE WITH PARTIALITY. That is…in your eyes, ALL are worthy of God’s gifts, forgiveness, healing, attention and love NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE OR WHAT THEIR CONDITION…prostitutes, lepers, demonics, sinners of unspeakable acts. WHOA…they are speaking the real thing here…that is exactly who Jesus is! Ironically, they are naming the mission he came to fulfill…what leader, or in this case MESSIAH, wouldn’t be thrilled to hear that his message has gotten through to those with influence over the entire nation?

But, of course, Jesus knows the heart of Satan well, doesn’t he? Remember when he started his ministry by being led into the wilderness for 40 days and nights where he was tempted by Satan to eat; to prove who he was and to bow down to an authority other than God in order to have his mission completed the EASY way? Matthew tells us in that story that when Satan didn’t get Jesus to fall to his temptations, Satan went away awaiting another OPPORTUNE TIME. This is that time! Jesus can see their malice…they bear the presence of Satan in their flattery and intent.

So how do they hope to entrap Jesus? With a question that pits civil law over religious law. You see, this age old question never goes away. Organized society will always require putting our resources together for the common good. It’s only fair that each of us contribute and work together to care for the world we live in and accomplish life sustaining services we cannot accomplish on our own. And so, we have taxes and contribute on the basis of what is fair…we hope. But like all world systems meant for good, they can and do become corrupt. In Jesus’ day, the taxes imposed by the Romans on the Jews were so oppressive that society was breaking down. The snare was set so that IF Jesus said taxes were oppressive and the people raised their fists at Roman rule, Jesus would become an enemy of Rome and ROME would get rid of him. Likewise, IF Jesus said the taxes were lawful, the people suffering under their burden…which included all the Jews, would rise up in anger and reject this Jesus. Either way, the Pharisees…the Herodians…and their political base reasoned they could win! There was not way, they reasoned, that Jesus’ own words wouldn’t catch him in a trap of his own making!

But, of course, Jesus knows all hearts….and he sees through their malice. He asks to see a coin used to pay taxes. Why is this significant? Because it was unlawful to bring any graven images into the temple. Money changers sat outside the temple gates so that people could exchange coins or bring acceptable gifts for the synagogue BEFORE entering the holy spaces of worship. The fact that these religious leaders and their “friends” even had a coin in their possession and brought it into the temple was a forbidden sin. Jesus was catching them in a trap of THEIR OWN MAKING. “Whose HEAD is on the coin?” asks Jesus. The Emperor, of course! In other words…the god of Rome…a graven image that breaks the first commandment… I am the Lord, thy God! Thou shall have no other gods before me! “Gotcha!”

Give unto Caesar the things that are of Caesar….that is, earthly civil authority, for that is how the world works and must be organized until the Kingdom of God is fully revealed. BUT…give your heart, your allegiance…your very LIFE to the one who creates and sustains all life…The Lord God.

As Isaiah’s prophesy about Cyprus, the Persian emperor whom God would use to free the Isrealites from bondage in Babylon spoke so clearly, God uses whatever God chooses to accomplish his will…even the most unlikely characters of this world. Thus says the Lord, says Isaiah: I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. I form light and I create darkness. (Isaiah 45: 5-7)

So what does this text show us and how does it lift us up today? I think a couple of things. First, our allegiance is to God’s authority over all other authorities in this world. That isn’t easy given the raging of nations, the entrapments of war, injustice, disunity and suffering we witness daily. We have earthly leaders who we must empower to lead and make decisions that affect us all, and that takes wisdom, courage, accountability and integrity. The empires of this world will exist until the Kingdom of God is here in its eternal fullness. Yet we need to remember that GOD is in control, now and forever, and the outcome is in His hands. As God used Cyrus, the Emperor of Persia…without Cyrus even knowing it, God’s methods and purposes may not be for us to fully see or understand…yet we CAN TRUST…PRAY AND LIVE IN HOPE…REJECTING FEAR FOR PEACE.

Secondly, we need to be wise and discerning, for truly, the evil in this world seeks to entrap us in our own words, actions and good intentions. When and if we grab unto some “absolute” truth or a worldly leader as if they alone can bring an outcome we dream of, we can easily become “caught in a trap, and we can’t let go…because we come to love it too much baby.”

How do we find wisdom and discernment in such a complicated human condition? By staying close to the one who can SEE the sin and evil that beckons, and faces it down for us. The one who would go to a cross to absorb the full force of that evil intent for power over God…and rise victoriously to proclaim a hope and a future with the one true God that has the VERY LAST WORD. AMEN.