October 22 Matthew 22:15-22 God things  20^th Sunday after Pentecost         We must learn what are God things and what are ours.                             Psalter reading Psalm 99:1-9

The LORD reigns; Let the peoples tremble! He dwells between the cherubim; Let the earth be moved! 2The LORD is great in Zion, And He is high above all the peoples. 3Let them praise Your great and awesome name— He is holy. 4The King’s strength also loves justice; You have established equity; You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. 5Exalt the LORD our God, And worship at His footstool— He is holy. 6Moses and Aaron were among His priests, And Samuel was among those who called upon His name; They called upon the LORD, and He answered them. 7He spoke to them in the cloudy pillar; They kept His testimonies and the ordinance He gave them. 8You answered them, O LORD our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, Though You took vengeance on their deeds. 9Exalt the LORD our God, And worship at His holy hill; For the LORD our God is holy.      Psalm 99:1-9 NKJV

15Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. 16And they sent to Him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and teach the way of God in truth; nor do You care about anyone, for You do not regard the person of men. 17Tell us, therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, “Why do you test Me, you hypocrites? 19Show Me the tax money.” So they brought Him a denarius. 20And He said to them, “Whose image and inscription is this?” 21They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they had heard these words, they marveled, and left Him and went their way.

Matthew 22:15-22 NKJV

Over my years as a Christian I discovered that most of my troubles came from when I tried to do what I call God things. 

When pressed by the Pharisees if people should pay taxes to the very ungodly Roman nation Jesus pointed out there are God things and things that are “Caesars”.  We often are so caught up in the taxes we miss the central teaching of this passage that there are God things and our things.

We may think we “save” people, “change” people or even “judge” people but these are God things. God is the only one who can touch a person’s body, spirit and soul to bring new life to them!  God is the only one who can “recycle” a person.

The Psalm passage speaks about this:

“, O LORD our God; You were to them God-Who-Forgives, Though You took vengeance on their deeds.” 

God is the one who can judge and take vengeance on us for what we do and God is the only one who can forgive us to bring redemption.  Notice the “LORD our God” is to us the “God-Who-Forgives “.

Our job is to worship God, introduce others to God, love justice and to participate in the world in which we live so God can work through us to bring redemption into this world.

The Pharisees marveled and walked away at what Jesus taught.  So do we at times.  How can this make sense to us?   We are so used to thinking we are to change lives and the world for Jesus that we struggle with this much like the Pharisees and so our ministries are limited by our own power and abilities.

Trust in God to take care of the “God things” and use you through the gifts God has given you to you.  Then you are only limited by the power and abilities of God!