Render to God and Caesar
Family Service - PROPER 24
Matthew 22:15-22 Give to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.
Sometimes I find pictures help me think about what verses like this mean.
Caesar gets the money due to him in taxes. So what does God get?
We are made in God’s image – God wants us – wants us to love him, to serve him, to serve other people. God wants us so much that he sent his son Jesus into the world.
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son Jesus Christ, to save us from our sins, to intercede for us in heaven, and to bring us to eternal life.
Having been loved, he wants us to show love. Story of John the Apostle: ‘Little children love one another.’ We love because he first loved us.
So what does God get, or what does God want to get? He wants us, you and me, to love him, for what he is, our God, for what he has done for us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Part of that love is loving others in his name.
The town chose not to repair a statue of Christ with no hands but put these words at the base:
Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
And so at the end of every communion service we say a prayer that ends with the words:
Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory. Amen.