Whose image is this?

 18/10/26          All Saints         Trinity 19              1Thessalonians 1:1-10           Matthew 22:15-22

Jesus said to them, ‘Whose image is this, and whose title?’  The pharisees answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ 

In a couple of minutes we are going to think about our gospel reading - what the situation meant to Jesus and what it means to us, but first we will take a brief excursion into an everyday story of 19th Century country folk - Pride & Prejudice. If you haven’t read it I’m not going to give away the ending. If you haven’t read it the real spoiler is that I’m going to talk seriously about it and that gives a wholly false impression. It’s very funny. 

The story is seen through the eyes of Elizabeth Bennett and concerns her meetings with the rich and handsome Mr Darcy.  Darcy and Elizabeth belong to very different social classes - something of which he is keenly aware. When they first meet he is at his most arrogant, pompous and aloof and displays a level of entitlement that she finds both infuriating and laughable. That is to say - she takes against him - so when beyond all her expectations and for reasons she utterly fails to understand (but are perfectly obvious to us readers) he falls for her and proposes she gives him short shrift - something he finds hard to credit - how could she in her position spurn his offer. 

Now her first impression is true all the faults she sees in Darcy are really there.

But though Elizabeth’s first impression is true it is not the whole story. 

Everything begins to change for her when on a visit to Derbyshire with her uncle and aunt she, believing him to be in London,  visits his house - it’s of a scale that expects passing visitors to drop in and admire and there Elizabeth meets the staff that look after the running of the place- people who have known Darcy all his life and they show her a side of him which is kind and compassionate with a strong concern for the welfare of others - they know him to be a good man.. Elizabeth Bennett’s first impression is true but now she has a more rounded picture.

We’ll come back to Pride and Prejudice in a moment. 

What is our impression of God?

The Old Testament presents a picture of a God who is compassionate but only approachable on his own terms.

So at one point as he is leading the Hebrews through the wilderness in search of the promised land Moses asks God if he can see him. 

‘And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’’’                                                                     

What is God like? Is this our image of Him? Of a distant and aloof majesty who is far beyond our understanding?

 If that is the impression we gain from the OT we are right - we cannot possibly comprehend the fullness of God. It’s true, but it isn’t the whole truth. 

In a moment we are going to look at our gospel and the picture we will get there of what God is like is very different from what Moses saw. Jesus - God incarnate doesn’t dilute our understanding of God’s glory, he expands it. The Son who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation did not come to reduce our idea of the majesty of God, he enriches it by showing us how well it fits into the human and so reveals the rather unlikely way we can play our part in the building of the kingdom of God here on earth.

In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennett’s first impression of Darcy is given depth when she visits his home. And it’s when God comes to our home that we see him most clearly.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

It’s when we see Jesus that we get a new level of understanding of who God is, of what God is like. In Jesus we see God close, intimate, calling us friends. We see him vulnerable wanting company, companions co-workers who will travel with him as far as they are able. We see Jesus compassionate, patient, painstaking, we see him declaring the love of God for his creation despite all its sin and corruption, declaring his commitment to humanity despite the the personal cost, expressing in everything he does that God does not give up on people. We see that in a way we can understand because it’s God at ground level

The way God reveals himself in the Old Testament is true, but we get closer to him when we look at Jesus.

Let’s go on to look at the Matthew reading. This is very much God in the rough and tumble of life. The Pharisees set a trap for Jesus ‘Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Emperor’ That is ‘Do you accept that we are Rome’s subjects and they have the right to levy tax?’ 

In a News interview a standard ploy is to ask an apparently simple question when the interviewer knows that giving a simple answer will alienate half the listening audience. That’s what the Pharisees are inviting Jesus to do.

But he avoids their snare. He takes a coin - who’s image does this coin bear? Caesar’s. Then give it to him and give to God the things that are God’s. 

Why is this such a good answer? Well what or who bears God’s image? 

Jesus himself does ‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation’ If you want to know what God is like says Paul look at Jesus  He bears the true reliable image of the Father. 

And when in the gospels we see the compassionate vulnerable loving Jesus giving everything of himself to those around him then this is him giving the coin that bears the God’s image back to his Father 

But he is not the only one who is the image bearer Let us make humanity in our image, in our likeness, Who else bears God’s image? We do.

 The Pharisee’s coin bore Caesar’s image so give it to Caesar but people bear God’s so give yourselves to him.

 We know what that meant for Jesus - what does it mean for us.

How can we look like the image of God that Jesus shows us.

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians he was delighted by the way they were answering the question.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

They were a church marked by faith, love, hope in Jesus - the detail of what that means will be different for every church -  21st century Southport will look very different from 1st century Thessalonika - and the detail will be different for every church member - we are a body and we all have different gifts - each of which is needed.  

It’s easy to think that faith love and hope are just there - we either have them or we don’t - that’s not Paul’s view. Look at the words he chooses.

‘Work’ ‘labour’ ‘steadfastness’ - none of these are words of ease - sometimes faith love hope may come easily but often it has to be a deliberate choice. The image of God we see in Christ is unflinching in faith love and hope. And we are to become imitators of the apostles and of the Lord,’ How did God - Jesus - behave when he came to our home? With compassion and  patience, he set his face to what is good, wholesome and true, He came as the servant king 

How to be the church? We are to imitate him - as individuals and as a church - together as the company of Christ in this place - extraordinarily we are those he sees as colleagues, fellow workers, friends - the  people he wants to be with.

And it’s as we build the church that the two images of God come together 

The picture of God Paul paints can seem a long way from the glories that Moses saw but Moses is the distance shot whilst Paul is the close-up. What we are building by our work of faith, labour of love, steadfastness of hope is a holy temple built to be inhabited by the Glory of God.