Matthew 22:21

Matthew 22:21

Sacrifice to Cæsar or to God.

I. The only Cæsar which we have to fear nowadays is called Public Opinion the huge, anonymous idol which we ourselves help to make, and then tremble before the creation of our own cowardice; whereas, if we will but face him, in the fear of God and the faith of Christ, determined to say the thing which is true, and do the thing which is right, we shall find the modern Cæsar but a phantom of our own imagination a tyrant, indeed, as long as he is feared, but a coward as soon as he is defied. To that Cæsar let us never bow the knee. Render to him all that he deserves the homage of common courtesy, common respectability, common charity not in reverence for his wisdom and strength, but in pity for his ignorance and weakness. But render always to God the things which are God's. That duty lies on us as on all mankind still, from our cradle to our grave, and after that through all eternity. Let us go back, or rather, let us go home to the eternal laws of God, which were ages before we were born, and will be ages after we are dead to the everlasting rock on which we all stand, which is the will and mind of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to whom all power is given (as He said Himself) in heaven and in earth.

II. There are three sacrifices which every man, woman, and child can offer, and should offer, however lowly, however uneducated in what the world calls education nowadays. Of these sacrifices our Lord Himself said: The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Now, what are these spiritual sacrifices? (1) First and foremost, surely, the sacrifice of repentance, of which it is written: "The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." (2) Next, the sacrifice of thankfulness, of which it is written: "I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord." (3) Lastly, the sacrifice of righteousness, of which it is written: "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service."

C. Kingsley, All Saints' Day and Other Sermons,p. 378.

I. These words have two aspects, as they had, we must believe, two purposes. In the first place, they were an answer to the Herodians and Pharisees, and their question had not been an honest one. The answer was an escape from a skilfully laid trap a path formed where his enemies fondly hoped that all pathway was cut off. But there must be another aspect also. It cannot have been related by the Evangelists among the great sayings of that most solemn week as an instance only of adroitness in baffling human wit and malignity. It was an answer, in the first place, to a question asked with a malicious purpose. But that question might have been asked, would be asked in after days, in some form or other, by humble souls eager for guidance in real difficulties. The answer must have been meant for them too.

II. Should they give tribute to Cæsar or not? The world as they lived in it was in the hands of heathen rulers, who had crucified the Lord of Glory, and who despised or persecuted His disciples. How were Christians to live with such a society? Were they to submit to such rulers? And submitting, were they to do so cheerfully, or under protest? Christ's answer may seem to us hardly to solve such difficulties. It is an answer which has been often misunderstood, and even made to teach the lesson which it was meant to unteach. The difficulty may seem to us in any particular case to be precisely the one which it does not meet the question: Whatis Cæsar's and Whatis God's? The answer does not meet the difficulty directly, yet it takes its sting from it. The sting of the question lies in the false views which men have taken of the meaning of our Lord's words as though He had meant to distinguish two provinces, two claims to set them as rivals, fronting one another, limited by one another. The point of our Lord's answer was to heal and reconcile. It was possible, it was a duty, to satisfy both.What is Cæsar's really is what God has given to Cæsar; and in satisfying that claim to the very fullest extent we are satisfying, so far, that larger claim which exists on all our heart and life.

E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons,p. 262.

References: Matthew 22:21. C. Girdlestone, Twenty Parochial Sermons,1st series, p. 171; H. G. Robinson, Man in the Image of God,p. 127; R. Heber, Parish Sermons,vol. ii., p. 367; J. Edmunds, Sixty Sermons,p. 430; H. N. Grimley, Tremadoc Sermons,p. 206; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes,2nd series, p. 46; Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 295.Matthew 22:29. J. J. Murphy, Expositor,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 102.Matthew 22:30. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xiv., No. 842; H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,4th series, p. 551; 5th series, p. 75, Matthew 22:32. J. N. Norton, Old Paths,p. 468. Matthew 22:34. H. W. Beecher, Sermons(1870), p. 426. Matthew 22:34. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 351; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 156. Matthew 22:35. S. Cox, Expositions,vol. iv., p. 88.