October 19, 2014 – Matthew 22:15-22
Matthew 22:15-22
God’s Image Restored
19th Sunday after Pentecost [Lectionary 29A] – October 19, 2014
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
Jesus was a National Debating Champ, right?
You never want to get into a verbal sparring contest with him.
The Pharisees and Herodians learn this lesson too late today.
They think they are going to outsmart Jesus, but instead are outwitted by him.
They want to trap him: Is it lawful to pay taxes to the Roman Emperor, they ask him?
If he says yes, the people will hate him because
they hate paying taxes to the Roman occupying forces.
If he says no, he will be branded a traitor to the empire and subject to punishment and death.
We’ve got him, they think!
This is a trap he could not possibly get out of!
But Jesus is smart, and Jesus is quick.
Show me a Roman coin, he says.
He himself isn’t carrying any money, you’ll notice; he doesn’t even want to touch it.
Show me a coin; so they show him a coin.
Whose image is on the coin? he asks.
The emperor’s, they say.
Right, says Jesus, so give it to him.
But give to God the things that are God’s.
And they all know what he’s done here.
They all know whose image they are made in, whose image they themselves are stamped with.
Because it says right there on the first page of the Bible, which
they all memorized in Sunday School: God created human beings in God’s own image.
We are made in God’s image, and so we are to give ourselves to God and
God’s mission to love bless and heal this world and every person in it.
We are made in God’s image or likeness.
And what is God like?
God creates safe places for living things.
God is merciful.
God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
God is love.
These are the things we are meant for: care, mercy, and love.
And when Jesus comes, we see what the image of God looks like in an actual human being,
for Jesus, we learn, is the very image of the invisible God.
We were meant to look like Jesus.
But there are so many things that mar that image within us.
So much that gets in the way of letting the image of God were created in shine forth.
Sometimes it is ill health that mars the image of God within us – and all that goes with it:
Anxiety and doubt and anger andworry and tiredness.
Sometimes it is those things that others have done to us, the harm we have experienced,
that make it difficult for us to see ourselves as the very image of the living God:
the hurts we have suffered, the names we have been called,
the abuses we have undergone, the relationships that have failed,
the boss that has needed to put us in our place,
the griefs we endure.
Sometimes it is the bad decisions we have made and the consequences of those decisions that
make it difficult for us to see ourselves as the image of the living God:
the hurts we have inflicted, the great harm we know we’re capable of,
the failures we have been.
Sometimes it is the forces beyond our control that seek to define us and
replace the image of the living God we’ve been created in with something less noble:
addiction, mental illness, social forces seemingly beyond our control,
images in media and popular culture that tell us what kind of
human being we are to be and that are impossible to live up to.
These are powerful forces that seek to stamp us with an image other than
The image of the caring, merciful, loving triune God. All these things are unhealthy!
So what we need, above all, is to have the image of our true selves restored.
Restored from the inside out.
Restored to true health.
Restored by a healing word that says, “You have been made in my image, and no other.”
There are so many other images that seek to define us,
but not on this day.
There are so many other things besides the love of God for us that seek to define us,
but not on this day.
This is a day for healing.
This is a day for restoration.
This is a day for hope.
This is a day to have your true image restored.
So: all who feel that the image of God has been marred in them are welcome to come.
You who have been struck with physical illness, come.
You who have suffered harm, come.
You who have made bad decisions, come.
You who feel swept along by forces out of your control, come.
You who suffer addiction, and mental illness, and fatigue, and loneliness, come.
You who feel like you never measure up, come.
You who feel like you have failed someone or something, come.
These things are not who you really are.
These things do not ultimately define you.
The image of the caring, merciful, triune God defines who you are and what you were made for.
So come: have that image restored, and once it is, give yourself in thanksgiving to this God,
and this God’s mission to love, bless, and heal this whole world and every person in it.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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