The Whole Pie

Title: The Whole Pie By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:  Matthew 22:20 And Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?"  21 They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."    INTRODUCTION:  My dear friends in Christ,   Back in elementary school, we learned about pie graphs. Do you remember them? Sure you do! A circle represents the whole. Slices of the circle, whether large or small, represent portions of the whole. These slices are often shown in vivid colors. A pie graph can indicate how a budget is divided. It can indicate the breakdown of a population according to age or race or sex. A pie graph can convey many kinds of information in a way that is simple to understand.
I.  Did you know that life is like a pie chart or graph.  It is, it really is–let me explain.
	A. You and I may experience life as we live it now in terms of a pie graph. The single self we are is served up in several slices. One slice may be for work, another for school, another for family. There may be slices for church and recreation and community service. Still other slices represent meals and sleep. Together such slices as these make up the pie which is our life here and now.
			1. A pie graph of our life indicates what many of us realize in our bones: that there is only so much of us to go around. If we give more attention to one area, then we must give less to another. If we work more, we may have to sleep less. Increased attention to school may require decreased attention to family. 2. Each of us lives out a different pie graph, but in this respect all of us are the same: we have our limits. We have only so much time, so much energy.
	B. No one today seriously denies that we all have our pies sliced too thin. Sometimes there are too many slices for our own good.  And those slices tend to control us.
			1. There was a film from years ago in which a scene opened to show two puppeteers arguing over who would control the strings tied to a marionette on the stage below them. As they argued, one tried to wrest the strings from the other. The result was predictable. The puppet was pulled and thrown this way and that across the stage, as first one puppeteer and then the other pulled the string to an arm or leg, hand or foot.
						a. Our many pie slices can do the same to us. We may feel that the strings tied to us are being tugged, and then we have to move as they direct. The company we work for, the government we live under, the family we belong to, the possessions we own - all these things exercise varying degrees of control over our lives. To a large extent they determine how we spend our time, our money, our energy. b. It’s common for people to be pulled in so many different directions that they jump and jerk across the stage of life, often feeling helplessly out of control.
			2. Our problem is that there are too many slices of our pies. It's impossible to please them all. Giving each slice it’s due is often more than we can handle.  We are just spread too thin.
II. Our text, though, is partially about Caesar’s part of the pie.  As much as we’d like to deny it Caesar is to have his slice.
		A. The land where Jesus lived was ruled by a Caesar, an emperor. It was an occupied land. The people felt the weight of foreign domination. They were taxed beyond endurance. In such a place, it is important to determine a person’s attitude toward Caesar. It can prove dangerous to give Caesar anything less than the slice of pie that he wants. Yet to accept his claim to the lion’s share can be dangerous as well.
			1. Thus, in their campaign to trap Jesus, his opponents ask him a loaded question. "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" If he says yes, then he loses the support of the masses, who long for freedom. If he says no, then he reveals himself as a subversive and may forfeit his life. 2. In answering Jesus says, “Render unto Caesar.”  In this Jesus is telling them that they are to pay their taxes, because this was their duty as citizens.
					a. Whether they believed it or not, Caesar was God’s agent for their general well-being.  It mattered not that Tiberius wasn’t a very noble ruler.  The office of Caesar was his.  He had God’s authority behind him, even though he did not acknowledge the true God.  Still, God used him to maintain law and order in the land.  b. And what were they to give to Caesar in return?  Respect, and taxes.
		B. We, too, are under government.  We have to be.  Non-government would be chaos.  We need the police.  We need the courts.  We need laws.
			1. We need to have respect for authority.  We don’t always agree with everything our government says and does.  But we disagree respectfully.  2. And we have the duty to pay taxes.  We owe the government our support…our service.  “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”  Because Caesar, whether he is good or evil, acts in the place of God to keep the peace and maintain law and order.  Yes, Caesar demands his part of the pie.
III. But the second part of Jesus’ response involves God’s part of the pie.  He says, "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
		A. With this reply, Jesus raises the debate to a different level. What is at stake is more than tax payments, more than even the rule of Rome. Now the question becomes whether God claims a slice of the pie.
			1. Here Jesus insisted that the claim God makes is unique. What belongs to God is not some slice of the pie, but the whole pie, the complete person. Nothing less will do. Our Creator has a claim on us. The pie belongs to the one who baked it.
					a. Give your money to Caesar if you must, Jesus says, but give yourselves to God.  God does not want a slice of who we are, whether that slice is thick or thin. God wants our whole selves. God is not part of the competition that pulls us this way and that, but He is the one who makes us whole. Our relationship with God is not a matter of the logic of fractions by which we give away portions of who we are.  b. But even this seems like another demand for even more than another piece of pie – a pie that’s already cut too thin.
			2.  “Render to God,” says Jesus, “the things that are God’s;” and we don’t…not one of us.
				a. We all begrudge giving Him our money.  We all begrudge giving Him our time.  We may do it only out of a sense of duty.  We may show up here to worship or to work only because we think we have to.  We certainly can’t give Him our whole selves. b. But despite our attitude toward Him, our God is never offended at us.  He’s not keeping track of the number of hours you work in His church.  He doesn’t keep a worship attendance chart.  He does not render His blessings to you because of what and how you render to Him.  c. God is no Caesar.  Caesar does not know the meaning of the word mercy; but God is that word.  God is merciful.  He is the One who loved you to the point of rendering His own Son for you.
		B. Remember the image on the coin?  Jesus made much of that image.  It was important.  “Give to Caesar what you owe him because his image is on your money.”  And so with God.  What is it that bears the image of God?  Or, rather, who is it? The answer is not us.  The image of God that we had was destroyed in the fall.  So now the only answer is Jesus.  Colossians 1:15 says that “He is the image of God.”  He, Jesus, is the exact representation of the invisible God.  So when He tells us, “Render unto God what is God’s,” He is saying that God wants us to give Him Jesus.
			1. Perhaps we’re a little confused by this.  After all, our government does much to take care of our well-being, and so we owe our government tax dollars, respect, our works of service, and so forth.
				a. If we owe all these things to our government, then don’t we owe the same things, and more, to God?  That’s what our sinful flesh thinks.  We think we owe it to God to love and respect Him.  b. Our flesh thinks we owe it to God to be in church on Sunday mornings.  We think we owe Him our loyalty and obedience; that we owe it to Him to put our money in the offering plate.
			2. Friend, you may owe things such as these to your government, but you do not owe them to God.
				a. Because Jesus, on the cross, paid the price for everything that we owed to God.  Because of our sin, we owed Him more than we could ever pay.  Jesus paid it.  He paid the price for our sins.  He suffered all the agony of hell for us.  He took the debt which we owed and wiped it clean, paying for it in full. b. And so, what will we render to God?  Our works of service?.. Our love and obedience?.. Our hard-earned money?  None of these will gain us a place in heaven.  None of these will earn God’s favor and eternal reward.  What God wants us to give Him is... Jesus.  He is the image of God.  He is the One, the only One who lived a perfect, holy life.  He is the One who satisfied God’s justice with His atoning sacrifice.  God wants us to give Him Jesus.  Little baptized children have it right—the answer to every question is Jesus.  c. When God confronts us about our sin and accuses us of wrongdoing, give Him Jesus.  When God asks, “Do you love Me with all your heart, soul, and mind?” give Him Jesus.  “I don’t love as I should, but Jesus does.  He loves You perfectly for me—in my place.”  When God asks, “Do you love your neighbor as yourself?” give Him Jesus.  “I fall short, but in Jesus I love my neighbor, for He loved, and loves all people for me—in my place.”  And when God asks, “Why should I let you into heaven?” give Him Jesus.  “Because Jesus died and rose for me.  He did everything in my behalf.  In Holy Baptism He made me His forgiven child, and in Holy Communion He gives Himself, and all that He has, to me.”
			3. To “render unto God what is God’s,” is simply to approach God always and only through Jesus.
				a. Because Jesus removed from us the burden of our sin, we can freely give God, through Jesus, our thanks and praise, our love and devotion, our works of service, our offerings.  b. We owe Him nothing—we, in Christ, are not under Law but under grace—we owe Him nothing, but through Jesus we freely give Him all that we are and have—the whole pie.
CONCLUSION:  We are free now, in Christ, to love and serve God not because we have to, but because in love of Christ, we want to.  So in Christ we are freed from the TYRANNY of the pie chart.  Amen.