10/22/2023 ~ Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost ~ Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Proper 24 ~ Exodus 33:12-23; Psalm 99; Isaiah 45:1-7; Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13); 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; Matthew 22:15-22 ~ VIDEO OF FULL SERVICE: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7960701/video/877487531

The Emperor’s Clothes

“Jesus then asked them {that is asked the disciples of the Pharisees and the sympathizers of Herod}, ‘Whose head is this, and whose inscription, whose title?’” — Matthew 22:20.

The Emperor’s New Clothes is a short story penned by the Danish author, writer of fairy tales and poet noted for children’s stories, Hans Christian Andersen. The story was first published in the same book as The Little Mermaid. It was the third and final installment of Andersen’s Fairy Tales Told for Children.

Now just to remind us and to be precise, the story Andersen told about The Emperor’s New Clothes runs something like this. An Emperor who cares for nothing except appearance and attire hires two weavers, two tailors, who promise to make the finest suit of clothes possible.

The catch is this fabric is invisible to anyone who is unfit for their position or just hopelessly stupid. The Emperor is shocked when these workers show him the cloth for the suit. He cannot see anything. What is he to do? The Emperor pretends the cloth can be seen for fear of appearing unfit to be the Emperor.

The ministers and lackeys who surround the Emperor also realize they have to claim they see the cloth. After all, they assume the Emperor sees the cloth. So if they say they can’t see it, then they will be deemed either stupid or unfit for their positions or both.

When these swindlers who purport to be making the suit claim the product is finished, they mime dressing the Emperor who then marches through the streets before the subjects of the empire. Needless to say, the subjects of the empire who experience this procession, play along with the pretense. What is there to gain from ridiculing the Emperor?

Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up this deceit, blurts out that the Emperor (quote): “…isn’t wearing anything at all!” The cry is then taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but proudly stands a littler taller and continues on, perhaps not oblivious to reality but very determined to ignore it. (Slight pause.)

Anderson’s tale may date back as far as the Fourteenth Century. However, the story cannot be traced back to Biblical times and I am not trying to do that. On the other hand, there are fascinating connections between the tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes and the story we find in Matthew when Jesus asks ‘whose inscription is on the coin?’

So, let me briefly refresh your memory about the question asked by Jesus. It said, “Jesus then asked them {that is asked the disciples of the Pharisees and the sympathizers of Herod}, ‘Whose head is this, and whose inscription, whose title?’” (Slight pause.)

The question about whose head is on the coin and whose inscription is not an idle one. Indeed, the tax issue was not an abstract question. It was specific. Just like today, taxes were real.

The question, however, refers to a particular tax, the “census” tax, the head-tax instituted by the Roman government in year 6 of the Common Era. That is why a Roman coin and not a more local currency is invoked in the question.

In New Testament times Judea had become a land not just occupied by Rome, occupied by the Roman army. Judea had effectively become a province of Rome, a part of Rome. I sometimes, myself, refer to it as Roman Palestine.

This census tax triggered the nationalism that finally became what was called the Zealot movement among the population. It took many years but this Zealot movement in turn and eventually fermented and produced a disastrous war between the people of Judea and the Roman Empire.

That war lasted from about the year 66 to the year 70 of the Common Era and essentially marked the end of Judea as an identifiable nation. The author of Matthew who is writing some 15 years after the war ended, knew this and is looking back on those consequences.

To set this up with another time frame, the author of Matthew is writing fifty-five years after the resurrection. So this is all being looked at with the eye of someone who knows not just this history of the followers of the Christ but the meaning and reality of the resurrected Christ in the context of that time.

Well, let me come back to the Roman coins with which that tax was paid. These coins had both an image of the Roman Emperor and an inscription on them.

The inscription said, “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” As Augustus was by Romans considered to be a god, this effectively read, ‘Tiberius Caesar, son… of… god.’

Further, not only was Tiberius Caesar considered (quote), “son of god,” but there was another title by which Caesar was commonly called: “bring-er of peace.” Both those sound like a Christian description applied to Jesus, do they not? All of this is to say, from the perspective of the writer of Matthew the questions being asked are not about the image on the coin or the tax being imposed.

The questions being asked are these: ‘What do you believe about God?’ ‘Who is your God?’ And, therefore, the question is ‘To whom is your first allegiance?’

There is a yet another perspective to examine which makes the question Jesus asks in this story not an idle one. The text is clear on this count. The ones who question Jesus are (quote): “the disciples of the Pharisees and the sympathizers of Herod.”

Mind you, Herod is Jewish. But Herod is a puppet governor of Judea in charge of the puppet government of Judea which has been set up by the Roman Empire.

So the question is being asked of people who have allegiance to the societal structure put in place by Rome, a societal structure by which Rome dominates the people of Judea is the challenge with which Jesus presents them. And it’s a straightforward challenge.

Do they deny an understanding that Rome, a society they have supported, assisted and even helped build, is barren and worthless when compared with the Dominion of God? And perhaps more importantly, do they deny the divinity of the Emperor.

In short, by asking the question, “Whose head is this, and whose inscription, whose title?” this passage portrays Jesus as effectively saying just what the youngster in the tale by Hans Christian Andersen said: this Emperor “isn’t wearing any clothes!” (Slight pause.)

I think it’s likely many of us have heard sermons which talk about this passage as addressing the relationship between religion and the state, the separation of church and state. I know I have.

I hope you realize I do consult respected commentaries when I prepare a sermon. Not a one of the commentaries on this passage I consulted makes the claim that these words have anything directly to do with the church, the state and the separation thereof. Indeed, I think these words pretty directly ask us right now, today, “Who do we think God is?” and “Who do we think Jesus is?” Perhaps the only place church and state and the separation thereof do interact here is with this question: ‘Have we made a god of the state. Have we turned the state into a god?’

The question put to us is not at all about church and state. The question is ‘how we think about God.’ For me, especially given that Matthew is written some 55 years after the Resurrection, the clear message I take from these words is simple. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Second Person of the Trinity, that Triune God, One in Three. Yes, Who is God? Amen.

10/22/2023
Elijah Kellogg Church, Harpswell, Maine

ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Benediction. This, then, is a précis of what the pastor said before the blessing: “Again, certainly one aspect of the question Jesus puts to the Herodians is easy to figure out: ‘Who is your God?’ To come back to what I said in A Time for All Ages, if we fully rely on God, if we forever rely on God, we are making a claim about who we think God is.”

BENEDICTION: We have gathered, not just as a community, but as a community of faith. Let us respond to God, who is the true reality, in all that we are and say and do. Let the Holy Spirit dwell among us, let us be aware of the reality of Jesus and may the peace of God which surpasses our understanding be with us this day and forever more. Amen.