Matthew 22:15-22 ~ October 18, 2026
Call to Worship:
Let us sing to the LORD a new song.
We will bless God’s name from day to day.
Let us declare God’s marvelous deeds among all the people;
For God is great and greatly to be praised.
Let us praise God for God’s strength and beauty.
We will bring God honour and glory as we worship God’s holy name.
Music: #298 Glory be to God the Father
Prayer of Approach and Confession:
Holy God,
your mysterious presence stretches to the furthest reaches of the universe,
yet you draw near to us in Christ Jesus.
In him, you walk beside us,
guiding us with wisdom, loving us with boundless grace.
We praise you that your love embraces the whole creation,
yet you find a place and a purpose for us mortals.
Your Spirit gives us the energy and insight we need to serve you.
Creator, Christ and Spirit, we are humbled in your presence.
In our worship we offer you our love and loyalty,
now and always. Amen.
Patient God,
we confess we need your mercy.
We claim to be your people, but we forget to love as you do.
We claim to seek your guidance, but we follow our own ways.
Forgive us, O God,
Amend who we are and direct who you would have us be
for the sake of Christ, our Saviour and Friend.
Assurance of Pardon:
Friends, God knows us and still God loves us. This is good news!
By God’s grace, we are forgiven, loved and set free to start again. Thanks be to God!
Music: #373 Jesus loves me
Scripture Reading: Psalm 99
The Lord reigns,
let the nations tremble;
he sits enthroned between the cherubim,
let the earth shake.
2 Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
4 The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
5 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel was among those who called on his name;
they called on the Lord
and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they kept his statutes and the decrees he gave them.
8 Lord our God,
you answered them;
you were to Israel a forgiving God,
though you punished their misdeeds.[a]
9 Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his holy mountain,
for the Lord our God is holy.
Matthew 22:15-22
15 Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16 They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17 Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax[a] to Caesar or not?”
18 But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19 Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, 20 and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
21 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
22 When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Meditation: “Serve God”
Reading this week’s Gospel lesson from Matthew, I kept hearing Bob Dylan’s song, “Gotta Serve Somebody,” in my head:
You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord,
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
“Gotta Serve Somebody” was the lead song on Dylan’s 1979 album “Slow Train Coming” and was his last hit single (Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music). It won the Grammy Award for best male rock vocal for 1979.
This song also marked Bob Dylan’s conversion to Christianity from Judaism. “You’re gonna have to serve somebody,” wrote Dylan and he now knew who he would be serving, “the Lord,” Jesus Christ.
I thought of this song as I studied this weekend’s Gospel lesson from Matthew, a text which includes Jesus’ oft-quoted words, in response to the trick question from the Pharisees and the Herodians, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?” “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperors, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Jews in first century Palestine paid a lot of taxes. There was a temple tax; there were also land taxes, customs and trade taxes to name just three more. The tax in this text was additional tax, one particularly despised by the Jews – it was called the Imperial Tax, required as a tribute to Rome to support the Roman Empire’s occupation of Israel. Think of that a moment – first century Jews were required to pay their oppressors a yearly tax to support their own oppression!
Of course, not everyone saw the tax that way. The Herodians were local sympathizers with the Roman rulers. They were a family political party related to King Herod, the local puppet ruler supported by the Romans. Some folks think the Apostle Paul came from this family. The Herodians supported the Imperial Tax, they benefited from it. The Pharisees, also a political party as well as religious scholars, did not have much use for the Imperial Tax, but they probably grudgingly supported it since it also helped keep them in power. And, as far as Matthew was concerned, the Pharisees would do anything to try to trap Jesus.
The Imperial Tax was opposed by the most, if not all, of Jesus’ followers. Many of them were nationalists who found the Imperial Tax particularly offensive since it daily reminded them of their humiliation and occupation by the Roman Empire. Now, the Imperial Tax should have been a problem for the Pharisees, too, and not only for political reasons. A coin engraved with a picture of the Emperor Caesar Tiberius and a proclamation of his divinity – why, that broke the first two commandments! Thus, in Jesus’ time, any conversation about the Imperial Tax was very divisive and immediately revealed where one stood in relation to Rome and faith.
And that is how the Herodians and Pharisees got together to try to trap Jesus. Normally, they did not get along, but on this occasion, they were united in their desire to trap Jesus. Jesus had just entered Jerusalem – the people loved him. Now, Jesus was preaching in the Temple and stirring up all kinds of trouble for these status-quo folks. So, together, the Herodians and Pharisees decided to try to trap Jesus. With their question about the Imperial Tax, Jesus’ foes thought they had Jesus trapped – if Jesus answered one way, if he advocated paying this tax, he would disappoint his followers. If Jesus answered another way, if he advocated not paying this tax, he would be in trouble with the Roman rulers. They thought they had him!
But, as we know, Jesus not only evaded their trap, he trapped them in their own question. “Whose face is on the coin?” Jesus asked. Perhaps over-eager to advance their own plot, Jesus’ opponents forgot that by showing a coin with the Emperor’s image on it, they betrayed their own complicity with the Roman system. Then Jesus asked whose image and proclamation adorned the coin. “The Emperor’s,” they answered. Everyone in attendance knew the commandments and they knew that Jesus had just trapped the trappers in their own blasphemy according to Jewish law!
And that makes Jesus’ response even more biting – “Give, therefore, to Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Jesus turned the tables, so to speak, on his questioners. With just a few words, Jesus revealed the truth about his would-be accusers and simultaneously called them to a higher accountability and fidelity than they had imagined possible.
That’s where Bob Dylan’s song comes in – you gotta serve somebody. Jesus made it absolutely clear who he served.
Might Jesus also be talking to us? He is not trapping us, of course, but Jesus is inviting us to declare our allegiance to God. Thus, perhaps the key question here is not whose image in on the coin but rather whose image is on us! Whose image is on our hearts? Jesus is inviting us to declare our allegiance to God.
Often, this text is interpreted to present the dichotomy in our lives, that we have duties to both God and country. And, while that is so, I believe Jesus is talking here primarily about our duty to God. Jesus is or should be our first loyalty, above all others.
Jesus raises important questions for us in this text and he does not give pat answers. There are elements in our lives that are, indeed, part of the world order and should be “rendered to Caesar,” as the text states. But there are other parts of our lives, our very persons and our very selves, that belong to God alone. If we remember that, all of life can take on greater focus and meaning. We belong, not to anything this world – we belong to God.
And this means that no matter what we may do or say, no matter where we may go, no matter what may happen to us, we are first and foremost and forever, God’s own beloved children. And, if we believe this and live this, God will shape all that we say and do and how we live. We belong to God. We are God’s beloved children.
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord,
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.
You’re gonna have to serve somebody. And, with Bob Dylan, we know who we serve.
All of life is God’s. This text tells us that we are to “Render unto God the things that are God’s.” And, since all of life is God’s and since you gotta serve somebody, we – you and I – we serve and love and live in the love and rule of Jesus Christ. We belong to God. We are God’s children. Our task is to believe that and live it. Amen.
Music: #422 Sing a new song
Invitation of Offering
Jesus reminds us to give to God the things that are God’s. God has been so generous to us, that truly we owe God our lives. Let us return to God what God has shared with us, so that God’s goodness can spread in the world in the name of Jesus.
Doxology: #830 Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Prayer of Dedication
God of abundance, we bring what we have to share, a portion of your goodness to us. Bless our gifts and our lives, so that generosity and justice will join hands, and your goodness touches those in need, in Jesus’ name.
Prayers of the People:
God of Truth and Wisdom,
We give you thanks for all those people throughout our lives
who taught us what is trustworthy and true,
and shared wisdom that has shaped the way we live.
We remember our favorite teachers in school and church,
in college and university, in training programs and instructional opportunities.
Thank you for everyone who has the knack for teaching.
Give all students, of every age and in every endeavour,
a desire to learn for the sake of the world, not just for the sake of finishing a program.
We give you thanks for all those who taught us by example,
parents and grandparents, friends and neighbours,
colleagues and even strangers met by chance.
Help us cherish life lessons and build on them in new situations,
sharing them when we can.
Keep us open to learn new things about our faith, about life,
and about what you are calling us to do.
We thank you for Jesus and his teaching,
and the compassion he showed for his disciples when they were slow to learn.
Give us patience and compassion
when we are teaching something we’ve learned,
and make us good listeners so we learn from others’ experience.
In gratitude that he taught us to pray, we offer together the words Jesus gave his disciples:
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Music: #324 Great is thy faithfulness
Benediction:
Go in faithfulness, cherishing the lessons of love you have learned from Christ and his people, so that your life will speak with that love.
Now may the LORD keep us and bless us,
May the LORD make his face to shine upon us
and be gracious unto us,
Now and for ever more, AMEN.
Choral Closing: “Go Now in Peace”
Go now in peace. Never be afraid.
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true.
Know He will guide you in all you do.
Go now in love, and show you believe.
Reach out to others so all the world can see.
God will be there watching from above.
Go now in peace, in faith, and in love.
October 11, 2026
https://pccweb.ca/knox-goderich/files/2026/10/Trust-in-the-Lord.docx