The Things That Are God’s (Luke 20:25)

 


Tuesday, April 8, 2025


Psalm 89:1-18

Exodus 7:25-8:19

Luke 20:19-26


Observance: Georgiana Molloy, pioneer church leader and botanist from WA (d. 1843)


The Things That Are God’s (Luke 20:25)


Money, money, money. We just can’t seem to get away from it! At least when Jesus was out in the regions speaking to regular people, he was able to give relatable lessons. Now in the capital, money has been transformed. Where normal people see money as what it is – that is, a means to get more of other things – the schemers in the capital see it as a means to wield power. Jesus’ interrogators must have known something of Jesus’ earlier teaching, that all wealth has been given by God as a means to increase God’s kingdom. Now that Jesus has self-identified as God, they want to see if Jesus wants us to give our money to him. But Jesus’ concept of the kingdom of God is vastly different to wicked men who use religion for their own financial gain.


Lest we are confused when we speak of wealth in the context of the kingdom of God, let’s make sure we take to heart how Jesus responds. Firstly, he wraps everything in the context of God’s ownership of everything he has made. God made people in his own image; so when we see Caesar’s face on the coin, whose image do we really see?


If, then, even the man whose face appears on the coin belongs to God, what does that mean when we think about using God’s wealth for his kingdom? Perhaps Jesus is pushing us to move our thoughts further than mere money. This brings us back to something we noticed earlier in this Gospel: that God’s wealth is his people.


There are some parts of environmentalist thinking that has some credit to it. But there is one part that has no credit whatsoever. It is the idea that, were all humans and all trace of humanity erased from the earth overnight, then nature would heal itself from all the damage we have caused it. However, this is the opposite of what the Bible teaches. What we learn from the creation account in Genesis, and which Jesus refers to today in the context of wealth and ownership, is that we humans are God’s answer to the problem of an unhealthy environment. God has created immense wealth for himself: an entire universe of wonder and delight, and a beautiful blue and green globe spinning in the middle of it. By making humans, he increased his wealth even further, and by making us in his image and giving us the world, he has made an investment on that wealth. The kingdom of God is more than money; it is all of the wealth of God in nature, humans and our capacity for moral action. Render to God the things that are God’s; luxuriate in the wealth he has bestowed in us, while participating in the wonderful work of increasing it even further.


What do you think the purpose of humanity is? What might other people say it is? How does the Bible affect these answers?


Creator God, in whom we live and move and have our being: we praise you for this universe of wonder and delight. May we see your beauty in it more clearly, and give us the grace to increase your beauty further.

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