God’s Government: Cyrus and Caesar

Shepherd of the Mountains Lutheran Church, Pinetop, Arizona

Rev. Michael “Mick” Mathews

The Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost – October 18, 2026

Sermon: “God’s Government: Cyrus and Caesar”     Isaiah 45:1–7; Matthew 22:15–22

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Talking about politics today can be a dicey proposition. Many people have positions that are the polar opposites of each other, often accompanied by very strong feelings about those positions. It can be hard to have a reasonable conversation that doesn’t devolve into arguing and shouting. But then try to throw religion into the mix! Things are likely to get even more tense.

We might imagine that this is a new problem. But just look at the discussion in today’s reading from the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It’s about religion and politics. Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees and the Herodians. Normally, those two groups hated each other. The Pharisees were the very religious Jews, and they hated having the Romans rule over them. They thought it got in the way of them being able to follow God and His ways. The Herodians, on the other hand, were Jews who were not very religious. They were part of the upper crust of Jewish society and were benefitting from working with the Romans. You can see then why the Pharisees and the Herodians hated each other. The one thing they could agree on was that they wanted to get rid of Jesus. So they tried to set a trap for Him.

They worked together to ask Jesus a question that they thought would bring Him trouble no matter which way He answered. After a flattering introduction, they asked Jesus, “It is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” And by “lawful,” they didn’t mean the law of the Romans. They meant God’s law handed down in the Scriptures. So they were basically asking, “Does God think it’s okay to give our money to support the Roman Caesar, who claims to be a god?”

Jesus’ opponents thought: “If He answers, ‘Yes, you should pay taxes to the Romans,’ then the people will hate Him because they don’t like paying taxes, especially to foreign invaders. But if He says, ‘No, God doesn’t want you to pay taxes to Caesar,’ then we’ll be able to hand Him over to the Romans for stirring up rebellion against them.”

But Jesus understood their sinful opposition to Him, and He found a way to show them that both options that they offered were wrong in their own way. He said to them, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax” (Matthew 22:18–19). So they brought Him a common coin called a denarius. Jesus then asked them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” (Matthew 22:20). You can see in the drawing on the front of today’s bulletin that the coin had an image of a man on it with writing around the image identifying the man as Caesar. So Jesus’ opponents had to admit that Caesar’s likeness was on the coin. Then Jesus stunned them by saying, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

Jesus and the Pharisees and the Herodians lived in a world ruled by Caesar. He made the laws. He set up the people under him who administered and enforced the laws. He set up a stable system that allowed travel and commerce. He even minted the coins that people used. So Jesus said to live within that system. There were burdens to living under the Romans, but there were benefits also. And Caesar deserved to be paid for providing those benefits. Later on, when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans – to Christians literally living in Caesar’s capitol city – Paul told them to pay their taxes (Romans 13:6). They were to do it because the authorities protected them and those who lived good lives, and the authorities punished those who did wrong – and the authorities deserved the monetary support of those who benefitted from their work.

St. Paul also revealed something else about the governing authorities: they have been established by God (Romans 13:1). God is at work in the world through human government to establish order, promote justice, protect those who do good, and punish those who do evil. But because governments are made up of sinful people, governments do not always follow God’s purposes for them. Sinful people twist God’s good gifts by using them in sinful ways. But God is still ultimately in control, even in the case of the most ungodly rulers, such as the Roman caesars.

Consider the example of Cyrus the Great, who ruled in Persia around 500 years before Christ. Cyrus conquered the Babylonian Empire, who themselves had previously conquered many people, including the Jews in Jerusalam. The Babylonians had taken the Jews into captivity in Babylon, where they remained for 70 years. But when Cyrus conquered Babylon, he allowed those in captivity to return home. Cyrus even supported the rebuilding of Jerusalem including rebuilding the temple. Cyrus was not a believer in the God of Israel, but the God of Israel knew Cyrus even before he came into the world. God spoke about Cyrus – by name – around 200 years beforehand through the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 45:1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, …4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. 5 … I equip you, though you do not know me (Isaiah 45:1–5)

God works through government, even ungodly ones, to carry out His purposes. So we should cast our votes to influence the direction of the government we have. We should pray for our governmental leaders (1 Timothy 2:1–2). And we should pay our taxes.

But Jesus didn’t just say, “Pay taxes to Caesar.” He said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” If you owe support to the government that provides you with stability, protection, and commerce, how much more do you owe to God who gives you everything that you have in life? Caesar made coins with his own image on them, but Genesis (1:27) tells us that God made human beings, both male and female, in His own image. So when Jesus tells us to “render to God the things that are God’s,” He’s not just talking about something we own, like a coin we might drop in the church offering plate. He’s talking about our very selves, created in the image of God.

Do we show that image of God to the world by the way that we live? Are the people around us able to see a reflection of God’s love and His goodness in the way that we live? Since we are made in God’s image, do we give ourselves completely to God’s service, in gratitude for all that He gives us, which includes even our own life? I think we all have to admit that the image of God that He created in us has been broken by our own sinfulness.

But God does not desire to leave us broken. He is at work to restore His image in us through His Son, Jesus Christ. In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we hear this good news:

13 [God the Father] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:13–15)

Jesus, who is the perfect image of the Father, came in human form to restore God’s image in us. He took upon Himself our sins on the cross and paid for them with His own blood. Now by faith in Jesus, He makes us to be once again like Him. He restores God’s image in us. He makes it possible for us to render to God the things that are God’s – by empowering our lives of service to God and to one another.

And the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Isaiah 45:1      Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,

              whose right hand I have grasped,

      to subdue nations before him

              and to loose the belts of kings,

      to open doors before him

              that gates may not be closed:

2   “I will go before you

              and level the exalted places,

      I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

              and cut through the bars of iron,

3   I will give you the treasures of darkness

              and the hoards in secret places,

      that you may know that it is I, the LORD,

              the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

4   For the sake of my servant Jacob,

              and Israel my chosen,

      I call you by your name,

              I name you, though you do not know me.

5   I am the LORD, and there is no other,

              besides me there is no God;

              I equip you, though you do not know me,

6   that people may know, from the rising of the sun

              and from the west, that there is none besides me;

              I am the LORD, and there is no other.

7   I form light and create darkness;

              I make well-being and create calamity;

              I am the LORD, who does all these things.

1Thessalonians 1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

1Thessalonians 1:2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Matthew 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. 16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 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.” 22 When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.