Renderings

West End UMC Podcast Audio Podcast

Continuing with our sermon series from Matthew, today’s reading is the familiar story of the Pharisees and Herodians trying to entrap Jesus by asking him whether to pay taxes to Caesar. Beneath the obvious question is the issue of where one’s loyalties lie. The Pharisees and the Herodians each had different perspectives and interests where Rome and Jesus were concerned. Neither group thought Jews ought to pay the tax. Does this story have something to say about our own view of our own righteousness? Perhaps the important part of the answer of Jesus comes after the “and.”