Sunday School Prize Giving Service

So I'd like to talk to you about tax this morning.

Who ever said church was boring?

I want to talk about tax.

And tax, for those of you who don't know,

is a compulsory contribution you have to make to the state

for different things that you earn, services that you use,

and purchases that you make.

You will look about as excited as this as I am.

So you pay income tax, you pay inheritance tax,

you pay road tax, which they certainly don't use

to solve the pothole problem in Edinburgh.

You pay capital gains tax, you pay value added tax,

and all sorts of other kinds of tax.

Benjamin Franklin said this,

certainty in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Good news.

So just to give you an example of tax.

Jack did some work for me.

And I didn't have any money,

so I'm going to pay him in kinder bars.

Jack worked really hard, he did really well,

so I'm going to pay him ten kinder bars.

Are you ready, Jack?

Hold out your hands.

Check I don't shortchange you, I am English.

One, two, three, four, eight, ten.

Agreed?

Good lads.

Problem is, Jack,

this is a church,

so this isn't like a brown envelope under the table,

say no more, say no more kind of deal.

You're going to have to pay some tax.

Here's your tax bill,

it'll come up on the screen,

and you must pay it immediately.

Okay, so there's a parent tax.

20%, that's two bars,

and they need to go to your mum.

Parent tax.

On you go.

What else do you have to pay, Jack?

Brother tax.

Ten percent.

One bar.

And a bargain at the price.

What else?

A cleaning tax.

Unfortunately, Irene's gone out,

so I'll take that for her.

What else?

A youth pastor tax.

Ten percent.

You need to pay Peter.

He works very, very hard,

and his tax is well earned.

And then there's a tech tax.

You see, they're serving you

by putting your tax bill on the screen,

so you better go and pay them.

Let's see what else you've got.

That's actually it, Jack.

Ten kinder bars,

your total tax bill,

60%.

How did you like paying tax?

You didn't,

but you'll need to get used to it.

Thank you very much.

No, you don't need to pay me tax.

I'm all right.

It's amazing, isn't it,

that tax is kind of ubiquitous.

Everyone pays it.

And Romans 13 says,

by obeying civil authorities,

you're worshipping God.

So next time you pay something

to the government,

think I'm actually worshipping the Lord

by paying tax.

Story I want us to look at this morning

is about paying tax.

Problem is,

I'm not very good at reading,

so any words that's in blue

you're going to have to help me with

and all read it out together.

Okay, you all look very educated,

if not slightly worried.

Okay, here's the story.

It's from Mark chapter 12.

Mark 12 · chapter mention

It starts like this.

Later they sent some of the Pharisees

and Herodians to

to

him in his words.

They came to him and said,

we know that you are a man

of integrity.

I was better at reading than I thought.

You aren't swayed by others

because you

know attention to who they are,

but you

the way of God

in accordance with the

truth.

Is it right to

the imperial tax to Caesar or not?

Should we

or shouldn't we?

But

knew their hypocrisy,

why are you trying to

me?

He asked,

bring me a denarius

and let me look at it.

They bought the

coin

and he asked them,

whose

is this

and whose inscription

Caesar's they

denarius

Then Jesus said to them,

back to Caesar

what is Caesar's

and to

what is

and they were

at him.

It's a very little story,

isn't it?

And we're going to try and understand it

just very briefly together.

The first thing we're going to have to do

to understand this story

is understand who the two groups of people are.

We need to know who are the Pharisees

and who are the Herodians.

So let me give you a little bit of history.

If tax was an exciting,

history will certainly do it for you.

Here we are.

Now,

these two groups of people usually hate each other.

The Pharisees

are a group of religious extremists.

They hate the Romans

who were the occupying force

in Israel at this time.

They are ultra-religious.

The Pharisees hate Romans'

religious extremists.

Here are the Herodians.

The Herodians love the Romans.

They're very political

and they're collaborators.

They work with the Romans.

Do you see how normally

these two groups of people

would not get along at all?

They're actually

opposites to each other.

The Pharisees look down on the Herodians

as being compromises

and the Herodians look down on the Pharisees

for being religious neat-necks.

But here in our story,

we find them working together.

And the reason they're working together

is because they both

are threatened

and they hate Jesus.

In fact,

this collaboration,

this coalition

has been going on

since chapter 3, verse 6,

when Jesus

heals a man with a withered hand

and at the end of that story

it says,

and the Pharisees

and the Herodians

went out together

to plot

how they might kill

Jesus.

It's a story about tax

asked by these two groups of people

and this is how it comes about.

The Herodians

and the Pharisees

come to Jesus

to catch him in his words.

They want to trap him.

They want to catch him out.

This is part of their plot

to try and shut him up

forever.

And so verse 14,

they come with a lot of flattery.

Teacher,

we know that you're a man

of integrity.

Your insides are the same

as your outsides.

You're a good guy.

You aren't swayed by others

because you pay no attention

to who they are.

Single-minded

and focused on teaching

the way of God

in accordance with the truth.

It's very flattering.

Slithery tongues

baiting the trap

and here's the trap

and it is a killer question.

Is it right to pay

the imperial tax

to Caesar or not?

Should we pay

or shouldn't we?

The reason that is

such a brilliant question

is because if Jesus says yes,

then the Pharisees

will condemn him

for being a collaborator,

for being willing

to go along

with what the Romans say.

And if he says no,

the Herodians

will have him

as a rebel,

as somebody

who's usurping

what Caesar says.

If he says yes,

he's condemned.

If he says no,

he's condemned.

Jesus,

should we pay tax

or not?

Brilliant question.

Jesus is in

a catch-22 situation.

He is literally

between a rock

and a hard place.

He's condemned

if he does

and he's condemned

if he doesn't.

What's he going to do?

How's he going to get

out of this trap?

Well, he says,

bring me a denarius.

Here's to warm up.

That's a two-pence piece.

Whose picture is on it?

Liz.

Liz is on it.

But that's not,

they don't,

Jesus doesn't say

bring me a two-pence.

He says,

bring me a denarius,

which was a coin

that was paid

for one day's labor

for a normal person.

Whose image is on this?

Brilliant, Aaron.

Unbelievable.

Tiberius Caesar.

And Jesus says,

whose image is this

and whose inscription?

They say Caesar.

And then Jesus says,

give back to Caesar

what is Caesar's

and to God

what is God's.

And then it comments,

and they were amazed

at him.

They've gone from

trying to trap him

in his words

to being amazed at him

all by using a coin

and asking one question,

whose image is this?

Why is that so brilliant?

What is really going on here?

Well, let me walk you

through the logic.

The reason that you pay taxes

to Caesar

is because your coin

has Caesar's face on it,

Caesar's image on it,

and Caesar's inscription.

So what bears Caesar's image

and bears Caesar's inscription,

you're to give back to Caesar.

But he's making a very profound point.

Because in the mind

of these people,

there's this word image

and this word inscription.

In Genesis 1.26,

God at the very creation

of the world says,

let us make man

in our image.

That humankind

is to bear the image of God.

humankind is indwelt

with value,

dignity,

and worth

as image bearers

of the living God.

And then in Jeremiah 31.33,

God says this,

I will put my law

in their minds

and inscribe it

on their hearts.

The coin bears

Caesar's image

and Caesar's inscription.

I, you, we,

bear God's image

and God's inscription.

And so Jesus says,

give the coin to Caesar

because it's Caesar's.

But the question,

the answer behind

the answer,

well before you get to that,

understand that everything you are

and everything you have

belong to God

and it's important

that you give yourself to him.

That's why they were amazed

at him.

That's why they marveled

at him

because he took their trap

and he flipped reverse to them.

They were left undone

as people who knew

that they weren't giving

all of their lives to God

as those who bear his image

and his inscription.

And so Jesus would say

exactly the same thing

to each of us this morning.

Give to Caesar

what is Caesar's

or give to Liz

what is Liz's

but give to God

what is God's.

And this presents

a massive problem

for each and every one of us

because we're all guilty

of tax evasion.

We've all failed

to give to God

what is rightfully his.

Each individual one of us

has failed to love

the Lord our God

with all our heart,

soul,

mind,

and strength

and none of us

love our neighbor

as ourselves.

And the problem is

for this tax evasion

before a holy God

the penalty

is not a fine.

It's not a prison sentence.

It's death.

Romans 6.23

will say that

the wages of sin,

the penalty for sin

is death.

And we're all undone.

We're all guilty.

We're all fraudsters

and tax evaders

because we haven't given

to God

what is God's.

So a story about tax

actually becomes

a very condemning story

about how we failed

before God.

But there is good news

that the very center

of Mark's gospel

is this verse.

For even the Son of Man

that's a phrase

that Jesus uses

to refer to himself.

For even the Jesus

did not come

to be served

but to serve

and to give his life

as a ransom

to pay the penalty

for many,

for us.

We were tax evaders

who failed to give

to God

everything that was his.

Jesus came

and gave all of himself

all of the time

to God.

He paid it in full.

And yet he goes

to a cross

and dies a death.

And why?

That the only one

who gave to God

what was truly God's fully

died on the cross

so that we

who have failed

to give to God

what is rightfully God's

could go free.

Could have

a clean bill of health

from HMRC

in the heavenly places.

This is good news.

Give to Caesar

what is Caesar's

but give to God

what is God's

and we failed

but Jesus won

for us.

And therefore

we get a great

credit score

by trusting in him.

How do we

take hold

of this bailout?

By trusting in Jesus

and saying

you did it for me.

I accrued

a load of debt

that I couldn't pay

and yet you came

and died in my place

so that your

perfect credit history

could be replaced

by my fallen

failing

pitiful

credit history.

so you died

for me

so I

can go free.

Start Romans 6.23

for the penalty

of sin

is death

but the gift

of God

is eternal life

in Christ Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus

didn't come

to be served

but to serve

and to give

his life

as a ransom

for many.

I wonder

if you're

a Christian

here today

in response

to this great news

are you

giving to God

what is God's?

Are you giving

your all to him

trusting him

with everything

and saying

if Christ Jesus

did this for me

then nothing

I can do

is too much

for me

to do for him.

But perhaps

you're not a Christian

here today

and this is the first

time you've even heard

that you owe a debt

that you cannot pay.

Well the only answer

is to trust Jesus

who pays it

for you

and say

Jesus

I'm sorry

that I haven't

loved the Lord

my God

with all my heart

soul mind

and strength

and I haven't

loved my neighbour

as myself

thank you

that you came

and you died

my death

please

will you

forgive me

that I might

go free

that you might

pay my ransom

for me

why don't I pray

Father God

we can come

and we confess

that we owe

a debt

that we cannot

pay

we've sinned

in ways

that we

ourselves

cannot atone

for

but Lord

we thank you

so much

that you

loved us

that you

sent your son

that he

came

that he

died

in our

place

for our

sins

that he

gave to you

what was

rightfully

yours

which was

all of

himself

and so

Lord

would we

trust him

would we

lean our

whole life

upon him

and Father

now those

who are

free

free of

sin

would we

give to

you

our

lives

our

dreams

our hopes

our

possessions

our

all

because you

Lord are

worthy

so come

and take

your rightful

place in

our lives

we pray

Amen