Matthew 17: Jesus is the End of Religiosity

So the past few months we had been going through the book of Acts, and we got all the way up to Paul's conversion for the summer.

We're gonna break from the book of Acts.

We're gonna be going through a handful of parables, parables of grace.

We'll be doing that all through the summer, and then most likely head back into Acts when we're back in August or September.

So every morning I usually listen to a different podcast of some sort.

Usually these podcasts are some sort of interview type show.

And inevitably at some point, most of these podcasts ask this question.

They ask, what do you think the difference is between religion and spirituality?

What do you think the difference is between religion and spirituality?

And they hymn and they haw a little bit, and each person has a little bit of their own definition, a commentary on this.

But more and more people, what I'm noticing, perhaps you're noticing this, more and more people are saying something like they are spiritual, but they are not religious.

And I think it's probably people's way, I'm guessing, probably people's way of saying that religion has in some way to them felt stifling or wounded them or felt judgmental toward them.

And so, you know what?

I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual.

Now, for a definition, religion is a set of beliefs around the supernatural.

That's what religion is, by definition, a set of beliefs around the supernatural.

But Jesus' attitude toward religious people and religious systems in the New Testament takes it a step further, and he says religion's also the system by which you use those beliefs to please God.

Now, spirituality is a little bit different.

Usually people define spirituality as more personal, your personal connect with God, and this seems to be a little more subjective and seems to be a little bit more just about whatever that path may be for you.

Ten years ago, Tim Keller, the author of the pastor, he wrote an article based on the content of this book called Suspicion and Faith by Merald Westfall.

Now, I'm not studious enough to have read the book, but I read the article.

I got the article down, and so I got the gist of the article, I got the gist of the book because of that.

And Westphal, in that book, he writes this.

He writes about three different criticisms of religion.

And he says, you know what?

Sigmund Freud came out, Freud said religion was just a way, religion, it's just a way for guilt-ridden people to cleanse themselves.

They invented a God so that the guilt they feel, they could get rid of it and they could sort of force God to bless them.

That's what Freud said.

Karl Marx came along and he said, well, religion's really a way that people have created one class of people to oppress another class of people.

Maybe you've seen these things.

Nietzsche comes along, Nietzsche's still very popular, this thought today.

And he says, Well, anyone who has a claim for truth is just a power play.

That's all it is.

Any claim of truth is a power play.

Which is ironic.

Because by saying any claim of truth is a power play is in fact a claim of truth, which is in fact a power play.

So he's doing the very thing he's criticizing.

So all these flows, these thoughts are, they're floating around us, right?

Maybe you've seen these things, maybe you actually resonate with one of those, and you go, oh, like, oh, I've seen that, maybe I do that, or I've been around that.

And we can easily become defensive against these types of critiques of God and faith, but that book suggests that we should actually listen to them.

We should actually listen to Freud and Marx and Nietzsche and go, what are they saying?

What are they reacting to?

And that, yes, in fact, religion does create issues of self-righteousness.

Religion does create issues of exclusion.

Religion does create issues of power dynamics.

And some of you have walked out on relationships because of this.

Some of you walked out on church because of this.

Some of you felt like maybe you have to walk out on faith because of this.

Do you remember the warden from Shawshank Redemption?

You've had 24 years to see the movie, so I'm not feeling bad about ruining anything in this moment.

It's been 24 years.

I looked it up.

So he's this upright Christian man.

Well, upright.

Let's put that in little quotation marks, right?

He's an upright Christian.

He has a Bible on his desk, right?

Because that's what Christian businessmen do.

That's the sign.

You know, if you have a Bible on the desk, you're good to go.

He has a big Bible on his desk.

Every once in a while he'll read a verse.

He has this air of arrogance about him, self-righteousness about him.

Because he is doing what is right.

So he thinks.

And he has everybody else pegged, he has everybody else figured out, he has it all figured out.

Everybody else is bad, but he is right.

He knows it, he gets it, they don't.

All of these prisoners, if only they could be like him, is what he thinks.

Right?

And you watch the movie and he just reeks of self-righteousness and arrogance and judgment and exclusion, this idea of like us versus them.

I am good, they are bad.

And then you remember the story.

Andy, the main character of the movie, a prisoner, he starts to keep the guy's books, and slowly you realize, oh, this guy's running a money racket.

This guy's the worst of them all.

Not only is he arrogant and he's judgmental and he's horrible to these prisoners, he's actually a criminal.

He is them.

And I love several scenes in Shawshake.

One of my favorite scenes is when Andy sneaks in the office, he locks the door, he gets the record player, you remember it?

And he plays the opera music out loud for all the prisoners.

It's just this, it's like this moment of beauty and relief for people who are bound.

But my favorite scene is this scene where Andy steals the warden's shoes and he walks back to his cell with the warden's shoes on, these shiny shoes.

He's been shining them like every day throughout the movie, right?

And it's this symbol, it's this beautiful symbol of you know what?

We're the same.

I can wear these shoes too.

And this warden, he knows nothing of his own sinfulness.

He knows nothing of grace for his sinfulness.

So when the tide turns, right, when that swing occurs from self-righteousness to actually seeing his sinfulness, he can't handle it.

See, all of that religious stuff, merit, works, righteousness, self-righteousness, exclusion, judgment, power plays, all of it ultimately comes back on you.

It comes back and condemns you.

All right, now that I have you incredibly joyful this morning, let's read the text.

And once again, Jesus is being quite anti-religious in this text against the religious system at the time.

Matthew 17, 24 through 27, I'll reread what Sam read for us.

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two drachmatages went up to Peter and said, Does your teacher, talking about Jesus, does your teacher not pay the tax?

He said, Yes.

And when he entered, when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, What do you think, Simon?

From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax from their sons or from others?

And when he said, From others, Jesus said to him, Then the sons are free.

However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel.

Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.

Okay, this is a strange story.

It's a parable.

Some people would call it a miracle.

Some people would say it's not a miracle.

Some people would say it's literal and it's a miracle.

Some people would say it's not literal and a miracle.

Some people would say that Jesus is being absurd here.

It's figurative.

Now you can believe either way on that.

The real question here is what does it mean?

What does this mean for religion?

What does this mean for faith?

So we have these guys, these temple tax collectors, they're collecting this temple tax.

And they're asking Peter, hey, is your teacher?

Does he pay the temple tax?

Now, this temple tax was for all adult males to pay to the temple, to the religious system, and this was a tax known as ransom for your lives.

It's a good way to raise money, right?

You gotta give to the temple.

If you give to the temple, you have paid the ransom for your life.

And Peter says, of course.

Yes.

And the wording here is just like really kind of like quick response.

Right?

The feeling is that Peter desires to make Jesus respectable in the eyes of these religious people.

You see, Peter still cares about religion at this point.

Peter comes home, back to the house threat, he enters, and Jesus says, Hey, what do you think?

Whom does a king take tax from?

Does a king take tax from his children or from other people?

That's a loaded question.

Jesus is saying, Jesus is saying, does he tax his own kids?

Well, no, a king doesn't tax his own kids.

A king taxes foreigners.

So he's belittling the temple tax, and thus the religiosity Peter is still connected to.

And Jesus is ultimately asking to Peter, do you understand who I am?

Do you understand what I'm doing?

So a few points.

Point number one, Jesus dismantles religion.

This story is about Jesus distancing himself from the day's religious construct, which was pay.

You pay, earn it.

And then be approved by God.

But does a king tax his own son?

I mean, that doesn't even make sense, is Jesus' point.

Kings don't tax their children.

Jesus is dismantling these religious methods of works, righteousness.

Point number two lives of grace and faith are not lives of religion.

Imagine you're in an Uno game.

So these are our Uno cards, our family's Uno cards.

We are huge Uno fans.

We take them everywhere, you just keep them in Christie's purse.

If we're at a restaurant with our kids, you know, there's a moment of waiting.

We just break out the deck, we deal it, we play it.

If we think, you know, it's gonna be a 15-minute wait, three-card deal.

If there's gonna be a longer wait, seven card deal, we make the adjustment, and we play.

We play Uno all the time.

Now imagine you're playing some Uno with your group of friends, you get dealt your cards, everybody's dealing, you remember the cards, right?

Like they're colored, different colors.

You can tell we've been playing.

There's some blue, there's yellow, there's red, there's green, they're all numbered.

It's how the cards work.

And then there's the great cards, right?

The black and white cards, the wild cards, those are the ones you really want.

It's how the card system works.

Now imagine you get dealt your first seven cards, and you get dealt, everybody gets dealt, you get dealt your first seven cards, and the cards you get, all you get is apples, apples cards.

And you get Waco, Texas, and you get you get Babe Ruth and Pumping Iron, Hollywood and Babies, and you get these cards.

They're pointless in the game, they're not like you're doing anything.

I mean, right away you're sort of in some measure of despair.

And every time it comes around to your turn, if you can't play a card, and you can't play a card, you don't have a color, or you don't have a number, you don't have a wild card, you don't have a card to play, so you have to draw another card and you draw it, alien abduction.

It's not gonna help.

Goes around again, you pull another card out, popcorn.

Doesn't help.

And you just keep drawing cards over and over again.

So you're busy and you're at the table.

You never leave the game, but you will never win.

And you can become delusional and think you're gonna win.

Or maybe you recognize the horror of this and you're incredibly frustrated, and you're anxious because it's coming back around to you again, and you're gonna have to draw another card, and you keep getting apples to apples cards for an Uno game, and it's not gonna work.

And here's what I can guarantee you will not be a joy to be around.

And you will be too frustrated.

You see, religion keeps giving you cards to play.

You'll keep getting cards, and you'll still be at the table.

But you'll never have the cards to win.

So you end up exhausted and anxious or judgmental and prideful if you're in the delusional side of it.

But it's a losing game.

It's always a losing game.

But the good news is, is God called the game off.

In Jesus, we say, we have the wrong cards.

Temple tax is not going to work.

Does a king tax his son?

That doesn't make any sense.

I don't have the merit, I don't have the morals, I don't have the motives to be accepted or absolved by God, and yet in Jesus' work for me, it's okay.

The game's off because my sin was put upon Jesus and his righteousness was given to me.

You see, the temple tax doesn't make sense.

The gospel, grace by faith, is a gift, and it's a gift from outside of the cards you hold.

It ends the game.

Point number three, lives of grace and faith are lives of non-judgmental love and service.

Lives of grace and faith are lives of non-judgmental love and service.

This is where Jesus is slowly moving this historically religious group of disciples.

It's not directly in the text here, but this is where he's moving them to go and love your neighbor, go and make disciples of all people.

He's transforming them from the heart out, from dependence and self and religion and law to God's grace to them and the spirit's working in them.

And this does not create perfect people, and this does not create a perfect church, but it does move people toward a non-judgmental love and service toward people.

And our need to be right or moralize our friends and family begins to be replaced by a desire to love them toward Jesus, ultimately and first.

I read a quote this week by a priest and author, Robert Capin, and he wrote this My motives are the same as Christ's, namely to cure my hearers of their excessive fondness for moralism.

Last point.

Point number four.

You have freedom from all religious taxing.

You have freedom from religious taxing.

That's what Jesus is saying to Peter.

Does a king tax his son?

Does a king tax his daughter?

Sons are free.

Daughters are free.

And some of you have been paying tax for a long time.

You think you're always in debt to God for something?

For something in the past, something in the current, some shortcoming that you feel you are?

So you you pay your moral tax, it's moralism, you pay your religious tax, it's religiosity or law.

Think maybe I'll be religious enough, maybe I'll be moral enough.

Think you can pay your way out of shame or guilt, or you're trying to, and you pay, and you pay, and you pay.

And because you're doing this, eventually the people around you pay because you're no joy to be around.

This isn't an easy parable to figure out.

Was he literal?

Here at the end of this little story, was Jesus literal?

Did he actually provide the tax for Peter?

Very possible it'd still be a great story, right?

It's very possible that he provided that and it's a reflection upon him being the provision of the payment.

It's very possible.

I also like the idea of if he's just being totally absurd.

As if to say, if you think you can pay a tax to some temple and all of a sudden be ransomed from your guilt and shame, then like that's about as likely as going to find a fish with a coin in its mouth.

Religion for redemption is the same chances as finding a fish with a coin in its mouth.

Jesus is saying, ultimately in this story, religion doesn't work.

It never has.

Religion is always a ladder that you climb to reach God, and you are always almost there.

And also never there.

And religion always says, you are accepted.

You are accepted after.

Like after you get your stuff together.

Like after you earn enough.

And the gospel is different altogether.

It is God's love to you despite everything and anything.

The gospel is God's love pursuing you.

No ladder for you to climb.

It's God coming toward us.

And it is declared and it is secure in his work for us in Jesus.

Your acceptance and your absolution is not after, it is before.

It is before any response by you, anything you do, and a life of response to the gift of grace is not in debt to it, but only gratitude and empowerment by it.

So, my brothers and sisters, the tax game is over.

The religious tax game is over.

May you live lives of children of the king, but the sons and the daughters are not taxed.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your good grace.

That you provide the payment, that you provide that coin in the fish's mouth, or perhaps it's just absurdity for us to think that a temple tax would ever be enough for us.

Would we hear your words here?

Does a king tax his children?

Of course not.

Would you increase our trust in Jesus that we might know this freedom that you have given us?

That we are fully accepted, fully absolved by your work for us, and would this create great, great change in our hearts?

And would our lives honor you?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.