Sermon
Sunday October 18, 2026
Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
I speak to you in the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Over the past few Sundays, we have been reading the parables of Jesus found in the Gospel of Matthew—taught to the crowd gathered in the temple in the days following his arrival in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus’ disciples and followers were present alongside curious onlookers. The chief priests and elders kept a steady eye on the crowds, and today we are told that the Pharisees and the Herodians were also there.
The parables we have read over these past weeks share similar characteristics: each has a surprising twist, unexpected violence, and challenging details. Because many of us have heard them hundreds of times, their familiarity can dull their impact. Unlike the Parable of the Good Samaritan, which warms your heart, these stories leave us scratching our heads or shocked by bad behavior. Last week, we heard the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, where an underdressed guest was bound hand and foot and thrown into the outer darkness. The week before, the tenant farmers murdered the vineyard owner’s servants and his son to hoard the harvest. Three weeks ago, we heard of two sons—one who refused to work but later went, and another who promised to work but failed to follow through.
These parables illustrate the complex realities of human behavior: loving, contradictory, upsetting, and downright messy. In today’s Gospel reading, Matthew tells us that the Pharisees plotted to trap Jesus with his own words, partnering with the Herodians. Normally, these two groups were polar opposites and bitter rivals—the Herodians supported the ruling Herods and aimed to keep peace through accommodation with Rome, while the Pharisees strongly opposed Roman influence. Yet, putting their animosity aside, they colluded to trap Jesus.
After offering insincere flattery, they presented him with a Roman denarius—a coin bearing the image and inscription of the emperor, which Jews considered idolatrous. Because Rome occupied the land, citizens were forced to use Roman coins in public life, though they had to exchange them for Jewish shekels within the temple courts. The opponents asked a trap question: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” If Jesus said yes, he would be accused of denying God’s ultimate sovereignty over Israel. If he said no, he would be turned in to the Roman authorities as a rebel.
Jesus asked to see the tax coin and inquired whose image and title were on it. When they answered “the emperor’s,” Jesus famously replied: “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Over the centuries, Jesus’ response has sometimes been misinterpreted to build a strict wall between the secular world and the spiritual world. However, that artificial divide does not truly exist. God created, loves, and seeks to redeem all of creation. Our faith and our salvation are worked out directly in this real, messy world—not in an isolated spiritual realm.
We cannot use faith as an excuse to ignore the issues, problems, and injustices of human society. God calls us to care for creation, love one another, address human needs, and confront injustice. While human behavior can be unpredictable, it is precisely within the concerns, joys, and struggles of our everyday lives that we meet God. Our salvation is worked out right here and now, in the midst of where we live, move, and have our being.
Blessed be God who loves us, who created us, and who wills that we should be saved. Amen.
Father Ted Hales