The Good News of Image and Inscription

Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity
November 8^th, A+D 2026
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD

The audio of the sermon can be accessed HERE.

On my heart imprint Your image, Blessed Jesus, King of Grace,
That life’s riches, cares and pleasures, Never may your work erase.
Let the clear inscription be, Jesus crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation, And my glory and salvation.

   Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.  On this Sunday after election day, how are you feeling about Jesus’ admonition?           

   We are still remarkably blessed to live in a democratic republic, but collectively we seem less and less capable of responsible citizenship or responsible statesmanship.  Still, the Church has lived under far worse governments, and in all cases, Christian citizens are to be the best citizens, honoring the authorities, obeying laws, paying taxes.  Christians historically have had to put up with a lot of bad governance without fomenting rebellion, because God in His Word teaches us that earthly rulers are put in place by Him, even the not so great ones. 

   Are we ever to resist, to refuse, to take a stand against governing authorities?  Oh yes, when necessary for the proclamation of the Gospel, or when we are ordered to do things clearly contrary to God’s Word.  And most especially if, by word or deed, we are pressured to deny Christ and His Good News.  But apart from such conditions, Christians are to obey their earthly rulers, and pay their taxes cheerfully. 

   Now, to be sure, applying these Biblical principles in day-to-day life can be difficult in a democracy, and especially today when our government has entwined itself into every corner of our lives, often in evil ways.  Reality is that our tax dollars are, in some measure, used to kill babies in the womb, and pay to support misguided souls in the hopeless attempt to use chemicals and surgery to change from a man to a woman or a woman to a man.  Some of the services we receive from government are funded by fellow citizens, through their addiction to gambling.  The same government who claims a right to license our marriages also says marriage can be discarded on a whim, for any reason, or no reason at all.  And I believe in general Christians in America were too willing to give up gathering together for worship when ordered or pressured to do so during Covid.  Things are really quite a mess. 

   Living out our faith in America today is not easy.  I hate many of the ways the government misuses my taxes or abuses its powers, and I hate that neither I nor the Church in general seems capable of changing much.  But are these reasons for me to resist government authority?  And if so, how?  I do not claim to know, except to say that we should not take the law into our own hands, and we should always be looking for opportunities to proclaim the Christian reasons we disagree with this or that government policy.  These are big questions, which I suspect will only get bigger in years to come.  Lord, have mercy upon us.  And He will!    

   Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.  Important stuff.  But not the main concern for Jesus this morning.  No, our Lord turns a clumsy political attack on its head, not primarily to give us guidance about good Christian citizenship, but rather to point us to His real goal, His Father’s goal, which is to see His image restored in us.  

   It is the first Holy Week.  Something is going to happen, soon.  The Jewish leaders are nervous.  Three years of opposition to Jesus reach the boiling point.  The plot hatched in our Gospel reading is pretty weak sauce, to be sure.  We have the Pharisees, something like a religious political party, and we have the Herodians, Jews who had drawn close to and become supporters of and beneficiaries from Herod, who ruled over part of Israel, on behalf of Rome, on behalf of Caesar.  They are hoping to get Jesus in trouble, maybe even arrested, by tricking Him into saying something revolutionary, against Roman rule. 

   They are trying to ensnare the Word made flesh, the very Wisdom of God, in His Words.  Stop and consider this foolish idea for a second.  There has never been a more lopsided contest of words.  Good luck tricking Jesus with your clever words.  

   Now, their ploy could work with many political figures, because nobody really enjoys paying taxes, first century Jews included.  And, they had to pay taxes to their occupier, the Roman government, led by Caesar, a far away but powerful dictator.  The Pharisees try to make the tax question into a religious and moral dilemma, pitting political subjugation against religious beliefs.  They ask Jesus: “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”  If Jesus is a revolutionary, He should say ‘no,’ and the Herodians can go tell Herod to arrest Him for fomenting rebellion.  On the other hand, if Jesus says the Jews should pay their Roman taxes, well, many of His followers were looking for a revolutionary leader.  He could lose popularity.  A win either way, they think.   

   Jesus is not impressed.  Hypocrites!  Bring me the coin for the tax.  And then notice how Jesus is very deliberate with His word choice.  He could have said, “Who is this guy, stamped on the coin?”  Or, “Who minted this money, where did it come from?  But no, Jesus asks “whose likeness, whose image… is this?  Caesar’s likeness, his image, hence, Caesar’s coin.  So, if Caesar demands his coin back from you, you give it. 

   Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.  What image are we to give back to God?  What image does God want from us?  This takes us back to the beginning, when God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” and so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Gen. 1:26-27)  Made in God’s image.  God created us to resemble, to be like Him, in important ways.  We are far, far less than God, wonderfully dependent on Him; we are limited creatures.  But still, we are made in God’s image, after His likeness, with capacity to love and reason and care, and do good things.  This is something of the image that God wants from us.  Such good things are what He longs to see in us, His favorite creatures. 

   We shattered that image all too quickly.  Not completely.  In every human soul we can see traces of the original beauty and goodness God gave us at the beginning.  But these traces of His image are heartbreaking; they heighten the tragedy of mankind, because the traces are so broken, so ruined.  Sin broke humanity, sin broke you and me, beyond human ability to fully comprehend, certainly beyond our ability to repair. 

   Still, God wants to see His image restored in us.  And so, Jesus asks His question in the way He did: Whose image is this on the coin?  Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and render unto God the things that are Gods.

   Jesus has told us how things are to be.  Now what?  Well, while we may not like it, we know how to pay our taxes.  Is that how it works with God, we just need to do it, just need to give His image back to Him, that is, reflect back to Him the image He put in us?  But how exactly do we give back to God the image He gave us?  And how many imperfections in our rendering will the LORD be willing to accept? 

   As we heard in the Beatitudes last Sunday on All Saints Day, Jesus declares that the blessed people of God are known by their endurance under persecution, their spiritual poverty, their tireless pursuit of peace, their generous sharing of mercy.  Long-suffering, patience, spiritual humility, peacemaking, generosity, mercy.  All of these are part of God’s image, no?  Is this the way that Jesus is pointing us to this morning?  Be holy, as God is holy, and then He will rejoice in our reflection of His image? 

   Well, this is God’s end-goal, and He will achieve it.  But we will not.  We cannot achieve this standard.  If this were possible, the Bible, the story of salvation, would be a lot shorter.  “Sinners, hear God’s law and fix yourselves according to it!  The End.”  That is a simple theology, straightforward, and it would be entirely just.  But it offers no hope to us. 

   So, God’s salvation project is actually fairly long, from Abram to Jesus almost two millennia, from Jesus to us, another two.  Which is also to say that God’s salvation project is just the right length.  Like when God waited until just the right time to act, waiting for the New Adam, the New Man to be born, born of a woman, during the reign of Caesar Augustus, born under the law, to redeem those whom the law condemned. 

   For God’s Son to stand before the Pharisees and Herodians and ask His question about images and inscriptions, first He had to take on human flesh.  This makes all the difference.  Remember, while Adam and Eve were created in God’s image; the Son of God becoming a man is an entirely different category.  Because the Father’s only-begotten Son is not made in the Father’s image; He is the Father’s image: distinct, and yet so similar, so intimate, that He and the Father are One. 

   And so, the beginning of God achieving His goal of restoring you and me in His image was to first join His image to humanity.  We call this the Incarnation, the Son of God taking on human flesh from Mary, and being born a helpless baby, who also happened to be
God.  The decisive Incarnation difference is that now, ever since His miraculous conception in Mary’s womb, now and forever and ever after, the image of God is newly present in human flesh, a perfect Man, without blemish, without sin.  

On my heart imprint Your image, Blessed Jesus, King of Grace.

   God does want to see His image in you and me, and in every soul.  To make this possible again, after sin ruined us, God chose to take humanity into Himself, to restore it.  Now that humankind is restored in Jesus, all who are joined to Him are likewise restored, are once again pleasing reflections of God’s own image.  This is what God sees when He sees you, joined to Jesus, united with your Savior, in communion with the Christ.     

Let the clear inscription be, Jesus crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation, And my glory and salvation.

   Whose inscription is this? Jesus asks.  Country folk, like the Jews in Palestine, 1,400 miles east of Rome, might not have recognized the likeness of Caesar on the denarius coin.  So, there were also epigraphs, inscriptions, on these tax coins, short phrases and titles, to remove all doubt.  One example from the time of the New Testament is “Caesar Augustus, the divine father of the country.”  

   We poor sinners likewise struggle to recognize that God’s good image was essentially present in Jesus of Nazareth.  We need such mysteries to be spelled out.  And so God did. 

   All of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures are an extended inscription meant to help us recognize Jesus as God’s Messiah, the Christ, the Savior sent from above.  Many declarations are recorded in the New Testament testifying to Jesus’ true identity, Son of God, Son of Mary, the only Savior.  And there’s another inscription, written down right in the moment, just a few days after the events of our Gospel reading.  Pontius Pilate, the earthly authority who sent Jesus to the Cross, was inspired to have an inscription written and posted above Jesus’s head, literally an epigraph, a “writing above.”  We abbreviate it I.N.R.I.  Written out in English, that inscription is “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” 

   Follow the trail to which these four nouns lead, and you will end up with the whole story of salvation.  Jesus, whose name means the LORD Saves, is a real man, born and raised in places we can visit, Bethlehem and Nazareth.  Despite all appearances, as He hangs suffering on a Roman cross, He is the King, not just of one nation, but king of all, king of the universe.  His kingdom starts with the Jews, the Judahites, the only intact tribe of Israel.  Through Judah’s True King, Jesus of Nazareth, God promised to bring salvation, not just for Jews, not just for Israel, but for every nation.   

   Read the inscription above Jesus’ thorn-pierced head.  Weep, believe, and rejoice.  Rejoice, because hidden under the tragedy and the gore, your image is restored in God’s eyes.  Your image is restored, because Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, has paid for all your sin, washed away your guilt, and raised you to His right hand in heaven. 

   And how do you know?  Because God has said so, publicly, writing His Name on your heart in Holy Baptism.  I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, declares Jesus.  I announce to you today that your name is inscribed in the Book of Life, smiles the Father.  Believe and rejoice, murmurs the Spirit. 

   Being made in God’s image was a free gift to Adam and Eve.  Being re-made in God’s image is likewise a free gift to you, the free gift that changes everything.  Including our hearts.  When the eyes of our heart recognize the baptismal gift of restored image, we rightly become like little children, in love with their father and mother, and so wanting to please them.  And how do our little ones, at their best, try to please their earthly parents?  By imitating them.  Speaking, as they hear mom and dad speak.  Helping to wash the dishes, or sweep out the garage.  Holding and feeding a younger sibling. 

   So also, the better we grasp who Jesus is and what He has done for us, the more we want to conform ourselves to His image, in our words, deeds, and thoughts.  We hear Him speak, and seek to speak like Him.  We receive His love, and seek to love others.  Children mimicking their heavenly Father, godly and good. 

   See Jesus.  Hear what the Father has said about Him.  And He who began, He who commenced a good work in you, will continue it to completion in the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And this continuance and completion work is very much like the commencement of your life in Christ.  God worked, for you and on you, restoring your image, inscribing His love on your heart in the splashing of the water with the words of His Holy Name.  And so also, He continues and completes this work with the same Word, daily renewing and restoring us, until the Day when we will see Him face to face. 

   You know, we might even picture this Christian life like swimming in our Baptism, day by day.  And that is a good image, for today, and forever and ever. Amen.