The Money Trap: Matthew 22:15-21 
Introduction
We naturally seem to compartmentalize our lives. What I mean by that is that we think of our spiritual life as perhaps something we do on Sundays or 10 minutes in the morning before work to get us ready to face the day. We think of our work life as something disconnected from our spiritual life. We also see certain topics as spiritual such as prayer, reading the Bible and meditating and we see other topics such as money and possessions as something not at all connected to our spiritual life. The reality however is that we are integrated people. God created us to to have a spirituality that encompasses every aspect of our lives. Our view of money and how we use money are actually spiritual issues. Even a superficial reading of the Bible will reveal that the issue of money, finances and possession are a major topic in the Bible. Money and our view of money is critical to our spiritual health.Money can be a source of great benefit to our lives or it can be a trap. Money and wealth are depicted in the Bible as a blessing from God (Genesis 13:2). Money is also associated in the Bible with sins such as covetousness (Exodus 20:17) and greed (1 Timothy 6:9). Both rich and poor follow Jesus. Think of the many issues related to money that we deal with today such as debt, poverty, a widening gap between poor and rich, corruption in government and dare I say it pastors flying around in private jets. Each person who is serious about following Jesus must come to an understanding or a theology of money that will guide their lives and decisions. Issues such as work, credit, savings, giving and other related issues are part of our every day lives as such our spirituality and our faith must address these issues.
Some Background Information
The Pharisees were seeking to trap Jesus so that they could accuse him and end His ministry. The Herodians were actually Jews who supported King Herod. The question they asked Jesus was intended to put Jesus in a no win situation. If Jesus said do not give tax money to Cesar then He would be accused of being a revolutionary and arrested. If Jesus said to give tax to Cesar then He would be accused of not being a real prophet and therefore be disgraced before the people and possibly arrested as a false prophet by the religious leaders. Jesus asked for a Denarius which was a Roman coin worth a days wages for a Roman soldier. The coin had the image of Cesar, the Roman ruler on it. Instead of answering the question Jesus transcended the question, that is, he took the issue to a deeper level - the heart level. Money and its role in our lives is always a heart issue. Is money our God? Does money have a larger importance in our life than it should? Is money our priority? Is our financial life in order? If not why not? What is the heart issue?Jesus' answer in these verses is the basis of a Spirituality of money. It has been called the 2 Kingdom approach. Give to Cesar (government - earthly things) what belongs to that sphere of life and give to God what belongs to Him. When put in those terms we see that the greater and harder to give is what is due God. God's love and grace towards us calls us to give Him our lives in surrender and service. Yes we should pay taxes, be honest in financial dealing, pay our debts, live simply content with what we have but above all we are called to surrender all we are and have to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Once that surrender is made the other issues related to money fall into place and make sense.
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