Sermon - 10/18/20

<p>For those of you familiar with William Shakespeare’s work, you will remember that one line from his play <em>The Tempest</em> is “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”  Over time, that line has morphed into the phrase, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.”  Now, quite honestly, politics making strange bedfellows is by no means a recent development.  This has probably happened throughout the history of humanity.  And, we find that is <strong>exactly</strong> what is happening in today’s gospel reading as the Pharisees and Herodians team up to trick and trap Jesus.</p> <p>For the past few weeks, we have been journeying with Jesus through the last week of his life, a week that has been intense to say the least.  Just a few days before today’s confrontation, Jesus had entered Jerusalem where he was greeted by throngs of people shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  Then there was that incident where he overthrew the tables of the Temple moneychangers.  Jesus has spent the week challenging both the political and religious powers that be.  He has been doggedly confronted by the religious leaders who are questioning the authority behind his actions.  And, <strong>he</strong> has called into question the <strong>religious leaders’</strong> authority by telling illuminating, confrontational parables.  So, today, we discover the Herodians and the Pharisees team up to trap the itinerant, rabblerousing, peasant rabbi known as Jesus. </p> <p>To better understand what is happening in this story, we need a little bit of background information.  Jews in first century Palestine paid a lot of taxes. There was a temple tax; there were also land taxes, customs taxes, and trade taxes to name just a few more. The tax mentioned in today’s reading was yet an additional tax, one particularly despised by the Jews - it was called the Imperial Tax.  This tax was required as a tribute to Rome to support the Roman Empire's occupation of Israel. Think of that for a moment - first century Jews were required to pay their oppresso