Rev. Dr. Jan Remer-Osborn

Two Kingdoms -Dual Citizenship?

Pharisees to Jesus:  Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?  (From Matthew 22)

In today’s scripture, the goal again of the Pharisees was to get Jesus to commit to a stance that would get him either arrested or lose the commitment of his followers. We witness how Jesus outsmarted his detractors.

Today, it’s still about allegiances.  It’s about obeying the laws of the land and the laws of God.  Whom do we serve first?  Where is our primary citizenship.?  Can we obey government laws and still put God first?  Jesus’ answer underscores the tension, the pull between the two.  Martin Luther calls us citizens of “The Two Kingdoms.”

 

All that we have has been given by God.  We are created by God to have purposeful and meaningful lives.   We strive and live through the everydayness of our earthly existence, but we can have something better.  By helping to build God’s kingdom on earth we can be citizens of both kingdoms. Amazing! Oh, that this is truly so.