The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
October 18, 2026
Proper 24, A
Isaiah 45:1-7
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
Matthew 22:15-22
Years ago, I was at workshop, seminar thing. I think it was about teaching kids about Jesus. There was this one part where they showed a bunch of books and asked what was wrong with all of these book titles, and some people noticed that a lot of the books mentioned kids being happy, and they thought that was the problem. No, sorry guys, even Christian kids get to be happy. The problem was actually that they were all books about young kids and nothing about teenagers, but what I remember was how much people missed the point. It was as if they tried to make their kids happy, then they would be missing out on Jesus. I don’t know.
The other thing I really remember was this one guy (I have no idea what he was there to talk about), who began his talk by telling the audience that he had gotten married, which was lovely, and I’m sure he had prayed for God to show him the right woman to be his wife, and he told us all that on their wedding night, he kissed her for the very first time.
They’d been dating and everything for, I don’t know, months, years, and he was boasting that he had remained pure and kept her pure. They had not even so much as kissed until they were married. I don’t know what they hell else he talked about, but that story was this wonderfully gross display of virtue signaling and purity culture. If he didn’t want to kiss his girlfriend until they were married, great, more power to him, but boasting about that in a conference where we’re talking about raising our children to believe and follow Jesus, he’s pretty well saying, “and this is what your kids ought to do, too.”
It was virtue signaling, saying, “I did so well with my virtue and purity, so you should, too.” It was pretty gross, all a part of this purity culture thing where you’re not supposed to do certain things, usually around sex, in order to stay pure for Jesus. Well, of course then, if you do have sex, or apparently even kiss someone, before you’re married, then you’re impure and you get to feel bad about yourself.
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| from "Young Frankenstein" |
The purity culture thing misses the point entirely. I suppose if the only two options are, “Don’t even kiss someone until you marry them,” or “Have as much sex as you want, with as many people as you want, consequences be damned,” then I guess don’t kiss until you’re married is the better of those two options, but that’s not about purity before Jesus. That’s about not causing harm.
The “Have as much sex as you want, with as many people as you want, consequences be damned” option isn’t a bad option because it makes you impure. It’s a bad option because it’s going to cause a lot of harm. If you’re having sex, risking pregnancy, with no intention of raising a baby, then you’re causing harm. If you’re having sex and you don’t care at all about the person you’re with, they’re just more fun than doing it alone, that’s causing harm because the other person is no longer a person. They’re just a thing to make you feel good.
So, the virtue signaling, purity culture thing misses the point entirely because our purity before God is not what’s at stake. The reason what we do with our bodies matters is because people matter, and our bodies matter, and how we treat ourselves and other people matters.
What the hell does this have to do with whether or not Jesus was allowed to pay taxes to the emperor? The Pharisees, in their virtue signaling and purity culture, were missing the point. The purity culture they brought up to Jesus wasn’t about sex, but about whether or not they paid taxes to the emperor, and like with most virtue signaling, it was all a bunch of bunk, trying to make themselves look good so Jesus looked bad.
See, when they asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not, it wasn’t just a question of how much we love or hate the IRS. The Roman Empire had taken over the nation of Israel, and they demanded Israel pay them taxes. Well, the people of Israel didn’t love that, and some could make the claim that if you paid your tax to the emperor, it was like you were worshipping the emperor.
The Roman Emperor was seen as a god (not by Israel), and the Roman Emperor’s head was printed on the coins, so the coins themselves were like little idols to the false god, the Roman Emperor. So, if you then paid your tax to this false god with this idolatrous coin, then it could be said you were worshipping idol. On the other hand, if you said it was illegal to pay taxes to the emperor, well, that would be open rebellion against Rome, and you could be killed.
So, they tried to get Jesus in this gotcha moment of Jesus either being an idolater or in rebellion against Rome. Jesus digs deep into their question, showing that they have completely missed the point.
Pay your taxes to Rome, don’t pay your taxes to Rome? Well, if you don’t Rome’s just gonna kill you, so yes, just pay your taxes. No, none of the people of Israel liked paying taxes to Rome. Rome had conquered them and completely sucked. They were vicious and cruel, so no, Israel didn’t love paying taxes to Rome, but they kinda had to, otherwise they’d be killed.
Regarding the whole idolatry bit, Jesus had them pull out the coin, pointing out that they were carrying around that very piece of idolatrous money. So quit with the virtue signaling and purity culture, guys. I’m not an idol worshipper for paying taxes, neither are you.
Give to Rome the things that are Rome’s, Jesus said. Pay your dang taxes with that dang idolatrous coin.
Give to God the things that are God’s, Jesus said. Even under Roman rule, we still get to be the people of Israel; we still get to be God’s people. So, give Rome that coin, and God your life, your allegiance, your daily actions, and all you do with other people.
If you’re trying to signal how virtuous you are, God doesn’t care. If you decide to show how virtuous you are by not paying taxes to Rome, great. You’re throwing your life away and not doing a bit of good for anyone else. How about, quit with virtue signaling, and instead just pay your taxes, and then live a life of love and peace, a life of forgiveness and mercy, a life of honoring and valuing the people around you. Those are the things Jesus was saying we should give to God.
If someone back then wanted to make a grand gesture, showing their devotion to God by not paying taxes to Rome, great. They’d have been killed and not have actually done a lick of good for anyone. Virtue signaling, just kinda selfish and dumb.
If you want not to kiss your girlfriend or boyfriend until you get married, great, more power to you, but that’s not going to make you pure before God. Trying to be pure before God is missing the point. Is what we’re doing dishonoring ourselves and dishonoring others? Is what we’re doing harming ourselves or harming others? That’s the kind of stuff we’re not supposed to be doing.
So, kissing someone before you get married or not, who cares? Having all the sex we can, with all the people we can, not caring about the person, or the harm, or the possible pregnancy, or the disease, or any of that, yeah that’s harmful. That’s the stuff we’re not supposed to do, not because it keeps us pure for God, but because not doing so causes less harm to people.
Being a good little pure, virtuous person is not what we give to God. Are we living lives of love and peace towards ourselves and others? That's what we give to God. Are we living a life of forgiveness and mercy towards ourselves and others? That’s what we give to God. Are we living lives of honoring and valuing ourselves and others? That’s what we give to God.
Are we doing it perfectly? Hell, no. That’s not the point. If we start getting into perfect or not, we’re getting into virtue signaling and purity culture, which is just selfish masquerading as righteousness. We don’t try to be perfect. We try to be loving and peaceful. We try to be forgiving and merciful. We try to honor and value people. We give those things to God, and we ask God to do the rest.
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