John W. Vannorsdall - "On Hailing Caesar" (October 18, 1987)

The dilemma posed between loyalty to governing authorities and loyalty to the ultimate authority of God is not easily resolved by the Scriptural witness. On the one hand, Paul exhorts the Roman Christians to obey human authority and see it as a gift from God, and, on the other, Peter replies to the Jewish authorities in Acts that he and the early Christians must obey God rather than human authority. Jesus' cryptic reply that we must render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's lies somewhere between these to poles of the dilemma. And it is pricesly at the crossroad of these two positions that Jesus (and therefore we as well) was crucified. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 19:45. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 41:19.

Key quotation: “This conflict between what civil and religious authorities thought necessary for the good of society, and what Jesus found necessary in obedience to God, were the horizontal and the vertical of the cross, the unsentimental consequence of two realities for which there was no other resolution.”