The readings for Pentecost 21 are taken from Isaiah 45:1-7; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10; and Matthew 22:15-22. Their theme revolves around power and authority, genuine and pretended. Pretended powers hate the real thing and resent being exposed.
God’s Word through Isaiah shocked those who pretended to be God’s people by revealing that Cyrus, king of Persia, was, in fact, God’s power at work in the civil world. Jesus says this again about Caesar in the Gospel lesson (see also Paul in Romans 13).
Paul remembers God’s power at work among the Thessalonians by way of the gospel—their work done while at rest in honesty about dependence. Their labor was produced by God’s love at work in them, and their patience produced by a living hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead—Jesus Christ, THE ONE AND ONLY true GOD.
Matthew’s reading shows one of a hundred recorded contests between the Jewish pretended authorities and Jesus. Science has recognized that theories are more likely to be true when they are simple and elegant. Jesus’ answer about taxes is profoundly simple, elegant, and ideal.