When I first thought about using this reading the advice I got was quite clear. Choose another one! Well, that was straight to the point. I looked up this reading in the various Bible commentaries I have and found that some of them just ignore this reading. I couldn’t even find a hymn based on it. Yet this just made me more curious and I started to delve deeper. Well, no-one has ever said I know what is good for me!
I think one of the things that make this reading harder to understand is that part of it is so well known. How many people don’t know the saying “Render unto Caesar”? And I think it is this familiarity that keeps us from seeing the deeper meaning in this passage.
The reading is quite complex and intricate for such a short amount of words. Yet in it we will find conspiracy and cunning, plans and alliances, traps and escapes. All this in just 154 words.
The story starts with the Jewish Church leaders looking for some way to get rid of Jesus. They know that they do not have any power to do anything to him themselves, except flog him and that might just have made Jesus more popular. So they tried to find ways to get him to say something against the Romans so they can take over and do something to keep Jesus quiet. But this has a small problem. A lot of the ordinary people regard Jesus as a prophet and just giving him to the Romans could make things difficult as well.
So they come up with a plan that, if it works, and they see no reason why it won’t, what ever Jesus does will upset one side or another. As is often the case, these leaders are not willing to take a chance themselves or to show which side they are on and they get others to do their dirty work.
This is their plan. There were two main groups arguing against each other at that time. One was the Herodians. These were not a church group but a group of Jewish people who supported Herod Antipas and wanted closer and better ties with Rome. They supported Roman taxation believed it was only right that everyone pay taxes. This tax was not based on income but was like a poll tax, something that everyone had to pay.
The other group was the Pharisees. This group was a religious group and they objected strenuously against paying anything to Rome, claiming it was a heresy to do so. They based this claim on the fact the tax had to be paid in Roman coins which had an image of Caesar on them. They refused to pay anything except the Temple Tax, which was paid in Jewish shekels.
It is quite hard to see how two such opposing forces could work together, but they did. They had, in fact, been working together and trying for some time to come up with an idea. The Pharisees and the Herodians had started plotting together when Jesus had healed a man with a shrivelled hand on the Sabbath. The way Jesus spoke then stopped them from taking action but now they thought that they had a foolproof plan.
They thought they had a question, that no matter what Jesus answered, he would condemn himself. The question was “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” The conspirators thought the there were only two possible answers. Yes, it is right to pay taxes or No it is not right. Either answer would condemn Jesus.
If Jesus said it was right to pay taxes, he would be accused of being a traitor to the Jews and of being in favour of the Roman Occupation. This would alienate him from all his supporters.
If Jesus were to say it was wrong to pay taxes, then he would prove he was against Rome. The Jewish leaders would be able to say Jesus had shown himself to be a revolutionary and he could be handed over for trial and execution.
Either result would please those who put this plan in action. Whatever happened, Jesus would be out of the way and they would not get the blame for it. They must have felt really pleased with their cunning plan.
So they sent off their team (Luke, in his version, calls them spies) to set up Jesus. Their first action was to try and flatter Jesus and lull him into a false sense of security. They say that they know Jesus to be a man of integrity who would not say anything just because it was easy or convenient, but would speak fairly and honestly. Then they ask their question.
I bet they smiled to themselves and thought “Gotcha!” as they waited for an answer. But I also bet they did not laugh for long.
Before he gave an answer, he asked to see a Roman coin, a denarius. One was presented straight away. This showed up the hypocrisy of objecting to Roman coins when they were in common usage. There were the silver coins, with Caesar on them, to pay taxes, there were plain copper Roman coins and they were used everywhere else, even in the temple at the money changers as many people did not trust the Jewish money. He then asked whose image and inscription was on it. This was a good question, because at that time, any item with a man’s stamp or inscription on it belonged to that man. Therefore the coin belonged to Caesar. So if it belongs to Caesar, then give it to him. But there was another part to the answer. But also give to God what is God’s.
It seems the most perfect and simple answer and it certainly put paid to the Pharisees and Herodians’ plans.
Yet when did Jesus ever say something that did not have a lesson or message in it? This passage is no different. The message in his answer was valid then and is still valid today.
The message is, first, that Government and Church is not necessarily incompatible. There is no reason why that cannot work alongside each other to improve the lives of those they serve. Indeed they should.
Secondly, when we have a structure, such as government, to administer and run the laws of the land, then it is right that we pay for that support and protection. Israel at that time, was under Roman rule but it was not all bad. They had lost their independence but had also gained much. For example, they had roads, peace and security. The Jewish church was allowed to keep going and people could still worship as they wanted. So it was right for people to pay taxes. Using the coin with the government’s stamp on it.
Thirdly, we give to God that which is his. But what do we give to God? What is it that has the Stamp or mark of God on it? The answer is we do. We were made in the image of God and bear his mark. So we give our taxes to the government and ourselves to God. There is no conflict in this until the government acts or forces people to act in a way contrary to God’s law. Then we must act in accordance with God’s law and not man’s, because, while the state only exists in this world, God’s law exists in this world and the next.
As I said, a packed story, 154 words to tell it, and over 1200 to try and explain it.
However, this story happened over 2000 years ago. What could it mean today when so much has changed? But has it? In many ways nothing has changed and the answer Jesus gave to the Herodians and the Pharisees still applies.
Firstly, we cannot act as a society without some form of law or government. We could not possible manage to support the frail and the vulnerable without some system in place. Yet while the laws of the land should serve to protect our human lives and human future, it does not and cannot support our spiritual life and spiritual future. That is the job of the church. To support God’s people and to teach them about him. To work alongside the government to ensure it acts fairly, justly and in accordance with God’s laws.
Secondly, it is also right that we should pay for the service that government provides. We don’t have the freedom the Pharisees seemed to have had, to choose not to pay taxes. If we choose not to pay we are likely to end up in prison. And if no-one paid anything, where would the hospitals, doctors, teachers and all the other things needed to make life run smoothly come from?
Thirdly, we have to give ourselves to God. Like the Jews, we don’t seem to have much choice over the government and the way it runs our country. Often it seems as far away and as dictatorial as ancient Rome, a pagan, unscrupulous, unelected government. And while we get little choice on paying taxes, we do have a totally free choice in is in what we give to God.
This is the bit that is usually left out when people quote from this passage. “Render unto Caesar….” is what they say and forget the rest, “..And what is God’s to God” That is where we have our choice. This is where we can decide whether or not we pay. Yet in some ways it might seem that God has a harsher tax regime than anyone else. Our government may have many tax rates. 20%, 35%, 50% and all varying year by year. God only has one rate. 100%!
When we give ourselves to God, we have to give ourselves 100%. 10%, 90% or just on Sundays doesn’t count. We have to give ourselves totally to him, all day, and every day. But there is one major difference in what we pay in taxes and what we pay to God. If we find that we cannot find the money to pay our taxes or forget, then we face a punishment. We may find ourselves in prison or have our belongings taken away from us. If we forget to give God his due, he doesn’t send in the bailiffs, he forgives us the debt, he allows us to start again. You might want to cheat on a government you hated, but do you want to cheat on someone that you love utterly and whom what you give does not even begin to repay what they have done for you?
But what, exactly, does he want from us? Giving ourselves to God sounds vague and woolly. Just what does he want?
I think that Jesus gave us the answer when he was asked what the most important commandment was. He told us that the most important commandment was to love God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds and all our strength. The second commandment was to love one another.
We take the commandment to love one another as one of the basic ways to live as a Christian. But there is no way we can live this way if the very foundation of the way we live is not based on having the love of God at the heart of who we are and in everything we do.
With the love of God as the centre of our beings, then things on this world become less important, passing, and transitory as we learn that God’s love is forever. We can still support and pay taxes to a government that provides the framework of modern life. We can still oppose that same government when it works unfairly or unjustly. We can still obey the laws of the land when they work with God’s law and oppose them when they don’t.
We can still do all this as long, and only as long, as God comes first.
Remember Jesus’ complete answer: “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and what is God’s to God.” There was no either, no or, but and. We have to do both, but God’s law comes first. If there is something against God’s law, we have to stand up against it, wherever we find in. On the street, in the church, in the government, wherever.
The question Jesus was asked could have been, “Whose side are you on? Israel or Rome?” Jesus’ reply was not Israel, it was not Rome. His answer was “on God’s side”
It could also have been “Who do you love?”
How would you answer that? Whose side are YOU on? Who do you love? This world, a place of growing discontent, a place where people put themselves, money and power before the care for others, a place where more and more people seek gratification just for the moment? Or God’s world, a place where love grows, a place where you are just as valued as your neighbour, a place where we can live in peace and forgive our enemies and be forgiven when we fall.
What would your answer be?
