What do you owe? If you were to make a list right now what debts would you list? What are your commitments, financial and otherwise? To whom are you under obligation? What about taxes? Do you see them as a debt, something you owe? We often don’t perceive taxes as a debt to be paid. For some it is viewed as extortion money to be handed over for fear of worse repercussions. April 15th is not a national day of rejoicing; rather many see it as a national day of terror. While it is common humor to ridicule the "Infernal Revenue Service," it has, since 1862, functioned as an agency of the Department of Revenue to enforce tax laws and collect such revenues in a timely fashion. What angers many Americans is that so many must work well into July just to pay all the taxes they owe. So to call our taxes a debt, seems a bit insensitive. We don’t like to pay taxes, partly because we’d rather spend it on ourselves, and partly because we may not like the way the government spends our hard-earned money. How should we as Christians feel about paying taxes, especially to a government that may, in fact, plan on using our money for causes with which we are in total disagreement? Our natural inclination may be not to pay them, and we may even rationalize fudging a bit on what we owe. Those were the same sentiments expressed during Jesus’ day as his enemies sought to trap Him with a trick question about taxes. Our passage deals with the debt we owe, a debt we owe to our government and our God. 15. Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. 16. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. "Teacher," they said, "we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. 17. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" 18. But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? 19. Show me the coin used for paying the tax." They brought him a denarius, 20. and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" 21. "Caesar's," they replied. Then he said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." 22. When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away. As we begin the last leg of our journey through Matthew 22-25 we will take several weeks to look at the events of Christ’s final few days before the last Supper, betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection. During this time the religious leaders in the land are fed up with Jesus. They sought to trap Him, to cause Him to trip up, say something that will turn the people away, enable them to arrest Him for treasonous behavior. So the Pharisees, those perpetually perfect pastors, set up a trap. They send out their own disciples, young, fresh Seminary students whose youthful questions may betray the snare. But it is not just the Pharisees’ disciples who go to ask the question; the Herodians tag along as well. It would be tough to find two more diverse groups. It would be like being confronted by Jesse Jackson and Jesse Helms at the same time or being interviewed by Dr. Laura and Jerry Springer. The Pharisees were the everyday man of their time. They stood for the common man and deeply resented having to pay taxes to a foreign ruler. Their hatred grew all the more as that ruler demanded honors and laid claim to titles that belonged to God alone. In the eyes of strictly religious Pharisees the emperor who demanded this tribute was a blasphemer. The Herodians, on the other hand, were unlike most Jews. These were the privileged class who supported the reigning family of Herod and its pro-Roman sympathies. They were part of the inner circle that, while of Jewish ancestry, were thoroughly secular in their persuasion and enamored with the mighty Roman Empire. These groups were nothing more than oily scoundrels, who any other time despised each other’s guts, but on this occasion put aside their mutual hatred so that they could trap Jesus. But first they butter him up: “Rabbi, we know you are a man of integrity, that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are.” Do you think they could’ve laid it on any thicker? They play the Eddie Haskel; the sickeningly sweet compliments belie their intention. Like the child who desperately wants something from the parent, they fawn empty compliments in order to get what they want. “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” THERE ARE THOSE WHO DEBATE OUR DEBT. Just as there are those today who grow weary over taxes and others who promote tax revolt, the Jews in the first century were rarely happy with the taxes they owed. But their universal hatred for taxes was not just the money taken from their own pockets, but where the money went to, who benefited from their hard-earned money. Rome levied three forms of taxes. There was the Ground tax. This was not really a property tax as we know it, but a tax on the produce from the ground, on the grain, oil, wine. Next was a custom tax collected at ports and city gates as tolls for goods transported. These rates were about 2-5% of the value of the goods. Then finally there was the poll tax placed on all people from teenagers to the age of 65. This flat tax was 1 denarii, which equaled an average day's wage for a laborer. The question they ask Jesus focuses on the poll tax, the 1 denarii tax paid for the “honor” of subjection to Roman tyranny and occupation. It was this tax which, in 6 AD angered Judas of Galilee so much that he led a revolt against the first procurator because he took a census for tax purposes. His followers, the Zealots, claimed the poll tax was a God-dishonoring badge of slavery to the pagans. To pay the tax would be to acquiesce one’s sovereign freedom to the Roman Empire. To pay it was acknowledging one’s indebtedness to pagan Rome; it was bowing down to a conquering nation. There were also religious ramifications. The coin which was used had on one side the head of Tiberius Caesar with the inscription around the edge ”Tiberius Caesar, Son of divine Augustus." On the back was the equally offensive Latin phrase: Pontifex Maximus - High Priest. In many ways, the coin was a portable idol, a blasphemous reminder of the antipathy Rome had for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But now the trap was set. How would Jesus answer? To side with the Pharisees, or worse, the revolutionary Zealots and deny the propriety of paying the tax to such a wicked nation would be political suicide. Remember that this was the Passover week; the town was crawling with Roman guards. To speak against the poll tax would be considered sedition against Rome, treason worthy of death. But if He sided with the Herodians who enjoyed the benefit of the Jewish taxation by Rome, the populace would hate Him for the perceived thievery of taxation; the pious would despise Him for promoting the evil, suppressive empire of Rome. The question was one of debt: Are we in debt to a pagan, non-Christian, anti-God government? What allegiance do we owe? What is to be our attitude? CHRIST DEFINES OUR DEBT. In a classic response, Jesus asks them to participate. While it was clear they were laying a trap for Him, He traps them: “Show me the coin used in paying the tax.” Notice what He does; He doesn’t have the coin that the Pharisees find so offensive and the Herodians love to run their fingers through. He sends them off to find such a coin. He sees through their veiled compliments what they really desire. As they hand over the denarii He asks them a simple but profound question: “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?” Portrait is the word image, in Greek, icon. The question forms the basis for settling this question of indebtedness. They answer with one word: "Caesar’s." But in that answer they’ve already lost. The question posed demands an answer in the genitive, a form which implies possession. “Whose image? It is the image which belongs to Caesar.” The coin has the image of Caesar, it is his coin which you hold in your hand. What they possess in their hand belongs to another, it is not their property. Their reply half answers their question: They possess in this coin the possession of another. If they thought they were free enough not to pay the tax, the presence of this portable idol, this piece of metal would dispel that fact. While the Pharisees liked to think they were free from the restraints of a sinful political government, while they believed their own holiness could produce a heaven here on earth, by the fact that they held the image of Caesar in their hands, they were professing that they were under the thumb of a vile, corrupt government, a pagan tyrant. The Jewish Rabbis taught that “if a king’s coin is current in a country, the men of the country do thereby evidence that they acknowledge him for their lord.” Jesus rubs the Pharisees’ nose in the fact that they are enslaved by Rome and are therefore indebted to Rome. What must they do? Return the property to its rightful owner. Jesus could have stopped here. But He adds one more stroke, His great principle, to teach with all possible clarity the truth of loyal but limited responsibility to political power. WE MUST PAY OUR DEBT. That which has Caesar’s stamp, give it back. What has Caesar’s image rightfully belongs to him. But His response has more nuance. The NIV does not catch the subtle response: The Pharisees question is: “Is it right to give taxes to Caesar?” Jesus responds in verse 21 by taking the same verb they use, but making it become reciprocal. Not “give to Caesar” but literally, “give back” or “repay.” The tax that is owed, Jesus says, is owed as a debt which we must give back. The coin they handled was not their coin, but Caesar’s coin. It must be returned to its rightful owner. This has implications for how we view our use of money. It is easy to equivocate, to evade the issue of our responsibilities of our taxes. We may sympathize with New York City’s previous Mayor David Dinkins, who, when accused for failing to pay his taxes, said, "I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law." But that is never an option for us. Have you ever been less than honest with your taxes? We fudge here and there, hoping that the IRS won’t catch a small oversight. We grumble every year as our taxes are due; we gripe when we see government waste; we complain when we see our tax dollars used to promote sin in our own country and around the world. But Jesus says here that when it comes to this area of our life, we have no choice: As long as we live under the oversight of this country, we are required to pay our taxes. The problem is not that we are taxed too much, but too little in proportion to our tastes for large government. We want more than we are willing to pay for. We want what Caesar gives; we just don’t want to pay for it. Senator Fritz Hollings humorously told the story of a veteran returning from Korea who went to college on the GI Bill, bought his house with a FHA loan, saw his kids born in a VA hospital, started a business with an SBA loan, got electricity from TVA and, then, water from a project funded by the EPA. His kids participated in the school-lunch program and made it through college courtesy of government-guaranteed student loans. His parents retired to a farm on their Social Security, getting electricity from the REA and the soil tested by the USDA. When the father became ill, his life was saved with a drug developed through NIH; the family was saved from financial ruin by Medicare. Then one day he wrote his congressman an angry letter complaining about paying taxes for all those welfare programs created for ungrateful people. This is not to say we must not exercise wisdom in how we handle our money, invest it wisely in tax deferred IRA’s, that we should not take legal and ethical deductions. What the government allows, we may do. But we must be careful not to overstep the boundary. We overstep it not only when we are less than honest when we prepare our taxes, but in those areas where our civil government demands obedience to issues under its authority. We read together the frightening words of Romans 13 where God commands us to submit to the governing authorities. Why? Because those authorities are instituted by God. The basis for this submission is found in the 5th Commandment: "Honor your father and mother." The implications of that command extend from our human parents to all those whom God places over us. Paul reminds us here in Romans 13 that our government is ultimately divinely ordained. The government Paul spoke of was the notorious reign of Nero, the man who would have Paul’s head on the chopping block, the man who would burn Christians alive as human torches for his garden party - whom Paul says was placed there by God. In 1 Peter the Apostle writes of how we as Christians are to live in the face of suffering. One area of application is suffering under civil authorities who are unjust. In 1 Peter 2:13-17, notice the final command: “honor the king.” We must not follow the example of Samuel Eaton, a wag of a preacher who disliked the foreign policy of President Madison. He prayed, “Lord, Thou hast commanded us to pray for our enemies; we would, therefore, pray for the President and the Vice President of these United States.” But Jesus does not stop there, demanding the unlimited, totalitarian support of the civil magistrate. Where the government’s image resides, pay the respect that is due to God’s servant there. But there is a second half to this command which limits the role of civil government. The State has its sphere of power, but God does as well. The image of Presidents stamped on their coin denotes that temporal things belong all to their government. But we must never forget there is another image stamped on every human being which reminds us that while Caesar may own the coin, we are owned by God. What has God’s image? When Jesus said that we are to pay our debt to Caesar, for it is Caesar’s image on the coin, He then goes to the next step with a reference to Genesis 1:26, that we are created in the image of God. We bear the stamp of His image in our lives; we are owned by Him. There is an eternal debt we can never repay, for He has made us and we belong to Him. There is the rightful sphere of government to which we owe a debt as God has placed them over us, to protect and serve us. To grumble against them is to shake an angry fist toward God. The Pharisees in the 1st Century and their modern counter parts today mistakenly think that one’s service to God is somehow compromised when one must obey human laws they think are noxious, pay taxes to a government they despise. But Jesus here declares that God’s Law is not violated or His worship offended if we obey the civil government in temporal matters, when we are not directly commanded to break God’s Law. While we are to give Caesar a great deal, when it comes to our taxes and our honor, God and God alone has the only claim on our conscience; only He should have our worship, our absolute allegiance. God’s stamp of His ownership is on you, on your neighbor, on your enemy. It is that image which demands we respond toward others with respect; it is that image which commands us to obey God fully. But the Fall has so marred that image that in our sin it becomes barely noticeable. Yet it is because of that image that God’s one and only Son came to die for those whom God has chosen. That image we bear of God’s ownership is the reason Christ became one of us, took on flesh, obeyed the Law for us, suffered for our sins. It is because of that image we bear, like the coins in our pockets bear the image of our government, that we can know that God redeems those who are His. In light of that image, He calls us to give ourselves to Him. What debts do you owe? Old school loans, mortgage, credit card? There is a debt of sin which Christ has repaid, a debt whose removal frees us to serve God with freedom and joy. But as that debt of sin is removed we then take on another debt, a debt of gratitude. As God’s image is placed upon us in creation, as His ownership is again stamped in our lives in redemption, we must never forget that we owe Him the obedience of faith, of a life submitted to Him. In this brief response, Jesus lays out for us the foundation for a Christian philosophy of civil government. He does not dismiss our role as citizens in the lands in which we find ourselves. As Christians we are not exempt from giving proper obedience to those in authority over us. In fact, our obedience to them is part of our obedience to God. Not only that, but we owe so much more to God. It is not that temporal rulers are unimportant, but that there are eternal implications to the debt we owe to God. Small, fleeting questions regarding politics will come and go. Whether it be Caesar’s image or Andrew Jackson’s, whether it be how to live under totalitarianism or democracy - those issues are always secondary to the question: Have you given to God what is due to God? |
