We forget the question of taxes is a trap. And Jesus’s answer isn’t a solution to modern society. It is, however, essential.
And why we hate the answer.
Proper 24A | Matthew 22:15-22
“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
That quote is money, isn’t it? It is an epic mic drop. So obvious!
It also has the distinction of being one of the top 10 most famous and quoted lines of Jesus’s. People who don’t know the Bible know that line. Or at least the gist of it.
People love it because it sounds so clear. Especially in light of the question he is asked that elicits this as its answer. Should we pay taxes?
OMG! If you’re looking in your Bible for a clear defense of a clause in the first amendment of the US Constitution, well then you have struck pay dirt, my friends. Because this is pure gold, isn’t it? Right there. Jesus, in about the year 30 clearly endorses the Establishment Clause 17.5 centuries later.
Our work here is done!
Well…not exactly. I’m sure you’ve noticed a few things wrong with that idea.
For one, separation of Church and State isn’t a thing in Jesus’s time. So he can’t actually endorse it. This is the problem of extending the particular into the universal.
But there’s a bigger problem.
This is nothing like what he says.
Remember: context. Always, context. We have to start there.
And Jesus has been confronted by the Temple leadership in Jerusalem for making a big scene at the Temple. They go after him about authority, which he bats away. But then he starts challenging them. He compares them to greedy, murderous tenants. Then to greedy, murderous wedding guests.
They are hot. Fit to be tied (isn’t that the phrase?). They want him gone.
So what do good church people always do? Two thousand years of this. You try to trick him into saying the wrong thing. A little he said/she said. With heresy. This is always the move to impeach a popular leader. Because if you look around, the people are on his side. They’ve lost on theology and on popularity. It’s time to scheme.
They send new people in. Their disciples, so their students, go in to appeal to Jesus as a teacher. And they start by buttering him up, like taking an apple in to class. “Teacher, we know that you are sincere”. They’re pouring it on so thick they need a ladle. They call him sincere and impartial. Then they ask their loaded question like it is innocent.
“Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
This is the reason we think this is about the separation of Church and State.
It sounds like a legal question. They even ask is it lawful?
But they aren’t asking about civic laws. They are asking about Torah. Are we allowed by God’s command to pay taxes to the emperor? The emperor who calls himself “Son of God.” Who demands the people worship him. Consider him their savior. Are we allowed to contribute to that?
This is a deeply problematic moral dilemma for the Hebrew people suffering under empire. Do you go along with blasphemy?
And then the practical theology question is do you go along to get along with blasphemy?
So you have an emperor who demands his subjects call him Lord and God. And you have an oppressed people whose first commandments from God are to love God and worship no other gods.
Teacher, what should we do?
And given that Jesus knows they’re scheming against him, he’s ready for this dishonest question.
Because the emperor has put the people in a bind. He is making them blaspheme. So if Jesus gives the theologically correct answer (no), they can arrest him and kill him. And if he gives a practical answer (yes), it would discredit him.
There is no answer to this question.
And for that, Jesus lashes out. He calls them hypocrites.
But then Jesus does something curious. He asks to see a coin.
“Show me the coin used for the tax.”
[Which, by the way, sounds a little like he’s trying to avoid even referring to Rome or the emperor.]
And this is a bit of visual theater. Because they hand him a denarius, a Roman coin. Here, at the Temple. And this alone is revealing. In part because it is not proper to have that currency there. That’s the purpose of the money-changers to begin with. But more importantly, I think, he highlights that their academic trap just got real in their own hands.
Because the question isn’t about taxes. It’s about our relationship to empire. And the fruit of that relationship is sitting right there in the palm.
Jesus is calling the question.
Whose head is this? A graven image of a false god. …and whose title? Also on the denarius are words declaring the emperor is Lord. And these leaders seek to arrest him, entrap him.
They answer, The emperor’s.
Jesus has already flipped it over, like he does. They are the ones with the graven image! They possess the blasphemous material.
The unspoken questions: Whose coin is this then? Is it yours? They hang there in the background. They start to surround.
Then he speaks
“Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Every Thing.
Whose title is this? This title of “Son of God”? A title the emperor has claimed for himself. A title that does not belong to him. That is as much his as the land he has stolen, the wealth he has consolidated, and the respect he demands.
But to the Hebrew people, all things come from God. All things are not only from God, but are owned by God. We may be entrusted with God’s possession, but that doesn’t make it ours. It remains God’s.
And the Law, Torah, guides us to see our relationship to possession, not as a divine right or total supremacy, but toward poverty and exploitation as what we must ultimately avoid. So even if a man owes you his coat, if it means he goes without, then you are the bad man if you deprive him of safety.
Every thing is God’s. So go ahead and give to the Emperor what is the Emperor’s. Give him his blasphemous coin.
So what do we do then?
As much as we want this to be that teaching, it just isn’t. This doesn’t answer the question of taxes for us because it never was about taxes.
They sought to trap him and he flipped the script on them. But to know how he does that is important. It’s important because we need to understand what Jesus was driving them to see.
As we are casting ballots and doing our civic duty, we are taking responsibility for our common life. And we don’t get to claim Jesus wants us to vote. Or that Jesus doesn’t want us to vote. Or that Jesus doesn’t want us talking about voting. None of that is here.
But what is here is a Temple that would take advantage of its relationship to an occupying government but not to feed its people or help lift them out of poverty as Torah directs. But to maintain power and autonomy during an occupation.
And Jesus has stepped into Jerusalem when the powerful were most skittish and fearful of losing power. He has confronted them for their dishonesty, thievery, and violent intent. In other words, Jesus got political, and they wanted to make him disappear.
So we don’t get an easy answer. But, I think we get something better. We get Jesus reminding us of our common life. And how distorting the worship of politicians, parties, and even ideologies can be.
Regardless of who is on the ballot, our allegiance is not to the kingdoms of earth, but solely to the kin-dom of God. A common life built on compassion, hope, equity, and trust in the true abundance of God. And that is what guides our actions, our decisions, and therefore, even our votes.