Two Christians were discussing the problem of a lack of interest
in government. One of them said, "The main problems in our nation today are ignorance and apathy. Don't you agree?" His friend said, "I don't know, and I don't care." 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 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 perhaps flog him, and that might just have made Jesus even more popular. So they tried to find a way to get him to say something against the Romans, so that they could take over and use their considerable power to keep Jesus quiet. So they came up with a plan that, if it worked, and they saw no reason why it wouldn't, whatever Jesus did would upset one side or the other. 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. 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 that 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. Have you ever been asked a "trick question," a question which was meant to "trip you up"? I spent last Wednesday watching the final (and when I say final, what I mean is.... Thank goodness!) debate of what has been the nastiest US Presidential campaign in living memory. And that evening, indeed the entire electoral process, was all about trick questions: All about two people trying to trip each other up or catch the other in a lie. The issue of paying tax to the Roman Emperor was one of the "hot button issues" in the Middle East in Jesus' day. Imagine how you'd feel if you woke up one morning and discovered that people from the other end of the world had marched into your country and demanded that you pay them tax as a reward for having your land stolen!!! If Jesus had been on the big debate stage on CNN on Wednesday, you can imagine the audience's excitement and the producer's glee when someone asked about this taxation. issue. So.... the Jewish leaders sent off their team to try to set Jesus up: Their first action was to try and flatter Jesus and lull him into a false sense of security. They said that they know Jesus to be a man of integrity. They said that they knew he would speak fairly and honestly. Then they asked 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. These were the silver coins, with an image of the Caesar of the day, Tiberius, on them. 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, following this logic, the coin belonged to Caesar. So, Jesus said, if it belongs to Caesar then give it to him. But there was another part to the answer: Also give to God what is God's. It seemed like a very succinct and simple answer and it certainly put paid to the Pharisees and Herodians' plans. This is the bit that is usually left out when people quote from this passage. "Render unto Caesar...." is what they say, and then they 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. 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 maybe 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 if we forget, then we face a punishment. 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? For many people the worship of money and possessions is a profound and deadly spiritual problem: The more we have, the less we seem able to give. The more things we own, the greater the temptation to allow things to own us. Remember the movie, "Oh God!" with George Burns? In that movie the idea was mentioned that the reason God gave Adam and Eve no clothes to wear was because God knew that once they had clothes, they would want pockets. Once they had pockets, they would want money. It's kind of like the man caught being creative with his taxes after an audit. He sent a check to the government for his back taxes with a note attached that said: "I felt so guilty for cheating on my taxes I had to send you this check........................... If I still don't feel any better, I'll send you the rest." But through all this, in all this talk of government and taxes and what is Caesar, it is essential that we remember the second part of Jesus' message: We need 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, especially recently, it seems as far away as ancient Rome: An underhanded, partisan, unscrupulous 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. Please don't misunderstand. As you know, the Scriptures do not say that money is the root of all evil. And it isn't. We can agree with Joe Louis' famous words. "I don't like money, actually," he said, "but it quiets my nerves." It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. It is the worship of money that puts it into competition with God. No, we don't have any trouble rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. It's straightforward (at least that's what my accountant tells me), but how can we become more willing and able to render to God the things that are God's? The first thing we need to realize is that everything we have, everything we are, and everything we hope to be is first and foremost a gift from God. When we understand the magnitude of this reality, our hearts become captivated by the love and grace that God has lavished upon us. We then soon discover our bodies, our minds, and most importantly of all, our hearts truly belong to God. It's when God takes possession of our hearts and sends the spirit to live there that we find it not only easier to render to God the things that are God's, but it becomes a great privilege and joy to do so. When we say to someone, "I love you with all my heart," what do we mean? We are saying, "I am committed to you. All that I have is yours. I trust you enough that I am willing to share with you everything I have, everything I am, and everything I hope to be." That kind of commitment is what God asks of us. Truly it's all God's in the first place. Render to God the things that are God's. So what, again, does God want from us? Giving ourselves to God can sound vague and woolly: Just what does he want, exactly? 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, by raising our voices in peaceful protest. We can still obey the laws of the land when they work with God's law and oppose them, with humility and grace, when they don't. But, again, don't forget that there's another message here: While we give to Caesar what is his, we must also 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 that WE do. We are made in the image of God and we all bear his mark. When a child is born what people often say is that the child looks like the father or mother. They immediately notice the family likeness. Similarly it was God's intention from the beginning that we should bear the likeness of our heavenly Father. God intended our relationship with Him to remain unbroken so that we could grow up to bear the imprint of His nature. So we give our taxes to the government and ourselves to God. Yet when did Jesus ever say something that did not have one or many lessons or messages in it? This passage was no different. The messages in his answer were valid then and are still valid today: 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. 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 they had also made some gains. 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. 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 still applies. 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. It is also right that we should pay for the service that government provides: If no-one paid anything, where would the hospitals, doctors, teachers and all the other things needed to make life run smoothly come from? 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." We have to do both, but God's law comes first. 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?
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April 2021
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