Ok, let’s be honest. Does anyone really LOVE paying taxes? April 15 comes and everyone is like “Oh goody let’s do our taxes and have all the fun!!” Well of course not. And things were not any different during the time this story was written. In fact, in some ways, it was even more intense. But the issue here is less about money and more about loyalty. At the root of it all, we have people trying to trip up Jesus and make him say something to incriminate himself or make the crowd turn against him.
In today’s story, the Pharisees were again looking for a way to entrap Jesus and settled on asking a seemingly simple question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?
Well, this is of course a trickier question than it seems on the surface.
So yet again, let’s think about where we are and when this story is taking place. “In Matthew’s narrative, we are in Jerusalem. The city is tense because Passover is near. Roman soldiers are patrolling the area. Jesus’ activities are stirring things up; at least the authorities, both political and religious, consider Jesus to be something of a radical who threatened the status quo. Since many in the lower classes were fond of him, putting him in a no-win situation might help the leaders find a way of neutralizing him. So, Matthew tells us that a group representing the Pharisees (we’re told that these were students) and the Herodians (a party that supported the client royal family, and therefore would have supported the tax system) raises the issue of paying taxes with Jesus.” (Cornwall).
And this entire exchange takes place within the greater narrative of the previous stories in Matthew. There had been a number of “tense encounters between Jesus and his disciples on the one hand, and the scribes and Pharisees on the other Those encounters inevitably revolved around differing interpretations of Torah prescriptions and included regular references to (Hebrew) scriptural passages” (Squires). There had also been debates with various Jewish authorities and the recent series of parables that would have placed said authorities on the defensive. Those in charge were not pleased with Jesus and his rhetoric.
So what are they trying to do? They are trying to ask a “gotcha” question that would cause Jesus trouble no matter how he answered it. In their line of thinking, if Jesus says that it is lawful to pay taxes, then Jesus' followers would be upset. They figured that since many of Jesus’ followers were nationalists or others who were fed up with Rome, support for taxes would undermine the relationship with his followers. On the other hand, if Jesus says that taxes shouldn’t be paid, the Roman authorities would have a reason to arrest or persecute Jesus and his followers. By asking this question, they were hoping that Jesus would be backed into a corner and make a mistake with either his followers or with Rome. It was a clever approach and not unlike the way we currently ask political candidates gotcha questions during debates or interviews. The entire point of these types of questions is to trick someone into looking stupid or saying something damaging.
As is usually the case, though, Jesus gets the best of his opponents. He asks for a coin. The coin would have likely been a denarius, which would have been the standard Roman coin of the time and was worth about a day’s wage. Each coin would have featured an imprint of the emperor’s face. But here’s the thing, “not only did the coins bear the emperor’s image, but they featured the statement hailing him as the “son of god.” As we consider the image and its accompanying declaration, we might want to look back in time to the Commandments God gave to Moses. Remember that the first commandment declares that there is but one God and the second offers a prohibition of the making of images. That coin and its declaration essentially declared that Caesar was a god. If Caesar is a god, then veneration is being requested.”(Cornwall).
So, the question here isn’t really about who gets your money, but who gets your allegiance And THAT is entirely different. By telling the questioners (and the crowd) that they should “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's,” Jesus is drawing a clear line between taxation and allegiance. By paying taxes, the people were legally participating in the system of law. There is no commentary here on the legitimacy of the law, the rights of Rome to be in control, or the place of the people in the government. This is simply a statement- Pay your taxes. Jesus is clear that his followers have to follow the law- the letter of the law.
However, the spirit of the law is another matter. Jesus makes it equally clear that while paying taxes is required, allegiance to the emperor is not. Participation in a system doesn’t mean tacit approval or allegiance. To some extent, we have to participate in systems for our own survival. While we may have a “representative” government, we don’t actually get much say in how our tax dollars are spent. And although we can elect our officials, we cannot control how they behave once they take office. But taxes are also the things we pay so that roads get built and maintained. Do we owe our government allegiance? I’m sure we all remember standing up in the classroom and placing our hand over our hearts and saying “I pledge allegiance to the flag…” but I wonder if given a choice between allegiance to the flag or allegiance to our faith, which would we choose?
That is EXACTLY what Jesus is getting at here. While allegiance to Rome is somewhat required in order for folks to live and breathe within the system that was oppressing them, allegiance to God carried more weight. Too easy of allegiance to a government concerns me, and it gives rise to a form of scary nationalism that can prove dangerous. The rise of a toxic Christian nationalism in this country has shifted our allegiance away from God. Yes, that’s what I said. Bob Cromwell puts it this way, “While in theory, the United States does not have an official state church or religion, from the very beginning a quasi-Protestant civil religion has existed. Our money includes the phrase “In God We Trust”. Presidents and other government leaders end speeches with “God Bless America.” City Councils often begin with invocations. In some ways these expressions of civil religion are benign, however, religious nationalism often involves protecting the prerogatives of the majority”(Cornwall).
The religious authorities in Jesus’ day were kind of doing the same thing. They were supporting a system that protected the prerogatives of the wealthy and elite who were already in the pockets of Rome.
Jesus challenges this kind of prerogative. Jesus challenges the allegiance of those who were tied to Rome, and therefore this scripture challenges US to think about the way we have given more allegiance to nation than we have to God. David Lose puts it this way, “Whatever alliances we may make with the powers of this world – or with those who oppose them – these alliances are always temporary, dictated perhaps by the demands of the circumstances, but ultimately directed by our relationship with the One who created us and whose image we bear. This means that following Jesus’ counsel is always a matter of discernment, prayer, and confession, as we will frequently fail and always struggle to discern what God-fearing participation with government requires”(Lose 103).
The rule of Rome was temporary. The rule of any government official is temporary (although in some cases not temporary enough, quite frankly). We can align with politicians when it serves us, and vote for someone else when it doesn’t. But what Jesus says we can’t do is fail to offer to God what is God’s. This doesn’t necessarily mean money even though this scripture is OFTEN used to preach about the importance of tithing. Jesus is asking us to align ourselves with God. In the same ways that just a couple of weeks ago Moses was asking the Israelites to align with God and reject the rules of Egypt. Jesus is reminding us that we are God’s beloved and allegiance to God is more important than allegiance to any government or power.
So, to whom do we pledge allegiance?
Amen