Sunday
19 October 08
Proper 24
The Rev’d Dr. Richard Corney
New York City

And the Pharisees took counsel, how they could entrap him with a word

(Matthew 22 15).

When you hear a Gospel lesson like the one this morning – a lesson which shows Jesus in conflict with his opponents – does it strike you, as it has struck me, that there is a certain similarity between what was going on back there in first century Palestine between Jesus and his opponents and what we see going on in our 21st century political campaigns? Time and time again in our political campaigns a candidate’s opponents try to find ways to “entrap the candidate with a word,” find something that will place the candidate in an impossible situation, face him or her with a delimma. And when this happens the candidate tries to escape entrapment by adroitly finessing his or her response. So too in the Gospels. Time and time again the opponents of Jesus try to manoeuver him into an impossible situation, and when this happens Jesus manages to find a way to finesse the situation.

Take this morning’s account. In it the Pharisees and the adherents of King Herod are seeking to “entrap Jesus with a word”, are trying to find something that would put Jesus in a no-win situation, a question which, however Jesus answered, would get him in serious trouble with someone. They want to impale Jesus on the horns of a dilemma. And the questions they come up with was well suited for that purpose. It concerned the payment of taxes, always, as in the present political campaign (and in every political campaign I can remember), a hot-button issue ... “tell us,” they say to Jesus, “what you think. Is it proper to give taxes to Caesar or not” (Matthew 22 17)?

Clearly had Jesus answered, “No, it is not proper,” Jesus would have been in big trouble. No government takes kindly to those who encourage non-payment of taxes, and had Jesus taken that line, the ancient Roman equivalent of the IRS would have been down on him in a moment. As world-rulers go, Rome was fairly tolerant of a lot of things, but refusal to pay taxes on whatever grounds was not one of them.

On the other hand, Jesus laid great stress on the sovereignty of God, and did not the payment of taxes to Caesar involve the acknowledgment of another and lesser sovereignty? After all, Jesus had said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6 21)? If Jesus permits you to give of your treasure to Caesar, doesn’t that undermine devotion to God? Jesus also had said, “No one can serve two lords ... you are not able to serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6 24).
If that is true, how can one serve both God and Caesar? We know that here were several persons inJudea at this time who were quite certain once could not; who thought that paying taxes to Rome implied just such a denial of God, and so they saw the payment of taxes as a form of blasphemy. As the ancient Jewish historian Josephus wrote of them, they “have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord.” Indeed, one of that crowed – we read about him both in the Book of Acts and in Josephus, hisname was Judsas the Galilean – stirred up a revolt against Rome precisely over this question of paying taxes to Caesar.

So suppose Jesus had answered the question, “Is it proper to give taxes to Caesar or not” with a simple, “Yes, it is proper.” That answer would have kept the Romans off his back, but at the same time would have raised questions in his hearers’ minds about the seriousness of Jesus’ commitment to the absolute sovereignty of God, and therefore would have undermined Jesus’ credibility with his audience, his constituency. And loss of credibility, than as now, means that sooner or later one is no longer taken seriously, no longer listened to, and thus loses one’s following.

So given what the Pharisees and the adherents of Herod were trying to do – trap Jesus in an impossible situation – their question, “Is it proper to give taxes to Caesar or not,” was a pretty good choice, not least because the problem which it poses is a dilemma which everyone who believes in the sovereignty of God faces in one form or another. If our primary allegiance is to God, what does this have to say about our human allegiances? How does our service of human masters, however part-time that service may be, fit in with what is supposed to be our full-time service of God? Family, friends, our jobs, the state, even the Church all make demands upon us, taxing us, as it were, in one way or another. At the same time there is God calling us to the service of the divine, from which family, friends, our jobs, the state, even the Church, can seem to be a distraction. It is a true dilemma, one which seems to defy solution – all of which makes the question asked by the Pharisees and the adherents of Herod a good one to employ as a trap for Jesus.

“Is it proper to give taxes to Caesar or not?” Well, we just heard how Jesus responded: “Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites” (Matthew 22 18)? Yet, even though he knew full well what was going on, even though he knew that the question was designed as a trap, Jesus nevertheless treated the question seriously. Not that he have a straightforward yes or no type answer which solved the dilemma for all time. Rather he gave an answer which embodied a principle, a principle which could be the basis for the anser to that question which each of us has to give.

You recall what happened. Jesus asks for a coin with which the tax is to be paid, shows his opponents the picture on it – probably the head of the Emperor Tiberius – and lets them read the inscription n it – probably something like “Tiberius Caesar son of the Divine Augustus” – and asks, “Whose image and inscription?” And Jesus’ opponents give the obvious answer: “Caesar’s.” The Jesus says, “Give to Caesar the tings of Caesar ...” (Matthew 22 20-21).

The coin represented the Roman State, and the state provided certain services for the population – among other things providing coinage so that business can be carried on conveniently – and for those services the state has a right to receive and return. It is only proper that the coin which comes from Caesar be returned to him. So it is indeed with all human relationships – family, friends, our jobs, the state, the Church. Each provides for us certain things – physical, mental, spiritual – so it is only proper that we give these Caesars something in return. Since our Gospel this morning concerns our relationship to the state, think about all the things the state provides for us. Most of them we never really think about; they are just there, and we take them for granted. Take, for example as simple a matter as crossing a street. Had the city not put up traffic lights and stop signs, it would be an even grater risk than it sometimes seems to be. The city has provided for us, so it is only proper that we return to the city, giving to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.

But Jesus’ answer did not stop with the command to give Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. To this command Jesus added the words “and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22 21) .

And this too is related to the question Jesus asked when he showed his opponents the coin, the question “Whose image”? For just as the coin bore the image of Caesar, so we and all humankind, as the first chapter of the Book of Genesis proclaims, function as “the image of God.” Which means, in terms of the original question – “is it proper to give taxes to Caesar or not” – that Caesar can have the cash, but God gets our whole life. Now this may seem like Jesus had gotten out of the rap laid for him by his opponents simply by restating the dilemma posed in the question as the answer to the question.: Caesar has a right to our service; God has a right to our service.

But I think something more than a restatement of the dilemma is fund here, and I think that something different is related to where the image of Caesar is found over against where the image of God is fund. The image of Caesar is found on the coin, which both pays the tax and pays for the services which justify the tax. But Caesars change, and with each new Caesar new coins with new images are minted. Indeed, one of the sins of a revolt, like the ones against Roman taxation led by Judas the Galilean, is that those in revolt issue their own coins, with their own images and inscriptions. But God, whose image we bear and who therefore, in terms of the answer given by Jesus, has the right to our total service, is unchanging. That image in us and all humankind has been, is, and will be the same as long as the human race will last. It is therefore as the bearer of that image that we can judge the demands made upon us by those changing images of Caesar. It is proper to pay taxes to Caesar – yes – but when a particular Caesar has become destructive of those who bear the image of God, that Caesar has lost the right to our support. And that, I think, is the principle that underlies that the demands of God always stand in judgment on the demands of humankind, and that our service of each other – family, friends, our jobs, the state, even the Church – is a service performed under the overarching claim of God.

This means, of course, that the practical questions of paying taxes to Caesar is thrown back on Jesus’ questioners. They – we – have to decide when it is proper and when it is not on the basis of this principle and that is not always easy. There have been and will continue to be honest disagreement among Christians on this question – which is why some of us will be voting differently from others of us in a few weeks when the present interminable campaign finally comes to an end. But whenever any one of us honestly believes that a demand of whatever Caesar it may be, whatever human being, whatever human institution, flies in the face of what we honestly believe to be the demand of God upon us, our course is clear. For the anser to the question “Whose image?” when asked abut us is that God crated us as the image of God.