It’s interesting to see that issues and debate about paying taxes are not a new concept. Two thousand years ago religious leaders asked Jesus whether it was lawful to pay a specific tax.
Of course it was a little different back then. In fact, it was a lot different back then, because the Romans to whom the taxes were being paid were an occupying force. The Romans, unlike some of the earlier empires, were pretty smart in terms of economics. Other empires used to conquer a land and take their people into exile. Then they would burn and destroy everything. The Romans, however, would conquer a land, put in a puppet king or leader of some sort, and then build up the infrastructure. They would put in roads and build aqueducts to bring in water (there are still the remains of aqueducts and roads from Roman times in Israel today). They would do this so that the people could make money, the economy would thrive and the wealth could be heavily taxed and sent back to Rome.
This tax was not being paid to a government that was there to care for the people of Judea; the tax was going to Rome to pay for soldiers, to pay for the people who would arrest them without any reason - the ones who had complete and total power over them. So it is understandable that the people did not like the idea of being taxed by Rome.
But there was an additional problem with the particular tax that was being considered in this Gospel reading. There were lots of taxes sent to Rome, but for this particular one there was a question of whether it was religiously lawful or not. It was a tax that was called the temple tax. And the temple tax was that every male, every year, had to give a certain amount to the temple in Jerusalem. It wasn’t optional. It wasn't based on income. Some of it was used to keep the temple going, but most of it was given to Rome because Rome taxed the temple.
That made the priests and the Herodians who were part of the puppet government responsible for sending this money off to Rome. A very complicated situation. The question was, the problem was, that Caesar had made himself a god. He declared himself a god and declared that people had to worship him. You may have heard about this in early Christian history when the Christians refused to worship the emperor and therefore had to die. That is why the Christians were so persecuted. They wouldn’t burn incense to the emperor.
We get kind of a sense of this in some of the personality cults like in North Korea where whoever happens to be in charge becomes like a god and is worshipped. But Caesar went so far as to say he was a god. So, if you were paying money to the temple and some of that money was going to pay a “god” were you blaspheming? Were you going against the ten commandments that said you were not to support any other god?
The Pharisees, along with the Herodians, asked Jesus, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”
Of course, this was a trick question because if Jesus said pay the tax then the people who don’t want to have to pay the tax would be upset and his critics could say Jesus is saying we should break the law of Moses. If he said don’t pay the tax they could go to the Romans and have him arrested for inciting people to not follow the Roman law. It was a no win situation.
The reason that this is such a memorable response from Jesus is that in the face of this impossible question he took it to another level.
He said, “Give me one of the coins that you use to pay this tax.”
Take note that Jesus did not pull one of these coins out of his pocket, he asked these religious leaders to supply one. You've probably seen pictures of romans coins and there is one on the cover of the bulletin today. These coins were a piece of metal that has been stamped with the picture of the emperor on it.
So Jesus took the coin and said, “Whose picture is this?”
They responded, “The emperor's.”
Well there is a problem here, because these Pharisees who handed him the coin are carrying around a picture of an idol. You are not supposed to make any kind of idol. No graven images. So he caught them in their hypocrisy.
Then he said, “Give to the emperor what is the emperor’s and to God what is God’s.”
This is just money. This is just a piece of metal with a picture of somebody on it. You can give that to Rome. It’s not of real value. It has no deep and true value.
Jesus took it to another level by asking what is our duty? He is saying that we need to think about what is truly important. Caesar, Rome, and the emperor represent all those things that are contrary to God. All those idols in our lives - all those things to which we give our love and attention.
Or should we be giving our attention to God who we heard so beautifully described in the Psalm today:
Declare God's glory among the nations and God's wonders among all peoples.
For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; God is more to be feared than all gods.
As for the all the gods of the nations, they are but idols;
but it is the Lord who made the heavens.
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Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples;
ascribe to the Lord honor and power.
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Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,
let the whole earth tremble before God.
Our God is the God of the whole universe, the creator of everything – everywhere. It is a living God as Paul said in his letter, “You turned from idols, to serve a living and true God.”
Now what are we to give this living God? God doesn’t need anything. God doesn’t need our money, and even though it is pledge season, God doesn’t really need our pledges. The church might, but God doesn’t. God doesn’t need animal sacrifices. God doesn’t need anything. God is God.
But there is one thing that God can’t create just by willing it. You see God is also described as love. And love needs to love and be in relationship. The only thing that we can give God that God can’t give God's self is love, faithfulness, commitment, relationship, because we give that out of our free will. Out of our free will we chose whether to follow God, to do what we can for this God that loves us, or we put our energies and our faithfulness and our love into something that is dead. Caesar claimed to be a god, but he is dead. So the choice is, do we put our energies into that which is dead or into that which is the living God?
Certainly we can give to the emperor what is the emperor’s. Jesus is saying yes we need to take care of the things of the world. Yes, you need to go to work. You need to make sure you have enough to live. There are certain responsibilities, things you need to do. No problem with that. Of course we live in this world. We need to brush our teeth, we need to feed our bodies, we need to care for our children - and there is nothing wrong with that.
The problem is when things become an idol. I took a course in seminary called Bringing Biblical Humor to Life. It was a great course and helped me see the Bible in a whole new way. One of the things that the professor said was that an idol is something you can’t laugh about. Something that you take so seriously that there is no room for humor.
What is it in your life that has become an idol? That has become more important than love, than healthy relationships, than service. Is it your work? Is it respect? Is it power? Is it a 401K? Is it your retirement plans? Is it your fishing boat? Is it the football team? Or your cell phone? A particular news source? MSNBC? Fox News? A web site? A political leader? Alcohol? Drugs? Gambling? Facebook? What in your life takes away from your commitment to God? What sucks you in and pulls you away from life and from love?
When Jesus said render unto the emperor what is the emperor’s and to God was is God’s he meant that at every point of our lives, at every moment of our lives, we make a choice. We make a choice to give our energies and our faithfulness and our commitment to God, to life, to love, or we chose to give our energy and our commitment, our time, to idols, to death. To that which is not life enhancing.
There is an ancient spiritual practice of every night before going to bed to reflect upon your day. What did you do during the day that was life affirming, that was of God, and what did you do that was life denying, that was not of God? Not to judge them. Not to judge yourself. Just to notice and become aware and gradually become better at choosing love, at choosing life instead of death.
Choosing God instead of idols.