Reflections on Exodus 33:12-23 / Ps 99 / 1 Thess. 1:1-10 / Matthew 22:15-22
When we meet Jesus in our gospel this morning, we find him in a bit of a pickle - dealing with a trap that follows right on the heels of the teachings and parables we’ve been hearing these past few Sundays. Jesus has just swept into Jerusalem to the praise of the crowds. He goes promptly into the temple, clearing out the money changers and merchants and turns the temple courts into a place for healing the sick and needy. When he comes back to the temple the next day, the chief priests and elders, the Pharisees and scribes – all those who control Jerusalem’s religious establishment and benefit from all the buying and selling in the temple – they gather and begin to confront him, questioning his authority and trying to turn the people against him. Over the last few Sundays we’ve heard Jesus’ fiery responses: a series of parables, condemning these leaders as lying sons, wicked tenants, and unfaithful guests who care more about their wealth and properties than about the invitation of their king.
These leaders are outraged. They believe that they are the ones who get to decide who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ among God’s people – you can hear their frustration about this insult to their authority in the way they needle Jesus about “showing deference to no one.” But the crowds love Jesus, this man who teaches and heals and cares for them. The leaders cannot arrest Jesus directly without turning the crowds against them, so instead they try to lay a trap for Jesus in our gospel today. In order to understand the trap that’s being set for Jesus, we have to pay attention to who it is that questions Jesus while he stands in the temple this morning.
Matthew tells us that the leaders send a mixed group of Pharisees and Herodians to ask Jesus about whether or not it is ‘lawful’ to pay taxes to Rome. This is an odd pairing, because these two groups are usually at odds with each other. The Pharisees see paying taxes to Rome as unfaithful to the Torah. The Romans are foreign, pagan oppressors who have conquered the lands of Israel, and Caesar considers himself a god-king – paying taxes to Caesar borders on idolatry. The Herodians, on the other hand, come from King Herod, who works for Rome and whose power and privilege depend upon the support of his Roman overlords – for them, paying taxes to Caesar is the only way to keep Rome happy and prevent them from cracking down further on Judea.
In other words, if Jesus sides with the Pharisees and says ‘no taxes’, he becomes a rebel against Rome and the Chief Priests can turn him into the Roman authorities. But if he sides with the Herodians and endorses the taxes, he is aligning himself with the Roman oppressors and will lose the support of the people, letting the leaders arrest Jesus without the crowds interfering.
And then Jesus responds, cutting through all of the posturing and politicking – stepping right past the trap by simply focusing on what really matters. First, he asks for a Roman coin, a denarius, and the Pharisees and Herodians promptly produce one for him. Archaeologists have found examples of these coins from Jesus’ time, so we actually know what these look like. On the one side is an image of the emperor with the inscription of his name and title. On the other side is an image of the Roman goddess of peace, Pax.
This is a revealing moment. A coin engraved with these images was a violation of the central commandment against carved images of other gods. It was a big ‘no no’ to carry these coins or offer them in the temple – this is why the money changers set up shop at the temple, they took advantage of the commandment to make a quick buck by exchanging Roman coins for temple-friendly coins without images of other gods. But these Jewish leaders are so used to their privilege and so intent upon tricking Jesus that they don’t even hesitate to ignore the commandment and bring these coins to Jesus publicly in the temple. Jesus’ request reveals to the crowd that these men really don’t care about what is ‘lawful’ – only about eliminating Jesus as a threat to their power and privilege.
Then Jesus asks the question. “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answer, “the emperor’s,” and Jesus tells them to “give therefore to the emperor the things that are his, and to God the things that are God’s.” Matthew tells us that this answer disarms the Pharisees and Herodians and they leave him in amazement. What exactly is it about this answer that impresses them so much that they give up the fight?
Obviously, the coin has the emperor’s head and title on it, revealing that it belongs to the emperor, but the force of Jesus’ answer lies in his last statement, “give to God the things that are God’s.” What is Jesus referring to? What are the things that belong to God as opposed to the emperor?
Unfortunately, I think our lectionary translation obscures the force of Jesus’ words here a bit. The word translated “head” is actually the word eikon or “image” – the same word used in Genesis 2 when God creates humanity in God’s “image” and likeness. The word translated “title” is actually a more general term for written words. In Jesus’ time (and in some Jewish traditions till this day), Jewish men were required to wear phylacteries on their head and by their heart whenever they went to pray – small leather boxes containing small sections of the Torah. Wearing these written words marked them as the people of God’s covenant and were meant to be a sign of faithfulness. In fact, in just a few passages, Jesus is going to criticize the scribes and Pharisees for caring more about wearing big, ostentatious phylacteries than about actually being faithful to the words written in those boxes.
So what are the things that have God’s image and God’s words upon them? They are – God’s people are – we are. Just as the coin’s bear Caesar’s image and title and belong to him, so we bear the image of God and the word of God and are bound to God. In essence, Jesus seems to be saying, “Sure, pay your taxes, that’s not the point. The point is who you give yourself to – who you love and serve.” Caesar does not care about you or your heart, he’s happy to leave you alone as long as he gets his taxes paid. God, on the other hand, has marked you as his own, he has given himself to you and loves you. He wants to go with you and dwell with you and within you like he did with Moses and the Israelites in Exodus, and Jesus’ concern is that we receive that blessing and live into that divine image.
The Pharisees and Herodians are amazed and silenced, I think, because Jesus’ response has exposed and challenged them. They are using the Torah as a tool in their attempts to preserve their privilege and power by arresting Jesus. They care more about their comfort and stability than about faithfulness to God’s commands. Their loyalties are divided, and Jesus’ answer demands that they look at themselves and ask – are we giving ourselves to God?
The greatest command, according to Jesus, is that we “love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might” and that this looks like “loving our neighbor as ourselves”. That last word, “might” is really important, it’s the Hebrew word meod, it literally means our ‘muchness’. It refers not to our physical strength, but to our whole sphere of influence – our stuff, our money yes, but also our time, our habits, our creative energies and relationships and practical skills – all the things that make up the stuff of our lives and allow us to love our neighbor and express our faithfulness to God externally. Jesus seems to suggest that all of this, all of our ‘muchness’, is meant to be an instrument guided by our love of God to be used in service to him and of others.
So let us leave this morning with Jesus’ words hanging in the air for us to wrestle with this week – sure, we must give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but are we giving to God the things that are God’s?
