Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-june-20-2023
Luke 20:20-26
Paying Taxes to Caesar
20 Keeping a close watch on him, they sent spies, who pretended to be honest. They hoped to catch Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. 21 So the spies questioned him: “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach what is right, and that you do not show partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
23 He saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?”
25 “Caesar’s,” they replied.
He said to them, “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
26 They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent.
Throughout my adult life, one of the most troublesome issues in American life is the question of the proper relationship between the civil government and the community of faith. Lots of people who think the country should be governed by “Christian values” want the government to enforce laws that reflect their understanding of those values. But others, who also consider themselves followers of Jesus, firmly embrace the separation of church and state. Still others, who don’t practice the Christian faith at all, have no interest in having laws on matters like abortion and sexual morality based on the beliefs of one minority segment of the church.
Most people who think of themselves as Christians could quote the King James Version of what Jesus says in this passage – “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God’s.” But if you asked them to tell you how we’re supposed to decide what belongs to God and what beings to Caesar, you’d probably get a lot of blank stares.
That’s not good. As followers of Jesus in a democracy, we have some responsibility for casting our votes and advocating for government policies that are consistent with some understanding of what is God’s and what is Caesar’s. So we should probably be able to explain how we decide which is which.
Of course, our passage for today isn’t about a discussion about Christian values in a democracy. It’s about a conflict between Jesus and the religious leadership. Jesus had embarrassed the religious leaders by showing them to be shallow religious ‘politicians’ who were more motivated by greed and public opinion than by faithfully discerning God’s will. And Luke says that in their fury, these religious leaders resolved to get rid of Jesus one way or another.
In our reading for today, the leaders send spies in the hope of catching Jesus in something he said so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. These spies try to trap him with a trick question, which is whether it’s acceptable in God’s eyes for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar.
If Jesus said ‘yes,’ that people should pay taxes to Caesar, he would offend patriotic Jews, who hated the idea of paying taxes to the Romans. If Jesus said ‘no,’ that people should not pay taxes to the Romans, then he would be guilty of sedition, which could get him arrested, and maybe even crucified.
But of course, Jesus is too smart to get caught in their trap. He asks the spies to produce the coin in which the tax is paid, and then asks them whose image and inscription is on it. It’s a Roman coin, so it has Caesar’s image on it, just as our coins have the images of presidents. And Jesus says that if the coin has Caesar’s image on it, it must be Caesar’s coin, and so it’s legitimate to pay it to Caesar. The spies can’t find any flaw in Jesus’ logic, so their trap fails.
So it was kind of an open-and-shut case for those around Jesus. But as we said a minute ago, this story has additional relevance for people like us. We have a different relationship with our governing authorities than the subjects of the Roman Empire had.
As citizens of a democracy, we have the right and responsibility to choose our own leaders. But we don’t all hold the same views. So the relationship between the civil authorities and communities of faith gets complicated.
But whatever our political views might be, bitter partisanship, lies and hostility are not consistent with the teachings and example of Jesus. The New Testament seems consistent in telling us to show respectful obedience to those who govern us. That would seem to be true even true if we didn’t vote for them and hope to see them voted out of office as soon as possible. After all, neither Jesus nor Paul voted for Caesar.
And there’s another point that arises out of this story: If the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image, then we must belong to God because we bear his image. So even though we are to show respect to civil authorities, we also need to recognize that our highest allegiance is to God as he was manifest among us in Jesus.
Being a follower of Jesus in a democracy is messy. Things are seldom as black-and-white as we tell ourselves. There are people who disagree with us who are just as sincere in their faith as we are in ours. And when people of faith express their beliefs in ways that are strident and defiant, they betray a self-righteous belief that God is on their side. And that, of course, is exactly what the Jewish religious leaders thought when they demanded that Jesus be crucified.
The life and teachings of Jesus call us to a humble and thoughtful discipleship – and that almost certainly means we’re also called to humble and thoughtful citizenship. So when we find ourselves tempted to self-righteous defiance toward civil authorities we disagree with, we should probably stop to ask ourselves if we can justify that defiance out of the teachings or example of our master.
Let’s pray. Lord, you know it’s not easy for us to know how best to follow Jesus in a democracy. Help us to be thoughtful citizens, and guard us against the self-righteous stridency that characterizes so much of the political discourse of our world. In our lives as citizens as in all things, move us to live in imitation of Jesus, and to remember that we bear your image in the world. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 43 and 44; I Samuel 1:21-2:11; and Acts 1:15-26. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
Recent Comments