Render unto Caesar
A sermon on Matthew 22:15–22
For the First Presbyterian Church of Itasca (IL) — October 22, 2017
Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
Brothers and sisters, it is such a joy to worship here with you again, on this Sunday when you are starting a new day in the life of this church.
When i’m invited to preach, i usually go with a Bible passage from the Lectionary, because i don’t really know what’s happening here and what you need to hear about, so that’s my way of leaving that part in God’s hands, by not-picking the text or topic.
Today’s passage gave me more trouble than usual. When i checked the Lectionary for today, it was obvious that, of all the passages listed, it was going to be this one from Matthew. At the same time, i felt apprehensive to touch such a sensitive topic, which could cause offense, which is really not my style or my goal this morning.
This is a passage with a long history of interpretation. It even has its own Wikipedia page. It’s usually known by the old English form: “Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and unto God what belongs to God.”
At first blush, Jesus seems to be dividing the universe into two groups of things:
The things which belong to Caesar, and
The things which belong to God.
And, in fact, this is one of the ways that this text is often understood.
In other words, it seems to be describing two separate but equally important realms, equally deserving of our service. Obey Caesar in material things, obey God in spiritual things.
The problem with that, is that it’s not at all like Jesus. For one thing, when Jesus was captured and taken to the Romans to be executed, he was accused of perverting the nation by forbidding people to pay taxes to the emperor (Luke 23.2). This would be in direct contradiction to the interpretation i just mentioned.
So let’s back up a little bit and try to figure out what really happened there, and perhaps what that tells us about our own lives.
Jesus had finished his final journey, and had entered Jerusalem with his disciples. He had had the confrontation at the Temple, where he angrily pushed away the money changers and sales people, saying “it is written: my house shall be called a house of prayer; but you are making it a den of robbers.” He had been acclaimed by the people, had performed miracles, and said many things which angered the religious and political authorities. The authorities wanted to arrest him, but were afraid of the crowds, who were acclaiming him as a prophet. It was the time of the Passover, the busiest time in the whole year, for Jerusalem. The city was completely full of people who had come from all over, for the festival.
Then, they tried to lay a trap. Matthew and Mark say that it was the work of the Pharisees and Herodians. Luke, very cool, says it was spies pretending to be honest. Without going too much into the complexities of the political structures of the time, i like to think of the Pharisees as Democrats and the Herodians as Republicans. I think this captures the feeling rather well: it was a bipartisan effort.
That was a doozy of a question: is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? If Jesus answered yes, he would cause a riot, because the crowd hated the Romans and considered their presence and their government a violation of God’s law. If he answered no, he would be committing a serious crime in the view of the Romans. As we already saw, it was one of the pretexts used later to condemn him to death.
But Jesus understood their purpose and their malice. He knew that it was not an honest question searching for answers, but a cleverly sprung trap.
What Jesus did then, what he often did so well, was to send the question back to the questioners, by providing an ironic “answer” which didn’t really satisfy them. Show me the money. What image is this? Ceasar. What name is this? Caesar. Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.
By doing so, Jesus leaves it to his listeners — and eventually to us — the more important question, about what (if anything) does belong to the emperor, and what belongs to God.
True to Jesus’ teaching style, the question is not answered because ultimately it is a question which we must answer for ourselves every day. What can we do about that?
Obviously, everything belongs to God. There is no question here of small round flat objects which somehow don’t belong to God.
And there, is the irony in the answer. In Jesus’ time, writing your name or putting your seal on something, was a way of asserting ownership. Kind of like cowboys branding cattle. So, by putting his name and face on the small, flat, round objects, the emperor was saying: “mine!”
Similarly to what happened to the Native Americans, when Europeans claimed ownership of American land, that didn’t make sense. How can anyone own the earth? The rivers? The sky?
In our fully monetized, capitalized and militarized society, the power conflict between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world continue to raise questions of supreme importance, and our answers are never perfect or final.
We should know that our first brothers and sisters were much more resistant to cooperation with the secular government, than we are. For example, it was very rare for a Christian to be in the military, and when it happened, that was considered a difficult situation, fraught with moral and physical danger. This situation changed very gradually, until the time when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
We must beware the ever-present religion of State, and especially here in the USA, its mimetic tendencies: it’s way of presenting itself as a form of Christianity.
Beware when the government tries to make nice to Christians, because in return, they want a legitimacy that we have no business providing. Many spheres of authority compete for our attention in religious guise.
On the other hand, “Christian”, in its purest form, it not a religion, but above all, a relationship with God.
If we listen to what our brothers and sisters have said about this passage over the years, there are other thoughts to be had. For example, Doris Day said: “the less you have of Caesar’s, the less you have to render unto Caesar.” In other words, if we are being pulled in too many directions, perhaps we have allowed our life to become over complicated. Perhaps it’s time for some spiritual decluttering.
I’m going to touch only briefly on the subject of taxes, but you should know that there is a rich history of Christians wrestling with this conundrum. Here in the USA that became very acute in the time of the fight against legalized slavery, and also in times of war. What, exactly, are our tax dollars being used for? It’s a complicated world, and we need to get informed.
If i haven’t irritated too many of you yet, the last point i would like to touch on, is nationalism. Nationalism is one of the strongest manifestations of the national religion, the religion of State. At times it can be so prevalent, that if feels natural. The truth, of course, is that nations, national borders, races and national pride, are constructs. Lines drawn on a map were not put there by God.
Race is a construct. God created all of us on his image.
As Christians, we are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God. We are international. Who knows, maybe we are inter-planetary! We denounce and rebuke all forms of prejudice and anything that attempts to reduce the worth of our fellow humans, who carry in themselves the image of God.
It is time that we understood that “Render unto Caesar” is an unnecessary distraction. The point is, are we ready to give to God what he gives us: our time, our minds, our hearts and our lives? Are we willing to be on the side of Jesus, and live the Kingdom of God here and now? “Render unto God” what belongs to God, and Caesar will fall into place.
So help us God.
Amen.
