The Question about Paying Taxes
15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16 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. 17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” 18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 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.” 22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
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I originally preached this sermon in a certain time and a certain place, with a certain people in mind. I believe that the Holy Spirit transcends time and space, so I hope that this sermon might be a blessing to you wherever you are. You can read the sermon transcript below or you can watch the worship service and listen the sermon at the link here.
Gracious God, remind us that we are God’s. Remind us that we are created in God’s image and that each of us are God’s children, and that we are called to the stewardship of God’s image in one another and in ourselves. Amen.
For just about the entire time after Pentecost, this season that we have been in for 20 weeks now, we have heard these stories of Jesus being asked tough questions, mostly by people who are trying to get him to say the wrong thing.
Of course, we know that the point of this questioning is to trick Jesus. Even when they don’t explicitly say it like they do in this text, we know that Jesus and he religious authorities did not usually see eye to eye on issues. The religious authorities were really quite comfortable in their lives, enjoying power that the Roman Empire had given them to keep their own people, the Jewish people, in line.
And by this time, Jesus is known for speaking out against the Roman empire, the ones who have given the religious leaders power. He threatens the comfort of the religious authorities by saying that we should take care of the children, the widows, the orphaned, the oppressed, the imprisoned.
The good new of Christ Jesus does not sound like good news to the people who have the most power in this world. This is all threatening to the Roman Empire and the top religious authorities because they have taken advantage of these people for so long— demanding taxes and offerings from the most vulnerable to pad their pockets. And Jesus has been traveling the country— with pretty big crowds— preaching against this way of life.
So when the religious authorities approach Jesus this time, they are fully expecting Jesus to say that people should not pay taxes to Caesar, this was a logical next step in what they thought was the radical movement that Jesus was leading. They assumed Jesus was another Jewish radical, leading an uprising against the Roman government. And they wanted to prove it and finally put an end to it.
But of course Jesus knows what they are doing, and is clever. By now he is used to this line of questioning and even gets a little defensive with them. “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites?”
Jesus knows what the people are expecting him to say, and he knows what it would mean if he told his followers not to pay taxes to Caesar. Instead of just telling stories or skirting around the answer like we have heard in his many parables this season, Jesus would be openly speaking against the Empire. And that, of course, could mean death.
So he asks this simple question, already knowing the answer.
Whose head is on the coin and whose title?
One of the wonderful things about raising a two year-old is teaching Bennet to share and take turns with his toys. His favorite word right now is “mine.” We know it is a normal part of his development, but it is exhausting some days! We sing sharing songs from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, we refocus him, we remind him to be kind, all the things our parenting books and blogs tell us will help him understand how to share. But he walks around the house declaring, “mine!.” Bennet repeating “mine mine mine” all day long reminds me of the emperor. Of course you’d think the emperor would know better than to believe that everything in his empire was his, but he didn’t. He went around the empire and declared, “mine” to whatever he wanted.
A couple of weeks ago, I preached on the Ten Commandments and said that in the first and second commandments, God commands us not to put God’s image on anything, making no other gods in image or worship. This is because God has already given us the gift of placing God’s image on every single one of us and on all of creation.
Jesus, knowing this, points to the emperor’s mistake in putting his graven image on the coins.
This was a regular habit of the emperor— he put his image on buildings and in mosaics and on the money. It was vanity, but it was also power— everyone would know what belongs to the emperor. Jesus knows that God has immeasurable power over the emperor and is not concerned with a couple of coins for taxes.
The coin is the emperor’s, Jesus says, give it to the emperor.
And give to God what is God’s.
Which, of course, as Jesus knows, is everything.
Give these coins to whoever wants them, Jesus says, God wants something better and more important— your entire life. God wants all of creation, God wants us to recognize God’s image in every human being and give all of our lives to loving, reconciling, and redeeming with one another.
We can dwell on the things of this world, or we can follow Jesus into the new movement where children, widows, orphans, the imprisoned, and the oppressed are cared for and loved. We can worry ourselves over the power plays of the emperor, or we can follow Christ into deep love and reconciliation. God has named us and claimed us as God’s beloved and nothing, no power of the Empire can change that promise from God.
This text is sometimes preached as a very pointed stewardship sermon, and I think it is set up that way nicely. Actually the last couple of weeks have been really fantastic texts to talk about stewardship. I promise Father Wiley and I didn’t arrange the texts this way— it’s just a happy coincidence that the stewardship campaign lines up with the Revised Common Lectionary so well. Perhaps we can thank the Spirit for that.
But this story isn’t about money— not really. This story is about God’s dominion and power of all things. This story is about Christ knowing that God is going to stick around longer than any emperor, and religious leader, any politician. This story is about knowing that regardless of what we try to put our own names on, regardless of what we claim as our own, we know that everything is God’s.
As we are teaching Bennet to share, we have taken to reminding him that, “no, that toy is not yours. It is mama’s and she is sharing it with you.” I don’t really know if it’s working. It probably isn’t. He is only two years old after all. I don’t think he really understands the concept of stewardship yet. But it does make him stop and think sometimes.
And I suppose that is exactly what true stewardship is about— stopping and thinking that none of this is ours, despite our name on the deed or license— AND that none of it is the emperor’s. It is all God’s.
And that means something. That is good news. Because just all of the rest of creation is God’s, we too are God’s. In the waters of baptism we are given new life, outside of the Empire. In the meal we share each week, we affirm that Christ is in us and we are a part of Christ’s body. And because God doesn’t waste time putting claim to unimportant, those silly coins with a face that will eventually vanish, God devotes Godself to us, God’s beloved children. Over and over again, God says, you are mine so give your whole self to me, just as I have given my whole self to you in Christ Jesus. Amen.
