Posted on 10/18/2008 5:53:22 PM PDT by Charles Henrickson
“Joe the Pharisee and the Question about Taxes” (Matthew 22:15-22)
A popular figure comes to town, a man leading a movement, the man who has been in the news more than anyone else the last couple of years. People are eager to hear his message about “hope” and “change.” And of course there are people who want to ask him questions, to get his views on a variety of subjects affecting the nation. So someone comes forward to ask him a question about . . . taxes. Taxes--an important question, one that gets the attention of the crowd. Everyone is wondering: How will he answer?
No, the scene I’m describing is not Toledo, Ohio, the visiting celebrity is not Barack Obama, and the man asking the question is not Joe the Plumber. Yes, the question is about taxes, but the place is Jerusalem, the popular leader is Jesus of Nazareth, and the man asking the question--well, let’s call him, “Joe the Pharisee.” Now let’s join the scene in progress and listen carefully, because how Jesus answers will affect everyone here today.
We’re in Jerusalem in the days leading up to the Passover. Jesus has just come into town a couple of days ago. His enemies have been trying to figure out a way to trap him, to trip him up, either to get the crowds to turn against him or to get the authorities to come down on him. Jesus’ enemies would like to get their hands on him themselves, but they have to deal with the political realities. So they practice an early form of “gotcha” journalism: Figure out a question to ask, so that no matter which way he answers, he’ll get in trouble.
Now among these enemies of Jesus is a group called the Pharisees. Jesus has been exposing their hypocrisy for a couple years now, challenging their religious leadership, and they hate him for it. But so far they haven’t been able to catch him in a big slip-up. Even so, they’re gonna try once again. And so our text begins: “Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians. . . .”
There’s an old saying, “Politics makes strange bedfellows.” Well, so does opposition to Jesus. What I mean is, groups that otherwise might not like each other, when they have common cause, can become unlikely allies. So it is here with the Pharisees and a group called the Herodians. The Pharisees, like most Jews, were nationalists; they did not like the fact that the pagan Romans were ruling over them. The Herodians, on the other hand, were political collaborators who were willing to work under the Romans, because at least it gave them some measure of power. The House of Herod was the local political dynasty that had made a deal with Caesar to serve as puppet kings under the mighty Roman emperor.
So now catch the tension and the electric political-religious dynamic at work here, as the Pharisees set the trap. They’re going to ask Jesus a question that, if he answers it one way, will disappoint and anger the masses. But they also bring the Herodians along to witness Jesus’ answer, so that if he answers it the other way, they, the Herodians, will not like it, and they will report Jesus to the Roman authorities. A delicious trap, so the Pharisees think. Heads, you lose. Tails, you lose also.
To gain Jesus’ confidence and good will, and to encourage him to speak freely and loosen up his tongue, the Pharisees have their spokesman, “Joe the Pharisee,” start out with some flattery: “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.” Now the irony here, of course, is that all of this is true! Jesus himself is true--genuine, authentic--and he does speak and teach the way of God truthfully. Yes, that is exactly right! And yes, Jesus does not care about man’s opinion, nor is he swayed by outward appearances. He has demonstrated that over and over in his bold and controversial ministry. The irony here is that it’s the Pharisees themselves who are not being true or speaking truthfully. They’re being dishonest and deceitful and devious in their attempt to butter up Jesus and get him to slip. Jesus will not fall for it, of course, but this is how they’re leading into their trick question.
Which the Pharisees then ask: “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Well, that’s a pretty clever question, I must say! A “gotcha” question! “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” Is it lawful, is it right, for us Jews as God’s own children, who should be slaves to no one, to pay taxes on our person to a foreign, pagan emperor who has us under his thumb? If Jesus says yes, he has just lost the crowd; they’ll turn against him. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” If Jesus says no, the Herodians will hear it, and they will mark him as someone disloyal to the regime, a rebel against Caesar, a potential insurrectionist. And they will probably report him to the local Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
Jesus, as he is wont to do, answers their question with . . . a question. He asks them: “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites?” Jesus sees right through their phony flattery and calls them on it. He is “aware of their malice.” Even so, he decides to use this occasion for his purpose, and so he tells them, “Show me the coin for the tax.” Somebody digs into his pocket and brings Jesus a denarius, the Roman coin that would be used.
And now Jesus asks them another question, a question about the coin they themselves have just provided. He asks them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” That is, whose image, whose likeness, whose portrait do you see on this coin, and whose name is inscribed on it? This sounds like a pretty straightforward, simple question, and so the Pharisees quickly reply: “Caesar’s.”
What the Pharisees don’t realize is that now Jesus has caught them in a trap! Because what he says next is so brilliant, it is wisdom that cannot be refuted. He will answer their original question about paying taxes, but he will do it in a way which neither the nationalists nor the Herodians could gainsay. And he lifts their sights, and the sights of the crowd--and our sights, too--to see a question about ourselves, ourselves in relation to Jesus and to God.
Here is Jesus’ answer: “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” That gets at it, both our relation to Caesar and our relation to God, in one fell swoop.
First, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” This is really the minor point, because their question never really was a sincere question in the first place, it was just a set-up designed to trap Jesus. But Jesus does address briefly the matter of our responsibility toward civil government. Whoever the “Caesar” is over you at any particular time and place in history--well, Caesars need taxes to run whatever form of government happens to be in place. The government may be doing a good job or a bad job with those taxes, they may be collecting too much or too little in taxes--yes, there are some people who think the government needs to raise taxes--but the point remains: Nations need governments. And governments collect taxes. It’s what they do. Caesar needs--and demands--his denarii. That’s the nature of life in this world.
In our country, we have an unusual situation in that we are Caesar. We get the government we elect. We get the taxes we elect. So to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” in our context means to do the best job we can as citizens to be informed and to choose wise leaders. This is an especially timely word as we approach Election Day in a couple of weeks.
But as I say, this is only the minor point that Jesus is making. He has something more to say that goes beyond taxes and Caesar. And that is, that we are to render “to God the things that are God’s.” This is the most important thing Jesus has to say, and it applies to Joe the Pharisee, Hank the Herodian, plumbers and politicians and people in the pew. Render to God the things that are God’s. And that has everything to do with how we receive--or reject--the man who is saying this, namely, Jesus of Nazareth.
Now here we’re getting at it, and think back to that Roman denarius, with the likeness and inscription of Caesar on it. If that coin had the image and name of the emperor on it, and it did, then that meant you recognized it as such and you received it and used it for operating in that kingdom. The coin bore the image of the current Roman emperor, and the inscription gave his name and title: “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus.” Did you catch that? The Roman emperor claimed to be divine, the “son of the divine Augustus.”
Now here is Jesus, standing here right in front of you, telling you these things. You have observed his person and ministry for several years now. You have heard his words and seen his deeds, words of heavenly wisdom, deeds of divine mercy. So now the question comes: Whose image and inscription does he bear? The answer: God’s. Jesus’ words and his works attest, most clearly, that he is indeed the Son of the living God, the only one there is. Then why, O Pharisees, do you not receive this Jesus as your Messiah, your King and Deliverer sent from heaven? That would be the right way to render to God the things that are God’s. By believing in the one whom he sent! The image and the inscription are there for you to see!
That image and that inscription are there for you to see, dear friend! Look to Jesus your Savior. See in him the image of God, the God of all compassion and mercy. So great is his love for us that he was willing to be rejected by his enemies and to be crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. There on that cross the inscription read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” But really the inscription could read, “This is Jesus, the King who was willing to suffer shame and suffering and death for your salvation.” Yes, Jesus renders to God the things that only he could render: payment for all our debt of sin, a tax we could never pay. But Jesus, the holy Son of God, does pay it, declaring in his dying breath, “It is finished. Paid in full.” That the debt is paid is shown when Jesus then rises from the dead, offering life and peace and eternal salvation as a free gift.
So today as you see the image and inscription of God resting on this Jesus, “render to God the things that are God’s”: Faith and trust in the Savior he sends you--Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
With that in mind, we now sing as our Offertory, Hymn 422:
On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessed Jesus, King of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
And my glory and salvation!
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
Just watched Joe the Plumber on Mike Huckabee’s show. Joe is a plain spoken, honest man and I was happy that Mike gave him the opportunity to appear tonight. Good show.
I enjoyed Huckabee’s show tonight. I hope things go well for Joe.
Bravo.
The question then becomes, “What is Caesar’s?” The answer is: NOTHING.
What is God's?
Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord's and the fulness therof”
Romans 12:1 “I beg you.... to present your bodies as a living sacrifice...”
As Dorothy Day observed, “if we have rendered everything to God, what is left for Caesar?”
Romans 13:1-7 (ESV)
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Otherwise, Caesar has his reward.
Right answer. You had me worried for a minute.
The right to own a plot of land, the right to work the land and sell the produce. The right to hire labor, the right to negotiate a wage, the right to expect the wage would be paid promptly.
This parable ends in a delightful question from Jesus Himself that destroys the basis of socialism:
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?”
Not under any system other than free-market capitalism it isn't.
But also note the several warnings to the king from God against accumulation of excessive wealth, and that when the King wanted to give land to his son, he must compensate the owner.
Thus we see the difference in status between a “taking” and a “tax’. The king could tax to support his activities, and citizens were obligated to pay, but the king could not “take” property that was not his without compensating the owner. This is an important principle.
When God dictated the Ten Commandments, including the one forbidding theft, that is not the entire Law regarding property. For example, even though the farmer owns the field and the crops in the field, God said that when you walk through a field, you can eat the grain you can scoop up with your hand. That is not theft. Further, the farmer was to allow the indigent to glean after the harvest and he must reserve the corners for them as well.
These are some of the exemptions to the commandments that protect property that are not exigent in nature.
But notice the incident in 1 Kings 21 where Ahab coveted Naboth’s field and plotted to murder him in order to secure ownership of it.
Please consider 1 King 21:17-19
And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 Arise, go
down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwelleth in Samaria: behold, he is in
the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to take possession of it. 19
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, Hast thou killed
and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith
Jehovah, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick
thy blood, even thine.
Here is an illegal “taking”, which God condemned and judged Ahab for.
So, government is not entitled to taxing away all our assets and income, only that which it needs to conduct lawful business.
Some people might be tempted to cite Romans 13, where God says that he gives us government, and its sword-bearing agents, for our own good. But God assures us that He is consistent, that His Law, Statues and Judgments are timeless in application, that his values always were, are and always will be the same, that what was right and wrong will always be right and wrong now and forever.
The Roman coin was stamped in the image of Caesar and Jesus says it is OK to give it back to Caesar. Then he says give to God that which is God's. So the question is: What is stamped or made in the image of God?
Answer: Man
For Gen 1:26 states And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
So it seems we have to give ourselves back to God.
“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
But what if Caeser is a total, liberal/socialist idiot???
Good question. And maybe the answer cannot be found in the Matthew 22 passage. There are two problems with trying to make direct applications of the teachings of Jesus to the political problems we face today.
The followers of Jesus were waiting for Him to give them a political answer but they never got it. Instead they got an answer for the problem of sin. Maybe we will get the political answer when He returns.
Excellent work, my brother.
God equips the called. Joe will be OK. A little prayer for him wouldn't hurt, though.
Yes, render unto Caesar and submit to earthly authorities -
except when they require something that God forbids, or forbid something that God requires.
Now, about that “Freedom of Choice Act”, under which there will be no restrictions on Infanticide, paid for with the coin of our labor...
Care to comment?
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