16 Oct 2005

"Give me the Money"

Matthew 22:15-22

Douglas Dudley writes, "A man was walking down a dark street. All of sudden a robber jumped out with a gun and said, "Give me your money." The man replied, "Hey, you can't do this to me! I'm a United states Congressman!" The robber then says, "O.K. Then give me all MY money!"

Interesting story, it is not? For me, the most interesting part of the story is the assumption the thief makes, that the congressman has his money. Money seems to be what makes the world go around. There are those who believe that money is the bottom line of every major decision made in the world. For example, they would say, "the war on terror" or "the war in Iraq" is about money and nothing else. Yet, we know that without money little gets done.

In our society there seems to be two philosophies of government and the role it should play in society. The devastation of the Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico has tested these philosophies of government. If the government is there to help those most in need, then money is needed; higher taxes are required. However, if the government is there not to give, but only to facilitate help, then less money is needed and high taxes may not be required. But, the current administration, who believes (in theory) that the role of government should be limited, has been forced to spend millions and millions of dollars to help the victims of the recent Hurricanes. Now, however, the government must decide how to pay for the dollars already spent. Should the government increase our taxes or not? And, if we the citizens of this nation do not pay higher taxes, how are we going to finance what we already spent while continuing to spend helping others?

The thief of our story assumes that the money taxed to him is still his and not the money of the community, money that can be used to help the victims of natural disasters for example.

I am sure, however, that we can continue this conversation for days and continue to debate the role of government in our society. I would say that to continue to debate and argue about these things are healthy for a democracy. We may never fully embrace one philosophy over another, yet we are free to argue and question current practices.

Unfortunately for Jesus and the Pharisees that came to test him, the question of taxation is far more complicated. The taxes the Jews had to pay were imposed on them by the foreign government that conquered their land. To pay or not to pay taxes was a matter of life and death further complicated by faith issues. Brian Stoffregen, a well known Preacher and theologian writes, "The annual payment of this tax to Rome was a painful reminder of being in lands occupied by foreign powers who worshipped false gods. The tax could only be paid with Roman coins which were not just legal tender but also pieces of propaganda. Most of the coins contained an image of the Caesar with inscriptions proclaiming him to be divine or the son of a god. One common phrase on coins during the time of Jesus was: 'Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest.' 'Graven images' and polytheism were blasphemous to both Jews and Christians. Thus paying taxes with Roman coins raised both political and religious issues."

The book of Matthew clearly states that the Pharisees wanted to entrap Jesus. They wanted to trick Jesus. They wanted Jesus to say something that will get him arrested and perhaps even executed. So they came to Jesus together with the Herodians- people from the house of Herod. As you know Herod was the man in charge of Palestine who was not fully Jewish and worked for the well-being of Rome.

As hypocrites do, the Pharisees pretended to like Jesus and respect his teachings. They said, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth..." (v. 16). Setting him up, they asked him this very political question: "It is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" (v. 17). In essence they were asking, "As people of God, as Jews, should we pay taxes to a non-Jewish ruler who has conquered us, who does not believe in God and who treats us as garbage?" "Should we break our own beliefs of worshiping pagan gods and having engraved images to please Rome?" Any good Jew would wrestle with this question on a daily basis. In fact, the Zealots, the most radical political Jewish groups in Jesus time, refused to pay taxes to Rome.

This is why Jesus' reply leaves us with more questions than answers. "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's," said Jesus (v. 21). But, what does that mean? Is Jesus saying it is OK to compromise our faith and carry engraved images and please our pagan ruler as long as we give to God what is God's? Is Jesus saying we can break our beliefs from Monday through Friday, worship other gods, gamble, get drunk, lie and abuse others, but on Sunday come to church and give our offerings to God? Is Jesus saying we can serve two masters: God and Caesar? There are many Christians who would say, yes we can. We can full give our allegiance to the State and to God. Why? Because, unlike the first century Jew, we can elect our President. We can determine the type of ruler we wish to have. We can vote for the candidate that best embraces our set of beliefs and morals.

Yet, there are others who would say, "Jesus was breaking new ground and teaching us to make a separation between the State and the Church." In other words, Jesus was helping us to begin to break ourselves from the State (the secular non-religious government) and the religious institutions that no longer had the power to govern society. For the Jew this concept of the separation between the Church and State was not very clear. For example, the Jewish King and the Jewish faith could not be separated.

The question of separation of Church and State is very important. However, was Jesus trying to teach separation between the Church and State or simply trying to save himself from getting arrested? A few scholars think this is exactly what Jesus was trying to do. Jesus gave a "politically correct" answer without committing himself to anything.

Yet I believe Jesus' answer is far more revealing. First, the Pharisees wanted to entrap Jesus. They wanted him to say, "We should not pay taxes to Rome, because it violates the laws of God." This would have been a good answer. Perhaps this is what the Pharisees themselves would have said. After all, they were the teachers and scholars of the Law. Jesus would have been quickly arrested by the Herodians and perhaps immediately sent to Rome to be executed for treason.

However, Jesus was not going to fall in their trap. He chose instead to expose the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. He said to them, "Show me the coin used for the tax." Jesus did not have such a coin in his packet, the Pharisees did. There are no biblical evidences that suggest Jesus carried money at all. The Pharisees were the ones that took from their own pockets this engraved image with the words:

"Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest."

Second, I believe Jesus was merciful to the ones who came full of malice. Exposed for everyone to see, the Pharisees gave Jesus the coin that revealed their hypocrisy. Instead of accusing them of breaking the law and putting them on the spot by asking them in front of the Herodians and the onlookers, "what are you doing with such a coin?" He chose a kinder reply. He said, "This coin has the image of Caesar, well give it to him. The coin has his face, perhaps it belongs to him. You do not need to have it. However, you are not fully giving to God what belongs to God. Give to God what belongs to Him." What was shocking was not that Jesus said to the Pharisees "give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar," because most everyone was doing that- if they wanted to live. The shocking thing was that they, the teachers and scholars of the Law, were not giving to God what belongs to God.

The question for us today is not "should we pay taxes?" This question is for a later day. The question today is are we giving to God what belongs to God? Do we give ten percent of our income to the church or not? Do we use the gifts and talents God has given us for his honor and glory or not? Do we give Caesar-the world the best of us and give God only what it is left if anything? I wonder what coins we have in our pockets. I wonder if Jesus asks us to empty our pockets, whether or not we will be embarrassed. I know I struggle with the material possessions I have and wish we could live more simply. I wish we had less debt so that we can give more of our income to God. As I look at the world and how 2/3rds of the world live, I am embarrassed by the wealth that I see being wasted.

You know? I believe all the money, all the gold and all the silver, belongs to God. It does not belong to Caesar, it does not belong to State and it does not belong to me. It belongs to God. I also believe that most North American Christians do not struggle enough with the question what is the role of the government and what is the role of the Church in our society. However, we, North American Christians, hardly struggle with the question: are we giving to God what belongs to God? We just simply do not seem concerned.

I know Houston Mennonite Church is full of talented people. I also know that many of us do a lot for the Kingdom of God. Let us, therefore, continue to ask the hard questions, continue to give God the best of us. Therefore, let us continue to give all that we have and all that we are to God. Let us continue to give our God what belongs to Him.

Amen