Give to the Emperor what is the Emperor’s, and to God What is God’s
The Pharisees and Herodians were two unlikely groups to come together, as the former opposed the Roman empire while the latter worked with it. But their shared disdain for Jesus brought them together in an attempt to trick Jesus with a loaded question. If he were to say that you don’t have to pay taxes to Caesar, he could be accused of being a subversive and a revolutionary against the empire, and the Herodians could rat him out to Rome. But, if he were to say that yes, you do have to pay taxes, he could be accused by the Pharisees and others of being complicit with the empire, a collaborator, condoning the exploitation of common people and alienating many of his followers.
Jesus understood the complications of living under an empire. If you didn’t pay your taxes, the Roman empire could come after you, your possessions, your family, and even your life. It was a good rule of thumb for people to pay their taxes so soldiers wouldn’t come after you. Yet paying taxes did not mean a vote of support for the empire. The choice about paying taxes was more complicated than simply being pro- or anti- Roman empire. What is legal is not necessarily moral. What is lawful from Rome’s perspective (paying taxes) might not be pleasing to God. What we owe to God is not necessarily the same thing as what we owe to Caesar.
In Jesus’ response in verse 21, the Greek verb “apodote” translated “render” literally means “to give back, to pay, or to render.” In other words, Jesus teaches, give back, or return, to Ceasar what you owe him. Worded differently, if you accumulate a debt to Caesar, you will feel an obligation to pay back Caesar, and that will affect how you live your life. It will likely cause you to act against your conscience and morals. Jesus’ warning is, be careful in accumulating a debt to the wrong person, such as Caesar. Be careful giving your allegiance to someone who is rich, powerful and corrupt, someone who takes advantage, someone who wants to control others. You may choose to do that for your personal gain, or to advance your political career, or for whatever motive. It will likely cause you to start acting in ways that are not true to who you are, to your values, or to the kind of person God wants you to be. It may cause you to hurt others, and yourself.
Caesar, and others who are corrupt and powerful, trade in the currency of power and control. They operate in the coinage of violence, colonization, and ego-aggrandizement. Jesus’ warning is, to be careful with what kind of currency we tend to trade. If we tend to trade primarily in Ceasar’s currency instead of God’s, we’ll have problems. If we primarily view money as a means to control others, to fund a military to advance our own interests and protect my own ego, then we will treat others as objects, with an “I-it” relationship to other people. We will have a utilitarian, detached approach to others, in which we don’t care about others at all, and use them as a tool, a means to an end, dehumanizing and harming others.
I wonder, if Caesar operates in the coinage of control and violence, what is the coinage of the kingdom of heaven? Simply not paying taxes is not necessarily going to bring the ways of violence and control down. So the question is, what will?
It seems to me, what will transform the coinage of empire is trading in God’s alternative currency, which is the currency of love. God wants for us to have what Australian-Israeli Jewish philosopher Martin Buber calls an “I-thou” relationship with others. We are to have reverence for the sacredness of every human being. No human is an object to be used for our own benefit, nor is any human less than any other human being. We all have the divine at our core. As such, we must have reverence for each other. Our relationships must be “I-thou.” What transforms the coinage of empire is the unbelievable possibility of transformation, healing, righteousness, mercy and justice, which are realized in the kingdom of God which operates in the coinage of love. That coinage is not quantifiable in typical categories. That coinage speaks truth to power in a way that where we put our money never will, and is a form of resistance to the imperial worldview and ethos.
Regular money is important. We use it every day. Money itself is morally neutral: it is not inherently good or inherently bad. It is a necessary part of the world we live in. And it must be used in the right ways, for the right reasons. Money must be viewed and used in the context of God’s currency, which is love. When we operate in the currency of love, we naturally respect the divine presence in the other.
How do we know God’s currency is love? The bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4). Furthermore, next week we will be looking at the Greatest Commandment. What is it? To love God with all our heart and soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourself. God trades in the currency of love. And God invites us to do the same. Every decision about money should be made in the context of the sacredness of all others: “I-thou”.
I wonder, in what kind of currency do we tend to trade? It seems to me that a large part of our culture, with the capitalist emphasis on productivity and maximizing profit, can tend to objectify people as simply labor, a means to the end of production and profit. It seems to me that Caesar’s currency of control and objectification of others is still alive and well today, and is a very real temptation for all of us. In the midst of this context, how do we remember God’s currency of love, of the “I-thou” relationship? How do we remember and respect the inherent sacredness and dignity of all others? We have to remember that, as Christians, though we are in the world, we are not of the world, as Jesus teaches in John 17. This is not supersessionism or Christian supremacy. Nor is this “pie in the sky by and by” escapist theology. This is reclaiming the radical, counter-cultural implications of Jesus’ commitment to the currency of love, of his commitment to God’s presence within all, especially the poor and outcast, in the continuing context of Caesar’s currency of control.
May we remember and trust that, though we operate in the world of Caesar’s coinage of control and objectification, we are not of that world, but are rather of God’s world, the kin-dom of God, the world of the coinage of love, the world of the “I-thou” relationship with all others. May we live with reverence, respect, and love, and make all money decisions in the context of God’s coinage of love, that your kin-dom com, your will be done, on earth as in heaven. Amen.
